Innholdsfortegnelse for Issue 7 i Pip Magazine

My frizzle Harriet was unwell (scaly leg mite) which is now under control but her ‘cheeks’ are still a little pale. Is there any particular vegie or something else I could feed her to help build her system back up again? [tashmohring] A chicken’s omb and wattles should be bright red; if they are pale then this can be a sign of anaemia, lack of oxygen in the blood, or dehydration. The comb may also appear dull and discoloured. The comb and wattles, where the blood is cooled, are a good indication something’s wrong. Seek veterinary advice immediately if Harriet has stopped eating or drinking. Anaemia can be caused by parasites such as red mite, lice or worms. Lack of oxygen in the blood can be caused by a respiratory…

Bill Mollison – the ‘father of permaculture’ – died on 24 September 2016. To imagine and then create a worldwide movement of remarkable resilience is an incredible feat. Permaculture books are printed in many languages, it’s taught and practised in almost every country of the world, and found on websites in at least 110 languages. Bill didn’t do this alone – his mix of Aussie-gruffness, love for storytelling and massive charisma was just what was needed to create a vision, a design system, and a network of teachers and practitioners who have spread the concept globally. Bill had a brilliant mind. He observed, he catalogued and used a systems approach to help weave seemingly disparate ideas into the most detailed tapestry. In this sense he was a true visionary. He…

Watching a chick hatch from an egg is an amazing process, and to be a part of raising your own ¥ock of chickens is an exciting and rewarding experience. There are many reasons why you might want to breed your own chickens: just for fun; to replace your laying flock; to produce roosters for harvest to the freezer; to make money; to protect and show rare breeds; or just small-scale backyard production. To raise chicks to adulthood successfully you need some good basic knowledge and skills, and a safe place for your hen to sit and for chicks to be raised. Despite all your best efforts, things may still go wrong sometimes and the chicks won’t make it. HATCHING CHICKS There are two main ways to hatch chicks. You can…

The Abdallah House project began in May 2008 in suburban Seymour, central Victoria, with the purchase of a three-roomed bungalow, with bathroom/ laundry tacked onto the side, on a 584 m2 block. The project is driven by permaculture practitioner Richard Telford with support from his partner Kunie, and children Kai and Sen. In mid-2005 I decided on a tree change, and moved to Commonground Co operative, a small intentional social change community in Seymour. While I liked the idea of building a place at the community, there were downsides, for example if we wanted to leave our home in future, we couldn’t reinvest that energy into a new home. In May 2008, in the midst of the global financial crisis, I attended the auction of a deceased estate, curious to…

Mention the words ‘vegan permaculture’ and you’re bound to get a mixed reaction. For many, the idea that permaculture principles can be applied without the use of animals just doesn’t sit right. Yet a growing number of people are combining the two, and .nd that the principles align beautifully to create a system that is modern yet sustainable. Vegan permaculture is built on the desire to live a lifestyle that improves the health and wellbeing of animals, people and the planet. In the Vegan Book of Permaculture: Recipes for Healthy Eating and Earthright Living (Permanent Publications 2014), Graham Burnett describes permaculture as ‘a useful framework for positive action whatever our lifestyle choices’. When the permaculture ethic of fair share is extended to include animals, a choice is made to seek…

Fair Harvest Permaculture is a testament to Jodie Lane and her dedication to community. Created over the last two decades, Fair Harvest is everything a permaculture demonstration site should be: a living, breathing example of permaculture principles in action, honouring the three permaculture ethics. But it is not the physical examples of permaculture that are most striking; it’s the community involvement that stands out the most. Although Jodie is the heart and soul of Fair Harvest she has not made it what it is today on her own. Over the years she’s made it a hub for her local community and people passing through, who want to learn more about permaculture; feeding them, sharing her home with them and sharing her knowledge. The 145 hectare property on the edge of…

Nukazuke or rice bran pickles are a culinary institution in Japan. While they taste sour and salty, like any western-style pickle, nukazuke is a natural, wild ferment. The ‘nuka bed’, in many Japanese kitchens, contains a live culture of rice bran paste in which fresh vegetables are preserved. Vegetables are inoculated in the bed for days, or even weeks, to prolong their shelf life, add flavour and turn them into a delicious probiotic snack. Nukazuke has a long history in Japan, and many nuka beds have been passed down in families for generations; some are believed to be 300 years old. Having your own nuka bed is an easy way to keep garden produce fresh without the aid of a fridge, create a healthy addition to your diet and expand…

