SYDNEYSIDE WITH JANET PARR Growing own coffee is hardly worth while

Press, 25 May 1977, Page 16

SYDNEYSIDE WITH JANET PARR Growing own coffee is hardly worth while

In the age of the global village there seems nothing surer than if there is “something going around*’ t hen we are all going to catch it.

sjof Sydney, it seems, is suit-: e able for coffee growing e[ though it can be done. It i[turns out that a Collaroy. y woman has been keeping: - herself, and her friends, in* n coffee for some time. RUN ON SEEDS *■ Yet in less than a week e ! there was barely a coffee ’[seedling to be had from any 1 : Sydney nursery and those ’ who missed out were being .offered advice about where ’[to get seeds to start from: scratch. J i Growing your own, even ) i successfully, is at best a 5 1 long term solution. Seedlings ’ may take up to five years to ' produce the white flowers, 1 followed by brilliant red her-, ries that contain the “beans” 3 which are really seeds. Even ■ getting the trees that far can - be a bit tricky. i They are, say the experts, 3 very prone to such things as t frost, bugs and disease al- ; though the same experts f concede that if all else fails : they do make quite nice in- . - door plants. I! While waiting for them to ■ grow there seems little [ ?[ offering in the way of a: t[ cheap cup of something.! >!Australia grows no coffee! .’[commercially so has no hope t[6f a good local crop coming ;ion the market. I i Neighbouring Papua New > [Guinea, like the other coffee * (producing areas of the rworld, is finding its plan- !

j The world's economic ills are a case in point, just like chickenpox in the village school. While one could hardly claim that the rapidly rising price of a cup of cofifee is anything more than I the equivalent of chickenpox — the price of oil must be the Black Death to those barely able to survive without the internal combustion engine — it is an irritating kind of thing. Australians may be finding it particularly so. Comparatively late-comers to coffee drinking over the last •decade or so. they now like it so much that coffee has i been giving their traditional 'tea, and even beer, a real ■run. | Then too, even before the ; highly contentious pricewage freeze came to an unI timely thaw — no doubt in [the heat of argument — the [price of coffee just kept [going up. The only thing ithat showed any evidence of (cold treatment was the [ freeze-dried "instant” granule and maybe those frosted | Brazilian coffee plantations. i But what was to be done? [The Queensland Department [of Primary Industry came up [with the idea that one way [was to grow your own. That [might be good advice in the [Sunshine State, which could well have the conditions necessary. But only about a quarter

itations “as good as gold.”, •And like the rest of the' [world it is throwing up a[ 'new breed of coffee hijackiers and thieves. ' Drinking tea instead [seems to have a limited future, for tea prices are already chasing those of coffee through world demand. Australia does grow a minute percentage of its tea but' not enough to influence, domestic prices and though i [more plantings are planned! [ these are long term and will never fill more than a rather larger proportion of the pot. One tea and coffee distributor has produced a blend of coffee and chicory — which can be grown in Australia — at a price that is competitive for the moment. There are coffee substitutes but only about half a dozen on the Australian market made from things like roasted barley and soya beans, sold mostly through “health food” shops. As they are imported and carry a fairly high rate of import, duty, they are dearer than •the'real thing. Those in the “nutritional | [foods” trade, however, see! [an excellent future for any Australian-made substitute. [ They are confident the market for this alternative will grow not just because the real thing costs so much but because some Australians,

they say, are coming to realise that the real thing does them and their kidneys no good.

The same can be said of herbal tea, according to one Sydney naturopath who claims' that its consumption is very much on the increase as Australians become more aware of the “enormous” therapeutic , value of such teas as pepi permint, camomile, leongrass •and osehip. The naturopath’s suggestion for a cheap cup — the cheatest of all she says —is to grow it then brew it from a list of herbs that can be raised quite easily in the backyard. For those who like their coffee all this is probably a bit way out and there has been a great rallying and sharing of do-it-yourself “coffee” concoctions from old recipe books and memories of war-time shortages. From Norfolk Island someone offered suggestions for substitutes made with prunes, figs or dates. But generally the concoctions consisted of things like [wheat or barley mixed with i other things like molasses, [baked in the oven, then [ground. They promised an interesting end result but one with little charm for a Sydney man with a long memory who said simply “they tasted foul.”