A short trip back to Ballarat over the Easter weekend, a trip out to some old friends at Lal Lal demolition, got some blood boiling and stirred up emotions about building with recycling woods- how we just go on and burn and knock down houses from the past and don’t even keep our hard wood, it should be kept and continually recycled- we have some of the best hardwood in the world and we don’t value it. It must be one of the best yards in Victoria- I dare anyone to have a visit and not be amazed- any home builder that is this way inclined must visit Lal lal.

the yellow brick road- dreams are made along here

look what I found

Whilst in Ballarat I visited some old friends, whom are building just a dream house, environmentally friendly, best of all is self designed and lots of it self built, using wood from the trees that grew on the block- you can feel its built with lots of love!. Well done Gav and Rache. On the way back home I passed a Walnut tree, an instantly the wild harvester came to the forefront  I grabbed a bag and quick as a flash on autopilot I was picking harvesting and wishing I could reach a little higher- this then spurred me into over drive as I dove past all my walnut trees that are growing around the Ballarat township- A small tree near the Harold street shops is easy to get up and the kids were soon climbing and yelling out- “here’s another one Dad”. So easy to instill the lure of the hunt or gather in this case

the harvest under way

chloe going for her life

even the 3 year old can get involved

bag full of fesh walnuts- theres nothign like it

On another step to being more environmentally friendly we moved away from a large commodore station wagon to a beautiful Volkswagen Golf- we are supremely impressed

I also got busy during the last weekend and was asked to come along to the South Gippsland sustainability festival and speak about preserving food- mostly focused on fruit using the fowlers vacola method and tomato stuff- I mostly spoke about the journey that goes with preserving- its a preserving the soul journey, its preserving friendships and preserving ones community- its not about the food its about the people involved. I spoke about the lower carbon transaction that go with preserving and the opportunity to use it fresh and then freeze any left overs as a “second bite: option. I Spoke about me knowing my food- I knew where I go the jars, I knew where each different fruit came from, the people I swapped with, the fruit that I got form roadsides, the places that I had acquired them from, I know my food- I know whats in it and how its been treated- how can we be well if we don’t feed ourselves with well food?.

My stall- ready for my talk