Category Regulars

Write to us and let us know what you think of the mag and your response to any of the articles. The best letter will receive a Pip magazine art print, printed with archival inks on beautiful textured archival 300gsm rag paper.

Hello amazing team at Pip Magazine, I have recently discovered your beautiful mags. I would love to congratulate your entire team on such a wonderful magazine. I am absolutely in love with it. The articles are so interesting and relate to how my family & I live (in the rainforest in Far North Qld).

Featuring 30 artists and collectives, the 15th Dandenong Ranges Open Studios event offers visitors a unique exhibition and open studio weekend. Explore and connect with artists, ignite your creative imagination and step into the hidden gems, curious constructions and awe-inspiring spaces of the artists’ environments.

Many of the artists engage with natural and environmentally focused processes, and live in sustainability-aware studios and homes. You will have the unique opportunity to purchase artwork and hand-crafted items directly from the artists, informed by new insight into their creative world.

www.burrinja.org.au

This house is crafted so beautifully that if we weren’t way too big to fit, we’d be moving right in. The Biome Bee House is designed to provide a safe home for Australian native bees, who are more fragile than the European honey bee. They also like their own space, which is why the nooks and hollows of this design is perfect for them. Sold through eco store Biome, the bee house is made by members of the Indooroopilly Men’s Shed. The materials used come from recycled pallet boxes and weed bamboo that has been cleared from around Brisbane.

$65 www.biome.com.au

How we address food in our communities is a powerful agent for positive change. Incredible Edible Todmorden is an example of community permaculture in action. People from this old textile town in West Yorkshire are coming together as volunteers to grow fruits, herbs and vegetables around the town for everyone to share. It’s simple and powerful, and has grown into a movement.

You’ll find herbs at the station, a pollinator street garden, medicinals at the health centre, and community food everywhere. They encourage people to shop and share locally and work together to create markets, festivals, meals, classes, gardens and a thriving network. The community has transformed itself through this project. There is a feeling of cohesiveness, positivity and a rippling out of influence. Their focus on relocalising food by bringing people together to grow, harvest, cook, eat and celebrate together is building a stronger, kinder and friendlier community.

For those of you who haven’t noticed the double digits on the spine, I am proud to announce that Pip has reached issue no. 10! It’s a coming of age, a marker of success, and a sign that we are here to stay. We are coming into our fifth year of publishing and starting to really reach out to the world.

This issue, we focus on what we can do in our lives right here and now to live more simply. You don’t have to sell up and go and live in the country; you can do a lot to change the world right from your very own kitchen table (hence the teapot on the cover).

We have an extract from David Holmgren’s book RetroSuburbia (Melliodora Publishing, 2018), which focuses on what you can do while living in suburbia, which is where 90% of the population live. David shares ideas of what we can do in our homes and gardens, and the choices we can make to create a better work/life balance.

The latest offering by The Little Veggie Patch Co is like a good urban garden—colourful, full of diversity, well-planned and organised. Grow Food Anywhere covers the basics of small-space productive gardening in a fun and informative fashion.

Divided into three sections, the first, ‘What plants need’ covers the nutritional and growing requirements for specific plants as well as general soil fertility . ‘Fruit and veg to grow’ has an emphasis on plant suitability for small-scale growing, consolidated into a clever rating scale as well as all the basic planting info for specific plants. ‘Pests and diseases to know’ also has a rating scale for common garden pests (in which the human child rates the maximum 5 out of 5!).

Full of tongue-in-cheek humour, colourful photos, psychedelic illustrations and handy tips, this book could be a coffee table read or the number one go-to gardening guide for beginner to more experienced growers alike.

Email your letters and photos to editorial@pipmagazine.com.au. We’d love to hear what you think of Pip and if you’ve embarked on any projects as a result of our articles. Each issue, one published entrant will receive a limited-edition Pip magazine art print, printed with archival inks on beautifully textured archival 300gsm rag paper.

Hi Robyn,

I just wanted to send you a message to tell you how much I enjoy Pip, and how much I’ve learnt from it over the last year. It’s a significant achievement to have created a publication with so much detail and craftsmanship with such a small team, and it’s opened my eyes to a whole range of possibilities within the permaculture field.

November: Basil, beans, beetroot, cabbage, capsicum, carrot, cauliflower, chives, coriander, cucumber, lemongrass, marjoram, mint, oregano, parsley, rosemary, tarragon and thyme, English spinach, kohlrabi, leek, lettuce, onion, parsnip, pumpkin, radish, silverbeet, swede, sweet corn, tomato, turnip, zucchini,

December: Lettuce, rocket, Asian greens, carrots, beetroot, celery, silverbeet, more leeks and tomatoes, salad onions, sweet corn, zucchini, cucumber, pumpkin, parsnips, celery, celeriac, Brussels sprouts, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, and potatoes (such as Kennebecs).

January: Carrots, beetroot, radish, turnip, lettuce, Asian greens (e.g. rocket, mizuna, mibuna, mustard, cress), silverbeet, spring onions, bush beans. If you live in a warm spot, try seedlings of late zucchini, cucumber, small pumpkins like Golden Nuggets, sweet corn and even more tomatoes.

This beautifully designed book highlights 40 Australian native bushfoods and incorporates them into vegan dishes.

For those with a sweet tooth, there are anise myrtle yoyo bickies, strawberry gum jam drops and passionberry granola to try, to name just a few. For more substantial meals, whip up some jackfruit tacos with muntry coleslaw, seablite rice paper rolls or kutjera pasta.

As with all recipe books worth their salt (bush), the photos and illustrations are superb, making it a treat to simply flick through.

There is also a guide to sourcing fresh, frozen and dried bushfoods; handy as you’ll be sure to want to try many of these delicious sounding recipes.

This issue’s winner is Dorian from Melbourne, for this photo with his goaty pal. Congratulations Dorian! You receive a download of Grow Do It, the latest album from Formidable Vegetable Sound System.

Parents, send in photos of your kids in the garden or with their homegrown produce. Not only will they feature in the Kids’ Patch page, but you’ll be in the running to win a copy of Listen to the Land. Stories and Songs for Children by Annie Bryant. This CD includes seven songs and six audio stories about growing food, living on the land, caring for the bush and bees, and listening to Mother Earth.

To enter simply send the photo with the name, age and address of your child to maude@pipmagazine.com.au