Are we nuts?
Researching a totally non-food-related project the other day, I came across the website of an ACT school that had just been declared a “Nut Free School”. The P&C had voted on the matter and that was that. All parents were asked to refrain from including any nutty items in the kids’ lunch boxes. No peanut butter sandwiches. No Cadbury’s Fruit and Nut. And what about Muesli Bars – do they have nuts?

I was stunned, but it seems that this is not an isolated phenomenon. BBC News Online reported on 5 May that more and more schools are becoming nut-free zones as fears over allergies are prompting bans on peanuts in packed lunches. Apparently, the incidence of potentially fatal nut allergy has risen sharply with about 1% of children in Britain now affected. The issue is also causing debate in the USA, where nut-free schools are becoming more common.

I’m sure, if you had an allergic child, you’d breathe more easily knowing he or she was in a nut-free zone. But what about the kids who are allergic to milk, eggs, seafood, gluten, mushrooms, strawberries? Perhaps school lunches need to be reduced to a bowl of plain rice, with a few green vegetables. It works elsewhere in the world.

Not all parents are in favour of the ban. Many contend that the answer is allergy-education and better first-aid training at schools. It all comes back to an increasing tendency to try to legislate risk out of existence. Peanut butter sandwiches in school lunches may not rate highly on the scale of civil liberties, but where will it all end?
Jan O'Connell 2 May 05
 

Are you passionate?

Further to the little rave (Blog06) about the overuse of 'passionate' when people are describing their food/cooking/produce etc., this made me smile. It appeared in today's
Epicure in The Age.
(Interesting that the Age website puts food under Entertainment. Took me a while to find it. Is food 'entertainment' for you? While you're there have a look a the Multimedia food videos, Interactive Cook Steve Manfredi is an unlikely celebrity chef (but a great cook), he really needs a good director I reckon. File under Dull Entertainment.
Fred Harden 26 April 05
 

Early Marketing.
The two guys looking happy at the arrival of 'the coffee run' are Regional Food's Mark Kelly and John Borger. Hot coffee at 4.30am has that effect. This was taken a few weeks ago when we were doing our 'due diligence' for our first online advertiser and editorial contributor Harris Farm Markets. Ok, please ask me "Why did you need due diligence Fred?"

Well, I reply, consider our credibility. If one of the major buyers and retailers of fruit and vegetables in NSW was not only advertising on, but writing a section of this website was there a conflict? Given that the website is championing the producer/grower, promoting buying at regional farmer's markets and extolling the virtues of eating locally does a greengrocer's advertising fit? We knew that Harris Farm Markets were the biggest retailer after Coles and Woolworths in NSW and we had a mixed opinion as to both those big retailer's dealings with producers (ask me for the stories we've been told sometime). Do Harris Farm by contrast operate in a fair and free market, are they ethical in their business dealings, what are their quality standards and basically do they care about the same things that we do?

One five hour visit on an early weekday morning will obviously not answer those questions but it did place many of them in the 'not really an issue' basket.  We were impressed. Impressed by David Harris, the Harris Farm Markets buying staff and their respect and dedication to David and of his concern for them. We watched (and photographed) him and the staff buying and negotiating prices for produce. We asked questions, and listened. We saw the respect Harris Farm received from the produce dealers. We've put some of that experience up in a Photodiary entry here. Read the captions and see what you think. Since the visit, we've had a lot more contact and we're happily planning some further collaboration. I'm sure you'll tell us if we've got it wrong, and we promise to listen.

And in the interests of further transparency, we have to declare that David bought us all a coffee. Two coffees. Ok, it was three coffees.

Fred Harden 22 April 05
 

Cover me, I'm going to do something stupid.
When you're strolling past the food magazine racks at the moment in your newsagent you could get the distinct feeling you were in a supermarket. And if you are in a supermarket looking at magazines, pinch yourself. Why? Just look at all those food products that are bagged onto the covers of this month's mags.
 

Family Circle had an Easter special with a plastic mould of Easter egg shapes and a block of cooking chocolate. Somebody had nicked a couple of the blocks in my local newsagent but sensibly left the fiddly little mould. I didn't buy one of those so there's no photo.

Vogue Entertaining and Travel had the best tasting offer, a small bag of biscuit pieces (yep all of them were broken) of what was originally a Byron Bay Cooking Company 'White Choc Chunk & Macadamia Cookie'. I've had their cookies on some airplane flight and thought they were very good.

Then there was Good Taste with a block of Lindt 'Crunchy Caramel' chocolate, this was the best value give-away and if you were standing in the supermarket, they were on display nearby for about the cover price of the magazine. Why someone would nick the cooking chocolate and not the Lindt I can't explain.