We were rather impressed with Joel Salatin when he came to Australia last year. So were one or two other people. Aside from being the most entertaining farmer that we’ve ever met, he’s really onto something. Multiple somethings, even. To call the Salatin’s farming practices at Polyface Farms in Virginia USA ‘innovative’ is a bit…
DetailsI am not a survivalist. Really I’m not. Despite growing up in a family that was so deeply concerned by nuclear threat in the 1980’s that we had pictures of mushroom clouds (framed) in my childhood lounge room, I refuse to concede that my family’s future may involve turning our farm into a stockade or…
DetailsGravity and chickens are two of our favorite natural forces at Milkwood. Chickens scratch, poo, give eggs and good company, plus a trillion other benefits. Gravity draws things down. Great it you want stuff to end up down the bottom. Which, in the case of our gravity fed chicken house, we do! For the past…
DetailsSo it turns out that aquaponics doesn’t have to be just a bunch of tanks and grow beds. Not that I mind ‘classic’ aquaponics setups. I just like to know there’s more than one way to grow a fish. And some salad. Recently we ran our first Aquaponics Workshop in Sydney, and it was a…
DetailsWe’re bringing David Holmgren to Sydney shortly as a guest teacher on our Winter Part-time PDC. So we thought we’d offer up a dinner while he’s here. Would you like to come? Dinner with David Holmgren Saturday 21st May Peasant’s Feast Organic Restaurant, Sydney We’d like to invite our current and future friends, readers, students…
DetailsThis tinyhouse building thing is taking ages. But we’re getting there now! For the walls, we’re planning on experimenting with double-skin wattle-and-daub with insulation in between. We started off planning for strawbale walls, but we’ve now decided to try wattle and daub to maximise the inside space. We don’t know of any precedents of doing…
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A wicking box is a contained, portable way to grow vegies (or anything else) with very little water. Essentially, it’s a wicking bed in miniature. Very cool. Wicking boxes can be used either as part of an intensive water-wise growing system, or just a good way to keep those herbs alive that you usually forget…
DetailsI am now fully convinced of the glory of gabions. Not only can they create leaky weirs in dryland gullies, they can also liberate courtyards. Like ours, for example. After years (yes, literally) of trying to figure how best to create a low-cost, low footprint, 2m high retaining wall in our courtyard, we discovered the…
DetailsRecently I watched Tim Malfroy open and inspect a Warré hive that he installed in Sydney. Over 20 people looked on (it was part of a natural beekeeping workshop) as Tim lifted up boxes, pulled out combs full of honey and brood, and generally checked that all was well in the hive. What did the…
DetailsA couple of months ago we had the opportunity to build an earthbag dome at Milkwood Farm, and run a workshop while we built it. We jumped at the chance. We’d always wanted to try earthbag building, but where do you start with such a venture? And so it was that over six days, Neil…
DetailsAt the end of this week we will be closing the gates of Milkwood Farm until next Spring. It’s been a massive year of building, growing, learning and doing. But now we’re about to go into winter mode here at the farm. We’re farewell-ing our Autumn interns, packing up the woolshed and slowing things down…
DetailsEaster on Sunday. Check. Our Araucana chickens already lay blue eggs, so that’s those sorted. Now all we need is a rabbit or two, and we’re ready for an upside-down Easter. Actually, at Milkwood it makes sense to celebrate both rabbits and eggs at this time of year: we’re cherishing the last of the eggs…
DetailsSchool gardens have incredible potential to provide experiential learning. But what’s the best way to go about setting one up? I’ve been wondering this for a while. Recently I’ve been asking around amongst my esteemed permaculture colleges as to what they thought were the best school garden models they’d seen or heard of. Aaron Sorensen’s…
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