I’m getting cosy with the seaweeds that grow near our place. It seems only fair – I’ve always made a point of understanding what wild land plants and animals are particular to wherever we live – what they indicate, the conditions they prefer, and what niches they hold in the ecosystem. But up until now, I wasn’t…
Think making your own aquaponics setup would be too hard and costly? Think again my friends. Here’s a straightforward and easy way to grow some waterwise greens in your home system. We made this super easy and downright cheap aquaponics system for the 107 Rooftop Garden in Redfern, Sydney, because we wanted to show folks how…
The definition of a weed is subjective, I know. They’re simply plants out of place, after all. And one person’s weed might be another person’s harvest, or food, or medicine. It’s true. However, when it comes to our current backyard veggie patch, we’ve been laying down some ground rules about what plants get to stay,…
You Can Farm is probably the Joel Salatin book that kicked off more future farmers than any other, and I have to include us in that count. This book took our attitude to small-scale farming from ‘wouldn’t that be great’ to ‘I rekon we can actually DO this’. It’s true. Which is interesting, considering our…
Summer downtime is the perfect chance to get fermenting, even if the heat means that everything bubbles like crazy! Check out these 4 recipes for some easy yet delicious ways to get some probiotic action into your kitchen this Summer. Fermented Tomato Salsa This recipe comes via our Fermentation teacher Gillian Kozicki. It’s absolutely killer,…
Holidays are a good time to dream about the future, and what you’re going to build one day. Here’s some articles to get you inspired about building with a minimum of money and a maximum of passion for creating natural, living homes and shelter. Let there be Mud: the Basics of Natural Building Natural Building is…
Has this year been a big one for you? It has for us. So much digging, doing, designing, moving, re-settling, replanting and re-thinking. Thank goodness for the inaugural backyard gherkin, which appeared on our back fence trellis the other day, to calm me down. In the spirit of building on what’s gone before, or incase you’ve…
The act of preserving fruit, like gardening, is a hopeful act. It’s a gesture of goodwill to future meals that you plan to have, incorporating a since-past season’s bounty. It’s also darn repetitive (though some would call it calming, I suppose), all that cutting and washing and slicing and bringing up to heat and waiting and cleaning…
The thing about farming on the small is that big machines just don’t make sense, and often aren’t affordable to your small, regenerative farming enterprise anyway. And yet, once you’ve brought 18 beds to a fine tilth to plant your precious carrots using hand tools alone, you could be forgiven for longing for the efficiency that…
Discovering new edible plants in unexpected places is fast becoming one of my favourite pastimes. This week, we’ve been scouting our local ‘hood for beaded samphire. Beaded samphire (Sarcocornia quinqueflora) is also known as sea asparagus or beaded glasswort. It’s an edge plant that grows in highly saline environments, like salt marshes, brackish water, or at the top…
String em up, baby! Climbing tomatoes often need a helping hand to reach their full potential. Here’s our two favourite methods for stringing up best ever backyard toms. Farm or patio, tomatoes are the go. I can’t imagine summer without them. In a small backyard like the one we’re living in just now, climbing tomatoes make lots of…
So just how relevant or valuable IS an American farmer like Joel Salatin coming to Australia to talk small farm skills and enterprise planning? As it turns out, quite a lot. The techniques + thinking of Polyface Farms’ founder has influenced many amazing small farm enterprises in Australia that we know of, helping them to thrive,…
Wow, this book is a cracker. Friendly, in-depth knowledge at its best. Written by US mycologist and dedicated home-scale mushroom cultivator Tradd Cotter, it’s a great blend of practical cultivation how-tos, fungi ID and strategies for mycoremediation. Organic Mushroom Farming and Mycoremediation is a great addition to any shroomish library and while it doesn’t replace the…
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