The Opening of the Poo Palace

The formal "ribbon" cutting.

There have been periods in my life when I have lived in a house that had a composting loo. It's always been an unnatural feeling to then go back to using a flush toilet where you do your business into water. "Why is this precious resource (water) being desecrated and valuable resources (poo) flushed down the toilet?", I have protested as I feebly pressed the flush button.
We Peace Farmers decided enough was enough and hatched a plan to get good old Muza (me) to build a repository worthy of its precious cargo.....In short, a composting dunny. But this was to be no simple hole in the ground. It needed to be able to store a sizeable volume of waste and then have it be easily removeable to where it could compost over time and ultimately fertilize the fruit trees, with minimum handling. We went with the wheelie bin design where you basically fill up a wheelie bin and then park it somewhere for 6 months to a year. Meanwhile you replace that bin with another and start the process over again

The esteemed guests of the launch

The throne itself needed to provide the option of being able to sit or squat and so includes ample room for feet around the rim. Other features include a big window looking out over the mountains to the north, a self closing door so that gail forced winds don't tear said door off its' hinges and an internal lock so that participants can enjoy their time undisturbed.
Upgrades to come include a blackboard to record those moments of pure brilliance that visit us when we are in such states of repose (I can't wait to read such inspired prose!) and a bucket for the sawdust that's going everywhere at the moment because it's just in a bag.

The proud creator of the "Poo Palace"

So how's it going? Does it smell?
It's going great. We've just about filled our first wheelie bin and there's no offensive odour. I did attach a hose fitting and a wire mesh to separate and drain off any excess fluid at the base of the bin  because I was told that the urine creates most of the bad odours but as we don't use the toilet to specifically urinate into (what....and deprive the lemon trees!) there isn't enough to cause a problem.
So in all it's a great success. It has a devoted crew of regular users who aren't afraid to brave the elements in order to reach the outdoor dunny. After all, it is a bit of a pilgrimage where we pay our respects to the Great Mother and give back a little something after receiving so much

Our weekend wwoofer - a win win situation

Since April this year we have had a wonderful wwoofer, Michael, coming up from Melbourne every Saturday to help us out on the farm.  We feed him a delicious lunch and he helps us with whatever projects are happening on the farm, such as planting, building, straw-baling, mixing compost and natural fertilisers, weeding, bed preparation, and propagation.

Michael found out about wwoofing from a friend from Chile and since he has always wanted to live in the country and perhaps own a farm one day he found PEACE Farm in the wwoofer guide and got in touch.

 "I thought, what a great idea.  I've always wanted to do something like this. I wish I had found out about it years ago." He was inspired by a friend who uses his spare time to follow his passion of standup comedy.

 Michael told me "You need to work to get money but your spare time is for following your passion and after going back to Wooloongong after years of living in the city it became my passion to re-connect with nature.  I returned to the city and felt uncomfortable, like I didn't want to be here anymore.  Then I thought if I learn how to live off the land then I don't have to depend on anyone else.  SO that was the primary motivation to start wwoofing on the weekend."

Having Michael come up every Saturday just for the day has really been a win-win situation. We get all the benefits of having an extra pair of hands (and those great muscles) and he learns about all aspects of running a permaculture farm.

Michael explained, "The highlights for me have been working with my hands in the earth, with shirt off and shoes off in the sun. Its the best feeling to get the city off me.  I go home feeling wonderful and I learn more each time I come.  And meeting like-minded people who are doing what I would like to do in the future. So that is the best highlight - knowing I am achieving what I set out to achieve."

Cape Gooseberries

I have never heard of Cape gooseberries before, let alone picked and eaten them, but they are currently my favourite thing to forage for and find in the PEACE Farm mandala gardens.  Perhaps its because the mandala gardens are looking pretty sparse these days, or perhaps its the way the golden fruit is hiding with a paperthin leafy shell, and when its really ripe this turns transparent revealing the gold fruit inside.

There is something lovely about removing it from this leafy shell and popping it into my mouth.  The taste is different, not too sweet, not too tart if ripe enough.  It tastes like what I think a Vitamin C tablet should taste like - vibrant and alive.

