A newspaper 'magazine' supplement is not a magazine. Obviously you say, what's the point Fred? Well, I like my newspaper inserts. A lot of work goes into those each week and they keep me up to date in a way that a magazine can't.

I've waited for two issues of the 'revamp' of Good Living before I made a comment, just to see how it settles down. Here's my thoughts.

The best bit is that the token fashion pages have moved out to another day so I don't have to not read them. That gives a few more pages and allows the content to stretch out a bit. More content is good, and the inclusion of some overseas newsy bits works for me. The rest is really just a design update, and that doesn't work for me. There's nothing wrong with the more boxy grid and coloured panels, if it was in a magazine without all those garish small space ads fighting for attention. The overall result is that the new design has made the look even busier and it's cluttered. The old design had white space and seemed easier on the eyes somehow.

Now you have to have ads, (I wish RF had even a few) and you can't control the shapes and colours, and if you want them to be on every page you have to allow for it in the design. I don't think this new look does.

So if a magazine isn't a magazine, when is a blog not a blog?

There is a new readers feedback section online that they are calling a 'blog' but don't look for it in the section of Blogs on the SMH online site, it ain't there. Maybe that's because it's not a blog. Type in www.smh.com.au/gl and you get redirected to the Entertainment archives (never could work that out. Is your food life 'entertainment'?).
It's usually editor John Saxby starting a discussion based on an article in that week's issue, that they pull the best bits from as content for the print pages. There's no two way responses from the original poster. All a bit dull to read. I'll wait until next Tuesday and read a precis thanks.
Fred Harden 23 May 06

NB: In the following weeks, they've tweaked the look and put back some white space. It looks much better now. Or like the old one :-)

Wasn't there meant to be a top 100 issue? I figured that question would come up as soon as we put up our new cover.

My reply? Would you believe a Regional Food 50? 40? 25? No, neither did we - it's 100 or nothing! We're still preparing our special issue with 100 food and wine bits from all around Australia but we came a bit unstuck when we started to commission articles and items from writers and photographers. Everyone wanted to write up their favourite things but if we printed them all, we needed a bit more glue in the bank account.

So that meant we knew we would have to make Issue 3 a regular regional coverage and keep the 100 for later. (Then everyone else did a 100, Cuisine's most recently. Ours will be very different.)

We've also been planning an issue on Mildura but that was hanging on our Contributing Editor Jackie Cooper who has moved back to Mildura after working for a few years in Ballarat. Moving 'back there' means to where she grew up and we knew she'd have a special eye for the place. We've started work on that, but it isn't going to be ready until about July.

South Australian Tourism have been a great supporter of the magazine so we figured we'd return the favour and cover a SA region. We've got friends in McLaren Vale who keep bragging about the Willunga Farmers' Market and you could tell there was something special going on in the Fleurieu. So we headed to SA for a survey. When Jan and I drove down for a long weekend it was clear there were plenty of stories for a great issue. (Jan was really jealous when I went back for a couple of weeks to photograph and do the interviews). I was there for the Market's 4th birthday, the ringing of the harvest bell....

Stay tuned for the Places, People and Produce of the Fleurieu Peninsula.
 
Fred Harden 22 May 06

A chop by any other name would smell as...
Meat and Livestock have done it again with a funny/silly eat lamb campaign for Mother's Day. I suspect that's just an excuse as there's no tradition of eating lamb on some weekend in May that's determined by marketers and catalogue printers. Easter maybe - Mother's Day?

LÂMB or as the commercial pronounces it Lombe, is a send up of perfume ads to make you think, I presume, of the fragrance that pervades the entire house when cooking a lamb, garlic and rosemary roast.

It's fun, a one off joke you'll want to show your friends if they miss it on TV - you can download the mpeg here (but be warned it's a slow server, do a 'save target as'). The food stylist has worked the lamb chop, roast and shank to look like perfume bottles for the photographs so they're not very appetising but it's the joke that counts.

A waste of money I hear you say? I suspect most people will agree while scratching their heads, but I bet the agency picks up some more awards in Cannes and the ad world will fall around laughing. If you can't sell more meat by appetite appeal you can keep the product in the public mind, or at least in the media, with an Aussie larrikin joke. That should last at least until the client runs out of industry support and turns the campaign into one like the British Meat Beefy and Lamby spots (have a look at the Red Onion one) At least we don't have a  foot and mouth disease scare to overcome, that could make our new TV spot feel quite tacky.

Oh, looking for past campaigns online I found this old 1983 NZ Lamb TVC (in Real Media). There's other food ads in the UK TV Ark.
Fred Harden 28 April 06

What is that? It's kimchi and it's good for you. Trust me.

