Category 24

Energy Efficient: Moving With The Times

oak-door

This Blue Mountains home was designed to integrate seamlessly with the outdoors and to hold a comfortable temperature all year round without the need for air conditioning.

Tim and Madelyn, with their daughter Frankie, were ready to move away from city living, so bought a property in the Blue Mountains in 2017. The 1800 m2 block slopes east- west, with high surrounding hedges, creating a secluded private oasis.

The original house was demolished, with minimal disturbance to the land, as it was beyond economical repair. All masonry products, timber, steel and plaster was separated and sent to separate recycling facilities. A new 300 m2 energy-efficient home was built. The design follows the slope of the land, split over three levels.

Minimising Waste: Using Preserves

preserves

All too often our preserves sit at the back of the pantry gathering dust. But using them is just as important as making sure your homegrown goodness doesn’t go to waste in the first place.

You’ve worked hard all season in the vegie garden, watering, weeding, mulching and nurturing your garden. You’ve harvested in fits and starts as your precious food ripens, you’ve shared and swapped your abundance with others but, even the most disciplined succession planter, or the grower who learns to limit certain things to just one or two plants (we’re looking at you, zucchini), is inevitably left with a glut.

Hauling basketfuls of food into your kitchen and working them into the preserve pantry is an enormously rewarding exercise in virtuosity. Because come winter, when the vegie garden is tucked up under its blanket of mulch except for the odd brassica and slowly maturing garlic, you’ll be popping the lid on your preserved harvest and reliving those summer days through your tastebuds.

Cooking With Fire In Flames

frames

For Tasmanian-born chef Sarah Glover, cooking over fire is as much about place and connection as it is about flavour.

Author and chef Sarah Glover grew up in a large family in Tasmania. It was before internet and on-demand TV and meal times stick in her memory as the most enjoyable times of the day.

‘I remember meal times in my family with such fondness,’ she says. ‘They were such an important time for us to come together, to create our own entertainment and connections.’

It’s those connections which set Sarah Glover on the path she’s on today. Connections to food, to place, to community and to her Tasmanian roots. And it all begins around a fire.

Garden Diary: For The Record

diary

So much more than a place to record your successes and failures in the garden, a diary can help you to connect with your patch, understand your environment and maximise your yield.

It might seem like just another task that’s taking you away from the time you’ve set aside to get stuck into your garden, but jotting some things down about what you observe and learn along the way can make a significant difference to how much food you’re able to harvest from your patch.

At the time, certain successes and failures can seem like something you’d never forget, but as each season passes, and new highs and lows occur in your garden, it’s easy for things we learn to slip from our minds over time. So by noting things down – as briefly or elaborately as you like – not only is it making it easier to remember a particular moment in time, but it’s growing our understanding of our gardens and helping us form a deeper connection to our patch.

How To Build A Berry Patch

berry

Winter is the perfect time to prepare your patch for that crop of summer berries you’ve always wanted. No more plastic punnets, an unrivalled depth of flavour and the joy of being able to pick the sweet taste of summer straight from the bush. We show you how to build a berry patch.

Coming in many shapes and sizes, berry bushes and vines are a delicious and prolific addition to the edible garden. The group of plants we commonly call berries includes cane-grown fruits like raspberries, bush-grown fruits like blueberries and small plants like strawberries. Cane-fruiting berries can be unruly ramblers and usually require trellising, while bush-fruiting berries grow as compact-sized bushes or low spreading plants, and can be well suited to growing in pots.

May-August

map of aussie

Seasonal garden guides for Australian climates

Moon planting

The moon’s phases and its associated gravitational pull has a significant effect on the behaviour of tidal oceans, so it’s easy to understand how the moon can have a similar effect on the moisture in our soils and plants. By planning what you sow to coincide with the phases of the moon best suited to the type of vegetable and how you’re planting, you’ll give yourself a higher chance of success as well as increase your yields.

Radish

radish

Raphanus sativus – from the Greek raphanus meaning ‘easily grown’ and the Latin sativus, which means ‘cultivated’.

Origin

Radishes have a long history of cultivation and their origins are not certain. Alphonse de Candolle (1886) mentions that wild specimens were found near Mt Ararat in Turkey, and in Palestine and Armenia. It is thought there were two major centres of origin: the warmer parts of Europe and Asia.

Description

The radish varies enormously in size and shape, from small red ones to large white ones.

Sheep Sorrel

sheep-sorrel

Native to Asia and Europe, this lemony edible plant has naturalised widely in Australia and is commonly found in backyards.

What Is Sheep Sorrel?

Sheep sorrel (Rumex acetosella) is a species of flowering perennial weed in the Polygonaceae family. The name sorrel is derived from the Germanic word ‘sur’ and the old French word ‘surele’ meaning sour.

Sometimes referred to as field sorrel, garden sorrel, sour weed or sour dock, it favours acidic soils and sunny positions. With a high concentration of vitamin C, sheep sorrel has been consumed as a tea for a very long time, as well as being added to a variety of foods.

Native Cherry

native-cherry

As well as producing a sweet edible stem, Australia’s native cherry has important ceremonial and protective properties.

The native cherry (Exocarpus cupressiformis), also known as cherry ballart, cypress cherry or wild cherry belongs to the sandalwood family and is endemic to Australia. A partial parasite, the tree lives in harmony with the host tree, particularly eucalyptus, without causing it any harm. The plants work together to support each other and in Aboriginal teachings, it is used as an example of how working together is of benefit to all.

Letters To The Editor

We’d love to see if we’ve inspired you to embark on any projects. The letter of the issue will receive a limited-edition Pip magazine print featuring archival inks on textured 300 gsm rag paper. Email your letters and photos to editorial@pipmagazine.com.au

Powerless preserving

I’m wondering if you have any ideas or tips about the best ways to store vegies without putting them in the bottom of the fridge? I live in Tasmania, and now we’re heading into winter, I figure that a Tassie winter is probably the same temperature as lots of people’s fridges anyway!

I prefer the idea of storing my organically grown food somewhere natural rather than poking it into an expensive artificial climate, so I am hoping someone might have some experience with outdoor larders or root cellars?