Today the little kids of the farm helped me harvest them. Many had fallen off the vine prematurely from the wind.  Hopefully they might ripen if I bring them inside.

 I just checked online and they are also known as Inca berries, Aztec berries, Golden berries, and ground berries.  They contain Vitamins A, C & B and are high in protein and iron. Yeah!   If I stop eating them I may even have enough to make a gooseberry jam, but the temptation to just pop them in is too great.

Celebrating Winter at PEACE Farm

So Winter has definitely arrived.  We have had some very wild, windy and rainy weather over the last few weeks so I was very happy for a bit of sunshine today.  I managed to get two loads of washing on the line, harvested some yummies from the garden, and gave the children some much needed outdoor play.

Thanks to everyone who braved the cold the weekend before last to come down to PEACE Farm for the Winter Solstice.  We were blessed with a respite from the rain and although it was cold, we actually had a starry sky.  The fire was blazing all night to keep us warm. When we first lit the fire as the sun went down we sang some solstice songs and the children circled the fire with their candle lanterns.  Then it was time for a warming soup, followed by chai and cakes.

None of us dared sit in the 'hot seat' but it was marvellous to watch the chair burn

We celebrated the longest night with a letting go ritual. We took it in turns to throw gum leaves into the fire.  I enjoyed this simple act of release and letting go, watching it burning away to ash.  We then joined with another to talk about and share what we wanted to grow with the coming of the light.

Em and Vicky serving the cakes which were delicious. 

Winter Solstice is one of the things I love about winter.  When I lived in the Northern Territory I missed this time of spiralling in towards the darkness. A time for inner reflection, sometimes a time of struggle, but ultimately a time of letting go and rebirth.   In winter time we, like the plants and trees, are mostly dormant, but its a perfect time to let go of our leaves and tend to our roots.  The solstice is like the new year.  Ideas can begin to be formed and germinated. And as the days start to get longer again and the sun returns bit by bit,  new buds can start to grow. By the time the Spring Equinox arrives, we can begin to see the blossoming of these ideas.  So Happy Solstice everyone, and I hope you are all tending your roots and growing wonderful new ideas to blossom in the Spring.

Ollie in the snow - first snow of the year at Mt Donna Buang

SO what else is there to celebrate about Winter...
The other things I love about winter are hot mulled wine, open fires, hot chocolate, and my possum-fur gloves and scarf.    But probably the best thing about winter around here is the snow.  We had a couple of days of snow last week so took the opportunity to take the kids up the mountain for a play.  There was just enough snow to go down the toboggan run.

 I think now its all melted.... until next time it snows.  Maybe see you up the mountain?

Marlowe and his snowman

Spicy Sweet Brown Rice Porridge

Both delicious & nutritious and a perfect start for cold winter mornings…

Works best with pre-cooked brown rice. I cook 2 cups of pre-soaked medium grain brown rice with 5 cups of water and a pinch of salt in a rice cooker until ready. Then store in refrigerator. This usually makes 2-3 breakfast meals

Ingredients: (Serves 2)

2 cups pre-cooked brown rice

2-3 cups of water (depending on how soupy you like it!)

1 inch knob of fresh ginger grated

zest of one lemon or orange

1 stick cinnamon

handful of assorted dried fruits & nuts including: sultanas, cranberries, pitted prunes, goji berries, dates,  pepitas, sunflower seeds, black sesame seeds

Cook on low heat for approximately 15-20 minutes stirring often so it doesn’t stick to the bottom. Serve with tahini, yoghurt, chopped fresh fruit such as; banana, pear, passion fruit, fresh berries and honey if desired. 

Even the most discerning kids will love it!

Parsley Soup

We have had an abundance of parsley here at Peace Farm and so I've figured this is the medicine of the moment! I was been searching for recipes that use a large amount of parsley and this is the winner...

