Nick was asked by International Permaculture Day 2012 to video his take on permaculture, so here it is. Recorded stealthily during naptime, to avoid the otherwise ever-present soundtrack of a joyful 3 year old. This International Permaculture Day we’re heading to the city to run an Earthbag bench workshop, but there’s a lot of other…
DetailsOk perhaps I’m having a rabidly bright-green moment, but i rekon this artwork is pretty cool. An in-kitchen wormfarm, with built in chopping board! Nutrient cycling beneath the bench…
The further we get into mushroom cultivation, the more I realise just how useful and amazing fungi is. I’ve also found that it’s sometimes a little hard to find info that relates to growing edible mushrooms in Australian conditions. Finding local knowledge is crucial! Luckily, there’s lots of resources that relate specifically to growing culinary mushrooms…
DetailsRecently at Milkwood Farm, Craig Sponholtz led a course in Applied Watershed Restoration, and taught us all a bit about how to tackle on-farm erosion control with human-scale solutions. One of the things we constructed as part of the workshop was a media luna, a simple but effective rockwork structure that can be used to…
Details[wpvideo Paa7ABcC] Last weekend I went on a rare road trip to see Michael Ableman speak down at Mulloon Creek. While I was there I squeezed in a quick peek at Mulloon’s free-range egg operation… I was also lucky enough to stay on farm with our good friends (and comrades in permaculture farming aspirations) Cam…
DetailsThe first frost has arrived and the last tomatoes and capsicums harvested. The last course has been hosted and the cups all put away. Tis officially the end of the year for our seasonal courses and crew at Milkwood Farm. At this time of year our focus shifts from welcoming many students, woofers and friends…
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An Egg Mobile is a movable chicken house designed to house laying hens at night, who by day cluck around on open pasture. Joel Salatin made them famous at Polyface Farms, but who invented the concept I do not know. Egg mobiles are different from chicken tractors in that they are designed as part of…
DetailsOnce you start natural beekeeping you’ll soon be introduced to eating brood honeycomb – comb that has had baby bees (brood) go through it, and now contains honey. In many traditional cultures, this dark honeycomb is the most sought after – it is riddled with extra enzymes and traces of pollen from the brood rearing…
DetailsOver the Easter weekend we had a little shindig at Milkwood Farm, with camping and artists and lots of food. Dave and Phoebe brought their yurt, which they made themselves, from scratch, for under $2,000. It was an amazing and a beautiful thing. ‘Oh yes’, i thought, when Dave said they were bringing it… ‘I…
DetailsSo about 5 months ago we got interviewed about the process of building a very small house… and last weekend the resulting article finally made it to the paper. Apparently we’re part of a ‘backlash’… I just thought we were trying (trying as opposed to necessarily succeeding) to build something simple and within our means……
DetailsCarrots! Purple ones, orange ones, cream ones, yellow ones… they all make for rainbow salads, just at the point when the summer of colors coming out of the market garden is starting to wind down for winter… So while we have a kind of anti-spring festival here in the southern hemisphere every Easter, we do…
Details‘On The Anatomy Of Thrift: Harvest Day‘ is a video by Farmrun and Farmstead Meatsmith about honoring the the pig, the whole pig, and everything inside the pig. This is the next generation of charcuterie, done with respect for the animal and unashamed enthusiasm for the results. This is also previous generations of charcuterie – the…
DetailsWhile I have heard from multiple sources that cow poo is a fine and admirable structural component for cob render mix, I never thought we’d try it. But thanks to Harris, we have finally given the Earthbag dome we started building in February 2011 it’s first complete outer render, featuring mud, sand, silt and cow…
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