KAT LAVERS Kat Lavers is a passionate gardener, permaculture designer and trainer. Her award-winning house and garden, The Plummery, is a 1/14th acre urban permaculture system that produces almost all the vegies, herbs, fruit and eggs consumed (more than 350kg in 2016!), as well as recycling all organic waste on site. Kat is a volunteer coordinator of Permablitz Melbourne, currently manages the My Smart Garden sustainable gardening education program for Hobsons Bay City Council, and is a sought - a fter freelance presenter. http://www.instagram.com/kat.lavers TABITHA BILANIWSKYJ-ZARINS Tabitha is a horticulturist with a passion for botany, chickens & wool. Tabitha has bred, shown and judged poultry for nearly forty years. She runs sixty geese and eighty-odd chickens in her permaculture garden, her ‘farmy army’. She lives on a mixed small farm…

TESLA POWERWALL 2 The next generation of Tesla’s home battery system has just become available in Australia with limited numbers available as of February 2017. It has double the storage capacity and a lower cost. The Powerwall 2.0 is a complete lithium battery storage system with its own built-in inverter and the ability to hold up to 13.5kWh of energy. Power output is 7kW peak and 5kW continuous. It can be installed in an off-grid or grid-connected solar system and provide backup power in the case of a grid failure. You can also charge from the mains grid via lower-priced off-peak power. You can monitor your solar electricity use from your computer or hand-held device. 10 year warranty. Priced at $8400 plus installation starting at $2100. www.tesla.com/en_AU/powerwall TUMUT MILLET BROOMS…

Keeping backyard chickens is a joy shared by many – the site of a flock of ladies scratching around your garden warms the soul (as long as it’s not your vegie garden). There are simple ways to keep your chickens healthy naturally: give them fresh water, clean housing and bedding, and high-quality feed. Allowing exercise through free-ranging, and providing a stressfree environment by not overcrowding, will encourage happy birds. Happy, healthy chickens will provide you with delicious eggs, meat and free labour in the garden for many years. HOUSING AND HYGIENE Poultry housing should be large enough to accommodate the number of chickens without stress. There are many theories about the amount of space needed for each bird but, as a general guide, allow around one square metre. A naturally…

GEORGE SMITHWICK: COOPER What is a cooper ? Someone who makes a watertight vessel out of timber. It involves a lot of skill and practice. How long have you been coopering ? ‘I’m a fifth-generation cooper. I made my first barrel when I was fifteen, and I came to the trade full-time when I was forty – thirty years ago now. I’m an old bastard.’ What sort of vessels do you mak e? ‘Mostly buckets and barrels, butter churns, hand-operated washing machine tubs. I’m retired now, and I make mostly for alternative lifestylers, barrels for dry goods, wine and whisky barrels; they’re made to last. I have buckets my grandfather made that are still as good as the day he made them, ninety years ago.’ What brought you back to…

People have been preserving food forever. Before the invention of fridges, knowing how to preserve your harvest by salting and drying meats or fermenting vegetables was an absolute necessity. These days the need for preserving may seem to have disappeared, but we feel it’s as important as ever. We still see preserving your harvest as a fundamental part of living a full life. It’s in our blood: there is a deep satisfaction in preparing a larder so that you can enjoy foods that are out of season all year round. There is no better time to learn to preserve than when summer is in full swing. Everything is ‘in’ and no other time of the year feels quite so abundant. Sometimes the late summer harvest can be so abundant that…

After leaving their homeland in France, Claude and Helene Marmoux travelled to Australia where they settled in Sydney. After buying a house there, and running their own business for many years, they left to travel the country where they discovered permaculture through Robyn Francis. ‘Studying the PDC with Robyn Francis in the nineties was exactly what we were looking for, and gave us a new direction in life’, Claude remembers. They knew that a new life, where they provided for themselves, was the best step they could take towards saving the earth: ‘As humans living on a planet with .nite resources, our .rst step is to reduce our impact, which begins with building smaller houses’. Their search for a new home in the country led them to their current property,…

Ideally we’d do away with cars altogether, to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels and carbon emissions. We would use bikes, public transport, walk or even go back to saddling up our trusty steed. But the reality is that most people still use cars daily: in our recent Pip survey, 86% of readers said they rely on cars as their main form of transport. So if you do own a car, and can’t see any way of doing without it in the near future, what can you do to create the least impact on the planet? With technology changing fast, electric vehicles (EVs) seem to be leading the way to create a lower emission, smaller carbon footprint alternative to petrol and diesel powered vehicles. ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS There are many ways…

