I met my first best gift in year ten. A girl called Sam. Then along the way I met other gifts, Kulja, Jane, Lise, Amber. All of them great listeners, open, vulnerable, authentic, real, and all of them made me feel needed. Twenty five years later they are still with me...
This was first published in Sanctuary Magazine Issue 64 You are probably familiar with fruit cordials; perhaps you even have a family recipe that comes out in time for summer. But did you know that delicious drinks can be made using wild floral infusions? Mara Ripani...
I started making my own pasta the moment I moved out of my family home. It was impossible not to. My mum always made it and therefore it was the normal thing to do. In shared households all over Melbourne I made pasta. In rental kitchens in Fitzroy, Kensington,...
We welcome volunteers from all over the world to ORTO. As well as local volunteers. I thrive on their visits and stories. I rejoice in the interactions and skills shared. I love teaching and the questions I receive keep me learning and motivated. I like finding ways...
I want to build culture away from supermarkets and consumerism and into gardens, forests and streams. The very talented Caroline who wears a knitted hat made by her and a woven poncho (underneath the long cardigan) also made by her, picking Lilacs with an expression I...
What makes one sausage better than another? In most cases it is not an elaborate recipe handed down by an amazing cook nor the artisanal skills of a highly skilled butcher. What makes food taste great is simplicity itself! The kind of simplicity that is incredibly...
How to dry fruit Fruit drying is a rewarding way to preserve your summer harvest. Like many preserving techniques it is simple to do (one of the simplest) and the results are extremely satisfying. By the end of the season, your larder shelves will be adorned with...
One day you may find yourself falling in love with plants and gardens and in the process discovering an entirely new language. Many plant nursery websites have a category called perennials, dedicated to plants that live for more than two years. What you might not...
In the freezer are containers full of boysenberries, raspberries and strawberries. In the winter garden, rhubarb! Pudding like cake with summer boysenberries stored in our freezer. There is a cake recipe that I have adapted to make the most of my fruit harvest. This...
Family pasta and lunch event with pizzica folk dancing This photo captures a feeling...the very feeling that brought me here. A feeling of deep satisfaction and warmth. The same emotion I first felt 20 years ago when together with Lise and Sam two of my closest...
Preserving class Sunday 20th of June 2pm to 6pm at ORTO Farm, Blampied. I love foraging, I love growing and I want to make the very most of what I find and what I grow. Preserving for beginners offers all the skills needed to preserve the taste of summer, the cool of...
Lard and charcoal soap After five years of making soap I started to get that lovely feeling I get when I know that I have cultivated enough soap making skills to share those skills. This year I launched our first soap making classes. In each class we make two bars of...
Our wetland in Autumn Every year we host a tour or two, to talk with you about all that we have done, all that we have learned. Our home and farm stay are built from straw. Our land had not a single tree and now it has many. A wetland we made with hundreds of aquatic...
Sunday 21st February 3-6pm at ORTO Farm Blampied, just outside of Daylesford. Using traditional soap making skills, it is possible to make a years’ worth of soap in just one day. We will make two batches of soap: One using plant based oils and the other using lard....
Volunteer fairies are back! And I am so happy to have their support. At this time of the year the strawberry harvest is bountiful. We have been drying strawberries on a regular basis. They keep well in glass jars, their flavour a concentrated summer explosion. We are...
Our property is becoming a little more abundant each year. With hens and roosters and geese. Our hens have various homes. An enclosed run with deep litter. And various orchards and paddocks where they can roam. And now geese! Proud and confident, they roam in ORTO two...
New words have travelled and found me, making their home in my minds nest. Popping out clearly at times and hiding at the very bottom of my nest unretractable and reluctant when I need them most. Words new, such as pileus, lamellae, stipe, mycelia and hyphae. Over the...
In March it’s hard not to be gluttonous. It’s hard for me to walk away from a quince tree with only a small amount of quinces. Instead I have this hungry energy as though the tree I have found is the only tree in the world and these are the only quinces I will ever...
Make pasta if you can...if your heart will allow...if anxiety levels are high or low or somewhere in between. Make pasta if the choice is there and you feel ok and the worries now with you are not too high. Or make it because you are indeed very anxious and wondering...
Panettone I made my best panettone this year. And over Christmas and new year my family, friends and I snacked on it till there was no more. The process for making panettone is really simple once you know how to make bread. I make sourdough bread and hence I make a...