Innholdsfortegnelse for Issue 9 i Pip Magazine

PIP PICKS: THINGS WE LIKE

PATAGONIA WETSUIT Think twice about what your wetsuit is made from before you purchase a new one, and replace a petroleum- based material with a plant-based one. Patagonia’s high-performance, neoprene-free wetsuit is made of 85% YulexR natural rubber, derived from sources that are Forest Stewardship CouncilR certified by the Rainforest Alliance and lined with recycled polyester jersey. They offer the same warmth and performance attributes as conventional stretch neoprene, while reducing CO2 emissions by up to 80% in the manufacturing process. From $118 www.patagonia.com.au NATURAL AUSTRALIAN ZINC – SAVE THE BEES This zinc smells so good that you’ll want to eat it. And with nearly all the ingredients being edible, you almost could: it contains cacao butter, raw cacao powder, coconut oil and olive oil (all of which are organic)…

PEANUT

The peanut (Arachis hypogaea) is a herbaceous annual that can grow 30–50 cm tall by approximately 1 metre wide. Being a member of the Fabaceae family links them to other legumes such as peas and beans. Peanuts are a fantastic plant in any garden, but particularly for an intensive permaculture system, as they provide both food for us and food for the soil. GROWING CONDITIONS Peanuts originate from the northern parts of South America so they prefer a warm climate. The more temperate and tropical northern regions of Australia are best suited for peanut growing, but don’t let that put you off, people of southern Australia. The key is to make sure they are always warm. Peanut seeds (nuts) are planted in a full sun aspect during spring and harvested…

BROCCOLI

BOTANICAL NAME: Brassica oleracea. The name brassica comes from a Celtic word for cabbage, with oleracea meaning ‘vegetable-like’. ORIGIN: Native to Europe’s western coast, broccoli is a descendant of kale. It was developed for market gardening in Italy in the last 150 years. DESCRIPTION: Heading and sprouting are the two different types of broccoli. Heading types take longer to mature and prefer colder areas. Sprouting broccoli grows well in summer in southern Australia and in winter in warmer areas of Australia. It has two growth habits; one with a central head, and one that produces numerous small flower heads along the stalk (e.g. the sprouting Calabrese). While green broccoli is the most recognisable these days, purple broccoli used to be the more common of the two. CULTIVATION: It’s important not…

AQUAPONICS: THE LOW-DOWN

Aquaponics combines aquaculture and hydroponics to produce fish and plants in one integrated system, creating a symbiotic and mostly self-sustaining relationship. Combining fish and plants isn’t a new concept, with its origins dating back several millennia. Asia’s rice paddy farming systems is an example. Aquaponics today borrows and combines methods primarily developed by the hydroponics aquaculture industries, along with new ideas from the innovative DIY online community. HOW IT WORKS The basic principle of synergy involved in aquaponics is the requirement of clean water to promote the healthy and fast growth of fish, and the need and ability of plants to use nutrients from the water to grow. One of the most critical aspects in this relationship between plants and fish is the diverse microbial community which transforms fish wastes…

CROP ROTATION

Crop rotation can bring great benefits to your yields, plant health and soil health, whether you’re a market gardener, homesteader or backyard grower. Crop rotation is the principle of avoiding repeating a crop with either the same crop or one in the same botanical family in successional plantings. For example, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage and kale are all in the Brassica family, so you’d avoid planting one of these straight after another. It also involves rotating crops according to their nutrient needs, whether they are a fruit, leaf, legume or root crop. WHY SHOULD WE ROTATE CROPS? The practice of rotating crops ensures variety; a cornerstone for a diverse biological system. By varying the crops going into the same place each year, you’ll help avoid pest and disease problems. This is…