Although the unappetising flash shot in the press release looks like it was taken on the laminex table in a local food court, that stuff actually tastes good (there is a better photo in the Health Magazine article online). I like this spicy cabbage dish and always order a 'side' of it when I eat Korean.  Apparently I should eat more of it, a recent press release told me. Since I've only ever eaten it in restaurants, (you can buy it in jars in Asian food stores), I was interested in the following information...

"Koreans eat approximately 20 kilos of kimchi per person each year, so much so that when Koreans have their photo taken they say ‘kimchi’ instead of ‘cheese’. Kimchi is very much a part of the Korean high fibre, low-fat diet that keeps obesity at bay. Kimchi is being touted as a cure all for prevention of diseases like cancer, digestion problems, immune booster, lowering blood cholesterol and delaying the age process.

"Korea’s favourite spicy cabbage side dish which is served at every meal is loaded with vitamins A,B and C but its biggest benefit is the ‘healthy bacteria’ called lactobacilli found in fermented foods like kimchi and yoghurt. This good bacteria helps with digestion, plus it seems to help stop and even prevent yeast infections and contains compounds that may prevent the growth of cancer.

"Kimchi is made from a mix of cabbage, garlic, salt, vinegar and chilli peppers and the health properties of kimchi come from the fermentation process. Kimchi has antibiotic functions as lactic acid bacteria produced in the process of fermentation suppresses growth of harmful bacteria. This bacteria not only gives a sour flavour to matured kimchi but also prevents excessive fermentation by restraining growth of other bacteria. Substances in Kimchi also help to prevent hyperacidity resulting from excess meat and other acidic foods.

"Kimchi is synonymous with Korea, so much so there is a Kimchi Museum in Seoul. At Gwangju there is an annual Kimchi Festival where visitors can enjoy making kimchi and try all the various kinds of kimchi. There are many different kinds of kimchi – some made with cabbage, others made with cucumber or radish."

If you'd like to  learn more about Kimchi and Korean cuisine, the Korea Tourism Organization has a slim but interesting free booklet called ‘Wonderful World of Korean Food’. Just email: visitkorea@knto.org.au or phone (in Australia) 1800 211 717.

I Googled some Kimchi recipes - there's actually heaps of them online some that had extra details of how to ferment (safely). You can use any good Chinese cabbage (called Wombok - do you know what they look like? PDF) and the spices are readily available in my food store.

And if you wondered what the other four of Health magazine's Top 5 healthiest foods are. Olive Oil, Soy, Yogurt and Lentils. Eat up.

Fred Harden 24 April 06  

Low, No- and Reduced  Sure I'm worried about what we eat but I don't think that Regional Food is about that Low, No- and Reduced trend which is more about packaged and processed food. I've been wrestling with that idea for an editorial in the next issue and I've been looking for some hard data about what we eat, to include. There's a US website I found that seems to be doing the job of pulling together information. The Ag Marketing Resource Center is 'an electronic, national resource for producers interested in value-added agriculture'.

Lil Beard tosses her traditional Weichs Barossa egg noodles. to help them dry. They make a great alfredo pasta in minutes.

There's more historical data than current aggregated items (I guess that's the nature of historical data but some of it smells a bit musty).

They areas they cover are Food, Energy, Fibre, Tourism, Pharmaceutical and 'Related Market Topics'. I only delved into the Food and Tourism bits but there's some interesting stuff if you dig around. Be careful, it's a bit scary. Reading  Regional Food will obviously make you feel warm and fuzzy but that's not how the rest of the Western world eats. A lot of the articles have a feel that big business is taking our pulse and they have all the money to do something with it. It's worse when you recognise yourself as a target - as in this list from the Institute of Food Technologists.

The Top 10 Food Trends are:

Quick Fix – Time to prepare food is still at a minimum, so a limited number of side dishes are prepared with entrees and ease of preparation is a major factor in eating at home.
Drive-and-Go – Takeout service at full service restaurants is growing, and the combination of stress with a sense of entitlement is leading consumers’ drive for more upscale foods.
Inherently Healthy – More people are eating more fruits, vegetables, grains, nuts and yogurts.
Fancy – The premium foods market is projected to grow to nearly $100 billion before 2010. Wine and liqueurs are finding their way into crackers and drinks, and products for cocktails are hot.
Farm-Friendly – Foods deemed to be closer to the farm are capturing consumers’ dollars.
Layered Flavors – Layering flavors is sending sales of food such as cheeses, condiments and ethnic foods soaring. Exotic fruit flavors such as starfruit, dragonfruit and Kaffir lime continue to grow.
Grazing – Seven million vending machines are in the U.S. with 100 million daily customers and more healthy fare to choose from. The low-carb snack category is falling, but smaller portion sizes are gaining and gourmet snack selections are strong. Health-oriented fun kid snacks will be well received.
Low-, No- and Reduced – With low-carb interest waning, consumers are returning to watching their fat and calorie intake. Low-fat tops the many health claims consumers now seek out.
Do-It-Yourself Doctoring – Shoppers are trying to manage or treat conditions through diet. Whey peptides are playing a role in Europe in beverages formulated to reduce blood pressure. IFT’s new Functional Foods Expert Report details the promise bioactive components in new products can have on health. (See www.ift.org/ExpertReport.)
Global Gangbusters – Convenience and ready-meals are accelerating worldwide. Fresh, chilled, ready-to-eat products are emerging domestically and dominate the United Kingdom, commanding 25% of the food market, excluding beverages. More flexible packaging (e.g. pouches) is appearing. A majority of Southeast Asians eat take-out at least once a week, even more than Americans.

