This small project is a study in macrocosms and microcosms – the large world and the small, the now and the forever. And all on your kitchen bench. Not bad for a grub in a jam jar. I’ve always wanted to raise a butterfly from a caterpillar, but i thought it might be technical or tricky…
Details
‘Can I have two big packets of grass seed, please – I’ve got a lawn to grow’ are words I never thought I’d say. But here we are, de-gardening, trying to leave no trace of our home-grown food bowl. Such is the nature of permaculture renting. We’re out of this place in a month. I…
Details
Compost. It brings health and diversity to your soil, holds moisture in at a greater rate, diverts needless landfill and is something I’m finding, you can get quite geeky about. If someone had told me fifteen years ago that I would be enjoying shovelling compost as much as I do now…well, I suspect I would…
Details
The Fair Food edition of PiP Magazine is out, and it’s a corker. Do you subscribe? We do. There’s articles by Bruce Pascoe, the author of Dark Emu, on Australian indigenous agriculture. There’s a biointensive vege bed prep how-to by us (yay!). There’s an article on sharing the harvest and creating community from a rented…
Details
If you’re looking to grow some good quality storage crops for winter soups and stews, beans are a great choice. But which ones, and why? We talked to Jodi Roebuck about his top 3 beans to grow in a biointensive system. Jodi is a biointensive homesteader + grazier near Taranaki in New Zealand, and he knows his beans. His…
Details
What do you do when you’re short on time and the many boxes of home grown nectarines you’ve been gifted are all about to go mushy? DIY fruit leather roll ups to the rescue, that’s what. We made these with nectarines that came (in quantity) from Nick’s parents trees (thanks Mum) but you could use…
Details
Raising slow food kids can be done in simple everyday ways – it’s not about cooking a hand-made feast three times a day! Just get them involved, take the time and watch your family grow, in more ways than one. Introduce kids to the wonderful world of slow food from the very beginning and you’ll…
Details
Best Passata Day ever! Great tomatoes, even better company and a bonus electrical storm in the middle. What more could you ask for when spending a day storing the season of Summer? This was our second Passata Day held up in the 107 rooftop garden – and it was a hot one. But we’d moved…
Details
Though we may not realise it, common ground is still to be found in our towns. It’s just not called that anymore. And utilizing common land as the community resource it is makes good sense. Especially when you can turn brambles into cheese. Down the side and out the back – the gully behind the hill,…
Details
Popes produce is a small urban market garden in Woonoona, providing fresh veg and fruit to it’s surrounding community. Bordered by lines of units, this little piece of urban farming paradise is sharing the goodness all around. Popes Produce is Sarah + Ben Anderson, with assistance from their kids. Together they farm a long thin…
Details
Two whole weeks of permaculture design is quite an immersion. It’s 14 days of new knowledge, new friends, new ideas, new skills, and a bunch of ‘oh yeah’ moments besides. Every time we’re lucky enough to host and teach one of these intensive permaculture design certificates, we get to watch people grow, bigtime. And then…
Details
When street trees are also highly delicious. Bring on the lilli pilly everything. Where we live on the south coast of NSW, lilli pilli’s are just about everywhere – they’re up in the rainforest (where they’ve always been – they’re an Australian native) and they’re also on the street and down the sides of houses,…
Details
I think we got lost for a little bit there… In between all the educating and the ‘how-to’ ing, when we started calculating that it was more economic to work more, keep our kid in after school care, and buy bread. Because, future. We wanted one. And working our asses off in the office or…
Details