Parsley Soup:

1 tbsn butter

1 tbsn olive oil

1 onion chopped

2 cloves garlic finely chopped

2 potatoes peeled & chopped

1 large bunch of parsley

1 litre of chicken stock

salt & pepper to taste

Optional: zest & juice of 1 lemon, sprig of thyme & small sprig of rosemary and garnish with parmesan cheese & grated nutmeg

Heat up the oil & butter in large pot then saute the onion & garlic. Add potatoes and the stock and cook for 10 minutes and then add parsley when the potatoes are cooked. Cook for a further 5 minutes and then blend soup in a food processor or with a hand blender.

When the parsley is only cooked for 5 minutes, this creates the most vibrant emerald soup and tastes amazing.

Enjoy!

Autumn Pumpkin, Adzudi, Shitaki Miso Stew

This is a wonderful warming Autumn stew that makes the most of the lovely root vegetables we are harvesting.

Serves 4

¼ large jap pumpkin coarsely chopped

1 large potato coarsely chopped

1 large onion chopped

2 cloves garlic finely chopped

1 knob of fresh garlic grated

4 inch strip of kombu seaweed

2 medium carrots chopped

1 cup dried shitaki mushrooms (pre-soaked and retain liquid for stock)

1/2 cup adzuki beans (soaked overnight)

1 tspn cumin seed

1 stick cinnamon

Salt & pepper to taste

Miso to taste

Optional: nori (seaweed), gomasio (roasted sesame seeds & salt), flat leaf parsley to garnish

& add 1 tin coconut milk for a richer stew 5 minutes before serving

Saute onion and garlic and spices, then add ginger and all vegetables and beans. Cover generously with water and cook for 45 minutes stirring occasionally. When serving up, rub miso around each bowl, serve stew and top with garnish 

Enjoy!

Farm Play - 2014

At the beginning of this year the mama’s of Peace Farm started ‘Farm Play’! 

 

The day is simple and organic. It  includes; nature arts and crafts, singing, dancing and story telling focusing on a feature animal and plant each week.

The children are nourished by our home grown produce at morning tea, before venturing outside for some ‘farm play’. We take our baskets in search of seasonal goodies such as cherry tomatoes, feathers and flowers. After a visit to the chooks, sheep, cows and goats we hike down to the forest, where we make some nature mandalas from the things we have gathered and then wrap up with some more song, dance and forest play!

We will soon be running some Farm Play sessions at our monthly ‘Hands-on-the-Land’ work days. This will help to create a really family friendly and educational day for all!

Ectopia Festival - Sunday 13th April 2014

Peace Farm had a stall at the local Ectopia Festival in Yarra Junction. 

The theme: the honey bee! We proudly displayed our summer harvest and promoted our CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) Vege Box & membership and we also displayed our Farm Play activities that we make at our weekly play group including: corn dollies, magic feather wands and our beautiful harvest mandala. 

The mandala was constructed by some adults, but mainly by the kids! And featured beans and seeds that were then packaged up and given away in little bags of green manure crop seeds after the mandala was dismantled. In the essence of permiculture, recycling and alchemy!

Autumn Equinox celebration

As we say goodbye to summer and long days we welcome the dark back in to our lives and also celebrate the harvest. It has certainly been an amazing harvest this first summer at PEACE farm.

One of the many crates off to the shed. We have had the biggest harvest of tomatoes ever!

We decided to mark the occasion of the Autumn Equinox when the day and night are of equal length with a simple ritual and cake.  We walked around our mandala gardens and each collected something to recognise what we would like to let go of and something we wish to grow and nurture in our lives.

An autumn equinox cake, see recipe below

I baked a delicious chocolate hazelnut banana cake and we had one side with candles and the other with pine cones.  My symbol of letting go was a dying sunflower, I let go of the summer with gratitude for all it has given me. And my symbol of what I wish to create was some white sage, to bring rest, healing and the sacred into my life, and a strawberry to bring pleasure and succulence, and these combined are to bring more balance between full rest and full energy.

The children enjoyed the ritual and especially blowing out the candles and eating the cake.

Matt explains the Oxheart tomato symbolises his intention to live and communicate more from the heart.

Cat's chocolate hazelnut & banana cake

I used my thermomix to make this and so the thermomix instructions are in brackets but you can try just with a food processor if you don't have a thermomix.