Now that doesn't seem too scary. Farm-Friendly, Layered Flavours and the Healthy bits point to positive trends, but you realise that this is information being processed by the Big Food Business. There's a more recent piece (PDF) in their current issue of their magazine that illustrates how those trends will be used to market existing brands in new ways. Going out to a Farmers' Market to buy ingredients for a slow braised stew isn't like buying a Banquet Crock-pot Classics.

“Top 10 New Product Pacesetters” list offered “better-for-you” benefits (Figure 1; IRI, 2006a). Unilever’s Slim-Fast Optima line topped the list with year-one sales of $166 million; Frito-Lay Light salty snacks ranked third at $112 million; Nabisco 100 Calorie Packs fourth at $107 million; Kraft’s Carb Well line sixth at $89 million; and Coke C2 mid-calorie carbonated soft drink ninth at $77 million. Gatorade also hit the mark with its new performance-enhancing Gatorade Lemonade. Also making the list were Budweiser Select, Cherry Vanilla Dr Pepper, Bertolli Dinners for Two, and Banquet Crock-Pot Classics.
Nearly two-thirds of the Pacesetters offered taste/variety benefits, making it clear that consumers today are less willing than ever before to trade off taste for health."  

We can't or don't want to eliminate supermarkets from our lives but I sure as hell don't expect the those aisles in the Temple of Convenience to change much. I figure our task at Regional Food has to be in offering a solution that is more attractive and convincing for just the few of you who have the money and time and intelligence to do something. We'll keep trying because... in a linked article in Gourmet Retailer there's a quote that sums it up for me.

"Nobody wakes up in the morning and says, 'I want to eat the worst foods and die of heart disease.'"

Fred Harden 21 April 06  
 

Nicholas Chambers with a wriggling Wessex Saddleback piglet at Fernleigh Farm's Open Day. There are more pictures on their website.


OK who stole the sows. Or who pinched the pigs? Purlioned the piglets? It's an easy journo joke but it wasn't funny for Nicholas and Fiona Chambers from Fernleigh Farm near Daylesford, when someone stole two Wessex Saddleback sows recently and now nine of their piglets. If you're a Melbourne The Age reader, you may have seen this in the 4 April Epicure Bites pages. The John Lethlean piece was headed  "Will anyone squeal?" (even he couldn't resist).

'This little pig may have gone to market, but all nine? Rare breed pig producer Fiona Chambers, of Fernleigh Farm, near Daylesford, has been hit by pig nappers who stole nine of her six-week-old Wessex Saddleback piglets in a recent overnight raid. Chambers' flock of 25 sows and five boars represents one of the most significant flocks of Wessex Saddlebacks in the world.

Sadly, in the past 12 months, two of her fully mature breeding sows, weighing more than 200 kilograms, have been stolen too. The stolen piglets were just about to be weaned; Chambers usually sells them at five months, with a carcass value of between $400-$500 each. "It's so disheartening because we're working so hard to secure the breed. The meat market is very important to that," Chambers told us. "It undermines everything we're trying to do from a conservation point of view." If you've been offered some exceptional suckling pig lately of uncertain provenance, call the Daylesford police.'

Fiona is on the Regional Food advisory board and gives us some 'real world producer' credibility. We wait for her fun and informative emails about her rare breed work and interests, some of which have found their way into our Blog (see Pig Out).

It's likely that the thefts are related and if it's just a thief who knows that the high quality meat will fetch a good price, it's likely the meat could be sold anywhere in Australia. Mentioning its providence on the menu could provide some way to track it, if the restaurant has purchased it unknowingly. Ask your waiter if you see organic grown Wessex Saddleback pork offered. If it's someone who is breeding, then it will be harder to find until they start to offer the meat or live animals around. It's a very small breeder group so that could arouse suspicions as well. If you have any information the Daylesford Police phone number is (03) 53482342. 
Fred Harden (This appeared on our home page  5 April 06)