October 2020

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My first and second attempts at a worm farm ended in disaster. After these failed attempts I was given instructions by a man who has worm farms as big as many people’s houses and I wondered how his information could translate to someone like me with one of those tiered black plastic contraptions. However, I did as he told me and though it doesn’t sound like much of a departure from what I’d already tried, it has really worked.

To begin with, all food scraps are wrapped in newspaper; he calls them “subs” and I make them long and slimish with two thicknesses of paper. He also told me to avoid too much citrus and egg shells – in fact he told me to avoid these altogether, but I couldn’t help myself.  He said to discard all the plastic tray tiers except one and to continue with this until the layer was filled (which took ages) and then I could add another tier. The subs are placed on one side of the tray along with horse manure – the quality of this is most important as the donors must not have been fed anti-biotics as it kills the worms stone dead.  My new worms were placed on the other side of the tray in a bit of the compost they’d been living in. The theory is that the worms know when the contents of the subs have decomposed to an acceptable state and then they crawl over and get stuck into it. The only other care I provided was to pour water over the top of the subs and the worms and kept the worm farm in a cool place (near my tank-stand actually in the shade) as worms cannot tolerate heat.  Make sure you leave the tap on “open” and provide a decent sized bucket at the bottom to catch the worm juice. I pour this over the subs each week adding extra water if I want more juice.

I use the juice diluted at the rate of one cup added to 2 litres of water for my African Violets, or anything else that is lucky enough. It has no odour.

I may add that I used to crumble the horse manure but have found that this is unnecessary as the worms are quite capable of dealing with the job and I just put it in, in chunks. Mind you, horse chunks are much smaller than cow chunks.

I don’t have a clue what sort of worms I have but I’m very happy to give anyone who is interested a little supply to get them started as they have been very, very easy worms to deal with. I live at Windsor and please bring an ice-cream bucket with holes in the lid with you. I have only one worm-farm but now all tiers of my farm are occupied though the farm didn’t bulk up until I started adding shredded paper. If you don’t want it to be a big job and just keep worms for the fun of it and to give you a use for your scraps and use the worm juice, I would suggest that you don’t bother about the shredded paper. Another tip he gave me is for catching the worms (if this proves a problem, which it doesn’t seem to be for me), and he said to get some well rotted potato peelings and put them on the top of the farm. He said the worms absolutely rush to the peelings, form a worm knot and you can just pick the whole lot up easily.

Very easy little project and it is fun making subs and fun going down and lifting up a sub in the farm and see the tenants wriggling away in and under the little parcels.

Note from Sheryl:

If you don’t have a worm farm and don’t wish to expend money on one, I have just been reading an article in Grass Roots magazine – issue No. 183 where they use two of those 10 ltr white buckets that deli’s use that yoghurt comes in – lots of holes were drilled in the bottom of one and gauze placed over it to let the juice through. Follows Jennifer’s recipe of wrapping kitchen scraps in paper.

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Here goes….mind you I am not an expert, just an informed amateur.

Green bean can be kept with little trouble or preparation for years. In fact, the green bean, like wine, changes with age and becomes more complex as it ages! This is not the case for roasted beans. Whole roasted beans will deteriorate noticeably within two weeks irrespective of how they are stored. There is much debate over how to store roasted beans: we don’t, so we don’t have a storage problem. Ground roasted beans will start to deteriorate noticeably within a day! In days gone by, every country house would roast their own beans on a daily basis with small hand cranked wood fired roasters. Small urban roasters operated in urban areas to service neighbourhoods. It was only for the second world war that mass produced instant coffee was prepared

to keep the troops happy. This led to the decline in the standard of coffee as a drink overall.

There is a whole story in itself on the roasting side of the preparation. First crack, second crack and where to stop the roast. Cinnamon, City or Viennese are the names of these roasts. Then there is blending or not, and the differences in taste between the beans themselves….perhaps not this article. We roast our own with a lovely machine that allows you to see the beans darkening and to hear the cracks of the beans to determine the stage of roast. Lots of fun and you can experiment and blend and vary the roasts and get very technical and

really impress your guests as you demonstrate the “art” of roasting. It certainly is a talking point.

