Seasonal rhythms
It is spring and Madeline is here from Canada. And working with her is a dream. Her pace is calm and focused. Together we are working through various projects on our 15 acres of volcanic soil. In the morning we…
Permaculture, wetland, straw building
We are offering a tour of our burgeoning permaculture farm followed by afternoon herbal teas and home made treats on Sunday 15th December 2pm -4pm. Please go to our Workshop tab to book a ticket. We are on 15 acres…
How to care for chickens & how to choose them
We have chickens after a four-year break. First, we needed to build our home, the farm stay, the piazza shed. We needed to plant thousands of trees, and grasses, and fruit orchards and berries and chestnuts and oaks, and hazelnuts…
Natural Dyeing Workshop at Orto Farm, Sunday First of September
My dear friend Ilka White is an extremely talented handloom weaver and dyer of natural fibres. In the 1990’s I loved visiting her in a studio she shared with Nicola Cerini. I would ride my bike through the bustling city of…
Apply Images to Plywood workshop with Nicola Cerini
Come oh come! I will be hosting my first workshop here at our eco property in Blampied with my dear friend Nicola Cerini. Apply Images to Plywood Saturday the 8th June from 1-4pm, $95 pp. We will begin with a tour…
Preserving
I have had a great summer. I must thank all my volunteer fairies for without them I would not be able to do all that I do. No way. There are so many tasks that take hours and hours to…
Summer Harvest
I really try and make the most of summer…it is the most productive time of the year on our property. A time to restock the larder and discover new foraging opportunities. During summer I think about water a lot. Every…
Human induced
More and more people from all sides of politics are feeling anxious about the really serious science of Human Induced Climate Change. And more and more people are taking action. Could 2019 be the year when we see large scale…
Kitchen…garden
In November after the November frost I planted about 70 tomatoe plants in Orto two…Ralf had said ‘wait another week after cup day because there is a frost coming’…’great and thank you’…so I waited. The tomato seeds I had sown…
Winter Cycle
I’m letting all the summer tomato plants rot in the garden. Why take them out? I want all the organic matter to remain, to decompose so that I can dig it into the spring soil. In spring lots of tomato…