My little babies home and awaiting soil

Work in progress, these are the first of my bare rooted fruit trees- 12 different trees but only 7 varieties- planted in the same hole but not double grafted- this will in turn look as if its 1 tree with 2 fruits but has 2 root stock, so they stay strong and don’t compete with each other. I generally plant an eating fruit and a bottling fruit or cooking. Apples, pears, apricots, cherry, plum, peach, nectarine and a almond. I still have a few things to get. The idea is to provide as much of my food as possible on only a house block. The fruit trees are resting in my herb garden, the first thing you must build when you start a veggie garden or want to grow your own food. Herbs grow fast and will give you plenty from only a few weeks in. Most are perennial so will just give and give.

fruit trees

Below is generally what happens, you pay good money for a fruit tree then chop it in half- start the shaping process, this is integral if you wish to have a well shaped tree that will give fruit for all its life. Chooks have settled in and are doing their part of turning over the soil. Worms are much happier in their new compost pit. This for me is not about producing compost but about keeping all or the majority of rubbish or waste on my own property. Its a waste product is does not need another crack at producing carbon pollution just to get it to the local rubbish dump. Its valuable organic material and I can keep all the nutrients to feed my fruit trees later. I view my property as a closed loop, when I take food from the property I am exporting nutrients and goodness, so all waste/leftover/cuttings anything organic can play a role here and build other plants, animals or soils.

  part of my worm pit/ compost bin in the back ground

hmm tasty

Its been ages since I posted and its got to do more with moving house than anything- now the real fun begins- how to turn my house block into something that will produce lots of food with limited space- and how to update my home to be more energy efficient in many ways- this is the journey.

some snaps of the yard that as I update will inform you of what I am doing.

First was to build a chook house & yard- eggs and chicken meat can be easily had in a house block.

front yard

chook house

back yard

plenty of saved wood, tin and all sorts of things that I will turn into chook house, cat run, kids cubby, and plenty of veggie garden bedsan old existing bed that I threw some garlic into

so stay tuned for updates.

things inside the house are all electric- so firstly I would like to get a wood heater with a water jacket- then solar hot water and solar panels- this way I am cutting the power usage first then when I get solar it will only need to be a small system. Long term I will change over to double glazing and so forth. Garden stuff also will be up to a dozen fruit trees and much more

It was while I was out hunting rabbits, something I have done forever not because I enjoy killing things but because I am passionate about my environment, I know these animals despite being all cute and cuddly are the most destructive animals to have set foot on our shores, apart from us of course. So like most shooters Australia wide if given the chance we will always shoot rabbits, these animals alone can change ecosystems, change the ecology of the plant community, eat seedlings that will grow into mighty trees and harbour owls, bats and many bird species. These little critters can reach out and effect most animals on this continent, that’s no mean feat! Thus its something I have pursued as protective measures for my environment- to use a rifle and selectively dispatch them, quick, painless and species specific. I was walking along in the lush green grass that’s being irrigated near Seaspray Victoria. Then I noticed these little beauties, which actually turned out to be not so little, horse Mushrooms and bleeding red Mushrooms ( well I think that’s what they are called)

Boxful of Mushrooms

There turned out to be at least 10 large rings of them. I waited till the next day so we could come back as a family, also fond memories from my childhood searching through paddocks for Mushrooms. The smell is unreal, so earthy, they must be good for you. I then hared some at work and heard all the horror stories about poisonous  this is all too funny, yes there are poisonous ones, but there are also poisonous octopus and still we eat lots of other octopus without a thought for the poisonous ones. I watch those same people then go out and buy some takeaway food and they are worried about eating food that might hurt them, really………..

SO now i find my self eating these little beauties for breakfast and Dinner time. Cooked simply with butter and chopped garlic, Divine. Its officially Mushy Season, what can you see in the grass?

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

Thank god I keep my farmer friends close- its part of my hunting instinct I guess, friends and whom has what. who can get stuff when I need it and what can I offer in return. This year has been a particularly different year in the garden, tomato’s basically being over run with harlequin bugs and mice ( little nibble holes in them). Beans have gone well, they are something for me that’s a staple, they give and give and give. Got my last 2 zucchini sitting on the bench, they last better just sitting on the bench.

So a friend works in a tomato farm in hot houses and because they only sell certain size and  shapes, I can get boxes of the ones that don’t fit this mold, top price tomato’s for nicks ( I like the sound of that) and we are saving something going to the bin!

