Freelance Journalist
Tomato fetish, yes I mean fetish, not relish. Gardeners can be an obsessive lot and certain plants have a certain attraction. Tomatoes rope you in the day you produce your first vine ripened fruits. Every spring at Waldecks nursery a major chain in Western Australia Italian customers would wander in to buy the first seasons […]
The mangosteen fruit (Garcinia mangostana L) is a potential smorgasbord of health benefits, containing organic compounds called xanthones, which, according to Wikipedia, there are 200 found in nature. Forty-three are found in the mangosteen and one in particular may be useful for the treatment of certain types of cancer.[1] Native to the Malaysian peninsula, Sumatra […]
While governments contemplate the fate of organophosphate and carbamate chemicals, farmers are moving away from the old chemicals and spray methods, and embracing new chemistry and products to combat evolving insect pests. But are they any better, history says, maybe not. Yesterday In 1962 Rachel Carson released her book, “A Silent Spring” which drew attention […]
Berkeley — Children who were exposed to organophosphate pesticides while still in their mother’s womb were more likely to develop attention disorders years later, according to a new study by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley. The new findings, to be published Aug. 19 in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives (EHP), are the first […]
In one corner of my vegie patch I’ve planted rainbow chard (silverbeet) to replace the monotony of the green stemmed varieties. Next to these are red cabbages with grey green leaves and burgundy hearts. In amongst these giants are alstromeria, which will soon be flowering. 50 lilium bulbs are at about one metre high and […]