FRUGAL LIVING: LIVE WITH LESS SO YOU CAN LIVE MORE

Life seems to be getting busier. We are working more, the cost of living is rising and so too are stress levels. We have seemingly less time for ourselves and our families. Even if your work is satisfying and fulfilling, having to work long hours to make ends meet affects your quality of life. Imagine if you could reduce your hours of paid work, giving you time to do more for yourself in your home and become more self-reliant. This is possible and achievable. To change and simplify your life, you’ll need to spend less than you earn, take control of your money and pay off debt. Read on for a series of steps you can take to start taking back control of your life: • Track what you buy,…

5 min

RENTAL GARDENING

Home ownership has long been considered the Great Australian Dream. One aspect of this dream is the freedom to develop and tend to a garden, for many years of creative expression and fulfilment. Yet census data reveals a slow but steady trend away from home ownership and towards renting. Many renters face a lack of long-term stability which makes it hard to create a thriving garden. But why should renters have to forgo the joys of gardens that flourish with the abundance of home-grown delights? The reality is, if you have a bit of space and a spot that receives a good patch of sun during the day, there is no reason why you can’t have a pumping and productive garden. TIPS ON HOW TO GET THE MOST OUT OF…

6 min

LEBANON: THE POWER OF COMMUNITY

One day you are driving to work, living in the neighbourhood you’ve grown up in and been to school in, you’ve been to university, maybe are married, had a family, bought a house. You’re employed and have a wage. Then political unrest sweeps through the country and people start carrying guns and fighting starts. It’s unsafe to stay so you are forced to leave. You flee. How would you cope? How would your family cope? Where would you go? What conditions would you be prepared to live in, and for how long? What conditions would you expect your family to put up with? Lebanon has an incredible lineage of cultures, in the midst of so much history. In Lebanon today, there are an estimated six and a half million people.…

SHOW US YOUR GARDEN – EDEN PRIMARY SCHOOL (EDEN, NSW)

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 Describe your garden: Colourful, beautiful, pretty,…

1 min

BOOK REVIEWS

AUSTRALIAN BUSH SUPERFOODS: PLANT-BASED RECIPES AT HOME P by Lily Alice and Thomas O’Quinn (Hardie Grant 2017) Review by Samantha Allemann 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…

EDITORIAL

Hello peeps, So often we are looking at the land when we talk about permaculture, so I thought for a change we would explore the watery side of permaculture in its many varied forms. In this issue we are exploring everything from seaweed to silver perch, aquaponics and natural swimming pools, as well as fire baths and even home brewing. Water is such an essential part of our lives; the human body is made up of up to 60% water, 71% of the earth’s surface is covered by water and beneath the top layer of water that we’re familiar with in our oceans and waterways, there lies a whole other world that most of us have little to do with. I’ve been planning for some time to make seaweed the…

NOTICEBOARD

To place your event here, email hello@pipmagazine.com.au SUSTAINABLE LIVING FESTIVAL 2018 1 – 28 February 2018 The Sustainable Living Festival has been running for 19 years and is the largest festival of its kind in Australia. 2018’s theme is ‘climate crunch’, with the festival’s program specifically focused on the urgent need for safe climate action. Each year the Sustainable Living Festival presents over 300 events celebrating sustainability. Expect a packed program filled with local and international talks, forums, workshops, film, art and design events. If you’re interested in being part of the program, you can apply now, with applications closing at the end of November. Pip will be in attendance for SLF’s Big Weekend in Melbourne (9 – 11 February), along with a huge range of exhibitors and food vendors.…

SILVER PERCH

Silver perch are useful, hardy native fish suitable for farm dams, aquaponics and other aquaculture systems. They are easy to feed and as they’re native to a wide swath of the Murray-Darling river system, they’re adaptable to a range of conditions. DESCRIPTION As the name suggests, silver perch have a silvery grey appearance. They are darker on top and lighter on the belly with spiky dorsal fins along the back. They can grow up to 50 cm and 6 kg, but are unlikely to reach these sizes in farm dams. FUNCTIONS IN A PERMACULTURE SYSTEM Silver perch are good eating fish. They have a very high level of omega-3s, making them a particularly useful addition to a permaculture diet. They are generally eaten when under a kilogram. They may be…

