Innholdsfortegnelse for Issue 10 i Pip Magazine

KIRSTEN BRADLEY Kirsten Bradley is the co-founder of Milkwood Permaculture. She lives with her family on a small permaculture homestead in Victoria where they grow food, milk goats, keep bees, forage, teach courses and write books about permaculture skills. She has a tendency to pickle and ferment everything available, usually with grand success. Milkwood’s first book is due out September 2018. FABIAN CAPOMOLLA Fabian Capomolla is passionate about food and gardening; in particular, where the two meet. He co-founded The Little Veggie Patch Co. and coauthored three gardening books. In 2014, Fabian sold his share of the business and moved his young family (wife Beck and kids Jack and Olive) to Lucca, Italy, to reconnect with his roots, which is the subject of his latest book, ‘Growing Food The Italian…

BIOME BEE HOUSE 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 WECK JARS Weck make beautiful, high-quality and zero -waste preserving jars for a wide range of purposes including fermenting, jam and sauce making. The jars come…

The phrase ‘eating the suburbs’ is for many of us a rare pleasure. Most of the time, public vegetation means ‘don’t eat it’. Look at it, stand under it, breathe it in… but not too deeply in case your allergies flare, and whatever you do, don’t put it in your mouth. Eating from our everyday environment is far less common than common sense might imagine. There just aren’t that many public spaces purpose-grown to maximise edible yields. The concept of growing food in public spaces seems stuck in first gear in most of our towns. As urban areas become increasingly dense and pricey, growing food in our private spaces becomes a harder ask. While pot plants, backyards, balconies and planter boxes are noble food growing efforts, what about those great…

The Plummery’s vegie patch is the productive heart of our urban permaculture system. Measuring a modest 30 m2 (including paths), it has been managed through just a couple of hours a week. We swap our persimmons for pumpkins and buy a sack of potatoes, but year-round almost all of our vegies come from this little patch. Our records show that it produced more than 170 kg in 2016! So what’s the secret? Do we use biochar, rock dust, mycorrhizal fungi? Is it biointensive? What about wicking beds, or vertical gardens? There are no magic bullets. The key to great yields is not sexy or even that difficult. But it does require a thoughtful design, attention at the right time and a healthy dose of commitment. If you’re blessed with ample…

Preserving tomatoes is one of the easiest ways to get a homemade larder started. Over summer and autumn, tomatoes are so abundant, whether you grow them yourself or buy them by the box from your favourite fruit and veg shop or market. If you’re organised and ready to give preserving tomatoes a go, it’s quite possible to bottle, dry and brew up a year’s supply of tomato sauces and condiments in a timely fashion. Yes, you may well be splashed red by the end of the process, but that’s what summer preserving is all about, isn’t it? Both big and small tomatoes are fine for preserving, but you may want to approach them in different ways. There are ‘sauce tomatoes’ like Roma and San Marzano; tomatoes that have been bred…

You will need: • An orange bag• Needle and thread, or sewing machine• Scrap fabric• Scissors• Ruler• Pins• An iron Step 1. Cut both ends off the orange bag, and as gently as possible, remove any labels. Sometimes labels will leaves small holes in the bag, but not to worry, we’ll patch them over later. Next cut the bag in half to make two groovy upcycled orange bags. Step 2 If there are any holes in the bag, patch them over using strips of scrap fabric or cut out shapes. Hand stitch over smaller holes or use a tight zig-zag stitch on the sewing machine. Step 3 Reseal the bottoms of the new bags. To do this, grab some sturdy scrap fabric and cut a strip that’s just slightly longer…

As urban centres expand and suburbs sprawl, farmers sometimes find their rural idyll hemmed in by the reach of the city. When they found they were losing their quiet country surrounds, Kate Beveridge and her partner Mark Brown of Purple Pear Farm faced the choice to sell up and move further out, or stay put and feed the community that had come to them. Kate and her family first moved to their small acreage in 1995. Driven by a passion for growing food, Kate and Mark soon saw the potential of the land and its location. Nestled in the crook of the Hunter River, on the outskirts of Maitland in NSW, it seemed a perfect place to provide local food for the town. FLOURISHING MARKET GARDEN When they first arrived,…

APPLY SELF-REGULATION AND ACCEPT FEEDBACK In our household it’s all about the golden jars of drippy honey, blocks of creamy butter, big bags of wholemeal spelt flour lining the floor, and tiny bottles of homemade vanilla extract. This is the simple basis for most of our family baking. It hasn’t always been like this though. While in the last 15 years my baking has generally been on the healthier side of things, I wasn’t a stranger to sugar in the cupfuls, rainbows of food dyes and fluffy white flour. Over the years, and with a variety of questionable ovens, my baking has evolved. Babies were born, tastebuds matured and knowledge was built on. Slowly I worked out what food was best to fuel both myself and those I loved. Unsurprisingly,…

