Talking Permaculture at Mudgee Field Days this Weekend

So who’s coming to the Mudgee Small Farm Field Days this Friday + Saturday? This year we’re presenting a series of free + informative talks in the cosy strawbale classroom, alongside Watershed Landcare.

It’s going to be great and we hope you can come! See program below.

Stephen Couling will be talking organic veggie production on both Friday and Saturday

Tim Malfroy will be talking Warré Beekeeping at 12pm on Saturday

Nick Ritar will be talking Small-Farm Permaculture design at 1pm on Saturday. Photo by ABC Rural

Mudgee Small Farm Field Days: 13th – 14th July 2012.

Straw Bale Building Lecture Program – Location L39 on the Field Days map

FRIDAY	Topic…	Who…	Overview…
9am	The First Ever Straw Bale Landcare Office!	Thea Ridley – Watershed Landcare	The first ever Straw Bale Landcare Office! Come hear a short talk and slideshow about how the building took shape over the past couple of years… and find out what else Watershed Landcare gets up to in our region.
10am	Organic Farming in China 2012	Stephen Couling – Milkwood Permaculture	A fascinating overview of what is happening in the Chinese organic small-farm sector in 2012. Learn how organic production is being approached in China in 2012, building on thousands of years of continuous agriculture.
11am	Serious Spring Veggie Growing!	Stephen Couling – Milkwood Permaculture	Want to have your veggies jumping out of the ground and fruiting like mad this year? Learn what grows best next to what, and why, and how to do it!
12pm	The Facts about Solar	Steve Harding – Solar Pumping Solutions	Homes, business and schools come and find out the latest on off grid / connected, solar power, solar hot water, rebates, funding and finance. Steve Harding will give a great case study looking at a solar solution in a typical home.
1pm	Solar passive homes, natural materials	Sam Vivers – Viva Living Homes	Designing and building a solar passive home with natural materials. A short talk and slideshow of straw bale and earth homes with a special focus on what it costs to build a straw bale home. The talk is followed by a straw bale building demonstration next door which shows you how to build one.
2pm	Direct Marketing Beef	Rob Lennon – Gundooee Organics	Finding your own niche market. Rob Lennon will talk about his experience marketing his Organic Wagyu Beef through regional and city restaurants and butcher shops. Is direct marketing a growing sector?

SATURDAY
9am	Backyard Chooks	Mike Byron	Backyard chooks, and eggs! Mike Byron, Moderator and Medical Advisor for online “Backyard Poultry” will explain what you need to get started, what breed to buy and how to house, feed and care for your chooks to keep them happy, healthy and producing eggs!
10am	Solar passive homes, natural materials	Sam Vivers – Viva Living Homes	Designing and building a solar passive home with natural materials. A short talk and slideshow of straw bale and earth homes with a special focus on what it costs to build a straw bale home. The talk is followed by a straw bale building demonstration next door which shows you how to build one.
11am	Grass-fed, broad acre egg production	Todd Fergusson – Farmer Brown’s Pastured Egg	Grass-fed, broad acre egg production. Todd Fergusson, Farmer Brown’s Pastured Egg, will talk about new enterprises for traditional farming systems.
12pm	Natural Beekeeping and Protecting Pollinators	Tim Malfroy – Malfroy’s Gold	An overview of natural beekeeping techniques and a disucssion on the importance of why and how to protect our pollinators.
1pm	Small Farm Design Ideas	Nick Ritar – Milkwood Permaculture	Get ideas for how your farmstead’s orchard, veggie and animal systems can work together to produce better harvests and less work for you, with simple, integrated farmstead design.
2pm	Serious Spring Veggie Growing!	Stephen Couling – Milkwood Permaculture	Want to have your veggies jumping out of the ground and fruiting like mad this year? Learn what grows best next to what, and why, and how to do it!
3pm	The First Ever Straw Bale Landcare Office!	Thea Ridley – Watershed Landcare	The first ever Straw Bale Landcare Office! Come hear a short talk and slideshow about how the building took shape over the past couple of years… and find out what else Watershed Landcare gets up to in our region.

And Kirsten Bradley (right) will be there pretty much the whole time, ready to chat about permaculture to anyone and everyone!

Alongside the Milkwood Permaculture speakers, the fabulous Thea Ridley from Watershed Landcare has put together a great program of local experts talking essential stuff. We’ve also got the warmest location (by far) on the Field Days site, so arrive early to get a seat!

We’re really looking forward to a great two days – I (Kirsten) and Stephen will be at the Strawbale classroom during session times on both days if anyone wants to chat, and both Nick and Tim will be there on the Saturday for the duration also.

Come and say hi! Oh and all donations of earl grey tea (white with one, thanks), will be accepted gleefully. I’ll trade you for a packet of seed balls.

While you’re at the Field Days, make sure you check out our Mudgee friends doing great stuff:

Morrigan Farm with their excellent chicken-dispatchers and food preservation supplies
Scythes Australia with their Scythes and awesome German sauerkraut fermenting pots
Watershed Landcare with their talks, displays and great coffee and cake
Col Seis with his Kelpies (but you might be able to get this world-changer talking pasture cropping if you pick your moment), plus heaps more.

More about Mudgee Small Farm Field Days…