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 visit the hens. We place clean water in their heavy cast...
Naturally leavened bread baking class. Time: 9am -5pm Date: Sunday 15th September Cost: $95 ORTO Straw Eco Farm, Blampied (just outside of Daylesford). Overview Learn to make your own delicious sourdough bread loaf to take home. We will also make flat bread to have...
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 Melbourne, grab a nori roll from Flinders...
Naturally Leavened Bread Baking for Beginners Class I really love baking bread and I really love teaching. Come and join me at my home in Blampied. 9:45am-5pm Sunday August 4th. Cost: $95pp. Max 6. All tools and ingredients provided. Each participant will take home a...
I have hosted dozens of young travellers here at my farm over the past three years. With each I have been privileged to witness the identity search that comes with this age. The question that often arises from my young visitors is 'who am I, who do I want to be and...
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 complete, such as harvesting herbs, stripping their leaves and placing them in...
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 time I harvest, every time I water my trees, I...
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 state of emergency changes being made? The...
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 in mid to late August were now very...
At the Daylesford Sunday market I met Nardia, the cheese maker. It's the first time I have met a local cheese maker. A small scale, hands on artisan cheese maker who supports her family by making cheese. Had I been travelling through France, Italy, Spain or the Middle...
I made soap again, this time with Maria. Maria from Veneto Italy. Maria who makes excellent gnocchi and really simple, delicious pasta dishes. Maria the fantastic pizzica/bio-dancer. Maria who corrected my Italian when I made mistakes. Maria who got a bit impatient...
All the garlic, minus a few heads have been planted. I hope to double my harvest this year. Ralf moved some of the rich top soil mounds and spread them to create a second kitchen garden. At first I kept thinking, how am I going to manage so much space...how will I...
I have had a really lucky month. I planted dozens and dozens of tomato plants in spring. My plan had been to grow enough tomatoes to make a year's worth of passata. But I had grown far more than a year's worth and after reaching my goal of 100 bottles of passata and...
There is so much work being done. My motivation levels continue to be high. My energy levels rise and then fall. This is a brilliant time of the year, summer is so bountiful I want to make the most of it. I take enormous pleasure from using ingredients growing free...
Thank you For sharing this year with me. It has been an experientially rich year. There have been many aspects that I have loved and am deeply grateful for. And I want to list some of those here. I am grateful to all the people that bring together community and that...
Ralf and I, Artemisia and Ahlia. September this year we completed two years in our new home. We are trying to balance family life with building, landscaping, tree planting, and establishing a new garden. However, I think I could do a little more to spend time with my...
You can be a very little town and yet very rich in experiences. This month in Daylesford I took part in a cheese making workshop, a slow meat symposium and in our monthly community garden working bee. At the cheese making event three wonderful women from our community...
There is a list and sketches on a drawing we made. A drawing of our land and our dreams. Pigs on the south paddocks. Native wind breaks to the west, south and east. Establish a wetland and create habitat around it. Plant oaks and nuts to provide long term food...
Are we as a community eating better? Are more of us working towards healthier lives? Is there a growing movement away from fast food and towards food that is cooked using simple, nutritious ingredients. What does the research show? The CSIRO (Commonwealth Scientific...
At this time of the year there are many foods to forage, but with summer ending I began to think about my native trees again and how I should get out on the farm to plant more of them. We need wind protection, we need more habitat, more visual green. But then mushroom...
I do a great deal of cooking at home and with that comes a great deal of dish washing. I don't at all mind washing dishes, what I don't like about it, is the detergents. I've tried many, from earth friendly ones to more commercial types. They all wash the dishes just...