Hello people, 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),…

International permaculture convergences (IPCs) are an opportunity for people from all over the world to get together and share their passion for permaculture. With 1200 participants from over 60 countries at the latest IPC held in India last November and December, there was a wide representation from across the globe. Bill Mollison and Robyn Francis came to India 30 years ago and taught the first PDC (permaculture design course). One of their first students on that course was Narsanna Koppula, who went on to create Aranya Farm. He has transformed a semi-arid wasteland into a productive and thriving demonstration farm, where he teaches and spreads the word of permaculture. Narsanna has been instrumental in establishing permaculture in India, and from what I could see, there is a thriving permaculture movement…

Despite their strange sounding name, brassicas are easily recognisable vegetables from the mustard family of plants, otherwise known as Brassicaceae. Vegies that belong to this family are broccoli, cauliflower, kale, cabbage, Brussels sprouts, radish, turnips, and even rocket. A common attribute among brassicas are the seed pods they produce once they have flowered. Another is that they are cold and frost hardy, making them natural winter crops. Brassicas were also dominant in European cuisine before the introduction of vegetables from the new world. I have highlighted three types of brassicas that are delicious in wintry meals—even more so when freshly picked from your own garden. CABBAGE/CAVOLO Cabbage is one of the most popular winter vegetables in Italy because it is readily available, inexpensive, versatile and easy to grow. No one…

Hidden amongst the factories and warehouses of Heidelberg West, FD Ryan Toolmakers is a father and son collaboration between Matthew and James King. They specialise in hand making bespoke garden tools that are built to last. While the collaboration may be young, this fledgling business has a long history that incorporates the family’s own story over four generations. The FD Ryan workshop sits alongside the larger warehousing operations of the family’s main business—a bustling warehouse involved in importing garden tools for the Australian horticultural market. Matthew recalls that when he began working in the family business, started by his blacksmith grandfather Frederick Daniel Ryan in 1933, it was heavily involved in metal manufacturing (in particular, steel caps for the booming footwear industry in Fitzroy, Melbourne). But with the decline in…

You will need: • A sewing machine• Scraps of fabric in contrasting patterns (the main pattern for the outside and contrasting for inner and strap)• Thread• Pins• Ruler• Scissors• Fork, spoon, knife and reusable straw Pattern pieces: • Cut 2 x rectangles 15 cm x 45 cm in main and contrasting patterns • Cut 1 x rectangle 5 cm x 65 cm of the contrasting fabric Step 1. Create the strap Out of your longer rectangle, press the edges 1 cm over all around and then fold in half lengthways, tucking short ends under at each end. Stitch flat to create your outer strap. Step 2. Attach the strap Find the centre of your strap and pin it to your main fabric rectangle, in the centre, 15 cm from the…

The Green Garden Group (GGG) of Iviani Primary School in the Eastern Province of Ukumbani, Kenya, started in 2013. Back then it had around 60 teachers, students and community members who were eager to learn about and practise permaculture. I facilitated the start of GGG because I felt that food security and prevailing droughts can only be addressed with changed behaviour, hence the introduction of permaculture. The students attend school from 7am until 5pm and there was little or no food available throughout the day. While there was a government feeding program of maize and beans, these initiatives come and go fast in Kenya, so the GGG took action. We implemented a kitchen garden, and planted a food forest and Moringa forest. We also established a tree nursery from seeds…

Justin Calverley, Morag Gamble & Kat Lavers Question for the Pip Brains Trust? Email editorial@pipmagazine.com.au My cucumber seedlings wilt every day in the hot sun. They come back to life every evening after a good water, but is this ideal? Should I have planted them somewhere shadier? [Nicole, Umina Beach, NSW] When plants lose more water than they can take up from the soil, the pressure inside their cells is reduced which leads to wilting. Generally plants have stopped growing before wilting is visible and there is a point beyond which plants cannot recover. Cucurbits like pumpkin, zucchini and cucumber have large, broad leaves and it can be difficult to prevent them from wilting on hot days, even with good soil moisture, but they usually bounce right back as you’ve…

Retrofitting our homes, gardens and lifestyles to be more self-reliant and resilient promises both a more fulfilling life for us and multiple benefits for society and the environment. Retrofitting also enables us to focus on what we can do at the household level, rather than community or government levels. We don’t need permission or government funding to start making our lives more productive and enjoyable. We don’t even need to own the place we call home. Although the scope for physical retrofits is greater for home-owners, renters can also make creative changes to their habits, diets and work patterns to create a more resilient and fulfilling life. This retrofitting can be done wherever we are, but in my latest book, RetroSuburbia: The Downshifters’ Guide to a Resilient Future (Melliodora Publishing,…

