February 4, 2013 – 7:00 am
“Afristar Foundation utilises Permaculture design systems as the primary methodology of our community development strategy. Permaculture is an optimistic, action-oriented approach to the environmental, energy, food, water and climate crisis the world is currently facing. Its adaptibility and emphasis on meeting human needs means that it can be utilised in every climatic and cultural zone.
Our underlying ethos is that there is a wealth of untapped natural heritage and social capital that can be mobilised to facilitate sustainable livelihoods. This notion can be embraced to educate and empower local people with traditional and appropriate knowledge, so as to utilise their natural resource base for sustainable economic upliftment.” Read More »
February 3, 2013 – 7:00 am
Hey everyone, just a quick note that Milkwood is now on Instagram, and we’re snappin’ away. There’s a lot that goes on at Milkwood these days and often moments that I don’t have the time to squeeze into a blog get captured in a single picture only.
We’re at instagram.com/milkwood_permaculture. Join us for daily thrills, spills, harvests, breakfasts and the general amazingness of everyday life.
If you are on Instagram too we’d love to see you (in? out?) there…
January 31, 2013 – 7:00 am
Bees deserve more study than they get, seems to me. No matter if you’re a budding beekeeper or just a responsible citizen, these ladies and their ongoing work are responsible for one in every three bites of food we eat. They deserve both our joyful respect and a deeper understanding.
The two books above are top of Tim Malfroy’s list of essential bee texts, and this summer we’re reading them, and gleaning much goodness. 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 11, 2013 – 6:32 am
This new pdf resource is free to download and a great document for anyone wanting to ensure their garden, verge, community patch or farm is as pollinator friendly as it can possibly be.
It’s a guide put out by Rural Industries Research and Development, and is a fantastic resource covering ideas for bee-friendly plantings in both urban and rural areas. It’s chock-full of planting guides, nectary calendars for different Australian climates, and pollinator garden design… Read More »
January 5, 2013 – 7:00 am
We can’t wait to host Joel Salatin for 3 one-day masterclasses in February. This will be the first time that Joel will present the in-depth specifics of the various integrated animal systems of Polyface Farm to a NSW audience.
Leading on from our previous 2 years of working with Joel, we very much wanted to get specific with him for these masterclasses. The Polyface Farm animal systems are fantastic to look at from the outside, but what about all the little important details? How do you design for producing 200 clean eggs a day in the eggmobile laying boxes, so you don’t have to wash them all? How to make your small farm systems cost-efficient enough to ensure you’re still farming in 2 years time, edging forwards with fertility and security?
So this time around, Joel is all about the detail. The three masterclasses are split into: You Can Farm (an overview of designing for successful small farm enterprise setup, including marketing and buying club systems), Pastured Poultry (egg laying systems, broiler systems, turkey systems, on-farm processing, direct marketing) and Pastured Beef + Pork (mob stocked beef systems, pigerator and pastured pork systems, direct marketing) Read More »
December 6, 2012 – 10:56 am
We’ve just finished up our Spring Permaculture Design Certificate here at Milkwood Farm, and I thought I’d share some of the (yet again) truly impressive design work that came out of it. Some great permaculture designs for both urban and rural systems.
One of the Spring PDC students described their new understanding of permaculture as: “like a basket of tools for humanity: an intersection of biology, geology, climatology, philosophy, social justice and humanitarian issues and history, packaged into a viable way of providing needs of everyday living.” 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 »
October 6, 2012 – 6:00 am
Nick just finished up co-teaching a Permaculture Teacher Training course with Rowe Morrow on Sunday, which was by all accounts an enlightening 7 days of how the heck to communicate core design concepts to a wide range of different types of learners.
Amongst the varied and wonderful students present was Jasmine Whyte from communicatecreative, who produced this simple and gorgeous diagram of PDC (Permaculture Design Certificate) outcomes, which we’d like to share with you… Read More »
October 4, 2012 – 6:00 am
Recently we had 24 folks come to Milkwood Farm to learn the basics of market gardening under the stewardship of Michael Hewins, Milkwood’s resident market gardener. It was a great weekend of learning and digging and doing.
Michael’s been a market gardener for some years up north, and it’s been great to have him arrive at Milkwood Farm and get stuck into growing. We’re all learning fast (including Michael whose moved from sub-tropical growing to the wonky warm/cool temperate climate of Milkwood) and the greens are growing faster. Here’s a bunch of photos from the weekend… Read More »
