ExtraVirgin Food & Travel

One third of human food sources require bees for pollination - that's every third mouthful or every third plate of food we eat. Without bees, the food security of the entire world is at risk. 

In this episode of ExtraVirgin, we talk to Jack Stone of Bee One Third who has made it his mission to educate people about the importance of bees in our food production cycle. 

Jack, who established his company Bee One Third in 2012, places hives on rooftops and in gardens of corporate urban spaces, acting as their caretaker and extracting and processing their honey, which is later sold as  "neighbourhood honey'. 

We talk to Jack about life as an urban beekeeper, the fascinating life of bees, the recent scandal of 'fake' honey, how you can support local beekeepers and how to care for our precious bees. 

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Whether it’s with an expensive camera or a trusty smart phone, we all want to come home from our travels with some great photos that capture a little of the essence of the places we’ve visited. You’ll find some great photography and travel tips in this episode of ExtraVirgin Podcast. Click below to hear globe-trotting travel photographer Danielle Lancaster share tales of travelling the world for a living and give some simple but effective tricks to improve your holiday snaps.

No one to travel with but you really, really want to do it? This episode of ExtraVirgin may just provide the impetus you need to get going.

Ben Groundwater, travel writer, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age columnist, travel podcaster and author of Go Your Own Way: Hacks, Tips and Tricks to Travel the World Solo, has been travelling and writing for publications worldwide for the last 12 years and estimates he’s visited "around 80 or 90" countries. Often, those trips have been made on his own.

We chat with Ben (who recently relocated from Sydney to Spain's San Sebastián) on topics such as:

• The pleasure and possible pain points of travelling on your own
• His favourite (and least favourite) places to travel alone
• Great solo itineraries
• How to stay safe, avoid scams and have the experience of a lifetime.

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Wild foods foraged along beaches on the Sunshine Coast and in the nearby hinterland feature in many top restaurants from Noosa to Byron Bay. This is thanks to Nick Blake, a passionate forager and chef whose mission is to bring wild foods to our plates while also acting as an environmental steward to protect and preserve the species he gathers. Nick, who trained as an ecologist, is also a font of knowledge on the edible plants you might have in your backyard or in your neighbourhood that you can use in your kitchen.

It’s the world’s most remote music festival: "three days drive from just about anywhere." There’s no electricity, no internet and no accommodation, apart from camping, yet in the last 5 years, The Big Red Bash in the Simpson Desert in Central Australia, named for the desert's biggest dune "Big Red," has grown from a modest 500 attendees to more than 10 000 in 2018. Attracting some big-name Australian artists, it also generates around 11 million much-needed dollars tourist dollars for the wider outback region.

In this episode, we talk to Big Red Bash organiser Greg Donovan about the logistics of putting on this extraordinary music festival, how he goes about building a temporary town in the middle of desert and why, music lover or not, you should put it on your bucket list.

A visit to Wild Foods Italy is a chance to unwind and experience a genuine Italian farming village that has been in the same family for 700 years. For generations, the family that owns the village of Pettino in Umbria has been hunting for truffles, growing olives and raising sheep. Now, they share those experiences with travellers who revel in the slow pace, idyllic landscape and amazing food of the region. Mac Ryde, who was born and bred in New Zealand, tells the romantic tale of how he came to join the family and make this ancient village his home. There are stories of delicious food, a quirky extended family and a way of life that's changed little since the late Middle Ages. Enjoy!

Matt Kirkegaard has a job that would make any beer lover exceedingly envious. He writes and talks about, travels for and, of course, drinks beer for a living. 

In this episode of ExtraVirgin, Matt likens old-school Australian beer to the 'plastic' cheese slices of our childhoods, and explains how the rise of independent brewing opened our eyes and tastebuds to a whole new world of beer. We learn why you should drink your beer out of wine glasses, how far to fill the glass, and how to match beer with everything from steamed mussels to ice-cream.

Natascha also gets to taste one of Matt's latest discoveries, a beer that even someone who doesn't usually drink beer can enjoy.

So, sit back, pour yourself a cold one and enjoy this episode, starring the world's most popular alcoholic beverage.

Cheers!

In this episode of ExtraVirgin, we talk to Yvonne Shepherd, owner of Women's Fitness Adventures. In 2013, Yvonne called time on her stressful corporate career to follow her dreams of encouraging other women to improve their own health and fitness.

Today she inspires women by taking them walking to some of the most beautiful places in the world -- from the cliff tops of Italy's Cinque Terre, to the Australian outback; her goal, to support women to not only become fitter and healthier, but fearless world adventurers.

We talk to her about the environmental responsibility of tour operators, why we need Jane Fonda as part of our exercise routine, her favourite walk in the world and what it's like wrangling groups of women of all ages and fitness levels in sometimes very remote places.

Meet former Australian journalist and photographer, Suzanna Clarke, who turned her life upside down when she decided to buy and renovate a house in Fez, Morocco. Always up for a challenge, the adventurous Suzanna settled on a 400-year-old house in Fez's world-heritage-listed Medina. She and her husband, former ABC broadcaster Sandy McCutcheon, now reside there full time, write an English-language blog about Morocco and have adopted two local babies.

We hear about the ups and downs of renovating their riad (house), what daily life in the medina's historic streets is like, and we get Suzanna's hot tips to help you get the most out of a visit to Morocco. From the labyrinth-like laneways of Fez's medina to unspoiled coast and glamping under incredible starred skies in the desert, there's magic to be found; it just may be your - and our - next big destination.