IN THE GARDEN: NOVEMBER - FEBRUARY

Seasonal garden guides for all climates. TROPICAL ARID MEDITERRANEAN SUBTROPICAL COOL WARM COOL TEMPERATE What to sow: • 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…

BUILD YOUR OWN NATURAL SWIMMING POOL

A natural swimming pool is a beautiful and healthy alternative to a conventional pool. By building a natural swimming pool, you are creating a self-cleaning water system that benefits both people and local wildlife, with no risk of releasing chemicals or pollution into the atmosphere, local waterways or environment. Natural swimming pools use no chemicals or pesticides to maintain the water quality, a welcome relief for those who suffer skin allergies or sensitivities. Through the use of plants and a small aerator, the water ecology is regulated and filtered to keep it clean and healthy. There are hundreds of ways to build a natural swimming pool and the techniques and systems you use will vary depending on your circumstances. Generally, a natural swimming pool is divided into the swimming zone…

OUR STRAWBALE BUILD: SMALL AND SLOW SOLUTIONS

With the help of family, friends and our wider community, my partner and I built a passive solar strawbale home. Building a home is an incredibly rewarding, exhausting and empowering thing to do. It’s an opportunity to implement ethical principles, learn and practise skills, build community, and create a space to live in that is truly reflective of your personal aesthetics and philosophy. Our house building journey germinated many years ago when as a 15-year-old, I visited the home of a woman who had built by hand her own tiny mudbrick home. From that moment on I was somewhat obsessed with the idea of building my own home. It was very early on in our relationship when I declared my intentions to my partner, Genevieve. Luckily she came onboard, and…

6 min

FLEMINGTON FOOD FOREST: AN ORCHARD CONVERSION

Food forests are a quintessential permie approach to food production. By layering plants that work together, a garden can offer a harvest with fewer inputs by mimicking an established forest ecosystem. The extra foliage and root matter in the system provides shade, water retention and organic matter. The Flemington Food Forest in Melbourne’s northwest, sits on the grounds of the Farnham Street Neighbourhood Learning Centre (FSNLC). The garden is brimming with life, sandwiched between a children’s playground and the community vegetable garden. Joanne Nataprawira has been involved in the project since its outset, providing design input, planning and direction. Jo began working with Pat and Tom of the Melbourne Inner Northwest Transition Initiative, Pip Mackey from FSNLC, and other local residents. Further support for the program has come from Brigidine…

FROM SEED TO SKIN: HOME GROWN HERBAL SKIN CARE

Kay Saarinan grows medicinal herbs, creating a range of organic skincare products in a purpose-built lab on her six-acre property on the NSW far South Coast. She started her business Saarinan Organics ten years ago, selling five products at the local markets. Kay now has 37 different products in her range, including facial cleansers, calendula ointment and moisturising creams. Kay grows what medicinal herbs she can, right outside the door to her lab. These include calendula, echinacea, comfrey, aloe vera, nettle, borage, chickweed (wild harvest), rosemary and elderberry, to name just a few. These are then harvested at the optimal time, dried and made into the medicinal skin care range. ‘What we can’t grow on the farm, we source as locally as possible,’ says Kay. ‘As farmers we know how…

HOME BREW BEER AND CHEER: MAKE YOUR OWN SUSTAINABLE BEER

The craft of brewed beverages, particularly beers, is enjoying a renaissance at the moment. This is based on a rediscovery of lapsed techniques and the inquisitive minds of home and craft brewers. For the permie, home brewing can reflect permaculture design principles. You need to ‘apply self-regulation and accept feedback’, as a boorish drunk is no fun. There is also an opportunity to ‘obtain a yield’, with three of the four main ingredients of beer easily collected (water), cultivated (hops) or cared for (yeast). The fourth ingredient (malted barley) can be grown and processed, however this is a task for an adventurous spirit. A DIY home brew offers several advantages over the shop bought product. Firstly you have much more control over the product, its provenance and its ingredients. Secondly…

