Tag Issue 15 Premium

This category can only be viewed by members. To view this category, sign up by purchasing Digital Subscription, Print and Digital Subscription, Print and Digital Subscription with 2024 Pip Kitchen Garden Calendar, Issue 15 - digital edition or Lifetime Digital Subscription.

Shulz Organic Dairy: Making The Change

simon

Simon Shulz is taking a stand. After watching the War on Waste back in 2017, Simon realised that as a producer of milk, he was directly contributing to the problem of single-use plastics. He decided then and there to do something about it and three months later he was trialling a range of milk sold in reusable glass bottles.

Simon Shulz is a third-generation dairy producer and farmer. With his father he runs Shulz Organic Dairy in Timboon, in southwest Victoria. He lives there with his wife, Abbey, and their three, soon-to-be four, children.

To read the rest of this article, sign up for a digital subscription from $3.50.

 

Current subscribers login here.

Reclaiming Wheat: How To Make Wheat Your Friend

wheat

Wheat has been an important food for humans for thousands of years. Along with corn and rice, it’s a global staple that makes up a huge part of the diet for billions of people. So why has wheat fallen out of favour in recent years? This once nutritious food seems to be creating a growing incidence of intolerances, gut dysbiosis and life-threatening allergies. Is it possible to eat wheat in a way that can be well-digested and nutritious?

The Evolution Of Wheat

What used to be a tough, wild grass began to be gathered and cultivated by humans over 10,000 years ago in the ‘fertile crescent’ – the area now known as the Middle East and Turkey. Varieties of wheat, such as einkorn and emmer, have been shaped by human cultivation over thousands of years to become the high-starch, easy-to-thresh, short-statured plant we now call modern wheat Triticum aestivum.

To read the rest of this article, sign up for a digital subscription from $3.50.

 

Current subscribers login here.

Permaculture Plant: Yarrow

yarrow

Yarrow Achillea millefolium is a tough, perennial herb with multiple permaculture uses.

It is a low-growing, spreading, rhizomatous plant with fernlike leaves and clusters of small flowers making up a larger composite flower.

In permaculture systems, yarrow is commonly used as an understorey in food forests and orchards. It could also be grown as part of a dedicated herb garden, a pretty but practical perennial flower garden, or incorporated into pastures and poultry systems. It can also be part of a mixed herbal lawn tolerating moderate foot traffic and occasional mowing, though if it is kept low, it will not have the opportunity to flower.

To read the rest of this article, sign up for a digital subscription from $3.50.

 

Current subscribers login here.

Letters To The Editor

Letters to the Editor

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 300 gsm rag paper.

Dear Robyn,

I am currently in hospital for treatment of anorexia nervosa and gratefully came across your magazine just before I was admitted. I have spent numerous hours curled up on my bed reading all the articles of Issue 14! Thankyou for creating such a beautiful magazine which has kept me company through the long days in here.

I really enjoyed reading the article on ‘Environmental Guilt’, and when I return home, I plan to reduce my use of single-use plastics by using beeswax wraps, my keep cup and purchasing package-free foods. I can’t wait for the next issue of Pip to come out!

To read the rest of this article, sign up for a digital subscription from $3.50.

 

Current subscribers login here.

Brains Trust

Brains Trust

I grew a green manure crop to add nitrogen to the soil (using broad beans), but last time I did this, I planted summer tomatoes straight after digging the broad beans in and it was the worst tomato crop I’ve ever had. What went wrong? (Emma, Newcastle, NSW)

Growing plants in unfinished compost doesn’t work very well. When we dig plant material into the ground, the soil bacteria will use some of the available soil nitrogen to break it down into compost, taking it away from the plants. This phenomenon is known as nitrogen drawdown. If there was insufficient nitrogen in the soil to begin with, there would definitely not have been enough left after composting to support the growth of heavy feeders such as tomatoes.

When using broad beans as a green manure crop, use the chop-and-drop method: cut the stems at soil level, so the roots decompose and release the nitrogen into the soil. The green leafy growth (despite its 30:1 carbon-to-nitrogen ratio) should not be dug into the soil; it should be chopped and left on the soil surface. Even better, the chopped plant material on the soil surface can be lightly sprinkled with manure, then covered with a straw-like mulch to create a no-dig gardening, sheet composting system.

To read the rest of this article, sign up for a digital subscription from $3.50.

 

Current subscribers login here.

How To Make Dairy Staples

buttermilk

Making your own dairy basics at home can not only save you money on your grocery bill and avoid plastic packaging, but allows you to experience the flavour and freshness of homemade food that will far surpass anything you can buy from the store.

Source the best quality cream you can find with the highest milk fat content, preferably 35%, with no additives or thickeners.

If you’re into low-tech, add cream to a jar with a tightfitting lid and shake it well till it separates. This can take anywhere from five to thirty minutes.

To read the rest of this article, sign up for a digital subscription from $3.50.

 

Current subscribers login here.

Warrigal Greens

Warrigal greens Tetragonia teragoniodes is a trailing leafy groundcover native to Australia, Eastern Asia and New Zealand – hence its other name, New Zealand spinach. In Europe it is now an invasive species, which belies its historical use as a great source of vitamin C for scurvy-riddled sailors and settlers during colonisation. Botanist Joseph Banks took warrigal greens back to England’s Kew Gardens, from where it became a popular cultivated vegetable for a while.

The word warrigal comes from the Darug indigenous people of the Sydney area, although not much is known about how they used this hardy plant. Warrigal greens is now grown commercially in Australia and is marketed as a bush food in restaurants and cafes.

To read the rest of this article, sign up for a digital subscription from $3.50.

 

Current subscribers login here.

Permaculture Around The World

SUSTAINABLE ORCHARD, MONGOLIA

www.treesoflifemongolia.org

Husband and wife team Marlene and Robert Founder started an NGO called Trees Of Life, with the aim of improving quality of life in the Mongolian countryside and giving people self-worth through horticulture and training using permaculture principles. Trees of Life is in the process of establishing a sustainable fruit tree orchard and vocational training centre in Northern Mongolia. They are actively building and investing in the people of the Sukhbaatar, Selenge community through the use of sustainable horticulture, permaculture teaching and relationship building.

To read the rest of this article, sign up for a digital subscription from $3.50.

 

Current subscribers login here.