gippslandwildharvest

Its always handy to keep a garden diary- I was talked into planting another round of Broc- which I did not want to once the season is started I usually leave what is in and be done with it. However it turned out really well, we eat Broc quite a bit- I did not plant cabbage this year. Thats the beauty of gardening choosing whats right for your family.

Late season Broc and some little red Gems

This is the tomato frame, they are coming along quite well, I realise I will get a load of tomato’s but from last year, I used all my jars of passata up- their is heaps of options- Sun dried, passata, sauce, peeled preserved, chopped, endless possibilities

Tomato frame and beans using Reo

The start of my preserving shed- Frame is from neighbours old pergola, pavers from a friend, Shed was from a friend- everything that will be used is recycled- not becasue I cant afford new stuff, but because of what i believe in. Sustainability- its my way of life

Preserving shed foundations

The pallets in the foreground will be used to make a frame that will house insulation and hopefully keep the preserving house like a cool store- someday to store apples and potatos.

Preserving without outer skin

The first shelves- I will build a work bench, sink and more shelves to store jams, Home brews and all my wild harvest equipment

Preserving jars

On another good note- we have a second power bill since the heater and solar installation- same time last year was $800 this time is $270. We have saved $1080 in the last 2 bill payments already- $10,000 outlay and in last 6 months- 11% return on investment- thats better than any bank will give me- this is how we should be talking about sustainability

This is my supermarket, with aisles, no best before dates, no packaging, no waste,no carbon foot print, no herbicides, all fresh, seasonal- gee I wonder why everyone doesn’t do this? My Supermarket has an element of love, I love it and it loves me back, it gives me fresh food that grows my soul, gives me nourishment against disease and health, it protects my family.
What does your Supermarket do for you ???

My Supermarket

These tomato frames are something I have done for some years now- first learned off John Ditchburn from http://www.urbanfoodgarden.org- John has been an inspiration and leader in this field for many years now.

tomato frame

Something we have recently saved from a friend and now installed was an original Hills Hoist Clothesline- Why- because the news ones are shite!!! Plastic, thin and will break- they are also smaller so dont hold as much washing.

Something else I have been doing is planting more food on my front garden, here are some Artichokes and strawberrys- I am still to put up some signage about people helping themselves. Its my contribution tot he “Food is Free”movement and believe in my community

strawberries

Another great weekend up at karoonda Park- cutting up a whole beast- nice to use a skill that is still valued.

hind quarter with rump and porterhouse/tbone already taken off

boning out a porterhouse

its amazing how far a whole body will go- the best thing about a whole animal is that you get to share with people you care about.

http://www.karoondapark.com/- this is the place where I like to spend time- fantastic people and fantastic place to stay.

some other randoms- thanks to the Wellington hard rubbish collection we now have some cut down/ and varnished bench stools for the kids.

and to finish off a good day it was back to the food that I cut up and grew- Osso Bucco in a tomato puree for 4 hours= hmmmmm

Ahhh at last- it has shown to come true.

My investment into a solar hotwater unit coupled with the wood heater with the water jacket- an investment of $10k- a lot yes- but what an investment- our bill this time last year was $900 dollars, this time its $350 – thats not bad really. to sum it up

Thats just halved my Power bill- with still some options before adding solar panels.

And basically just got a 13% return on investment- thats not too bad- about 4 times most term deposits- this is the language that’s missing from sustainability- real investment and real returns.

Payback period of just over 7 years- then after that thats an extra $1300 in my pocket each year to reinvest into the property- extra insulation, gas stove, better freezer, or by then to help pay for the solar panels.

before and after

Couch, cough, sneeze, – sick kids- where should I turn, chemist you might say and yep we do that but I also turn to food- Real food.

This starts with real chickens I had previously killed and were in the freezer, old laying birds at the end of their laying life- (2-3 years old)- lets not waste their meat- Chicken soup is on the menu

2 frozen chickens

Then some veggies from the garden to top off some greens, nutrition all you need to fight on illness

Broc & Cauli

plus some pumpkin, to add some colour- apparently anything with lots of colour is far better for you

Grey Pumpkin

please also read my update on the “Butchers Journal”page

It will probably go down as another record breaking warm winter but still I hear people complaining about the cold- how soft we have become in our heated/cooled homes. We have really only had a few weeks of normal cold winter weather. We need it so the fruit trees can rest, so the winter veg can mature and grow without bursting their heads of broc or Cauliflower. Its about embracing each season and enjoying for what it brings. Winter the time for hearty food, for hunting Deer and giving the fish a rest. It balances out what we harvest so we don’t over exploit 1 species or rely on 1 fruit or vegetable too much. I am happy to eat seasonally, at first it feels a little scary but you get used to it very quickly. If its not meant to be growing right now then don’t buy it- else you will have food miles that will scare anybody. This 1 act alone could save a massive amount of carbon/ pollution/ support local growers etc.

So the carbon tax was repealed- we will move to an ETS anyway- the carbon tax was only a stepping stone, the wheels are in motion for renewables and being taken up all round the world at a massive scale- Australia will get left behind and we will see the death of electricity being produced by Coal. We will not see the end of Coal- its too valuable to let it si tint he ground- rather as a substitute for fertiliser or the like.

Some random snaps of what happening in the yard. I have pruned the fruit trees and also done some at my parents and their neighbours house. No payment- it will come around when the time comes. 

once you cut the head off the broccoli- let it grow as more shoots will come and you will get as much as the head so doubling the amount

My first Sweet Potatos

My pruning tools

and the first cauli for the season.