Once roasted we tip the beans into our grinder and only grind as we need to. The grinder has a hopper on top and a “dosser” to drop a measured amount into the cup/strainer in the handle of the group head (the heated mass of metal that the handle attaches to). At this stage the important issue is to get a consistent measure of coffee into the cup/strainer so that the rate at which heated water (at 95 degrees C) passes through the group head is perfect. The resistance to the pressure of the water should be such that in less than 30 seconds you get 30ml of expressed coffee. Sounds easy you say…..well it can be once everything is set up, here are some of the things that affect the porosity of the ground coffee: the bean type, roast, grind fineness, moisture content of the ground coffee, amount of ground coffee in the cup/strainer, the pressure at which the coffee is pressed into the cup/strainer, the pressure of the heated water that passes through the handle, the type of strainer etc. The main aim is consistency so you should try to keep as much constant as possible and vary just a few of the variables so that you get a consistent 30ml in 30 seconds. We adjust the fineness of the grind (easily adjusted on a good grinder) and keep everything else constant, that is until we decide I want to try some different roasts. We stopped using a double spout handle because it was so different to the single spout handle (quantity of coffee in the cup/strainer and the resistance of the sieve itself) that we needed two different grind sizes….a

pity but we get consistent coffee doing it the way we do.

Finally, the milk should be heated to no more than 60 degrees otherwise it gets scalded and it tastes well …scalded. We use a thermometer, but at a pinch we could use our finger on the metal jug as we heat it up.

Thermometers are cheap and easy to use.

We have invested in a manual coffee espresso machine that is robust, does NOT use a thermo block heating element and has a good steam and separate hot water (95 degrees ) outlet for tea or heating our cups. From our research and experience, fully automatic machines are a good way to show off to your friends that you have no

idea about good coffee; manual machines are the way to go.

We love our coffee. We grow it, pick it, pulp it, dry it, hull it, roast it, grind it, express it and finally drink it. It is a journey and like all good journeys it is about the experience, but after all this experience it is nice to

relax with a great coffee.

Sheryl: I was recently visiting Peter and Ann and got to taste their home made coffee. There is a difference – a huge difference so give some serious thought to giving the process a go.

Peter makes the best coffee I have ever tasted so I asked him to write something up for us.

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Plant breeder’s rights (PBR) are a form of intellectual property for protection of new plant varieties.  Protection is not automatic; in order to obtain protection of a plant variety it is necessary to register the variety with the PBR Office.  The registration process can take 2-3 years and goes beyond the scope of this article, however, I would be happy to discuss it with any interested members of the Sub-Tropical Fruit Club of Qld. Inc. (STFCQI).

Over the past year there have been concerns expressed during meetings of the STFCQI that PBR have a negative impact on the activities of members.  At the outset, I stress that this is an urban myth, and the purpose of this article is to provide general information about PBR so that members can see that it should not impinge on their activities and that there may in fact be some members who could utilise the scheme.

The aim of PBR is to encourage the development of new varieties of plants for Australia’s domestic industries and for export.  PBR are intended to provide a balance between providing plant breeders with an opportunity to obtain a reward for producing a new plant variety, and providing the benefits to growers and society through access to new and improved plant varieties.

Protection can be obtained for all species including fungi and algae, but to be eligible for protection, the variety must satisfy a number of criteria relating to characteristics and suitability for propagation: • have a breeder (that is, it cannot be a naturally occurring variety) • distinctiveness (the variety must be clearly distinguishable from other known varieties) • uniformity (with respect to the relevant characteristics which make it a distinguishable variety – limited variation is allowable, there does not have to be total or absolute uniformity) • stability (relevant characteristics remain unchanged after repeated propagation)

• the variety must not have been exploited (in the commercial sense), or exploited only recently (specific time periods apply dependent on the species)

The maximum duration of PBR is 20 years (25 years for trees and vines), subject to payment of an annual fee.  Once the PBR has expired (at the end of the 20 or 25 year term, or if the annual fee has not been paid), the variety can be freely used by the public.

PBR provides the breeder with the right to exclude others from using the propagating material (including seed, cuttings, grafting stock) of a registered variety for a range of commercial activities (including production, reproduction, sale, import, export) and from misusing the variety name.  In other words, all propagating material is protected under PBR, not just the plant itself.

However, importantly for STFCQI members there are exemptions to the protection afforded a breeder.  Specifically, protected varieties can be used without permission of the PBR owner where that use is: (a) private; (b) for non-commercial purposes; (c) for experimentation; or (d) as a starting point to breed other varieties.

For example, if you were to purchase a fruit protected by PBR from your local green-grocer, you could save any seeds, plant them and produce a tree for your own private, non-commercial use.  However, you could not sell the seeds, the tree or any propagating material.

Some members may also be pleased to know that propagating material harvested from a legitimately obtained protected plant variety can be saved for further plantings (farm-saved seed exemption).  However the harvested material from such further plantings cannot be sold commercially. Thus, PBR should not be seen as inhibiting the activities of STFCQI members, particularly those members not engaged in commercial activities relating to propagation of plants.  For those members who are engaged in commercial activities relating to propagating plants, consider embracing the PBR system, it may work to your advantage!

(Bernadette, a STFCQI member, is a Patent Attorney and keen fruit devourer – Russell)