On-farm composting is a big part of our farm’s nutrient cycling, and an essential technique for ensuring nutrient density for our veggies and tree crops. Over the past couple of years we’ve tried and trialled various methods of hot-composting, with varied success. As our composting needs have grown alongside our vegetable outputs, we’ve had to…
Following on from a whole street of verge gardens is another verge garden in Sydney that is using verge plantings as a great way of cultivating community. Costa and his verge needs little introduction, since his garden gets featured weekly on national television as part of Gardening Australia. What I like best about this verge…
The thing I like best about Michael Pollan is that he articulates many important points that need to be made in such an approachable way that, well, everyone gets it. That’s rare in a writer, and in a speaker. And he’s been doing it for quite some time now. About time he came to Sydney,…
July is bare-rooted apple tree ordering time! It’s been a long wait, but we now feel confident that we have the water infrastructure, system establishment and knowledge in place to be able to grow apples (without killing them) at Milkwood Farm. Oh happy day. As our forest garden slowly creeps across the hillside, greener and…
Calling all meat eaters who are curious and committed to learning how to cook all parts of an animal in the name of ethics (produce no waste), flavor and, most importantly, adventure: Farmstead Meatsmith are writing a book on how the heck to cook all the tricky bits. “If the pastured meat on your plate…
At the moment we’re doing some serious research on how mushroom cultivation will best fit into the integrated systems at Milkwood Farm. We’re looking for options that are low-energy input, appropriate for our climate, use waste materials we have on-farm, and yield lots of yummy mushrooms! It’s proving a little trickier than we thought. Our…
So it turns out that when we go to the toilet, each of us ‘produces’ nearly 80% of the nutrients we need to grow our food. That’s quite something. If you take hold of that concept, it really does make you ask questions about why the heck we manufacture chemicals (with all the detrimental side-effects…
Just a quick note that we’ve scheduled some spring Aquaponics Workshops in Sydney, which are 2 days of intensive aquaponics how-to and why-to. While the basics of Aquaponics can be quite simple, there’s a lot of ways to do it in a way that enhances growing conditions for both fish and plants while still adhering…
Designing the Warré honeybee apiary at Milkwood Farm has taken some protracted thought and planning. As well as designing for bee health, we’re also designing for educational access and best-practice Warré beekeeping, on a slightly tricky site. The site selected for the apiary is a good one for our climate – an E-N/E facing nook,…
Sowing Winter green manure crops are a crucial part of Milkwood Farm’s organic vegetable growing regime – the green manures convert sunlight to nutrients, then get dug into the soil in early Spring, and become food for us all. Green manures in the veggie garden can also be used as a living understorey for growing…
The Gravity Chicken Run is now entering its second winter as one of the gravity-powered (and chicken powered) composting experiments at Milkwood Farm. We’ve made some modifications since last winter, and things are looking good. As with all on-farm experiments, we’re learning as we go. But egg production is good and, as we continue to…
Market Garden internship applications for Milkwood Farm for our upcoming season are open! And apps for the first internship close on 25th June. Please read and pass this info along to whoever you think might be up for the challenge. For the 2012-2013 season at Milkwood Farm, we’re offering a series of focused internships. These…
When I say ‘vermiponics’ to most people i get either a blank stare or a vague nod, mostly. But artist Amy Youngs has created a vermiponics (that’s aquaponics with added worms) system that is both whimsical and functional… art and aquaponics!
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