So it turns out that mushroom cultivation is really easy – once you wrap your head around all the intricacies, that is. And setting aside all the ‘wow’ moments you’ll have as you begin to delve into the wonderful world of fungi. But apart from that, it’s simple!
We just hosted a mushroom propagation course at Milkwood Farm, and it was a full-on two days. So much awesomeness! So many possibilities! Why don’t we all learn mushroom propagation in kindergarten? It’s a total fit. Read More
Wettest year on record. That’s what they’re saying…
Which means (amongst many other rain-related things, most of them good) that our erosion control Zuni bowls are consistently full of water. And they make fabulous tiny oceans for setting sail…
So here we have it – two weeks of our recent urban Permaculture Design Certificate, in 160 seconds! And what an amazing two weeks of learning and thinking and designing and digging and tasting and doing it was…
Over the two weeks the PDC students worked their way through an intense curriculum of permaculture theory as well as plenty of hands-on, active learning. By the end of the course, each student had completed a functional permaculture design for a place they personally knew well, as well as a real-world community scale design… Read More
Permaculture and Regenerative Agriculture are fortunately two fields that have lots of great resources. Books, DVDs, you name it. But where do you start? Which to read first? I thought I’d share our most-thumbed favorites.
We have this crate of books that travels to each Permaculture Design Course as the ‘student library’, and those books mostly line up with the ones we use on the farm, either for reference, for inspiration, or for discussing with students and wwoofers…
And I think all in all, it went pretty well. Ever since the gazillions of tomato plants (in numerous heritage varieties) were planted in the Milkwood Market Garden, we’ve been waiting for this great day. The inaugural squishing of the harvest.
And check out our new, fancy-pants passata machine! In the spirit of multi-function, it also transforms into a meat mincer and a juicer, so we can harvest every which way. And harvest we will…
Earthship in Brighton, England
Guess what? We’re hosting a great evening talk with Michael Reynolds, that world-leading sustainability pioneer of Earthship Biotecture, in Sydney on the 26th Feb. Do you want to come?
This community event is going to be a uniquely inspiring & informative evening of radical architecture, ideas and discussion about Earthship building and living. >> Book tickets here.
So just over a year ago, our house dam filled for the first time. And then went into scary nearly-melt-down. So we pumped the water out, fixed it, and then waited for it to fill again. And waited. For a year.
Do excuse multiple soggy shots of muddy pools, but this is big news at Milkwood Farm. Last weekend, for the first time, our swale and dam system filled, thanks to a big downpour on the tail of a very wet spring. And nothing went wrong. Yay! Read More
We have been searching for seeds of the Siberian Pea Tree (Caragana arborescens) for years. Permies in North America and Europe rave about this plant for it’s hardiness, growth, nitrogen fixing and forage capabilities. But find it in Australia, we could not. Until we found Phoenix Seeds!
Phoenix Seeds is a little seed company in Tasmania. Their catalog is awesome. They have no website. They seem ardently and unashamedly old-school. And I love them to bits. Because they, unlike every other Australian seed company I’ve talked to, stock Siberian Pea Shrub seeds… Read More
More beautiful shots by Cathy X from our current Urban Permaculture Design Certificate that Nick is teaching in Sydney.
Featuring Michele Margolis’ amazing urban permaculture garden, Adam Grubb teaching soil, and permaculture design! And mini bulldozers, of course… Read More
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 of our beekeeping journey, but still, even though we don’t have whizz-bang equipment, we found this a wonderfully tactile and rewarding experience. It’s prettymuch just a case of crushing the comb, sieving it, and bottling the results. 100% organic yum, with all the goodness of the honey still utterly intact.
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