Ingredients:

150g dark chocolate

100g almonds

150g hazelnuts

80g brown sugar

150g butter or oil

4 eggs

1 ripe banana

2ts baking powder

1ts cinnamon

2 tbs cocoa

Preheat oven to 180 degrees C. Grate or mill chocolate and set aside (6 secs, speed 8). Process almonds and hazelnuts to a course meal (6 secs, speed 6). Add to chocolate.  Place remaining ingredients in TM bowl or food processor and mix (20 secs, speed 7). Add choc and nut mix and continue to mix (30 secs, speed 6). Pour mixture into greased pan lined with baking paper.  Bake in preheated oven for approximately 45min-1 hour.

ENJOY!!! 

Zucchini Fest

We have soooo many zucchini's!!!

So, today I decided to have a zucchini fest! I got a little experimental and for lunch we had zucchini slice and for dinner we had both mini zucchini pizza's & also zucchini pasta with olive oil, garlic, walnuts & pine nuts. The winner for me was the good old favourite zucchini slice, so here's the recipe....

Zucchini Slice:

1 large zucchini grated and squeezed to rid of excess liquid
1 cup of spelt flour (could use any other flour)
1 tpsn of bicarbonate soda ( or 2 tspns baking powder)
1 onion sliced
2 cloves garlic finely sliced
Bunch of fresh herbs eg. sage, basil, parsley, thyme finely sliced
 2 tbsn olive oil
2 eggs beaten
1/2 cup feta
1/2 cup of finely grated parmesan cheese
Finely grated nutmeg (optional)

Preheat oven to 180 C and well oil a baking dish. Mix all dry ingredients in a bowl. Heat some oil in pan and saute onion and garlic and when turning soft, add zucchini. Cook for about 5 minutes. Then add all other ingredients (except parmesan & nutmeg) to the flour and pour into baking dish. Sprinkle parmesan and nutmeg on top and cook in oven for about 20 minutes. Insert a knife to make sure the slice is cooked in the centre. Serve with ample salad & home made chutney or relish!!

We are also experiencing a plum glut!! I have been dreaming of ice cream and today I made roasted blood plum frozen yoghurt. It is extremely yummy!! It was very simple to make and needs to be shared...

Roasted Blood Plum Frozen Yoghurt:

1 kg blood plums halved and stoned
1 tbsn brown sugar
Sprinkle of cinnamon powder
Pinch of salt
1 cup yoghurt
1-2 tbsn honey
1 tspn vanilla essence

Preheat oven to 180 C. Roast plums on a well greased baking dish, sprinkled with sugar and cinnamon for 20-40 minutes until soft and sticky but on browned. Cool to room temperature. Puree or press through a sieve if you want a smoother texture or just blend as is with the yoghurt, honey and vanilla essence. Chill and then mix in an ice cream maker or freeze until just hard and then whip up and serve. Enjoy!

Frogs in the Mandala

 It was the fulfillment of a vision.... I could hardly believe it when I saw him, especially given that it was a 40 degree day. How could that little moist skinned fellow exist under such scorching heat even under the shade  of a particularly big Radicchio lettuce.....

 When we first dreamed of having mandala gardens at Peace Farm we were inspired by the idea of  a complete system combining seasonal crops, perrenial fruit trees and chicken tractors dancing in a rotational cycle with the seasons.

The Mandala Gardens began as a bare patch of ground.

At the centre of this great swirling, like the planets around the sun, was to be a pond. An intrinsic element to this permaculture design, the pond has many functions. It acts as a heat sink to stabilize temperatures as they fluctuate between day and night. It can also cool and moisten the environment as warm winds evaporate the water as they pass over the pond's surface.

The introduction of the pond brought the element of water to the garden.

What I love most however is that these ponds become home to lizards and frogs who feast on the slugs, snails, grubs and grasshoppers and whatever else takes their fancy. In the wonderful synchronicity that is the Mandala System, it just so happens that these are precisely the critters that we want to discourage.

The chook tractor is another key element of the Mandala garden.

