Tag Issue 4 Premium

Eat Your Weeds: Dandelion

dandellion

Botanical name: Taraxacum officinale

Parts used: flowers, stems, leaves and roots

Description: a rosette of rough-toothed leaves from a single taproot. A ‘true dandelion’ produces yellow flowers each of which sit on a single hollow stem, and that helps to identify it from lookalikes hawksbeard (Crepis species) and flatweed or catsear (Hypochaeris species), which have multiple flowers shooting from solid stems.

Nutrients: vitamins – A, B6, E, K, thiamine; antioxidants; flavonoids; alpha- and beta-carotene; minerals – high in iron and calcium, and contains magnesium, manganese, potassium, copper, choline and boron.

The Lost Art Of Mending

lost-art-mending

Have you ever had to throw out a piece of clothing because it got a stain you couldn’t remove, or a hole you couldn’t mend? In our efforts to reduce our burden on the planet many of us buy second hand clothes, or pass on the clothes we don’t want anymore so that they can have another life with another owner. But what about the clothes that are just too stained or damaged to be passed on?

While some of us are crafty, and quite happy to darn our favourite stripy socks, others feel overwhelmed by the prospect of having to mend or alter a piece of clothing. Never fear! The following ideas for altering and repairing old clothes will have you rebirthing old clothes into a whole new sartorial array.

Rare Breeds: The Cayuga Duck

duck

The Cayuga duck breed may have originated in South America, but was first ‘discovered’ on Lake Cayuga in New York state around the mid-1800s. It is thought to be a hybrid between an American black duck and a mallard. It is medium weight – the drake weighs up to three and a half kilograms, the duck up to three kilograms – and cannot fly. Its beautiful black plumage has a bottle-green sheen in the sunlight. It has a black bill and black legs.

WHY KEEP A CAYUGA?

They are fast growing, and great for egg laying and meat production, and ornamental purposes. Cayuga ducks lay eggs at change of seasons such as at end of winter/spring and summer/ autumn. Incubation is twenty-eight days.

They are very docile, being content to forage close to the house. Unlike some ducks, Cayuga are not very noisy so are good in a smaller domestic situation.

Perennial Abundance: Ten Edible Perennials

TURMERIC

Edible perennials are at the heart of a successful permaculture garden. These plants live for several years, are abundant, and bring diversity and resilience to the garden. They perform many functions in the system, and dramatically increase the harvestable yield.

Not only do perennials provide an ongoing supply of food, fibre and medicine for the gardener, they also provide structure to the garden, mulch, in-garden windbreaks or shade, habitat for beneficial insects, hides for birds and frogs, pollen for bees, and organic matter for the soil.

Perennials are easy to grow and harvest. Well-chosen perennials need little maintenance to be healthy and come back year after year. Their root systems access water and nutrients deep in the soil, making them typically more hardy and self-reliant than annuals. They can withstand difficult conditions and are great for challenging corners of the garden.

Permaculture Timor Leste And A Tropical Permaculture Guidebook

timor-leste

Fifteen years ago, permaculture grew roots in Timor Leste after the Timorese people’s incredible and tragically brutal passage to gain independence from Indonesia.

Permaculture was introduced to Timor Leste by Steve Cran and a group of Australian permies which included Lachlan McKenzie, Julianne Hartmann, Rob Swain and others. They were hoping to help rebuild and renew the country in a sustainable, culturally appropriate way. They teamed up with some of Timor Leste’s student activists from the occupation, led by Eugenio ‘Ego’ Lemos, who had already started an organic farming movement pre-independence.

Permaculture grew and slowly spread through training and demonstration sites. It was already clear that permaculture went hand in hand with community based development work and could help guide growth, livelihood and agricultural development.

Permaculture’s Next Big Step

next-big-step

The permaculture movement appears to have reached a crossroads. As a holistic design approach based on systems thinking, ecological principles and energy literacy, permaculture has the potential to have a transformative impact on how we sustainably operate our social, economic and agricultural systems in a period of converging global crises. The eleventh International Permaculture Convergence (IPC11) in Cuba in 2013 formally recognised that the permaculture movement worldwide would benefit from greater coherence at an international level, to follow through on this promise of transformation.

The Permaculture’s Next Big Step project was formed to facilitate a global consultation on what we need, how we can work together, and what we can achieve. This project has brought together some of the best permaculture thinkers from around the world to explore potential pathways for further international coordination across the movement. Project participants include: Andy Goldring from the Permaculture Association UK; Andrew Langford from Gaia University; American activist and author Starhawk; and Australia’s own permaculture elders Robin Clayfield, Ian Lillington and April Sampson-Kelly, among many other talented individuals.

Emma Lupin: Tropical Food Ambassador

emma-lupin

You may shy away from the idea of eating cane toad leg stir-fry; Emma Lupin will not. As a Northern Territory resident for the last seven years, Emma has channelled all her efforts into learning the ways of the tropics, finding local produce and searching for sustainable ways to grow it and delicious ways of cooking it – including cane toads, which she doesn’t recommend because they’re poisonous.

Finding and using local produce in the remote city of Darwin isn’t easy. Emma says a lot of dry goods can travel up to 30000 kilometres to reach there. Motivated to change how Territorians view their exotic local produce, Emma began a website ‘tasteofthetopend’ where anyone can go online to view and share their produce and recipes: ‘I thought there was a real need to get people in touch with local food and to tell them more about it’.

Artist As Family: The Art Of Permaculture Travel

artist-as-family

When David Holmgren and Bill Mollison developed permaculture in the 1970s it was an attempt to reduce the growing environmental and social crises of modern life. Their concept emphasised designing low consumption, low pollution and highly productive human settlements. Nearly forty years later, we wanted to know what permaculture-on-the-move might look like. In November 2013, we set off on a journey to find out.

When we decided to travel up the east coast of Australia by bicycle with our two sons (aged eleven years and fourteen months) and our Jack Russell terrier, we had no idea how far north we would end up. When we loaded our panniers onto our bikes and set off from our home in central Victoria we wanted to achieve several things: expand our knowledge of freely obtainable foods in Australia; spend little money; live simply and outdoors; and produce no waste.

Noticeboard

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Be inspired by and learn from renowned thinkers and soil advocates.

Millen Farm is hosting ‘Digging Deeper into Soil’, a half-day conference that will set the scene of soil in Australia. Featuring the most recent research from local scientists, see how this research can be used to improve soil health for food production in everything from home gardens through to commercial farms.

Come along to dig down deep into soil topics, debunking some long-held myths about soil management. Our expert speakers, Hugh Lovel, Peter Kearney and Mike Smith, will focus on how to understand your own patch and develop solutions specific for your soil and growing aspirations.

Unearth the complexities of soil through a range of topics including soil testing – understanding outcomes and illustrating how to use test results to improve soil, unravelling the biodynamics of soil and exploring the soil ‘food web’ and the implications for soil improvement.