Milkwood: permaculture farming and living

We’re excited to announce that Milkwood Farm veggies will be available in Sydney from this afternoon at the Real Food Projects pop-up shop at 27 Enmore Road, Newtown, Sydney.

The best corn, beans, eggplant and cucumbers you’ve ever tasted, grown with love, care and a great deal of compost at Milkwood Farm, by us! Available for a limited time the big city!

Milkwood market garden

In the bean patch – silvereye’s nest

Yesterdays pick (a very small portion of)

Andy cleaning cucumbers

Karen scrubbing beetroots

Meanwhile, Lawrence is manning the passata machine for the day (we’re still deep in tomato season)

Rose stealing some of the corn haul for dinner…

Yesterday was a big day for the Milkwood market garden crew… picking, packing, buffing and washing a ute-load of our beautiful summer veggies which are at their prime.

This morning, Nick and Floyd are off down the hill to Sydney to run the Sydney Talk (Tonight! Still a few tickets available) and the Gardening like a Forest short course with Dave Jacke. And as you know, we try to stack functions.

So the ute is piled high (sorry no photos, it was loaded at 6am this morning, in the dark and in the rain) with scrumptious food. First stop is a delivery to the Blue Mountains Family Food Box Co-op, and second stop is Sydney, to Real Food Projects!

Real Food Projects is an awesome initiative run by Kate Walsh, and its latest manifestation is a pop-up shop on Enmore Road. This shop is a happy mash of small-run, artisan-made, local food products, as well as vintage furniture and lighting (in case you’re not hungry). A happy space indeed.

Photo by Lee Tran Lam

Kate Walsh, the lady behind Real Food

By supporting Real Food the project, you’re increasing food security, and making more makers. Really. Small producers and food preservers need more friendly outlets that can support seasonal variation and the wax and wane of produce, and help us all make the most of every season.

We’ll be using the funds from these veggie sales to build a proper greenhouse in the Milkwood market garden, which will increase abundance and extend our growing season markedly, allowing us to grow more great food for more of the year in an energy efficient and permaculture way. It will also benefit our market gardener training programs.

As described in the wisdom of the radish, it’s hard to put a price on nutrient dense, hand-grown food like this that is raised outside the industrial agriculture system… but our extended community in Sydney is both partly why we started Milkwood, and also part of what makes us thrive. Call it fair share.

Real Food Pop-Up Shop , 27 Enmore Road, Newtown NSW

• 0423 138 357, ieatrealfood.com.au / Twitter / Facebook
• Open 12 – 7pm, 7 days a week till mid April

Big thanks to all the Milkwood market garden crew who helped get these ‘beyond organic’ veggies out of the ground, prepped and into the ute, in the rain and the dark, looking so good! Many households across Sydney will be the healthier and happier for your efforts. Also big thanks to Real Food for being brave and funky and supporting seasonal goodness.

We provide training  for current and future growers with our Organic Market Garden and Serious Backyard Veggies education streams, as well as our applied learning for future market gardeners at Milkwood Farm.

>> More posts about growing real food at Milkwood.net

Michael Hewins, a happy but tired market gardener today…