The upside down fire technique rocks. It’s a cleaner burn with far less smoke and better combustion, gives off more heat, needs less tending and uses the embodied energy in wood more efficiently than the tipi-esque fire method. As an added bonus, the first time you make a fire like this in front of a…
DetailsWe can’t wait to host Joel Salatin for 3 one-day masterclasses in February. This will be the first time that Joel will present the in-depth specifics of the various integrated animal systems of Polyface Farm to a NSW audience. Leading on from our previous 2 years of working with Joel, we very much wanted to…
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We’ve been researching egg mobile models for a good while now, in order to figure out how best to get our small (but growing) flock of layers rotating through our paddocks, enjoying fresh pasture and laying eggs aplenty. In the end, as with most things, it came down to working with what we’ve got. Enter…
DetailsThe capacity and creativity of Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) models are growing. What used to be a simple (but noble) system of receiving a box of veggies fresh from a reasonably local farm each week is no longer the only CSA option for getting connected to your food. But if you’re invested in picking up…
DetailsHappy holidays everyone! We hope you’re in the midst of some serious downtime. As it’s all about midsummer meals and cramming a year’s worth of days off into a week around here, we’ve all been hard at it. Christmas day saw Floyd, Gigi, Michael and Lawrence (incoming market garden intern) harvesting and cooking the first…
DetailsWow what a ridiculously big and beautiful year! We’ve come so far from where we were at the start of 2012 that I can barely believe it. But we have photographic evidence, so it must have all happened. Here’s 12 months of thrills and spills at Milkwood…
DetailsIt’s a Catalan Christmas at Milkwood Farm this year. Which means that, in pride of place, sits Caga Tió. Caga Tió is a happy ‘uncle’ who is actually a log. You feed him fruit for 2 weeks leading up to Christmas and, on the appointed day, he poos out presents of nougat. And you sing to…
DetailsWhat better soundtrack for Christmas than combining two essential ingredients for a good life: permaculture, and ukulele. Permaculture: A Rhymer’s manual is a set of songs based on David Holmgren’s 12 permaculture principles, created with the idea that education and learning resources come in many forms, so why not. We love em. This week at…
DetailsThis week marked a big step for us at Milkwood Farm, as we got the chance to follow-through on the stewardship of our pastured pigs by taking them all the way to the plate. In the spirit of honoring both life and death, we wanted to make the most of our pigs, and learn how…
DetailsI am pleased to announce that we have, 4 months after moving in, finally spend a whole weekend at the Tiny House. And it was beautiful. Stand by for pics (I’ve tried to offset their normality by framing them as best i could) of children, dogs, swims, potato prints and all the things a proper…
DetailsAs promised, here is Rose’s nitrate-free, home made way of making bacon from scratch. I say ‘way’ rather than ‘recipe’ because it’s still in development in terms of quantities. But if you too are a tinkerer rather than a straight-up recipe follower, then come on down and join us in the glorious land of home…
DetailsLast spring the Milkwood interns cooked up a design to tackle the erosion on a degraded hillside next to the woolshed, and then implemented and planted it all out. This design was done collaboratively and realised with simple tools and natural materials. One year on, it’s working a treat. The parameters for this design had…
DetailsAfter a crazy, wonderful and challenging spring, we’ve finally hosted the last Milkwood event till after New Years. Wow. Since the farm opened in September we’ve taught and hosted courses in forest gardening, permaculture design, mushroom cultivation, market gardening and beekeeping and polished it off with big open days. Alongside all that, we’ve been establishing…
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