People .nd homeschooling in di®erent ways, and for di®erent reasons. I didn’t even know it existed until I went WWOOFing in Spain about fourteen years ago with my now-husband. We lived with a family in the remote Alpujarras mountain region. They practised self-su¯ciency, permaculture, holistic management, co-sleeping and homeschooling. Inspired, we took all of these practices on board. I believe they are all linked, integrated and very much fit in with our life philosophy of moving towards self-suºciency in all things (i.e. taking responsibility for our own health, food production and children’s education). I homeschool because I believe my children learn best when they are self-motivated, self-directed and truly connected with and interested in what’s around them. When our children came along natural learning began from birth. Babies and toddlers…

PERMACULTURE & SUSTAINABILITY PERMACULTURE & SUSTAINABILITY ACT CANBERRA PERMACULTURE DESIGN, Canberra, Intro to Permaculture Principles, Permaculture Zones, Waterwise Gardening, Making Wicking Pots & Beds, www.canberrapermaculturedesign.com.au, 0410 121 272, cally.brennan@gmail.com PERMACULTURE EXCHANGE, Canberra region, PDC ,Intro to Permaculture, Specialist courses eg. Farm establishment, homesteading, forest gardens, www.permacultureexchange.org.au, 0400 165 403, permacultureexchange@gmail.com NSW A GARDEN FOR LIFE, Helensburgh, Garden Design, www.agardenforlife.com.au, 0404 123 747, narelle@agardenforlife.com.au ALLYN RIVER PERMACULTURE, Allynbrook, PDC, Intro to Permaculture, Soils & Composting, Small Animals, Gardening Sustainably, Garden to Market, www.allynriverpermaculture.com.au, (02) 4938 9748, info@allynriverpermaculture.com.au BLUE MOUNTAINS PERMACULTURE INSTITUTE, Blue Mountains, PDC, Permaculture Teacher Training Course, Permaculture in Development Course, 0407 437 553, www.bmpi.com.au, lis@bmpi.com.au BROGO PERMACULTURE GARDENS, Bermagui, PDC, Earthworks, www.permaculturedesign.com.au, (02) 6492 7306, brogopg@bigpond.net.au BYRON COMMUNITY COLLEGE, Byron Bay Mullumbimby, PDC, Accredited Permaculture Training, and more ...…

We as humans have included chickens as part of household life for thousands of years. The earliest evidence of domestication is believed to date back to 5400BCE in China and evidence has been found dating back thousands of years across the world, in Iran, Pakistan, India, Africa, North and South America. All chickens have descended from the red jungle fowl of South-East Asia and from there have been traded and transported across the globe and been embedded in civilisations throughout history. Around 800BCE ancient Egyptians were artificially incubating eggs and at the same time, Romans were experimenting with dishes such as omelettes and stuffed chickens and using farming practices to fatten birds for eating. What has caused the humble chicken to be so ubiquitous throughout time? It hasn’t always been…

13TH INTERNATIONAL PERMACULTURE CONVERGENCE (IPC), INDIA The next IPC will be held from 25 November to 2 December 2017 in India. The Conference, on 25–26 November, will be held at Prof. Jayashankar Telangana State Agriculture University, Hyderabad. The Convergence, on 27 November to 2 December, will be held at Polam Farm, Medak District. The theme of IPC India is ‘Towards Healthy Societies’, with six strands of activity: 1. Women as agents of change 2. Sustainable water resource management 3. Revitalising and preserving traditional farming practices 4. Permaculture as a social responsibility 5. Grassroots permaculture in action 6. Permaculture and climate change adaptations Keynote speakers are: Dr Vandana Shiva – author, scientist, environmentalist, social activist (India) David Holmgren – co-originator of permaculture (Australia) Robyn Francis – award-winning international permaculture pioneer (Australia)…

COOL TEMPERATE What to sow and plant: • Brassica seedlings. [March and April] • Successive crops of broad beans, English spinach and peas; and winter vegies such as beetroot, carrot, celery, Florence fennel, leek, parsnip, turnip. [late March through to May] • Green manure crops, for winter digging in. [from March to May] • Hard neck garlic. [April to May] • Asian greens, silverbeet, spring onion and winter lettuce will keep you in fresh greens in winter and early spring. [from April] • Soft-neck garlic. [from May to June] • Non-keeping salad onions, such as red or white varieties. [from May] • As June approaches, shift your focus from planting annual vegies to perennials – lift, divide and replant the following through June and July: asparagus, chive, garlic chive, globe artichoke,…

