"In Sydney, the forest speaks Polish at Easter"
…and Diego Bonetto listens. Last weekend, I had the privilege of participating in an edible weeds walk on the Cooks River. Led by Diego, about fifteen of us spent an enthralled couple of hours discovering some of the culinary and medicinal gems that typically just disappear below our shoes. Some of these weeds are comfortable […]
Sustainable house. Sustainable food. Sustainable life.
Michael Mobbs is a national treasure. I learned about him, and his micro-revolution, earlier this week at a Transition Bondi event in Sydney. He’s a recovering lawyer who has taken his inner-city house off the grid. Yes, that’s right. Disconnected from the sewer system. Disconnected from the water supply. Disconnected from the electricity grid. And, […]
Showered with love
Last Saturday it rained at moy pocket. At the family farm we hosted around twenty intrepid land for wildlife enthusiasts who were there to explore the astounding bush regeneration project that my parents, especially my tireless mama, have devoted themselves to ever since we moved to the clapped out ex-dairy subdivision in the early 1980s. […]
Balcony gardening revival
The last few weeks have been about re-starting my balcony garden. When I moved house a few years ago, I got caught up in other priorities and never got a proper balcony gardening happening. The main obstacle for me was that buying all the components from a hardware mega-store (potting soil, mulch, compost, etc) seemed to counteract the goodness of growing food. […]
Microgreens
Apparently microgreens are the new sprout. To see what it’s all about, I’ve started growing some. Here’s what I’ve been up to: Growing Medium: Made a soil mix of (no idea about quantities, must remember to write stuff down) coconut peat, seed raising mix, compost, and innoculated biochar (with natrakelp and worm juice). My reading suggests you […]
What I know about sprouts now that I wish I knew then
I’ve had several sprout-growing eras. I embrace sprouting for a while and then it tends to become cumbersome, I tend to become negligent, sprouts tend to moulder into a stinky mess…and I wander dejectedly away from sprouting for a couple of years. Right now I’m in another sprouting golden age. They’re growing well, I crave […]
Getting practical
In the summer of 2010/2011 I made a pact with myself to get better at things. Practical things. You see, my home state was 75% underwater, and I was hard-pressed to garner any practical skills to help out with the recovery mission. I’m never going to be a bobcat driver or a carpenter, so I made a list of other useful […]