David Holmgren is a thinker. David not only questions the status quo, but redesigns it and creates an alternative. In the 70s, faced with a world that he questioned, he came up with the permaculture concept, along with his mentor Bill Mollison. Bill immediately took the concept and travelled the world, teaching it to thousands of people worldwide, making himself and permaculture a household name. David however felt that the permaculture design principles needed testing. He turned his focus to building his skills, and testing and implementing the principles they’d created. The result is David’s home, Melliodora, an inspiring and beautiful working example of permaculture on 1 hectare of intensively farmed land. There you’ll find a passive solar mud-brick home and office, a team of willing workers and a well-integrated…

When I first came to look at the property we now call home, the house was far from ideal. It faced south, had small dark rooms, the kitchen was poky and a wide verandah ran down the length of the north side, preventing any sunlight from finding its way in. The soil was lush though, the house had significant potential for improvement, it was two minutes from town (Pambula, far south coast NSW) and the local school, and it had a certain charm. It was also set back off the road, surrounded by trees and farmland. All the infrastructure was already in place, it had power, a 130,000-litre water tank, a dam, ponds, a half-converted barn, a four bay work shed, an onsite caravan and two and a half acres…

Unless you’ve embraced the ‘no poo’ method (where you eschew shampoo), you’ll be regularly pouring hair products onto your head. Shampoo, conditioner, perhaps a hair treatment mask every now and then, texturising spray, styling pomade, colour treatment … All of these add up, not only in cost and precious shower space, but in increasing your environmental footprint. A lot of energy goes into making and transporting even the smallest of plastic bottles, with most not being able to be recycled after their use. Many of the products on the market also expose you to nasty chemicals such as propylene glycol (which has been linked to headaches and kidney problems), triclosan (a hormone disrupter) and parabens (which can cause skin irritation), and the majority have been tested on animals. Yet with…

DIY VEGIE BAGS You will need: • Some lightweight fabric• A4 paper x 2 sheets, a ruler, pencil and glue• Cord (about 75 cm for this pattern)• Sewing machine, thread and pins Step 1. Make your pattern Take one of the sheets of paper and fold it in half lengthwise. Glue the other sheet along that centre line. On the right edge, measure down 6 cm and mark. This is your marker for where the drawstring goes. Step 2. Cut your fabric (using your pattern) Fold your fabric, right side to right side, and pin the pattern to the fabric. Don’t forget to cut a notch on the right edge where you marked the drawstring entry point. Step 3. Time to start sewing! 3a. First, sew the right side from…

A worm tower provides an easy way to have selffertilising stations throughout the garden. They’re a good option for people not wanting to get ‘down and dirty’ with their worms. Traditional worm farms require checking of temperatures, moisture, food uptake, etc., but with a worm tower, after it’s placed in the garden, you simply need to put some food in every few days, keep it moist and covered, and the worms do the rest. Worm towers can are much smaller than traditional worm farms. They’re cheap, especially if you use recycled materials, and you can make one in under an hour! The traditional worm tower is a vertical pipe with holes drilled around the bottom half that gets dug into the garden. It becomes the house and feeding station for…

MICRO GREENS If you want something tiny, nutritious and delicious, try micro greens. Long revered by chefs for their subtle flavours and delicate textures, they are very easy to grow and will add some extra street cred to any kitchen. Because plants are not grown to full maturity, we don’t have to worry about a lot of common challenges like spacing, light, pests and disease. Instead, growing is an all-out sprint with a high-density of seeds placed in a tray and watered daily. Only a little bit of light is necessary, which makes these a popular option for people who want to grow indoors. LETTUCE Lettuce is the Golden Retriever of the vegetable world: simple, loyal and easy to satisfy. Throw any season at a lettuce and you’re bound to…

Libraries are magical places where we learn to communicate in new and creative ways through language. A library bag is a passport, a rite of passage for all children to learn how to use, understand and share the joy of the unknown that books bring. Imagine being a librarian in charge of your own library. Imagine having the chance to put books in front of people so they can learn new and inspiring things about the world, art, music and everything and anything. Imagine if the library was at your place, and you get to see books come and go, read and exchange them. Well, you can become a street librarian! It’s really simple—all you need to do is find a place where you can set up a waterproof container…

Do you want your course featured here? Send your details to hello@pipmagazine.com.au: name, location, courses, web, phone, email. 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 SOUTHERN HARVEST EDUCATION, Intro to Permaculture, PDC, Specialist courses e.g. Farm establishment, homesteading, forest gardens.education@southernharvest.org.au http://southernharvest.org.au/education/ NSW A GARDEN FOR LIFE, Helensburgh, Garden Design,0404 123 747, www.agardenforlife.com.au, narelle@agardenforlife.com.au ALLYN RIVER PERMACULTURE, Allynbrook, PDC, Intro to Permaculture, Soils & Composting, Small Animals, Gardening Sustainably, Garden to Market, (02) 4938 9748, www.allynriverpermaculture.com.au, 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…

GROW FOOD ANYWHERE: THE NEW GUIDE TO SMALL-SPACE GARDENING by Mat Pember and Dillon Seitchik-Reardon (Hardie Grant 2017) Review by Patrick Lias 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…