Australians eat a staggering number of chickens each year. An extreme minority are raised on pasture, with the vast majority con.ned in sheds. Even if you’re buying ‘free range’ or even organic chicken from a supermarket, chances are you’d be appalled at the conditions in which these chickens live and die. So, what is an ethical solution for those who want a little bit of chicken meat in our diet? First of all, remember those wise words of Michael Pollan: ‘eat food, not too much, mostly plants’. You don’t need to eat meat every day. Think of quality, ethically- grown meat as a treat: buying ethically raised meat is going to cost you more. Either source your chicken directly from a small-scale farmer, who is raising the birds on pasture…

Garlic planting time is coming around, as is the time when many garlic varieties are sprouting or starting to rot. For many of us this means going without garlic, or searching far and wide for growers who still have stock. Imported garlic is often available at this time of year, but is best avoided as it has usually been irradiated and treated with a range of chemicals to stop sprouting, and to kill bugs and germs. To make our garlic supply last all year round there are several factors to consider. We need to: • cure and store garlic well to ensure it lasts as long as possible • choose a range of garlic varieties with different harvest and storage times • preserve garlic to stretch its lifespan. CURING AND…

Laura Dalrymple and Grant Hilliard run Feather and Bone, a small Sydney butcher selling pasture-raised livestock sourced directly from sustainably run, mostly local farms. Laura shares her story. Grant started the business in 2006, in a fit of blind enthusiasm about rare-breed sheep. He’d worked with unemployed youth, as a waiter and sommelier, and studied filmmaking – not exactly the background you need to become a butcher. He didn’t set out to be a butcher, but merely followed his fascination with terroir and food. We believe there’s a fundamental link between the way an animal is raised and how it tastes on your plate. Our business is built around the desire to ‘open up the line of sight’ between farm and consumer, so that decisions are informed and considered. We…

‘There’s dye in everything, really’, says artist Deborah Brearley, as she unpacks oxalis, lichens, rusty nails and an array of other gathered materials onto the kitchen bench: all ingredients for the natural dye pot. Deb has been dyeing textiles using natural pigments for more than three decades, and in the world of natural dyeing that makes her a bit of a master. ‘This is like a journal’, she says as she produces a loop of twisted-wool dyed samples, with handwritten tags such as Lichen (Paradise Falls, Apollo Bay), winter 1979 and Orange fungus (Perrys’, Bacchus Marsh), winter 1981. The journey of her life is noted on these tags, a record of her art and travels, tracking the seasons and places she has been. As well as dyeing her own fibres,…

PROFILE Rosemary Morrow is an author, permaculture legend, teacher of teachers, aid worker and the patron of Permafund, a charity within Permaculture Australia which raises funds for projects in disadvantaged communities around the world. This septuagenarian is having a brief recharge after working with refugees in Italy and Spain. I asked her what it takes to be an aid worker; it’s not a task for the faint-hearted. What sort of person do you need to be ? ‘The life of a permaculturalist in a camp is probably three months, if you can last that. You’ll be lonely. If you’re sick you just keep going. The physical conditions are hard. There’s a camp in Greece between an army base, a major highway (that runs either side) and a big industrial centre,…

The winner this issue is Pearl Turnbull aged 4 from Bendigo. Congratulations Pearl you receive an original illustration by Trace Bella and a copy of her book Rockhopping (Allen and Unwin 2016) Parents send in photos of your kids in the garden or with their homegrown produce to win a set of Little Permies activity cards. To enter send name, age and address of child to maude@pipmagazine.com.au. SEASONAL FOOD AND GARDENING FOR THE EARLY YEARS by S tephanie Alexander Kit chen Garden Foundation New kitchen garden book for early years educators! This practical illustrated guide gives early years educators an introduction to pleasurable food education. The activities and recipes in this book are designed to support educators working within the context of the Australian Government’s Early Years Learning Framework. HOW…

THE ART OF FRUGAL HEDONISM: A GUIDE TO SPENDING LESS WHILE ENJOYING EVERYTHING MORE by Annie Raser-Rowland with Adam Grubb (Melliodora Publishing 2016). Review by Kirsten Bradley In the current climate, where lots of folks want to downsize, downshift, simplify radically, barter + trade, go no-waste, grow good food, and reconsider where working for years from nine to five in an oºce actually gets them in terms of health and happiness, this book is both an antidote and an inspiration of sorts. The Art of Frugal Hedonism is about living – very – lightly on this planet, while having a rocking good time. Both Annie and Adam have been doing urban frugalism, rather radically, for many years now, and it does certainly seem like they are having a good time.…