Winter Veg is already here- might have something to do with the increased temps- I think people are waiting for the climate to change but its already changing rapidly- we are 1 degree warmer and have a look whats happening- I still have leaves on my fruit trees and chilies still living happily- we have had 2 frosts and they should be long dead. Will my fruit tress get stressed and die later on- they will have very little rest over the winter.

These are some assorted snap shots- some of the garden and some of the home improvements

This is the heater installed- a Nectre Mega- largest and best I could afford with a water jacket- $3k and the solar hot water  system- evacuated tubes ($7k installed)- the water jacket feeds hot water into the tank as do the solar tubes- the mains water comes through a coil through the tank and takes on the heat from the surrounding water. We have not hooked up the electricity as yet but have had hot water ever since it was installed- SAVINGS are from hot water for free, heating the house with wood and drying clothes. I expect payback to be within 5 years- not bad there is not an investment that will give you those returns on your money- 

Artichoke thistle, onions and the first broccoli of the season. Now is the time to plant onions and your garlic should be trying to sprout- just stick it in the ground and it will grow- unless its from a supermarket where its been sprayed with growth inhibitors.

Some butternut pumpkins- The wood in the middle is from a tree that I cut down to make way for a carport- yep not a great plan but I will be planting a lot more trees- it was not native anyway but I am not wasting the wood and have cut it all up to eventually go into the heater- we cant afford to waste anything.            The Wood box at the back door is all made from wood that the neighbour did not want so I put it to good use- sometimes people want things to look the best and will go out and buy new wood instead of using what we have first- its not about the money- its using a tree that is already cut down before purchasing more wood.

From time to time we get a double sized egg on the left- just another random gift

This is a Washington Navel orange planted out the front of my house- I also have an almond- I plan to make some veggie gardens out the front as well- Its part of the “Food is Free”concept. We can grow food for ourselves and our neighbours- I only mow the nature strip- why cant it provide food for our community. I urge you all to think about this concept- plant a fruit tree, veggies or form a group and ask your local council to use some land at the edge of a park that does not get used. We gave a food is free Gippsland site if your interested- come on a journey with us- so lets grow together.

There is no better start to a day than eating your own produce, whether its form the eggs that you gathered or mushrooms on toast- but it’s especially when your daughter asks for toast and blackberry jam. Blackberry’s that I know each scratch that it took to get those little beauties- that very bush in the landscape that now provides for my family. The jars that I gathered, cleaned then filled with not much more than sugar, berries and some lemon juice. No preservatives in sight.

Blackberry Jam- hmmm

Still things are humming along in the garden- glorious pumpkins have bared many a fruit for my family and friends- what good is excess food if you cannot share it? I am still to pick the butter nuts as well- which I think have about 15 on the vine, hiding their golden treasure.

Queensland blue pumpkins

Some snap shots of the oncoming harvest

winter Veg

Gathering, gathering- wood glorious wood. Yep I have considered all the climate implications of burning wood and the C02 emissions- buts what’s the other option.
Heating is very hard to do cheaply- electricity- currently all produced by fossil fuel (coal), we don’t have solar panels as yet and they will not run any heating system, geo thermal is very expensive and hard to install- Trees can be regrown- they are renewable and I am using what a farmer wants cleared of his land he was only going to heap it up and burn it. Win- win. So what I have done is added the water jacket to my heater so it will produce hot water, cutting down on my energy bill and emissions form the electricity saved by not heating water. does that make sense- coupled in with my solar hot water system it should cut down on energy used to heat water all year round. I think we need to get smarter about the things that operate within our homes and don’t think we can afford the luxury of the item doing just the 1 thing. We should be thinking dual purpose.

SO the journey continues- it’s about a long term goal of self-sufficiency and whilst it may not happen in this house- I will try to do as much as I can with what I have got- there are always little things we can do- extra insulation- double glazing ( a few windows per year)- solar panels- gas cooking- water tanks- grey water system, more food trees and plants- more native flowering plants to provide food for native bees and insects that will pollinate my food crops- its large scale but small scale as well. Every free meal from nature is a gift remember to pay her back !

Rhubarb

I know its only 1 month into Autumn and really a beautiful season- summer crops linger on, some dying and leaving their fruit in bountiful harvests. Pumpkin plants so large I have not seen that part of the garden for months and as they dy back reveal their treasures underneath those large green leaves.

Some more housey stuff on the go- I am changing over from an electric heater to a wood heater with a water jacket. This should save on the electricity front- I know the arguments for wood heaters and how they add to Co2 emissions but am yet to see any real other options- nearly all use electricity from coal fired power stations- My trees I use can be regrown absorbing the carbon again- once we burn coal that’s it- its not getting renewed. My big plan is to reduce the electricity consumption so I can put on solar panels. That money saved will go towards more energy saving devises- gas stove, more insulation and even double glazed windows.

Fire place for the wood heater made from recycled bricks

Something else I am trying to do is to plant more natives- the way I see it, when living in town, people think only about birds and fluffy animals and if they are too far in town they give up thinking thats it they can not do too much. Australia’s herbivores ( plant eating animals) are really all the insects- yep we have kangaroos but no huge hers of any animal- but we have stacks and stacks of insects- so let me plant some food and shelter for them and hopefully this will attract other natives like lizards and some small birds. Plants should be seen as shelter or food- spiky plants will help protect birds.

planting some natives out the front

Now is the time to be scanning the paddocks for those little white beauties- Mushrooms- the best thing about Autumn- I love them and wish I knew more- lots of people are scared to eat them in case they are poisonous- however many more are edible than those that are poisonous- I mush spend some time with a mate of mine- Rohan Anderson from whole larder love fame- he a bit of a mushroom guru.

mushrooms- the best thing about Autumn

ahhh- mushrooms, garlic and butter- there is no better combination