The P in Permaculture

Alanna Moore at the Sustainabile Living Festival 2009

Permaculture Melbourne had a stall where local permaculture groups could get some publicity. Here is Alanna doing her Pee song for the first time at the festival, among permie friends :)

Yes thats me being silly in the pink T-shirt :)

Adelaide: Franco's permablitz - October/November 2009

Franco shares his garden with Eric and Cherie. I went to a few permablitzes there last year. The garden is looking awesome and producing heaps of food. The *FRUDEL* (that is strudel that Franco has perfected over 10 years) is always a huge hit after a bit of work and meeting new permie friends :)

Permablitz is a movement that started in Melbourne a few years ago. It is like the working bees that permies have always done at each other's places, but anyone can find out about events using the calender on the blitz website:
http://www.permablitz.net/

Permablitzes continue in Adelaide
http://www.transitionnetwork.org/initiatives/adelaide-west

Adelaide Permies in action: Dave's permablitz

I spent a fair bit of last year in South Australia, living mainly at my aunt's farm in the Murray Mallee. I did manage a few trips to Adelaide to see friends and to PERMABLITZ!

Permaculture in suburban Adelaide... alive and well!

I've just been back in South Australia and spent time with some of my oldest friends in Adelaide. Pictured is Madelaine, the extraordinary daughter of Mel and Mat. I reckon if a 9 year old thinks like this, we really can save the planet! I am very lucky to have 'nieces' in Victoria as well, something on them soon! Take it away Maddy!

Black forest school garden wonders

Hi my school garden is run by Kate. We have worm bins and Chickens. We do worm bins I am number 7. At the garden we do stuff at recess and lunch like holding the chickens and picking vegetables or fruit. We also water the plants. We’re allowed to do a range of activities at the garden during the school hours, we have lessons like we do something to do with art we do a sheet or something with the teacher and do something with Kate like planting we also play in the mud pit I have made things with gumnuts and gum leaves and popcorn seeds and lots of other interesting things. 
I like holding the chickens we have a hot house we have 3 worm farms we have a tree section we have a pizza garden section we have tomatoes and eggplant and rhubarb and grape vines and lots of olive trees and celery and bean and capsicum and cabbage and there are people that pick the olives we have a cook book that the school made so they asked people to right a recipe for the cookbook dream of a land that thrives on experiential and happy learning in gardening and there are lot of things you can do in a garden instead of sitting down watching t.v. or playing video games get out there and water the garden plant some seeds or pick some flowers for mum or dad or if you have a small back yard you can get  a hanging basket from your nearest gardening store such as bunnings you can put a plant in there what is your or maybe you can go to the nearest farmers market or the central markets or you can go to your nearest plant  nursery or see the animals. 
There are lots of different things to do in life only if you try them because if you never try things you will never experience the world and its food and people and natures wonders and all of mothers natures gifts because there not just there to look at get involved don’t be a couch potato enjoy yourself and have fun I love hanging out in the garden you don’t have to do stuff you can just sit there and look around you well you might be able to have a picnic on the weekend or do a sport use your free time wisely. 
by Maddy Healey

Maddy and I went exploring her neighbourhood at the weekend. We found Pomegranates from a house near the Glandore Community Garden - we asked if we could have some - cheeky, but they said yes and gave us two awesome ones! One of these just fit in my hand!

The chillies were hanging through a fence... SCORE! There is so much food out there is suburbia, if I see lemons on the ground or over a back fence, I usually help myself, taking care not to break any limbs (this used to infuriate my gran when people would scrump apricots, apples and citrus at her home in Whyalla). 

Tamara, Gabby and Maddy at a permablitz at Franco's shared garden in Unley, Adelaide. They are great helpers. I think Gabby has just found something wiggly :)

Tamara and the animals: a short film by Estela!

Here is a short film made by the wonderful wwoofer Estela here at Sisters Creek starring Tamara and Ducky! Its quite good fun, I laugh everytime I hear myself laughing!
Estela is a Brazilian WWOOFer who stayed with us for a while. These are rare breed Large Black Pigs. I think they are AWESOME!!!

