This blog is now available as an mp3 podcast through the link: http://ferngladefarm.com.au/2016 Jul 18 - Feels like we are only going backwards.mp3

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Sometimes rock bands are so good that they can produce a feeling and an emotion in the listener. The listener is then able to grasp, feel and then hold onto that feeling, before the emotion once again disappears to wherever it came from. The highly acclaimed Australian rock band, Tame Impala, produces dreamy vocals and melodies. In their highly awarded 2012 “Lonerism” album, the band included a song which describes the feelings of only going backwards. The song was on my mind this morning as I made my morning coffee.

I freely admit that I am a coffee snob but can appreciate that not everybody shares my views in this matter. At home I have a proper Italian espresso machine and more importantly I know how to use that machine to produce a quality coffee. When I am away from home, coffee must be made on an espresso machine or I will refuse to consume it. To my mind, instant coffee is a wasted food opportunity and I can vividly recall both of the situations where I have consumed – with absolute horror – instant coffee. Yes twice! Life is too short for such food outrages and there is no place in my life for such things.

The problem is that coffee when consumed in the form of a latte requires milk. Long term readers will recall that I celebrate my tightness with money, however where a product represents true quality over the standard offerings I will support both that product and the producers with my hard earned cash. Milk is one such product and I will happily pay almost $4 per litre (that is almost $15 per gallon) for quality certified organic milk. It is good stuff. Now, I do appreciate that many other people will happily pay $1 per litre (that is slightly less than $4 per gallon) for milk.

Out of curiosity I tasted that $1 per litre milk product and have noted that when the product is heated in an espresso machine it appears to me to consistently have a very sour and acidic taste which I personally do not appreciate in my coffee. And I also wonder what this $1 per litre milk is doing to the dairy farming business because I have read many reports that the dairy farmers are now being forced, because of many different local and global issues, to sell their milk for less than the cost of production: Dairy farmers facing a tough year with new milk prices below cost of production

Then I stumbled across the very worst agricultural news that I have read for quite a long while. The varroa mite which has devastated European honey bee colonies in all other inhabited continents other than Australia has only a few days ago been discovered in the north eastern part of this continent: Varroa mite discovery in Townsville could put the bite on northern queen bee breeders

I believe that the guy in Melbourne that supplies me with bee colonies, sources his bee colonies and/or bee Queens from that corner of the continent and so the discovery of the very destructive varroa mites may change my future plans in relation to the European honey bee hives here.

The possible loss of the European honey bees here will be a disaster for future honey production. On the other hand, there are many species of native bees and other insects present on this farm which can pollinate crops. However, none of those species at this location can produce a surplus supply of honey for their winter stores which humans can harvest. The European honey bees are unique in that regard and their loss will be felt; although I also feel that some of the claims made in the media in that regard have been exaggerated.

And so this morning, I consumed my coffee, looked out of the window into the paddock below and wondered about the future of the dairy and apiary industry. It really felt to me that, we as a society are going backwards, and I wondered what it all meant. And the song looped over and over again in my head as I contemplated the decline of those two industries in Australia.

When products are in decline I often choose to become more self sufficient in relation to those products. For example I do have bees. However it is fortunate that I don’t have a few Jersey cows (for milking purposes) free roaming around the lower parts of the orchard and paddock because last night a huge branch fell off a very old tree. There have been very heavy wind gusts which have followed on from the recent very heavy rainfall. The main branch of that fallen limb now on the ground is well over 1m (about 4 feet) across and it would certainly have squashed a cow or three. In the photo below observant readers will note the huge scar left on the old tree that the branch fell from.

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