Thursday, 24 October 2013

Finally Finished

After months of hard work we are proud to announce that Brocco is finished and has been shipped for judging.  There were a few minor bumps and bruises getting Brocco on the truck....we had a lot of difficulty getting her out of the building.  Fingers crossed Brocco makes it to Berry in one piece.

On the 9th of October we held a fabulous launch party catered by Azarak experimental kitchen and Pauls to showcase brocco to our school community.









We enjoyed an afternoon of fabulous dairy foods and talking to our teachers and parents about our projects.

Australia exporting to the world

As global population explodes the need for food is growing daily.  The amount of land and water available to grow food is probably much smaller than you think.  This video shows the dilemma faced in feeding the world today. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzxF-rfGeJg

 Only Farmers can grow the food we need to survive, but food production will need to double by 2050.
Each Australian farmer produces enough food to feed 600 people.  150 of these people are Australians and 450 people are overseas.

Australian farmers export around 60% of what they grow which in 2010 - 2011 earned the country 32.5 billion dollars.

 
The farming sector continues to grow and out performs other sectors.
Australian farmers also look after large areas of our land and are continually working on advancing their farming techniques in an effort to produce bigger yields while looking after our environment.

Rural Challenges


Climate change is a hotly debated topic across the world and the impact of climate change has an effect on farmers.
Dairy farmers in Australia are leading the way with new and more efficient farming practises.  Dairy farmers employ a range of strategies to look after their land to create better quality crops for their cows.  The introduction of 3 milking times a day means that diets and health of animals are more closely regulated allowing farmers to produce more milk per animal.

 
The tree on our art works shows one of the ways that farmers help keep their soil healthy
 
As less than 7% of land in Australia is able to be used for food production, farmers employ scientific help from agencies such as the CSIRO to create better crops.  With the use of rainfall tracking and share cropping, soil is kept healthier and harvests are greater.
 

Scan 'Brocco's ear and he will encourage you to support local farmers
 
Regional centres are important to Australia and help to provide support to the Agriculture industry.  Farmers help to support rural communities by providing jobs and spending their income locally.  It is essential that all Australians support local farmers so they are able to assist in keeping rural centres in Australia vibrant and productive.

Wednesday, 16 October 2013

Farming Challenges

Australian farmers produce around 93% of the food we consume each day in Australia.  Each farmer produces enough food to feed up to 600 people each day (including people overseas).
There are many challenges that farmers face in there effort to feed Australia.

Many young people do not see farming as a career choice as the believe myths such as farming is very hard physically, you work long hours and receive low pay.  These myths are not true and farming is an exciting career option for young people today.

With the improvement in technology farming has become easier.  The invention of automatic milking machines and computer scanning in dairies helps to keep progress in the dairy running smoothly and maintains quality control.



Inventions such as these mean that farming is no longer as labour intensive as it has been in the past.
With improvements in water conservation and rainfall, drought has become less of a burden on farmers and they are able to produce better quality crops resulting in increase yield and higher pay.

 
Brocco tells a story of how farmers look after waterways
 
The farming sector has many vacancies available and this makes it an attractive choice as a career as it offers good job security.

Friday, 4 October 2013

An afternoon with Azarak

azarakexperimental kitchen
Recently some of our Archibull team spent an afternoon with Shane Debnam head chef of Azarak Experimental Kitchen.
Not only is Shane and his team catering our launch party, but he also uses sustainable practices in his kitchen. We were lucky to interview him about his passion for food, low waste cooking and of course how he uses dairy in his kitchen.

What is Azarak experimental kitchen?
1     Azarak Experimental Kitchen, is a unique dining experience, comprising of a 'pop up' restaurant, kitchen garden and locally foraged ingredients. Azarak utilises the '50' principal- where ingredients are outsourced no further than 50km from our intended 'pop up'.  Sustainability is a big factor at Azarak, so is recycling, and ensuring  the smallest carbon foot print remains. We utilise classical and scientific approaches to cuisine, employ light installations, auditory and visual displays, and invite participation of diners to produce a unique dining experience surpassed by none in the Illawarra.


Shane's children helping to forage ingredients for a 'pop up'experience

How do you reduce food waste?
The reduction of food waste is ensued through careful planning, and precise ordering. As we are advised up to two weeks out, we know our intended audience for the night, and will only ever cater for this amount. Azarak composts before (preparation day), and after the function night, in it’s own kitchen garden to reduce the amount of refuse produced. Extensive recycling is also carried out; again, to reduce as much going back into landfill.


The Azarak kitchen garden

How do you source your food?
Food is sourced through local organic growers, foraged from the local area, or grown at the Azarak Experimental Kitchen Garden.


Produce sourced from the Azarak kitchen garden

What are the benefits of foraging from the local environment?
The benefits of localised foraging is paramount to the mission statement of Azarak Experimental Kitchen- sustainability, cost effectiveness and minimising the impact of agricultural farming on the environment.


Head Chef Shane foraging for Warrigal greens


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 Lucerne flowers from the environment destined for an Azarak plate

How did you create the menu for our launch party? What was your inspiration?
Inspiration for the Archibull menu was drawn from the local urban and suburban environment. We will utilise localised foraging to enhance the menu items, paired with our unique brand of approaching ingredients in a scientific, and classical manner.



Menu for Archibull launch

What do you like about using dairy foods in the kitchen?
The best part about using dairy is the versatility of the core ingredient. Dairy encompasses milk, cheeses, yoghurts, sorbets, gelatos, and beef itself. We also want to showcase the local rural and urban environment, with sustainable foraging, pairing it with the best in handmade yoghurts, soft curd and sorbet.




Some of the fabulous desserts created using locally sourced dairy products

Do you have any surprises for our launch party? 
<!--[if !supportLists]-->1.    Those who have dined at Azarak will know we are always about surprises, and for the Archibull, we are surprises abound. We will be charging yoghurt with NO2, churning a milk sorbet with dry ice, smoking milk with hay, steeping milk in straw and souring it to make a soft curd, and wrapping beef in pastoral lucerne, and cooking it sous vide for six hours at 53’c. Like I said; Azarak is always about surprises.


We would like to extend our warmest thanks to Shane for his involvement with our Archibull Launch.  Not only will we be eating some fabulous and innovative food, but we know that it will be sustainability sourced with a low carbon foot print.
If you would like to check out Azarak Experimental Kitchen on Facebook, please follow the link below.  Don't forget to like their page!








Wednesday, 25 September 2013

The Launch

We are getting  close to finishing our Archibull and it is time to turn our attention to our Launch Party.  We have been keeping Brocco in hiding and we are looking forward to launching him to our staff and community. 
Our Launch party is being catered by the wonderful Chef Shane Debnam at Azarak Experimental Kitchen (check them out on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/#!/AzarakExperimentalKitchen)


Shane DebnamExecutive Chef of Azarak Experimental Kitchen
 
As with our Archibull we wanted to keep our launch party as environmentally freindly as possible, so our invitation which was created by the fabulous Julie Debnam can be found at the following link.
 
We hope to see you there!

Wednesday, 18 September 2013

A Prize look at farming

This week as suspected Brooco and some of our team members made it into the Illawarra Mercury.
Please read the full story below.