Baking that is good for you!

Essene Bread

There is a recipe in this year's Permculture Diary for Essene Bread by Carey 'Eco' Priest. I've been getting back into cooking recently, mainly due to hanging out with Lisa, who is a spectacular cook! Life in the Tagari office is punctuated with apple pies with home made pastry and homegrown apples, cinnamon scrolls, chestnut cake... mmm chestnut cake...

Where was I? oh yes, Essene bread. Its a bread made from sprouted grain. I did a small one to start off with, about 2 cups of whole organic oats (I love oats and they grow them locally) just sprouted with a short tail. They took about 4 days to get to this stage.

Grind up the sprouts. I used a mortar and pestle and got into it so much I had to take my jumpers off on an icy night in Tassie. You can use a food processor, which I might do next time, being careful not to burn it out, or an old fashioned mincer.

I probably needed to mince a bit further from the stage below but it worked anyway

Then I kneaded and shape the sticky dough, wetting the hands regularly. The oats didn't take too much kneading but apparently wheat likes lots and rye none at all!

Once shaped I created a non stick surface using my breakfast cereal, rolled oats and rolled quinoa and placed the dough on top.

Ducky likes to inspect the work

Then its into a very low oven or solar cooker if you have one (they rock). I used the wood stove here on low and roasted chestnuts on the top while I was waiting.

I didn't think to photograph the finished product in the morning so you'll have to take my word for it that it turned a lovely caramel colour and everyone at work enjoyed their small pieces. I finished off the overly crunchy bits (meant to cook for 2 hours or so but I had left it in overnight) as snacks all afternood and was extremely happy to know I was nibbling away on tasty baked goods that were not bad for me! Awesome. Next time I'm going to make a loaf and some biscuits. Fabulous!

Essene Biscuits made with sprouted wheat and honey, minced in a food processor with some difficulty - I had to add some oat milk - I can see why people use old fashioned mincers.

I added honey for extra sweetness and I forgot to knead it (possibly because it was a bit sloppy from the machine).

They were cooked on baking paper spread with oats to make an awesome non stick but natural surface.

Goey on the inside, needed more drying time but yummy

Try a recipe from

http://www.growyouthful.com/recipes/sourdough-essene.php

Jerusalem fartichoke no more!

Jerusalem artichoke harvest - off two plants!

Originally uploaded by Tamara Griffiths Moonrise Permaculture

Jerusalem Artichokes produce an amazing harvest from one rhizome and come back year after year in temperate zones (thats because you can never get it all out). Problem is that they cause flatulence in their eaters and are sometimes known as fartichokes!

I have been experimenting in the kitchen and have figured out how to make the jerusalem artichoke fart free:

1. Cut jerusalem artichoke into pieces
2. Place in glass container, I used a large glass jug so I could see what was happening
3. Pour over double the amount of boiled and cooled water
4. After a day there is a tannin coloured layer above the chokes. Pour this off and repeat step 3
5. After 2 days the liquid looks cloudy (this is the ferment), pour off the water
6. Rinse and cook as desired

I was reading a recipe that Bill Mollison had written saying that soaking beans or lentils for 2 days caused a short ferment which reduced the farts (the soluble fibre ferments outside the body instead of in it) so I tried it out on the jerusalem artichokes and it worked!

I have not tested this with double blind tests yet, dad (the scientist) has advised me of some methods and I'll be giving everyone in the Tagari office jerusalem artichoke soup for lunch and documenting reactions... more next week!

Jerusalem artichokes are a loved permaculture plant and often used as windbreaks for tomatoes. I have used them to protect young fruit trees.

This is open source fart-less information, please share with anyone who'd be interested :)

Harvesting knowledge

I've been wondering how to fit everything in that I want to blog about - I've been harvesting basil, apples, quinces, snails, chestnuts, mushrooms, jerusalem artichokes... and then the time passes and I think, bugger, that was too long ago to write about now...

But it occurred to me that one of the constants of harvesting is that it is a time of intense learning as well as processing and eating.

