February 10, 2013 – 7:00 am
Mid summer is a relative term. Where we are, high in the hills, Spring comes late according the calendar, but at just the right time according to our land. And right now, it’s mid summer. In the Milkwood market garden and all around us.
The tomatoes are everywhere, the cucumbers are going nuts, the beans are climbing, the corn is ripening and the eggplants are quickly being consumed. It’s also time to give back to the garden: putting nutrients back in as we take them out in the form of harvest. It’s all part of the great cycle. Read More »
February 5, 2013 – 7:00 am
It was bound to happen. The beautiful insanity that is tomato season on a small farm. Big ones, little ones, fat ones, skinny ones. We’re eating them with breakfast and we’re eating them with dinner. Plenty of preserving happening, too.
This year, it’s passata, diced tomatoes and roast tomatoes in the vacola preserving jars. Experiments are afoot for lacto-fermented tomato sauce also. Read More »
January 23, 2013 – 7:00 am
The Urban Farming Guidebook is a free pdf resource for helping local governments to plan the growing of food in their cities. Given that we’re all about bottom-up action, we feel that it’s best placed in the hands of potential growers, so they can get on with creating local food systems!
And that means you. This guide was written for Canadian councils in BC, but that doesn’t make it any less interesting, or useful, for the rest of us. There’s 4 case studies of successful urban farms in BC, and plenty of inspiration and workable ideas for more… Read More »
January 13, 2013 – 7:31 am
Last year it was so easy, the carrots seemed to grow themselves! This year, however… not so much.
Carrots are one of those crops that, in dry summers like this one, need a lot of love and care from before they’re even planted, all the way through to harvest. Under Michael’s tender care the carrots are flourishing, but there were many tricks to getting them this far! Read More »
November 16, 2012 – 7:00 am
I just wanted to flag something at this point in Milkwood Farm’s development, regarding food. You know, those beautiful shots we share of honeycomb on sourdough scones, home-cured bacon and fresh rainbow radishes. They look nice, don’t they? and they are. They really are.
Feeding crew and students amazing food, grown and cooked with love, is a huge priority for us here – for reasons of ethics, health and because we want to walk the walk on clean food, not just talk about it. But there is a flipside, as we’re discovering… Read More »
November 12, 2012 – 10:14 am
Field pea harvest time… this calls for a pea party.
While no longer common in supermarkets, podded peas are on the menu at Milkwood Farm this week. Michael sowed them as a spring crop that would both improve the soil and give a yield, before we plant our summer veggies of capsicum, tomato, eggplant and root crops. They are one of my favorite veggies… Read More »
November 6, 2012 – 7:00 am
If you’re looking for a good resource on the actual practicalities of taking on market gardening, get a copy of this book. It’s full of deeply practical insights and uses multiple small-scale, successful vegetable growers direct experiences as templates for it’s planting and financial guides.
In the ways of synergies, Crop Planning for Organic Vegetable Growers actually recommends Allan Savory’s holistic goal setting (developed for Holistic Management of cattle, but applicable to many situations) as an approach to planning your farm’s financial management. Because if you go broke, it doesn’t matter how awesome your veggies are, you probably can’t keep growing them for a living. Read More »
November 1, 2012 – 7:00 am
Cima di Rapa is is a common brassica green in Italy, but not well known in Australia. Which is a shame, because it is truly delicious. And hardy. And nutritious. So we’re growing bucketloads of the stuff in the market garden. You can eat the leaves and the flowerheads in salad, or it makes a heavenly pasta with Parmesan, lemon and olive oil.
Michael has just started selling our surplus of this crop in bunches to a community food box scheme in the Blue Mouantins, so now over 60 families are learning the way of the spicy Cima… great stuff. We got our seeds from Allsun Farm, who stock ‘The Italian Gardener‘ – a really good quality, organic, non GMO seed range…
October 28, 2012 – 6:00 am
Hooray for salad! We’ve hit 100% self-sufficiency in salad greens for crew and courses at Milkwood Farm. And we’re not just talking leaves-of-things-that-are-edible-and-could-be-used-for-salad-at-a-pinch, we’re talking retail quality, beautiful, sweet, diverse beyond organic greens. We’re pretty stoked.
Michael has achieved this by being careful with his propagation techniques and with his choices in salad species. At Milkwood Farm we’re just having our last frosts of the season here at the end of October, which gives you an idea of the growing conditions. Not really salad friendly. But Michael has done it regardless, and without a polytunnel. Read More »
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