I picked up 40 kilo’s of the beauties, passed 20 kilos on ( swings and roundabout move), I then set up shop ( this must be done outside next year) got the kids involved and away we went. The best thing about this it involved the whole family- next year I am going to do what Rohan Anderson ( Whole larder love fame) does by having the Passata day- genius- invite some friends around and get all our tomato’s and do it all together- have a large meal and good drink together and make a day of it

Chloe and the boy next door helping, plenty of containers for all the bits. I ended up cutting the tops of the tomatoes and keeping them separate for making sauce later on

Hard at it

Mason our 3 year old turns the handle on my tomato separator thingy- its great I love it to bits. puree 1 side and the skins and the seeds out the side. My other mince will do this but I had already cleaned it before realising I also needed it, thus I pulled out old trusty

boiling the left overs for my Hoochie Mumma Sauce – tomato sauce with chilli adds a nice kick to the taste

The bench with tomato puree in the jars ready for their water bath.

1 of the tomato sauce jars

Weather up the warzoo, nothing out of the ordinary- after all this is Victoria  Australia. Fires still burning in the uplands and then we get severe weather warning and possible flood warnings!. Go figure- rain good for the garden- its getting pretty thirsty lately. Still grappling with zucchini’s they are very versatile but alas I think I have found the perfect thing for them and if you dare you will be happy.

I still have the urge to pick blackberries bu time constraints are winning at the moment. Still every hillside I see covered in blackberries, it beggars that we actually go out and buy this stuff form the supermarket- are we all that lazy or have we downgraded the activity thus assuming that you must be in the poor house to partake in any of this sort of activity. If this si the case then how wrong can we be- he who collects food for free i smiles ahead not only in pocket but in spiritual being and awareness of landscape

I made some venison snags the other day with some good friends and think we have perfected the recipe using chicken skins. I will post this in my butchering section, so anybody can do it- else I could run a day for those that are interested to learn?. Free- I believe if we are to become sustainable it should be for free.

So he who dares wins

Cake mixture, can you believe that zucchini is in there

Its pretty straight forward- mix it all up- my 6 year old helped- always better to get kids involved in cooking- enjoy the mess it makes them better in the long run

the finished cake

This is the recipe for the chocolate cake- also zucchini bread is as good

resistance is futile

Instructions

I also managed to blanche some green beans form the garden- I grew 3 types just for variety and resilience.

1.Simple cut each end of the bean 2. put into boiling water- leave for 5 minutes

3. remove, drain and put into cold water 4. drain, place on oven tray in freezer

5. after 2 hours- remove then bag up individually frozen beans, this will make it easier for using later

beans- green, butter and seven year

beans cooling down

Beans are easy to grow- just sunlight and water, something to climb on, I use old reinforcing mesh used for concreting- its the best thing in the garden.

It has been a different season for me- I have been away for the early part of summer and have left my father in charge of the veggie garden, which is fine but- we all have our own ways. Whilst away I still managed to harvest some fish and go prawning 2 nights which yielded quite well- we did not go hungry, all the meat we had with us was our own we could have taken less and kept more fish.

Prawns & Octopus

Learning to catch your own food starts young- Chloe 6

We also found some local grown milk- unhomogenised

Real Milk

On the way back form Wallaga lake we stopped off at the Famous Tathra Jetty- some things never change- there’s nothing like lying down looking into the water at a jetty

jetty dreaming

The Car as I referred to was out Indian train (Loaded to the hilt)

Left nothing behind

Once we got home and back to work- it is the season for harvesting and I have started to get some zucchini but the tomato’s are fighting a losing battle with harlequin bugs- night after night they attack and I am losing this war.

Work sprang up and I was based at the airport with the Gippsland fires for the next 14 days straight  doing 12 to 14 hours per day- so things got a little hazy in the middle- but I am getting back on track now that it is over- first day off and I am busy squeezing an freezing lemon juice

I did also manage to find a surplus of apples that were being delivered to us as food rations- so instead of letting them go to waste- best I seize the opportunity and preserve them for later use.

I added some sugar to help keep them but also some cloves which make simple apples into something else.

I am also pleased to have several different types of potatoes in my box

Still countless things I have not done this year to date- plum harvesting and blackberry- will have to wait and see what pans out- when opportunity knocks take it- when you have an abundance of 1 thing sure as eggs you will lack in other ways- but I am happy to live by mother natures rules. As I sit down to Gummy shark caught off Port Albert less than a month ago- I know not to waste any of this meat and am happy to know we only took what we needed and threw back plenty that we could have kept.

Just a quick update, veggie garden looking good and making some snags with friends

Corn

jungle boogy

Hanging snags

Sausage stuff

Yep, its as it states, just start jogging around the roads, I find them softer than the footpath’s, i think it might just be in my head, and if I think it is so, then its so ( for me anyway). I started picking up the little balance lead weights that from time to time fall off car wheels, especially near round-abouts and along the side of the roads- I have also found, spanners, sprockets, d shackles, nuts drills and plenty of coins. I then save these weights up and when I have enough melt them down and make some sinkers and go fishing and then…..

The lead road