 The three ponds' construction was completed in late spring. By then the frogs were done mating and their season's eggs had already become tadpoles so there would be no frogs in our ponds this season, unless we could get some from elsewhere.
It just so happened that whilst visiting a neighbour I was delighted to noticed their tadpole laden pond by the front entrance which they were more than happy for me to dip into. I happily headed home with a couple of glad bags sloshing at the end of my handle bars.

This is how the Mandalas look today. A veritable Garden of Eden!

I introduced them into the pond and watched them mature over the following weeks and then.......they disappeared.

I imagined that if any had survived the hot pond conditions (Not enough tall plants for shade around the pond yet) they would've headed for the larger dam down the hill and resigned myself to trying again next year to establish a frog haven, until..........

Just two days ago I was pulling up some bolted lettuces from the central pond garden to feed to the cows when this pale little fellow leapt out from under the green foliage. I believe he is a brown tree frog, a species common to southern Victoria. 

Look who was hiding under the giant Radicchio lettuce!

He represents to me the emergence of a complete eco-system that not only supports and sustains our nutritional needs but is also a home to unknown quantities of wild creatures living above, within and below the foliage. Through their contribution in harmony with all of the other elements of this eco-system it is becoming an environment of growing inspiration.

Author: Murray

Spiced Plum Chutney

This plum chutney is sweet & spicy! Made from our home grown plums and onions, it was  wonderful with our hand picked salad and home made chicken & herb sausage rolls...

Spiced Plum Chutney  Recipe

(adapted from a River Cottage recipe)

1 1/2  kg plums coarsely chopped

2 apples cored and chopped

3 small onions chopped

500g sultanas or raisins

500g light brown sugar

500ml red or white wine vinegar

25g fresh ginger grated

3 cloves

1 stick of cinnamon

pinch of salt

1 tspn cumin seeds

Place all ingredients in a large pot and cook for 20 minutes. Cool for a few hours, then bring to boil and then simmer for 2-4 hours to thicken and spoon into sterilized jars. Enjoy!!

Happy hay baling day with no baling out

Last Saturday 18 Jan we finished off loading all the remaining hay bales from our back paddock with help from our wonderful wwoofers Sarah and John, and some dedicated Peace Farm members and friends, Carmen, Andrew, Maya, Kari and Steve.  We had been waiting since early December for the weather to clear for long enough to cut the grass, let it dry and then to be baled up.  This finally happened in the second week of Jan.

Matts team

Until Saturday John and Sarah were working tirelessly on their own to load and stack the 300 odd bales.  Thank goodness for reinforcements.  Two competing teams went down to the back paddock in Matt's and Murray's cars and tried to out-do how may bales could be stacked on.

Matts team were pretty happy with this load.

Maya kept swapping teams, here she is helping Muz's team

 Maya showed her excellent strength and endurance,  helping out both teams with their loads. Murray's team was slower than Matt's team but loaded an unbelievable 34 bales on his little car and trailer (this figure is according to Murray but may be in dispute by other team).  Matt's team was having too much fun and forgot to count, but perhaps only got around 32.

Kari ready to unload the bales

The shed is now completely full of bales

 After satisfactorily finishing the job in a matter of hours it was time for a swim in the dam to cool off and a delicious shared picnic lunch.

Thanks to everyone for helping us, and now help us by coming and buying the bales - $7 each.

Cheers,  Cat

Celebrating Lammas

Lammas is a celebration at the mid point between the Summer Solstice and the Autumn Equinox.
The essence of this festival is to celebrate the first harvest.

It is a time to give thanks for the Abundance of the Earth, acknowledging what we harvest from our efforts, what gifts we receive from the Earth.
It is also a time of dry heat, grass fire, and bush fire.
The main colours are yellow, orange and red (dry grass, corn, tomatoes...)

Today we gathered in the circle and shared about what we were symbolicly harvesting in our life.

We made some corn dollies from the harvest of our corn and wheat from our mandala garden.

"Corn Dolly" is an ancient craft going back to when it was thought that a spirit lived in the cornfields. To honour and preserve the spirit at harvest time and ensure the success of next year's harvest, a corn dolly was made for it to rest in.