Australian made goodies

Mungalli Creek Dairies ~ North Queensland, Australia

To help support Aussie industry and encourage us all to choose locally grown and made, we recently asked our Biome blog and Facebook followers to share their favourite Australian-made products. Here's a compilation of their suggestions to look out for next time you are shopping.*  Please feel free to share your favourites in the comments.

Food

Alexandrina Cheese Company
Angelica Organic Farm:  Australian Certified Organic garlic - seasonally available.
Barambah Organics:  Certified organic dairy products made on the NSW/QLD border.
B.-d. Farm Paris Creek:  Organic & biodynamic dairy products.
Buderim Ginger:  Ginger products.
Bundaberg:  Brewed drinks.
Cafe 26:  Dressings, sauces & marinades.
Carmans Kitchen:  Muesli products.
Chocolatier
Daintree Estates:  Chocolate made from cocoa grown in Australia.

“Daintree Tea. One of the nicest teas I have tasted and anyone who comes to my place and has a cup of tea has commented...grown without the use of insecticides or fungicides.” Sharyn W, via FB

Darrell Lee
Dick Smith Foods
five:am:  Certified organic flavoured yoghurts.
Fountain Sauces

Green Grove organic licorice ~ Junee, New South Wales

Green Grove Organics:  Certified organic chocolate and licorice.
Haigh’s Chocolates
Highland Organics:  Organic dairy products.
Hightree Estates:  Organic coffee from northern NSW.
Kenilworth Country Foods:  Gourmet dairy products.
Koko Black:  Chocolates.  
Kurrajong Kitchens:  Lavosh made in NSW.
Loving Earth:  Raw chocolate and other raw foods.
Maleny Dairies:  Cow and goats milk, Queensland.
Melinda’s Gluten Free Goodies
Meredith Dairy:  Handmade goat and sheep dairy products.
Mungalli Creek Dairy:  Biodynamic milk, yoghurt and cheese made in North QLD.
Nudie:  Juices and smoothies.
Outback Spirit:  Chutney, preserves, sauces, dressings, and herbs.

“We love...Oz Tukka for their amazing range of authentic blends and easy to use products.” Theresa W, via FB

Pana Chocolate
Queensland Yoghurt Company
Table of Plenty:  Spices, cereals, snacks and breads.
Vanilla Australia
Yarra Valley Dairy
Yummabubba:  Brisbane-based home-style baby food.

Bathroom cabinet (skin, body & hair care)

A'kin
Aesop
Aura
Beauty and the Bees
Cleopatra's Bath Milk

Corrynne's Soaps ~ Dunsborough, Western Australia

“I love Corrynne's Eco Soap - orange, patchouli, clay and red ochre! Love the natural scent on my body, and look forward to having a shower especially in the warm summer! The scent gives a very relaxing and soothing effect...best of all it is made of natural ingredients! Love me, love my skin and love nature! A must have, must buy!!!” Lorraine K, via FB

Davroe
De Lorenzo
Eco Tan
Gaia

“I love the Jack ‘n Jill Natural Calendula Toothpaste Raspberry Flavour that I just bought for my toddler! It is natural product, best for toddler, and amazingly the toothpaste is safe to swallow...which I hardly can find other products in the shelf!”  Yew J F, via FB

Kosmea
Jurlique
MooGoo
Sukin


Cleaning supplies

“Clean Conscience cleaning products from fabulous Tasmania....ethical, vegan, environmentally sound and they smell great (plus they get the cleaning done really fast)!!!”  Fiona L, via FB

EucoClean

"Discovered Kin-Kin Naturals recently. Being super sensitive to chemicals, was delighted that their wonderful range - dishwash, laundry liquid, oxy-bleach - did not give me any skin reaction. I am actively supportive of locally grown businesses also, especially eco-conscious ones!! ps. their products smell wonderful too.”  Sharon L, via FB

Orange Power
Planet Ark
Thursday Plantation
Tri Nature


Lifestyle products

“I love my Keep Cup. Reusable, and no polystyrene after-taste.” Pauline O, via FB

Driza-Bone
Inky Co.
Lambykins:  Australia merino products.
Master & Miss:  Organic childrens clothing designed and made in Australia.
Pure Pod:  Australian made sustainable womens fashion.
St Albans   Mohair and alpaca products.

