Category: General
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GIJA JUMULU
You’d be forgiven if you thought this huge boab tree (Adansonia gregorii) had lived in this spot overlooking Perth for many centuries. In fact, it’s only resided in the Western Australian Botanic Garden since 2008. No, boabs aren’t super-fast growing trees. The tree is in fact 750 years old and began its life 3200 kilometres to the north in the Kimberley region of Western Australia. The tree had the misfortune of being right smack in the middle of the proposed Great Northern Highway. ‘No worries,’ said the folks at WA Botanic…
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TEMPRANILLO ARGENTINE STYLE
I was out on a morning bushwalk when the ping of an incoming SMS drew me out of my forest trance. ‘Estoy llevando Tempranillo y voy a moler como a las 10.30’. It was my Argentine friend, Martin, and he had just received 600 kilos of Tempranillo grapes and was about to crush them. I had asked Martin to let me know when he was going to crush so I could watch the processing. I had hoped for more than a two-hour notice … but that’s the wine industry. You don’t…
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MARTIN KICKS OFF VINTAGE 2017
Vintage 2017 has started in the Adelaide Hills so I headed out to the vineyards to make sure my favourite bubbly, the Mordrelle Wines Blanc de Blancs, was being picked to perfection under the demanding eye of my compañero, Martin Moran. Martin and I played softball on the Hahndorf Men’s team for several years but I could tell that when he was out there in left field his mind wasn’t focussed on catching fly balls. Martin was aspiring to be a winemaker. He had immigrated to Australia from Mendoza in Argentina’s…
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MY FRIEND LEVI
This is my friend Levi. He is perhaps the most outstanding young man I have ever met. He’s been visiting me once a month for more than two years now. He comes during the day with a colleague and knows I am busy at work so he never stays for long. Levi is soft spoken and humble yet very worldly and knowledgeable about life for a man of his age. He brings me some literature and we have a very nice discussion. No matter how busy I am I always find…
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FROM AMERY TO ADELAIDE: THE CONVERGENCE OF TWO LIVES
Amery is a dinky little town in the far north of Wisconsin. It’s a town of fewer than 3,000 people where pretty much everyone knows everyone else. I spent my formative years there and always consider it to be my home town. I feel very much aligned with life in northern Wisconsin yet life’s twists and turns led me to live in South Australia. If you took a globe and stuck a pin in Amery and tied a string to it and tried to find the furthest habitable place on Earth…
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LOST SOMETHING?
Some people have a knack for losing things … not me. I can tell you countless stories of how things I have ‘misplaced’ – wallets, phones, sunnies – have miraculously found their way back to me. And now I can add to that list a one hundred dollar bill. Padma and I received a card from Josh for Christmas and upon opening it we found a crisp new one hundred dollar note. In the card, Josh wrote, the money MUST be used to treat to yourself to dinner at Jaime Oliver’s…
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The case of Doña Pacha
Excerpt from Participatory communication in development: integrating women into forestry projects in Costa Rica A research project conducted in 1987 funded by the Inter-American Foundation, Ibero-American Studies Program of the University of Wisconsin and the Tropical Agricultural Research and Training Centre, Costa Rica. With the increase in reforestation throughout the country and the resulting need for seedlings, collecting tree seeds appears to be an potential source of employment. Nevertheless, families in the Hojancha area are not accustomed to collect them. The case of Doña Pacha is an example of an elderly…
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Asociación para la Promoción de la Mujer en Monte Romo
Excerpt from Participatory communication in development: integrating women into forestry projects in Costa Rica A research project conducted in 1987 funded by the Inter-American Foundation, Ibero-American Studies Program of the University of Wisconsin and the Tropical Agricultural Research and Training Centre, Costa Rica. Antecedents Although the principal agricultural activity in Hojancha is cattle raising, the declaration in 1980 of Hojancha as a coffee‑growing region stimulated many farmers to plant coffee. Extensionists from COOPEPILANGOSTA promoted the planting of shade trees in coffee plantations. With the creation of new coffee plantations the demand…
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COOPEMATAMBU
Excerpt from Participatory communication in development: integrating women into forestry projects in Costa Rica A research project conducted in 1987 funded by the Inter-American Foundation, Ibero-American Studies Program of the University of Wisconsin and the Tropical Agricultural Research and Training Centre, Costa Rica. Although located only five kilometers from the municipal center of Hojancha, the indigenous community of Matambu has many distinct characteristics and does not follow the agrarian pattern of the rest of the county. Matambu is characterized by its moderate slope, high population density (approximately 100 people/km2) and very…
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