The peaches growing out the back of the homestead are grown from cuttings of an ancient peach tree that Nick’s parents found when they bought Kirwin, the property next door to Milkwood Farm. So technically, these peaches could be said to be from a 120 year old tree. Whatever their vintage, they grow like no…
This Summer has been downright weird, weather-wise. Which has meant all sorts of things, for all sorts of things. Including for the bees of Milkwood Farm, and the bees of eastern Australia in general. For the central west of NSW (Where Milkwood Farm is) it’s been a crazy dry Spring/Summer with short downpours, following on…
Last weekend Milkwood made the telly! Sydney Weekender to be exact… it was a bit of fun. Big thanks to everyone who helped pull the day of filming off, including our awesome crew and friends from afar…
Egg pies. They look remarkably like quiches, but can be eaten by everyone, even ‘real men’. They both taste great, especially when loaded with home made bacon, labneh (soft yoghurt cheese) and spinach, encased in a spelt crust. Once apon a time, a few years ago, Milkwood Farm ran our first course for 50 farmers…
Stand by for exploding lettuce! It’s the nature of summer growing. One minute they’re tiny seedlings in trays, then they’re planted out, and then, in no time at all, kaBOOM. Beautiful, sweet lettuce. Everywhere.
Blackberries are our favorite noxious weed, by far. They provide valuable habitat for small birds, hold eroded creekbanks together where nothing else will, and bring forth a motherlode of antioxidant and vitamin rich berries, right about this time of year. Ashar and I have been going foraging on a regular basis in the name of…
We love a good bit of barter. Especially when it’s for amazing blood orange cordial and lunch in the city. And now as a result, folks in Marrickville are chomping on Milkwood salad! Whoohoo. Last week Nick and Gigi were heading down to Sydney for a Mushroom Cultivation course. We’d heard that there was a…
Just a quick note that we’re extremely excited to announce a comprehensive Natural Building course that will be happening at Milkwood Farm 6 – 9 April 2013 with Sam Vivas of Viva Eco Homes. As you may have worked out, we’re rather passionate about natural building, and the empowerment that comes from having the knowledge…
The Bee People was written by Margaret Warner Morley in 1905 as a book for children about honeybees; their biology, their social habits, their work as pollinators, and their honey. I picked it up as a curiosity but you know what? It’s a pretty solid bee book for kids.
Integrated pest management is the process of aiming to manage your garden like an ecosystem… and balancing the bad with the good. In simplest terms, its about creating favorable conditions for ‘good bugs’ that eat and/or mitigate the ‘bad bugs’, and encouraging other useful animals (like small birds) to hang out in the garden and…
[soundcloud url=”http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/78600410″ params=”” width=” 100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /] Last week I talked to Dave Jacke (primary author of Edible Forest Gardens) about his upcoming Australian tour of talks and workshops. We talked about consciously designing gardens like forest ecosystems that maximise food production, for backyard scale and beyond. Have a listen! We also talked about…
Without Joyce and Mike from Allsun Farm, we probably wouldn’t have a market garden. These two firey spirits have been growing good stuff and passing on their knowledge for decades. We feel lucky to know them and we love to see other folks writing about them.
Mid summer is a relative term. Where we are, high in the hills, Spring comes late according the calendar, but at just the right time according to our land. And right now, it’s mid summer. In the Milkwood market garden and all around us. The tomatoes are everywhere, the cucumbers are going nuts, the beans…
The Milkwood newsletter is an occasional publication that’s a treasure trove of writings, free DIY guides, gardening tips, permaculture hacks, special newsletter-only posts and giveaways, and lots, lots more…