If you loved this list, check out the products made in Australia from Biome.

*While we have done our best to confirm that these companies produce their products in Australia, please check for yourself and let us know if we need to update our information.

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Organic coconut oil

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Where can you buy certified organic coconut oil?


You can buy coconut oil online and in store at Biome  Brisbane.  We are impressed by the Niugini Organics story, which being produced in Papua New Guinea, has the lowest food miles for delivery to Australia.  It is extracted without heat and is jarred and boxed by the community of growers who grow the coconuts from which the oil comes.  The other organic coconut oils also have good features. Choose from at Biome:

Niugini Organics certified organic coconut oil  
Coconut Magic
Banaban coconut oil
Oil4life organic coconut oil.
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We've learned many times at Biome that every idea will have its day!  And it appears that the time has come for the idea of Organic Coconut Oil.  Although some people, like Bruce Fife of the Coconut Research Centre cracked this coconut wide open many years ago. 

Fife believes that in the 80's coconut oil was wrongly lumped in with harmful saturated fats (partly due to propoganda by the soy bean industry) and it was replaced in general food use by hydrogenated soy bean oil, with devastating economic impacts for the Pacific communities that grow organic coconut oil.  He says:
The connection between heart disease and coconut oil that frightened so many people never existed. What most people didn't understand at the time was that there are many different types of saturated fat and that the fat in coconut oil is completely different from that found in animal fats. This difference is important because it's what makes coconut oil unique and gives it its remarkable healing properties.

Of course, there are some who are not so upbeat about coconut oil, so please do research and decide for yourself.  Remember that virgin (unprocessed or raw) organic coconut oil is very different to hydrogenated coconut oil, which is not healthy.
 
Biome has sold organic coconut oil for about two years.  Originally it was a customer in store who suggested we should take a look.  Then it turned out that some of the healthy living Biome team were already experiementing with coconut oil!

Healthy eating role models like Sarah Wilson have promoted the organic coconut oil message for many years (here is a 2011 post from Sarah Wilson that explains perfectly what is so great about coconut oil).  Sarah is now regularly called upon by the media to talk about coconut oil.

Yet, it was way back in 2004 that Bruce Fife released The Coconut Oil Miracle  where he outlined his research that found when taken as a dietary supplement, used in cooking, or applied directly to the skin, coconut oil could:

• Promote weight loss
• Help prevent heart disease, cancer, diabetes, arthritis, and many other degenerative diseases
• Strengthen the immune system
• Improve digestion
• Alleviate premature aging of the skin

You can read more about Coconut Oil on the Coconut Research Center website, where Dr Fife explains the drastic economic impact there has been for Pacific communities.  He writes: Up until the mid-1980s coconut oil was commonly used in many foods. The anti-saturated fat campaigns sponsored by the soybean industry and misguided special interest groups succeeded in frightening the public away from using coconut oil and food manufacturers and restaurants eventually replaced it with hydrogenated soybean oil. By 1990, coconut had virtually disappeared from American and European diets... Demand for coconut products plummeted and the coconut industry fell into a deep depression that lasted for two decades... Literally millions of farmers, pickers, consolidators, truckers, and processors were no longer able to earn a living...They barely eked out a living year by year on a pauper's wage.
 

Why is organic coconut oil finally having its day?

It appears that the relationship between coconut oil and "sugar" has propelled it into the mainstream.  We have seen the Sweet Poison and no sugar diet phenomenom, coupled with more people needing to manage Type 2 Diabetes.  And, as Sarah Wilson explains, coconut oil helps stop sugar cravings and energy slumps.  Your body sends medium-chain fatty acids straight to your liver to use as energy. This means that coconut oil is a source of instant energy to your body, much like when you eat simple carbohydrates. But although they both deliver quick energy to your body, unlike the carbohydrates, coconut oil does not produce an insulin spike in your bloodstream. This saves you from a slump, and is good news for anyone struggling with insulin issues.
 
