Charliedoll

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Charliedoll

doll diaries

Adventures with Charlie

coming soon

Potty & the Orb Web Weaver

Charlie is a simple farmer doll.

He lived on the dusty central western plains of NSW back in the 1990's.

His destiny was for happier times around animals, straw scarecrows, corn cobs and Lucerne.

Fate would change destiny for Charlie.

Lean economic times, a prolonged drought, El Nino weather and a heap of man made disasters of a political nature, motivated young Charlie to move on.

He made his way to the coast and the big city where he found work in a bean canning factory and began a search for a mate.

He met Pottydoll and very soon they shared his supply of free processed beans, a washing machine and her broom stick.

Charlie is always talking of the 150 varieties of Yams, the problems of growing corn west of Dubbo, and generally reminiscing of old times and wishing he was back on the farm.

He shows Potty a sweet potato and explains its funny tube shape, smooth texture, and how they grow in the ground, unlike yams which grow on a vine.

Potty takes particular note of the sweet potatoes long sleek shape and decides to see if it can fly like a broom.

But no matter how she manouvres the starchy prehistoric vegetable...it refuses to move.

Charlie looks on dreaming of endless ears on a cornstick.......and straw scarecrows... and annoying black crows....

Did you know...?

€ Corn is a cultivated crop, it does not occur naturally.

€ Corn was probably developed in Central Mexico/Guatemala about 7000 years ago, from a wild grass called - teosinte, also known as maize.

€ Corn was a staple food source for the Mayan, Aztec and Inca civilisations of Central and South America.

€ Columbus introduced corn to Spain in the 1400's.

€ Corn Husk Dolls have been made in the Czech Republic for hundreds of years.

€ Most of the world's popcorn is grown in the midwestern part of the United States - popping corn has been around for about 5.600 years.

€ Corn whiskey (Rye Whiskey) is made from 80% corn mash or maize. Bourbon Whiskey is made from 51% corn.

€ Corn starch is used as a food thickener and in the manufacture of biodegradable plastics.

€ Corn syrup is replacing sugar as a sweetener in soft drinks and lollies. More than 2000 supermarket products are sweetened with corn syrup, more than are sweetened with refined sugars.

€ Dr John Harvey Kellogg invented cornflakes around 1894. It was available to the public in 1906 after his brother, Keith Kellogg opened a cereal factory.

€ Kelloggs cornflakes were manufactured in Australia in 1925.

€ Sanitarium has been manufacturing corns in Australia for over 50 years. The corn for Sanitarium Corn Flakes grows in the Dubbo/Tamworth area of NSW and the Darling Downs in Queensland.

€ Corn is grown in Africa more widely than any other crop.

€ Corn provides nearly 20% of the world's food calories.

€ The United States grows 45% of the world's corn, much of which is processed into animal feed.

€ A bushel of corn yields 2.5 gallons of ethanol: a renewable fuel used instead of lead to raise gasoline octane levels.

Corn farming was probably introduced to Africa to supply cheap food for slave ships. Ironically, while Africa was losing people to slavery, the addition of corn to the African diet helped to fuel a population increase. Corn, which was easy to cultivate and grew rapidly, became a staple crop in many parts of Africa. Today, in east Africa, corn is eaten at nearly every meal.

BIOTECH CORN... there is an increasing and alarming trend in the world to use genetically modified

'bioengineered corn' as an additive in most foods.

The future effects our children's lives

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