HOW TO MAKE A BEAN POLE TEEPEE

MATERIALS • Bamboo or wood poles, 6–10 feet tall • Twine or string • Soil amendments if necessary • Pole bean seeds • Annual climbing bean or flower seeds INSTRUCTIONS Step 1. Determine teepee size and location. Loosely assemble the bamboo poles in the teepee shape (without tying them yet). If you’re okay with the size and location, mark the teepee footprint with string, a garden hose or a line of flour. Move the teepee poles out of the way. Step 2. Remove the sod from the horseshoe-shaped teepee footprint and amend the soil for planting. I like to dig in compost or composted cow manure to add nutrients. Step 3. Next, assemble your teepee poles, pushing the bottom ends into the amended soil, tying the top ends together. Step…

PERMACULTURE AROUND THE WORLD

TOKYO URBAN PERMACULTURE www.livingpermaculture.blogspot.com.au A thriving urban permaculture project is flourishing in Tokyo. It offers hope for a positive future for young people, and aims to revive traditional sustainable Japanese culture. A group of young people who care about sustainability, permaculture and peace activism are getting together for joyful and collaborative action. Their current project is to create a Permaculture and Peace Dojo. They have an acre of land and a traditional-style 100-year-old wooden house on the outskirts of Tokyo which they are renovating using sustainable practices. They plan to make it a centre where peace activists can explore permaculture and ways of contributing to positive change in the world. They will be ready for receiving volunteers in 2018. NOURISHING 1000 CHILDREN, MOZAMBIQUE Instituto de Permaculture de Mozambique (IPERMO) www.permacultura.com…

PIP BRAINS TRUST

Question for the Pip Brains Trust? Email editorial@pipmagazine.com.au What plants can I grow underneath my fruit trees to create a guild that will support them? [Jack, Cooma, NSW] I would start with plants that assist in pollination, perform the role of pest control and don’t compete with the tree. Perennials that flower just prior to and during each fruit tree flowering time will invite bees, pollinating the fruit and providing you with a harvest. Plants with daisy or umbel-shaped flowers are favoured by common predatory insects, so a handful of them in your guild during fruiting season can minimise damage. Shallow-rooting plants minimise competition for water and nutrients (with the exception of grasses). You may already have plants in your garden playing these roles, so cluster those species under your…

ACORN

Acorns (Quercus spp.) have long been thought of as a last resort food, but these small parcels of goodness pack quite a nutritional punch when processed the right way. Processing them is important, as acorns (like tea, chocolate and red wine) are jam-packed full of tannins. So much tannic acid in fact that they’re toxic to many livestock and even humans in their natural form. Leaching them of their tannins takes a little time and dedication. You also have to wait for trees to produce a mast crop every four or so years, though for the enthusiastic forager this can involve many enjoyable months of scouting these beautiful trees in the lead up to autumn. Patience certainly is a virtue where acorns are concerned, as they can reward you with…

THE SEAWEED SOLUTION

Seaweed is having a renaissance. For years it has been undervalued; out of sight, out of mind. However, researchers around the country and the world have begun to explore its amazing potential as an alternative to many products and practices which are proving to be unsustainable in the long-term. The seaweed industry is growing rapidly. Not only in food production where it currently accounts for $5 billion worldwide, but also in the medical and agricultural sectors. In Australia, research into seaweed is still in its infancy, but there are many exciting findings suggesting that seaweed may become a solution to many problems affecting our planet. Oceans cover 71 per cent of the earth’s surface and with overpopulation and the destruction of natural ecosystems, it makes sense to utilise this vast…

