Once you’ve harvested your natural honeycomb from your Warré (or other kind of top bar) beehive, it’s time to make get some of that goodness into jars! Fortunately, like many other aspects of natural beekeeping, getting the honey out of natural comb is easy and simple, once you know how. We’re just at the start…
DetailsIt seems unbelievable that only 5 months ago our now abundant market garden was a scruffy bare creek flat. But it’s true! And now we’ve got produce coming out our ears, thanks to many fabulous folks coming together to make it so. Up in the hills as we are, it’s a bit of a harsh…
DetailsRight now Nick’s in the the middle of teaching Milkwood Permaculture’s annual summer Urban Permaculture Design Certificate in Sydney, which is always a fabulous two weeks. This year, we have the wonderful Cathy X as one of the students, and she’s documenting the process in pictures. I love this course. It’s so similar, yet so…
DetailsJoin Adam Grubb of the original Permablitz crew for a fabulous and free info night on how to devise and run a great permablitz. Come along and learn skills and tricks for running a successful permablitz that your whole community can get inspired by… This free event is for any permablitz enthusiast who wants to…
DetailsBit of a mid-summer treat yesterday: Tim Malfroy came to help check our Warré beehives and bliss us out with amazing discussions on pollination, super organisms and honey. We got some amazing photos of summer in beeland. Summer in the Australian bush (in a good year) is like nirvana for honey bees, thanks to the…
DetailsFrom the cult of done manifesto: 1. There are three states of being. Not knowing, action and completion. 2. Accept that everything is a draft. It helps to get it done… sound like farming, growing food or establishing a permaculture system to you? In fact, almost all of the 12 tenets of the cult of…
DetailsHere is our Forest Garden in December 2007, four years ago. You might notice there’s nothing there. There wasn’t anything anywhere, at Milkwood Farm. Just out little caravan, and us, dreaming of turning this rocky hillside into a kick-ass permaculture farm. We knew we wanted to create a rocking Forest Garden as part of Milkwood…
DetailsThe super-organism of the honeybee (apis mellifera) is not only awe-inspiring, it’s worth understanding. Both for your own personal gratification, and for the pollination of your nation. This list is a part of the notes we provide to students at the Natural Beekeeping courses we run with Tim Malfroy. It’s a list of Tim’s favorite…
DetailsIt’s actually quite hard to sum up 2011. It was so big. So vast. So amazing. Such a learning curve, in so many ways! But I’ll try. I started off with one iconic image per month, but that just didn’t cut it. How do you chose between making a pig tractor, and working with Joel…
DetailsAs if Melbourne Permablitz crew weren’t cool enough already, they’ve now outdone themselves. They’ve released a series of organizer’s guides for running a successful permablitz really, really well. These in-depth guides cover all the essential aspects of a great permablitz: designing, facilitating, hosting and documenting. They’re comprehensive documents and a great asset for anyone doing…
DetailsAfter learning the basics of chromatography from Eugenio Gras during his recent visit to Milkwood Farm, Harris and the Milkwood interns got straight into it. The mission: produce a catalog of soil chromatograms for Milkwood Farm. We now have documented the state of our soils across Milkwood in chromatographic form. Each year (or hopefully more…
DetailsHappy Earth are a great little crew down in Wollongong, proving that you can create an abundant urban homestead. And they’re just created a really awesome community resource in the form of this garden guide, which is free to all. Regardless of whether you actually live in the Illawarra region or not, make sure you…
DetailsWe just capped off a massive week at Milkwood Farm – running our last on-farm course till next year, farewelling 6 interns, harvesting honey and braiding garlic. Summer seems determined to skip us this year. It’s now December and we’re still in winter jackets, and eating all the soup we can. What does it all…
DetailsThe Milkwood newsletter is an occasional publication that’s a treasure trove of writings, free DIY guides, gardening tips, permaculture hacks, special newsletter-only posts and giveaways, and lots, lots more…