Biodynamic treechange (homesteading)

Fighting Fire With ...... Fire?

Recently you would have seen the terrible catastrophe that wild bushfires have caused across the south eastern parts of Australia, with 200 people killed, thousands homeless, and whole communities shattered and destroyed.

Now the blame game has started so we can identify how we could have let this happen, and then, how we ensure it doesn't happen again. And international readers need to know that major bushfires are a way of life for most Australians, so 'ensuring that it doesn't happen again' is a furphy. Just like earthquakes, tsunamis and tornadoes, bushfires are natural occurrences and despite our best efforts, will continue to occur.

The initial reaction from most uninformed media commentators and the like is to blame greenies, incompetent Governments or public authorities, or all three.

Today I've read two articles that go to the heart of the matter, and arrive at a similar answer from differing points.

Have you heard? - The Near River CSA is having a one-off, mid-season intake. You'll need to be quick.

That’s right, as the headline says, we’re having a one-off, mid-season intake. So you’ll need to leap at this opportunity. Read on for details.

We supply boxes of chemical-free, wholesome and nutritious vegetables each week to families in the Hastings Valley here on the Mid North Coast, and to families in Sydney, four and a half hours down the highway. This will continue through to the end of this year’s season in late June 2009, before the next season starts in September.

The produce is grown by us here on our 22 acre property, ‘Near River’, and by joining our Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) venture, you’ll have a direct connection with who is growing your food, where it’s being grown, and how it’s being grown. And for some of us in this day of global food and beverage conglomerates, supply chains and over processed foodstuffs, this is very important.

Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) is very popular in Japan, where it started in the mid-70’s, in Europe, and in America, where it continues to grow apace with over 2,000 CSA’s listed on various directories.For more information about US based CSA’s and the concept, Local Harvest is packed with details and links.

Here in Australia, CSA’s are yet to bloom, but we think their time has come, and we are looking to lead the way.

You can join our CSA, Near River Produce, by downloading and filling out either the Sydney brochure for people in Sydney’s northern, eastern and inner western suburbs, or the Hastings Valley brochure for people in the Port Macquarie and Wauchope region.

Further information can be found on this site by viewing earlier posts here, here and here, and by visiting the Near River Produce page. Readers from other Australian states who are interested in contacting CSA’s in their local area, can email us at andrew@nearriverproduce.com and we’ll forward you contacts that exist in each state.

And remember, you are what you eat! (Do you want pesticides with that?).

Our First CSA Harvest at 'Near River'

Earlier this month we started our first deliveries for our Community Supported Agriculture project from our 22 acre property, ‘Near River’, in the Hastings Valley on the Mid North Coast of Australia’s eastern seaboard.

I need to say that it has been a very anxious time!

Not too dissimilar to being expectant parents, but in this instance people had put their trust in us, and parted with money, and now we had to deliver what we promised – fresh, wholesome and nutritious vegetables to their door each week.

So many questions and variables came up; would the produce still be fresh and un-wilted by the time we delivered the boxes to our Sydney clients 12 – 24 hours later? Would the handful of hares and wallabies that have yet to discover our crops suddenly realize what they are passing up? Would our customers perceive the amount in each week’s box to be of value to them? And why are the chooks going broody so often and messing with the egg laying schedule we’d been expecting?

The first Thursday in December arrived, and the harvest began. Up early with the sun to pick the leafy greens first - rocket, baby beetroot leaves, and stands of silverbeet and rainbow chard; rinse, and bunch them and then into the fridge to remove the field heat. Then some onions and leeks, move through the zucchini beds,and lastly some beetroot. Later in the day, the herbs and flowers were picked, and similarly, they were washed and packed before storage in the fridge too.

The night before had been filled with activity, taping boxes into shape, stamping our logo on each side, placing a clean sheet of butchers paper in the base, and then the sourcing of recipes and other material to include in the first of our fortnightly newsletters.

And along the way, take a few photos to share here on the blog!

And the response has been most favourable. It seems we’ll become known for our extra tasty beetroot, and a few clients have suggested that we need a warning label on our extra zesty rocket. The recipes have gone over a treat, and the hares and wallabies are still happy with their grasses and weeds. The situation with wilting silverbeet will be addressed in the New Year with the purchase of a small refrigerated van, and an additional flock of chickens is due to arrive in the next couple of weeks.

But it’s not all plain sailing by any means – will the weather stay relatively cool and moist for this time of the year? Will a seasonal hailstorm set us back a few weeks by wiping out the lettuce and other soft leaf veggies out in the open garden? Will the schedule we are using (‘imported’ from the US) work here in Australia?

