I can’t think of a better way to spend an evening – a rushing stream, forest all around, and a campfire. Of course. Recently we were down in Tasmania and we found one of those choice little spots that, when you’re planning to go adventuring, you dream of happening upon. No-one else around, tall forest, clear water,…
Rightio then. Who wants to come and get their hands dirty and help out at the 107 Rooftop Garden? Saturday May 2nd marks the beginning of our monthly garden dig-ins – a morning of garden chores, learning, new friends and dirty fingernails. Each time there will be a short workshop, followed by the glory of seasonal garden chores.…
What do you get when you cross a sustainable fisheries bloke with a Permaculture Design Course? An Aquaponics system enthusiast, advocate and entrepreneur, that’s what. Matt Spalding took our PDC last year and since then he’s been going gang-busters on learning + building home aquaponics systems, with a focus on fish health, as well as…
Tis the season to brine olives! Or salt them, if you prefer. Whether you’ve grown them yourself or foraged them from bird-sown trees, it’s late Autumn that you want to pick and cure them. There are many ways to cure olives, but the essential thing is that you extract the glucosides from them – the chemicals that make the…
Storing the season for year-round stews of organic tomatoey goodness – is there a better way to spend a Saturday? I think not. Recently we held our annual Passata Day – much squishing and boiling and eating and talking and drinking, which all resulted in a truckload of preserved tomatoes, ready to take on other…
It’s the kind of thing you might dream as a kid to find in a back lane – a tree loaded with bean-like pods full of sweet, fluffy ice-cream-ish tasting fruit. And guess what? They exist! Behold the awesomeness of the ice cream bean, or Guama – Inga edulis. Originating from Central and South America and with many,…
Inspiration takes many forms, but a thriving backyard ecosystem like Happy Earth has got to be pretty high up on our list. Ali + Rich have created this edible suburban oasis over the last 8 years, on a sloping block in Unanderra, just south of Wollongong in NSW. We first visited them 3 years ago, but…
When a place calls itself a ‘climate change farm’ you would suspect that it’s first book is likely to contain more than recipes for home-made pasta and tips for starting seedlings. And you would be right! With a subtle twist of the telling, A Year at Otter Farm somehow folds resilience into seasonality into food into small-holding futures. And all with…
Recently, Dr Vandana Shiva spoke in Sydney to a packed auditorium. She spoke of the essence of life, and of war, and of ensuring the future of humanity through the freedom of the seed. Her words touched many of us deeply. Dr Shiva then went on to hold working groups with seed activists and permaculturalists, as well…
The whole plant, and nothing but the plant – a great way to ripen green tomatoes for future eatery – hang ’em up! There comes a time in every Autumn when the tomato plants need to come out, and with them, all the tomatoes that aren’t yet ripe. Maybe its because the first frost is about…
It’s fab, it’s new, and the honey flows straight into the jar. It’s so easy. But then, powdered instant potato is easy, too. Does that make it a good idea? Despite my mission to focus on positivistic messages of change, at Milkwood we’ve got a charter of calling it like we see it. And to call yet…
How do we actually design + implement a secure future for our communities? One that’s resilient, regenerative, positive, healthy and inter-connected. It’s a big question, and one that comes up (multiple times a day) at our Permaculture Design Courses, where a group of students from all over the world are grappling with this very challenge.…
You know how it is – in the middle of Summer, both culinary + medicinal herbs are everywhere – there’s so many that you forget to see them. And then, before I know it, it’s Autumn, with the cold weather closing in – and we’re coming up to the season of sniffles, coughs and colds. Which…
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