So much food

With each turn of the seasons in the permaculture garden we are bombarded with food - too much food and bloody hell what am I going to do with all those chestnuts! This leads us to books, friends and Professor google on all the ways to keep the harvest longer, preserve it, cook it.

It is also a time of creative thinking, ideas and experimentation - last week I read that soaking beans or lentils in water for a few days creates a ferment and reduces the soluble fibre that causes flatulence. I decided to try to turn the Jerusalem Artichoke (aka fartichoke) - a known wind machine into something less gassy using a similar method. I've just eaten some that have been soaked in boiled and cooled water for 3 days and will be able to report back soon :)

The zen of harvesting

As we harvest we can slow down and enjoy the work. We learn about ourselves; harvesting is often repetative or easy work and gives us plenty of time to think. We use all of our senses when we harvest, and we get to have an intimate relationship with the soil, plants and animals that we often don't have time for.

We find out about others. We often bring in the loot with friends and spend hours talking, bonding and celebrating with shared dinners and wine.

Learning the way of the plant or animal is something you get only if you spend time with it and harvesting gives us an opportunity to do so. The chestnut for example, often drops from the tree and rolls down into a hidden little spot in the long grass. Other nuts follow the same contours and I often find a little clutch of chestnuts.

The way to find them is to poke around the little gullies with your tongs or, if they are as big as the ones I've just been harvesting is feeling them under your feet as you move around (much like getting freshwater mussels, feel them with you feet first then duck down to get them out of the mud). You need tongs for the harvest to pry them out of the extremely prickly covering. Trust me.

The way of the snail is something that duck owners get to know pretty quickly and they too can be found by feel in the dark, or, with a torch on chives or your newly planted lettuce seedlings. One of the best things about having a duck is that a problem - snails - becomes not only a solution but a benefit - a high protein snack for the highly carnivorous and incredible egg laying Campbell duck. I once had a dark campbell duck that refused to stop laying in winter and gave me 365 eggs a year. Ducky likes to eat snails in the bath - he grabs hold of the snail as it pokes its head out and shakes them out of their shell!

At the moment I've collected all the big snails for ducky and there are just the babies left, so in rescuing the chinese cabbage I've done myself out of a food source! Tom Cheeseman from Whyalla has experimented with growing slugs and snails on daily moistened cardboard and found it works very well. Snails love cardboard and paper, you will often find them in the darkened folds of boxes, and Bill tells me that the snails of Molokai prefer Dr Seuss to any other material!

Mushrooms too have their season and their spots, finding their little niches and observing them in the landscape is almost as much fun as the feast that follows.

Fungi gives us an amazing opportunity to learn, I have a mycologist friend who used to check all my IDs for me, thus learning what was edible and what will kill you! Fungi hunting is one of joys of life. Above is Bill with Cortinarius Australiensis, a native mushroom we found in the pine plantation that was planted by Forrest Primary school when we were scouting for pine mushrooms. I have not been able to find information on its toxicity so while we wanted to eat it, we didn't.

Autumn was always fun in Bunyip with Ashleigh and Chantelle; we used to go on fungi hunts, bring them home (always leaving some for nature), identify them with books, take photos, look at them with a magnifying glass and enjoy nature, one of my favourite things was this wonderful time spent together.

Processing

There is something fun about sitting on a kitchen floor snipping basil leaves off the stems and meeting the various wildlife that comes indoors with us.

There were lots of tiny snails and a green shield bug. Often the shield bugs get out of control in organic gardens, and even the chooks won't eat the harlequin coloured ones (ducks will only eat a few). It turns out that wrens and other small birds eat the shield bugs! When I mentioned to Lisa that the birds were doing a great job, she said the sunflowers were for the little birds as well - somewhere for them to perch as well as for the bees and other bugs. You just never know when you're going to learn something. I nearly forgot to mention the 10 jars of pesto we made!