DARREN J. DOHERTY

Darren J. Doherty grew up on the family farm near Bendigo, learning rural and farming skills from his grandfather. ‘He saw that they would hold me in good stead,’ says Darren. ‘As someone who had lived through the Depression, he could see that those times may come again, so if economic circumstances collapsed I’d have the ability to survive.’ While it was a scary message for a kid, Darren says it was also a great one, because it was backed up by experiential skills he still carries today. When Darren became interested in permaculture, the set of agricultural and design principles already sounded familiar to his grandfather. “When I showed him Bill Mollison’s Permaculture – A Designer’s Manual, he said ‘we’ve been doing all of that stuff for forever’,” says…

FORAGING EDIBLE SEAWEED

Growing in our oceans and lining our beaches, seaweed is familiar to us all. But what many of us don’t realise is the nutritional benefit that seaweed offers. The edible seaweed industry in Australia is in its infancy. It’s only recently that scientific research is being conducted into the nutritional benefits of seaweed and how we can start incorporating it into our diets. Southern Australia has more species of seaweed than any other region, with 62% of species not growing anywhere else in the world. This means that we’re starting from scratch when it comes to understanding the health benefits and nutritional values that it holds. It also means that we have a huge potential for discovering more species of commercial value. On a global scale, Australia is perceived as…

ALTERNATIVE ECONOMIES: GROUPS WORKING TOWARDS A MORE RESILIENT FUTURE

BRUNSWICK TOOL LIBRARY Interview by Samantha Allemann Bought a whipper snipper and only used it once? Fret no more, as tool libraries will stop you from buying things you rarely use by allowing you to instead borrow what you need. Brunswick Tool Library has 250 active members who utilise the shovels, mattocks, axes and many other handy tools available to them, all for the cost of a small annual fee. Karleng Lim tells us how it works. What was the impetus for starting Brunswick Tool Library? Our founder Joleen Hess lives in Portland, Oregon, where there are four tool libraries. When she was living in Melbourne, she lamented the fact that there weren’t any in what was considered to be a progressive part of town. Being quite the DIY-er herself,…

11 min

BUILD YOUR OWN FIRE BATH

There is nothing nicer than kicking back under the stars in a steaming hot outdoor bath. Here are a couple of ways you can build your own fire bath. CAST IRON AND PIT FIRE BATH Our own fire bath is a simple design; basically a bath with a fire under it. Though not essential, it is preferable to use a cast iron bathtub as opposed to the thinner pressed iron model. The cast iron allows the heat to be more evenly distributed around the mass of the bathtub and retains heat for longer. Of course this simple design could be complicated by incorporating a rocket stove as the heat source. HOW TO BUILD A CAST IRON AND PIT FIRE BATH For starters, the site needs to be on reasonably level…

6 min

10 WAYS TO GET KIDS OFF SCREENS AND INTO NATURE

In a world dominated by screens big and small, we all need a little nudge sometimes to switch off, look up and get outside. A growing body of evidence tells us that it’s imperative that children get plenty of ‘vitamin N’ (nature connection) in order to develop many essential life skills. So how can you encourage your kids to swap screen time for play time? Here are our top 10 ideas to make the great outdoors fun! 1. FOLLOW ALONG When you are in a special outside place with your child, step back. Observe them. Instead of directing their play, say ‘I will follow you’, and see where they take you. What do they see? What interests them? How does the world look from their perspective? What can you learn…

FUN PAGES!

COLOUR IN THE FISH! Enjoy our colouring in for big and little fish alike. Post your finished artwork on Instagram #pipmag #fishcolouringin or email to hello@pipmagazine.com.au. The best one will be published online. JOKE! HAHA. Why was the sand wet? Because the seaweed. FUN FACTS: 5 Strawberry facts: • Strawberries are the only fruit to have seeds on the outside • The average strawberry has around 200 seeds • The strawberry is a member of the rose family • Strawberries date back to Roman times • The plants have pink and white flowers with yellow centres RECIPE – BERRY YOGHURT CUPS Ingredients • 1/2 cup of berry yoghurt • 1/2 cup of oats • 3/4 cup of berries of your choice • A sprinkle of cinnamon (optional) Method 1. Place…

1 min