This is such a beautiful book – perfect for those dreaming of farming (on whatever scale). While it’s been written for adults, I’ve discovered it’s also a great book for small fry – full of fun, accurate illustrations about interesting stuff like different cloud formations and roosters both. Being questionably blessed with a 3 year…
DetailsEver since we did our Warré apiary design, we’ve been waiting to move the hives to their new hive stands. But we needed to wait till the depth of winter to do it, when the bees have stopped flying and are safe and warm in their hives. So last Sunday was the day! Together, Tim…
DetailsIn mid September we’ll be running an Intro to Market Gardening course which will be two days of hands-on skills in our very own market garden! This course is designed for folks with a little gardening experience, who want to skill up on how to grow a serious amount of vegetables. At Milkwood Farm, we…
DetailsI think Nick might have hit apon a great way to grow oyster mushrooms at Milkwood Farm – it’s a bucket full of mushrooms! We’ve been experimenting with various techniques for growing mushrooms (mushroom bags, mushroom beds, mushroom logs) but what we’re searching for is a technique which utilizes re-usable components, is climate appropriate for…
DetailsRecently I had the good fortune to meet up with Jasmine Whyte and Sangye Christianson, who together are the permaculture tour-de-force {communicatecreative}. Together they create visual and video resources relating to valuable knowledge, like soil makeup. And companion planting. And green smoothies.
DetailsThe Greenhorns: 50 dispatches from the new farmers movement is a collection of 50 essays by beginner farmers, and sits as a companion to The Greenhorns documentary. I seriously enjoyed this book more than anything I’ve read in a long time. The book is loosely divided into subjects: family, crops, tools, finances, animals, access to…
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Anyone with compost worms knows how valuable the worm juice from their wormfarm can be as part of veggie growing. The trick is remembering to add it, and having a good method of applying it. Last year Nick devised a way to passively add worm juice into our kitchen garden irrigation supply, via a rather…
DetailsSo who’s coming to the Mudgee Small Farm Field Days this Friday + Saturday? This year we’re presenting a series of free + informative talks in the cosy strawbale classroom, alongside Watershed Landcare. It’s going to be great and we hope you can come! See program below.
DetailsIt’s pretty amazing what a bunch of logs, a lot of gumption, some wheelbarrows and a couple of days digging can do. What was once a slippery slope becomes a lovely place to be – what a huge difference a home-made set of steps can make! The core edible forest garden of Milkwood Farm is…
DetailsLabneh is a very easy to make and tasty cheese made of strained yoghurt, that can be stored in a jar of olive oil on the shelf. Cheese meets yoghurt meets olive oil meets extends shelf life (without refrigeration). And darn yummy. I’m in!
Yurts (and more interestingly to us, Gers) are front and center on the Milkwood research table currently. We’ve identified these structures as a likely cost-effective, climate-appropriate solution for our coming need for weatherproof, windproof, cosy crew-space come Spring at the Farm. While there’s many solutions to easily yurt oneself if you have a reasonable budget…
DetailsIn early September we’ll be running a 3-day Market Garden Masterclass at the fabulous Allsun Farm in Gundaroo, which will be taught by Joyce Wilkie and Mike Plane, two long-time organic market gardeners (and our mentors for the Milkwood market garden). This 3-day class is a chance for folks with good backyard (or larger scale)…
DetailsOn-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…
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