Niugini Organics claims that reliable scientific evidence indicates that coconut oil stimulates the metabolism without the production of insulin, assisting with the management of Type 2 Diabetes and Cholesterol.

Secondly, we are also learning that some vegetable oils, like olive oil, can be harmful when heated - whereas organic coconut oil can be heated to 170 degrees Celsius without turning itself into a trans-fatty-acid or transfat.  People using safe, non stick cookware such as Neoflam, know to use coconut oil because it does not ruin the non stick cookware surface.

Read more here about Coconut oil for skin and which coconut oil is best?

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Vulnerable lungfish rescue Gympie, Queensland

Image source: The Courier Mail

It's not every day you get to save the life of a threatened species and a living fossil!

A remarkable photograph of a Gympie resident rescuing a rare lungfish from a hotel car park in Gympie after it was washed there by the flood waters that have flowed through Gympie, Queensland for the fifth time in one year.

This ancient air breathing fish can survive for several days out of the water if the surface of its skin is kept moist.  Fossil records show that the Queensland Lungfish (Neoceratodus forsteri) has remained unchanged for more than 100 million years (since the time of the dinosaurs) - and is the longest surviving vertebrate species on the planet.

The lungfish became well known in the fight to stop the Traveston Crossing Dam near Gympie and may have influenced the then Federal Environment Minister, Peter Garrett's decision to veto the dam because it posed 'an unacceptable risk to threatened species such as the Queensland lungfish'. The lungfish still faces significant risks from the Paradise Dam on the Burnett River.  The dam has a fish transfer device (a "fish lift"!) to theoretically allow lungfish to migrate upstream of the dam wall as well as a downstream fish transfer device to allow them to migrate downstream for breeding and feeding.  There has been much debate and a court case over whether the devices are effective. It is also believed that lungfish have been destroyed when they are swept over the 62 concrete-step spillway at Paradise Dam

What is the status of the lungfish?
The Australian Lungfish is listed as a vulnerable species under the Commonwealth Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (the EPBC Act).  Source.

Why is the lungfish threatened?
According to Environment Australia: Evidence suggests that in recent years only small numbers of young lungfish are growing-up into adult fish. In addition, changes to the quality and extent of breeding habitat appear to be reducing the likelihood of successful spawning. Two of the key problems affecting the lungfish are the flooding of suitable spawning sites and physical barriers that block the movement of adult lungfish to the remaining breeding sites.

As explained in this article from the Wildlife Preservation Society of Queensland:
In the words of Professor Jean Joss, Australia’s primary lungfish expert, '…the Australian lungfish provides the only opportunity to study the development and physiology of the aquatic predecessor of all land vertebrates – including ourselves. Its significance cannot be overstated. Australia is the custodian of the source of this invaluable library of information for the rest of the world.'
 
The Australian lungfish, previously more widespread throughout the continent, is now restricted to the Mary and Burnett River systems, the latter of which used to offer the most suitable spawning sites. Despite having survived this long, and boasting a life span of 80 to 100 years, the Australian lungfish takes 15 to 20 years to reach maturity and is very picky when it comes to the conditions under which it will spawn.  Since the construction of the Paradise Dam, these favoured sites have been flooded on several occasions and have also undergone permanent change. As a result, the faithful lungfish return every year but do not spawn and reabsorb their gametes because the conditions are no longer acceptable to them.

Hats off to this Gympie resident for saving one lungfish by carrying it back to deeper water!

 

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Leaf love: beautiful heart shaped leaves

We love this great green earth. Love is everywhere ... see it in nature around you ... in the tallest of trees, in the tiniest of leaves. We wish everyone a happy day of love and appreciation for every living thing.

The photographer said "The tiny red heart-shaped leaf was one of the last clinging to a branch of this shrub, so I turned it upside down and held it up against a larger, yellowing leaf to show off it's color."  rosecottagegarden.blogspot.com.au

 Flickr gallery Twilight-Faa

 Snowflowers25.blogspot.com

Please share a link for a love heart shaped leaf you come across and we'll add it here.

Feel the need for more love??  Check out this blog post with 25 awesome hearts found in nature 

   

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