So yes, it’s a huge learning curve. Are we enjoying it? You bet. Is it fun and exciting? Oh yeah. Do we want to shut up ‘shop’ and head back to the ‘rat race’? I DON”T THINK SO!

The Return of the Organic Maven!

Hi.

I stopped blogging for a month or so. And it wasn't intentional to be for any specific length of time. I just got that I was posting each day because I said that's what I would do, and the quality of the posts were suffering. So I stopped for a bit.

But now I'm back!

What's been happening in the meantime?

Well, ABC refused to air the Al Gore 'Repower America' advert (so much for freedom of speech!) and we've chosen to commence taking our produce to families and homes in Sydney!

And I spent a week or so 'under canvas' in the World Heritage listed Werrikimbe National Park, walking through some awesome cool temperate Antarctic Beech rainforests. Very inspiring and humbling stuff.

Over the next few months you'll see the posts on this site start to lean more towards food and nutrition, with a little less about the environment and climate change (well maybe not that much less!)

Anyway, for those of you who enquired where I'd gone or what had happened or how much you enjoy reading my writings, a BIG THANKS.

And as always your comments are more than welcome.

The images are from the rainforests of Werrikimbe.

Of Geese and Men

Recently one of our neighbours heard that we were looking for some geese here at 'Near River', so their pair were promptly caught and I dropped in to them pick them up. Hey presto, now we have geese.

They are excellent foragers and during spring and summer require little additional supplemental feed. Often used for weed control in crops such as corn, cotton, ornamental plants, strawberries and sugarbeet, as well as in orchards and vineyards, geese will eat weeds without harming certain cultivated crops, however it is not known why geese do not eat certain crops. Another advantage of geese is that they are quick processors, leaving a good quantity of droppings as they move through the planting beds.

Goin' Up The Country - Our Treechange Story

Earlier in the year, I offered to write a guest post for the Aussie Blogger's site which was published in April. It's reproduced here for your reading pleasure.

 

 

 

Seven months ago now we pulled up stumps in Sydney, and relocated to hinterland of the Mid North Coast of New South Wales, on the eastern seaboard of Australia, to follow a very long held dream of owning a farm and producing organic foods.

So why would two otherwise intelligent forty-something’s go into partnership with another couple, choose to live with them under the same roof, have the husbands walk away from seemingly good employment with nothing firm to go to, with none of them having any previous farming experience save for a trained urban horticulturalist? This must be some mighty strong dream we’re following.

Real Food Real Fast

Last week we spent some time in the Big Smoke, travelling 5 hours down the Pacific Highway to Sydney, the dazzling Emerald City, to catch up with family and friends, do some work and visit a few exhibitions that we wanted to see. If you are the slightest bit interested in Aboriginal painting, I can strongly recommend the Papunya Painting - Out Of The Desert exhibition at the Australian Museum - a great display with excellent paintings and great supporting information that goes a long way to describing the background of this wondrous art.

One of the downsides of road travel is the distinct lack of healthy, nutritious food retailers at accessible points along the highways. And this problem is only getting worse as the highway is rerouted to bypass towns as it journeys up the coast. So for us what usually happens is that out of shear frustration, we end up eating a Scottish hamburger (big mac) with fries and a Coke, regretting every mouthful, and then wondering why we feel like c#*p the rest of the trip.

Well thankfully Jason Gunn, a successful publisher who retired in his late 30's, who was also sick of the lack of decent food on the road, has opened the first two outlets in what is sure to be an international business. Oliver's Real Food provide a healthy, fresh alternative to a lot of the other options available, whilst still being a 'fast food'. Having a wife, Paula, as a qualified nutrionalist assisted with the development of the menu, particularly with people becoming more food conscious and understanding the value of fresh food. All food at both the Oliver's sites is prepared on the premises each day, using fresh local ingredients, and, where possible, organically grown.

New York finally sees the light while Australians get a dimmer view

One thing New York has lots of is roofs, and for many of them, not much happens on them. That could all be about to change.

The State has just passed legislation that will update its net metering standard, from the tiny and almost insignificant 10 kilo Watt cap for solar installations, limited to residential only, up to a gold-standard 2 Mega Watt, available to all customer classes. It is expected that this will have a critical impact on opening the market for large scale solar installations in New York, and is viewed as a significant step towards building a major solar market in the Big Apple. (Net metering allows a customer’s electricity meter to “spin backwards,” providing a credit on their utility bill when their on-site renewable energy systems send unused power to the grid.)