Perched on green headlands with rich volcanic soil below, mountains behind and the wide blue of the Pacific out front, Buena Vista Farm is a pretty special place. And as a bonus, it’s peopled by an awesome young farming family producing beyond organic food for their community, and doing it with a smile…
DetailsThe surface of the house dam was all dotted in foamy bits, and frogs were a-croaking everywhere. So we got up early the next morning, after the rain, and went on down to inspect…
So officially, Summer is done and dusted. Which is fine with me, if it means Autumn rains aplenty. By the Milkwood Farm clock, however, we’re still right smack bang in Summer, for a few more weeks at least. Tomatoes absolutely everywhere, corn coming on, beans about to ripen, cucurbits extra absolutely everywhere, and Surprise! more…
DetailsA room full of Hobart’s chefs, bakers, brewers, farmers and current and would-be fermenters. A large amount of vegetables. Jars and graters and chopping boards everywhere. And, then, the descent into kraut-laden chaos…
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This place! These people! Recently I was lucky enough to hang out at Good Life Permaculture’s HQ, based in a backyard in the hills high above Hobart, Tasmania. Hannah and Anton are busy turning a steeply sloping backyard into a patch of edible awesome – complete with veggie beds, food forests, chooks, ducks and bees……
DetailsSo this week has been a little crazy. There’s been farm vegetable harvests, amazing fermentation action, backyard veggies learning and a tempeh version of Sandor Katz’s head to deal with…
Summer and blackberry foraging go hand in hand. And alongside them goes the heat of the season. Better make the most of it! Solar cooking time. The tinyhouse on a hot day is a delicious little envelope of coolness that I would not mess with for the world. And we only have a woodstove anyways,…
DetailsWhy this awesomely tangy, sweet/salty native fruit hasn’t taken the world by storm is beyond me. Or maybe it’s a good thing, for us foraging types. I’d like to introduce you, if you’ve not already met, to Carpobrotus glaucescens – the variety of pigface that grows on the sand dunes and costal cliffs of eastern Australia.
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After completing the strawbale walls and the roundwood, reciprocal roof of the Milkwood Roundhouse, we wanted a gorgeous floor to complete this hand-crafted natural building. So an earthen floor was a natural choice. There’s not much easily accessible info out there on how to make your own earth floor, however. So we’d like to share…
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Here’s some photos from the downright awesome Passata Day we had on the weekend. It was a beautiful, hands-on, all-in day of tomatoes, squishing, bottling, boiling, waiting, playing dominoes, eating, drinking, learning and community…
DetailsHow good is this farm gate idea? Raw milk, fresh from the farm the dispenser stands on, available to anyone who cares to come along and bring a bottle – 24/7. You little ripper.
DetailsSo when Sandor Katz lands on our shores in a few weeks, we’ll be feeding everyone who comes along to the evening talks, sessions and workshops with fermented goodness. Crocks are bubbling across the country in readiness – thanks to the amazing chefery of Rose Newberry, Holly Davis, Joost Bakker, Rodney Dunn and more –…
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The idea of combining fish and veggie production into an integrated system is far from new. Ancient precedents for integrated aquaculture include the chinampas of Mexico and the integrated rice paddy systems across parts of Asia. But how did we get from these sorts of ancient land-based systems all the way to backyard aquaponics?
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