Drying chestnuts is an art I and one we didn't get quite right when they went mouldy in the jar :( I have since looked at numerous ways to peel and process them for keeping - Maggie beer had a picture of chestnuts cut in a certain way for roasting that makes them very easy to peel - and when boiling them works very well. Last night I made a chestnut puree, some of which we sweetened with stevia and maple syrup to use on a cake and the rest to freeze for use at another time. Many recipes proceed from here - pumpkin and chestnut soup, flour for cooking yummy, heavy pancakes... mmmmmm. And in the conversations around the puree, I learned that sugar gums in the hight country were tapped by aboriginal people in the spring, much like maple syrup.

Apples and quinces go very well together in jams, jellies, preserves generally, they have high pectic levels and I spent quite a bit of time investigating the chemical reaction that takes place when we make jams so I could understand the process better and from there create my own recipes rather than relying on others. It looks like stevia can be used instead of sugar and I intend to experiment with this.

The harvest continues - your surplus stories, what you're eating, advice or experiments heartily welcomed. Love Tamara and Ducky xxx qqq

Overalls designed by Michelle Walker who works at Tagari, such a talented and creative woman!

http://michellewalkerdesigns.blogspot.com/

Duck connections...

I've been waiting for the right time to do my first post. Last night was the new moon and I was thinking maybe tonight. So, this evening I went down to the restaurant at Boat Harbour in Tassie for dinner, there were guests at my place and guests at Sisters Creek and I thought I'd get a chance to write something. I booked my table and 15 minutes later rocked up, still in my work gear as I had been all the other times I'd had tea here. 

Normally I'd come down, investigate the rock pools for a few hours, watch the moon rise and then have a seafood chowder with garlic bread (I always get the same thing here, it works for me). On at least one previous occasion I'd brought ducky down for a drive and he sat in his box in the playground while I ate dinner directly above. Curiously, the staff at the restaurant had noticed.

So tonight I walked into the restaurant sans duck. He stayed in the car to have a nap. The menu here has heaps of duck and I tend to skip over it and pretend it isn't there. But tonight, over comes the waiter to give me the specials: Duck with this, duck with that, roasted duck, braised duck, murdered duck in at least 5 forms. I'm sitting there looking at him with a certain look I get on my face when waiters mention duck and I eventually say, actually I don't eat duck...

So he goes yeah, I wondered that because you brought your duck last time and a woman at the adjacent table says "oh, are you the duck woman?" I've heard this before, but not in Tassie and politely said "have we met?" It turns out that this woman had the same reaction to all the duck specials that I did since she has a couple of Khaki Campbells herself. The waiter had just finished telling her about this woman who comes in with a duck in a box when in I walk. What followed was the usual duck lovers conversation: what kind do you have, how cool they are, the rest. Halfway through this conversation a man at another table stands up and gives us both his card, he's an artist who specialises in animal portraits and lives in Upwey (where my parents live and Ducky's first home!) I've linked to his painting of a pacific black duck below. Anyway I finish dinner bring ducky over to say hello and write this blog!

Its been quite a good Duck and permaculture adventure type day. This morning ducky and I helped in the orchard at home - I was pulling back mulch and grass so my host could add her biodynamic compost she made last year and splash around her 500 prep this afternoon. Then ducky comes to work with me at Sisters Creek, he has his own pen with a lovely big swimming hole and can talk to the resident ducks (pictured above: he used to join them but one night he refused to come in off the dam and after 4 hours, pitch darkness and having made the decision not to try and swim over to him, I left him there. Good thing there are no foxes in Tassie - or not many - but there are Tassie Devils and Tiger Quolls who both enjoy duck dinner and I had a restless night of worry before finding him happy in the morning. Happy yes, grounded YES)

Right. Where was I? Ducky's pen. Lots of room, places to forage and an endless supply of bugs and snails and worms I take over to him. Today as I planted artichokes I collected the cockchaffer grubs for him. Later I collected the BIGGEST chestnuts but we kept them all - none for ducky :(

So, what a day, lots of duck adventures, duck people and permaculture. Now... whats for desert! ooh! Chocolate brownie with icecream. Very permaculture.

http://www.stephenpowell.com.au/Little_Black_Duck.htm