Fresh Food Gardens in Arid Australia.

A couple of weeks back, Mark was sent out to an indigenous community near Alice Springs. He left me in  charge of the farm for two weeks and set off on his adventure. Following is his account of the project.

I was privileged to be asked by Slow Foods Hunter Valley to look at fresh food in Central Australia. I spent two weeks near Kings Canyon on a community project for a food garden. The project for me centered around a market garden set up in the Wanmara community by a group keen to get food available in the Kings Canyon area. The well (over) resourced enterprise was way too much for the members of the community and it was important that we provide a manageable food growing opportunity for the community that could be expanded into the future if that was what they wanted.

We needed to reduce the need for labour if possible and make the garden a place where the community would be interested in and keen to attend on a regular (daily) basis. The conventional market garden was seen as uninspiring.

In consultation with the key people in the community, Peter, Christine and Elma, we designed a garden along the lines of a mandala garden with the idea that chickens in purpose built domes could do the bulk of the work  in cultivating, fertilizing, insect control and bed clean up and weed control. 

We added to this a meandering garden where some of the bush tucker of the area could be grown.

The mandala incorporates the existing propagation house and a small citrus orchard in a position close to the houses with room for expansion  as interest grows. The introduction of chickens will need to wait till they can be provided with electric mesh fencing to keep out dingos and the construction of the appropriate housing.

We constructed compost piles using local pest “Buffel” grass and camel and donkey manure from Kings Creek Station nearby. 

Mulga sticks used to build the compost enclosure

We also propagated a range of seasonal vegetables for planting in the mandala garden and some bush tucker plants as well.

 We arranged stones to outline the beds and paths 

and constructed a couple of ponds to invite the wildlife to be part of the solution to the arid environment and invite biological pest controllers to the garden. 

 All mandalas were fitted with drip irrigation from the previous garden.

The bush foods garden is an ongoing, evolving project with the plan a start to making it happen.

Though we have made a great start there remains plenty to do to ensure we have a workable, interesting and productive fresh food garden for the communities inhabitants, and perhaps the wider community in the arid centre of Australia.

There was plenty of hard work during the two weeks in the center of Australia but l also took some time for trekking in the beautiful country. We saw some special places that the ordinary tourist does not get to see. The marvelous generosity of the people at Wanmara and at Lilla will be something I remember for a long time.

Mums And Bubs

Our latest Mums and Bubs tour was a huge success.

This tour is designed for those parents who would like to take a look around the farm with their little ones. It is much slower in pace than our main tour for the month so that the children can take a break for a snack and get up close to the animals....

The parents left feeling inspired to grow a little of their own food, and the children left feeling tired but happy. A great opportunity for some city kids to experience farm life!

International Permaculture Day

Another blustery day and those strong and robust Permies, who weren't put off by the wind, arrived at the farm ready for work. We had five projects planned for the day but soon realised that four was more realistic, so the planting of pig forage will have to wait for another day.

The theme for this year's International Permaculture Day was Reclaiming Food Freedom. As we operate a Community Supported Agriculture in a peri urban situation I think a having a day here to celebrate the day was quite appropriate. And to have such wonderful people come to the farm to participate in our activities was a real blessing. Permies are such lovely people!

We broke into small groups and dived straight in. There was a compost heap to be made...

We make our heaps using recycled tomato stakes. They heat up and are ready for use in 4months. It was so lovely to have some young ones getting right into it. this young girl was very busy gathering all the resources.

When we built our pig pen we had planned to put in a banana circle to take advantage of the excess nutrients. Yesterday  with the help of some strong young able bodied people we managed to bring this project to fruition. Even though the pigs had spent some time in the area, ripping up the soil, it was still tough going, digging in the clay, but the guys created a beautiful banana circle, complete with drainage to bring those nutrients into the circle.

 On the opposite side to the pig pen is the goose house. It is scheduled for a rebuild soon. The plans involve a roof that will enable us to collect rain water, with the overflow destined for the centre of the circle. In the background you can see our humanure bins. Some of this was used to plant the bananas.

In the foreground is the box drain which will collect the pig nutrient. This will flow down the pipe into the circle.

Bananas were planted, staked and mulched.  The centre was filled with organic matter and the bananas underplanted with pepinos and sweet potato.

We also completed a wicking bed and did some chop and drop, which I will show you another day.

We stopped for lunch. Home made vegie soup, Mark's sourdough bread, the best lentil salad ever and some lovely greens fresh from the garden.  Such a lovely way to connect, over good fresh food.  We finished off all the projects. Some stayed for a coffee and some seed sharing, and then the group started to disperse. We are so grateful to everyone who participated and feel very blessed to have these people in our community. Thanks to you all for coming out on such a blustery day.

Around The Farm

2014 has been declared International Year of Family Farming and so to celebrate I would like to share snippets of our family farm. So once a week for the rest of the year you can join us here for a slow tour of the farm.

The 2014 International Year of Family Farming (IYFF) aims to raise the profile of family farming and smallholder farming by focusing world attention on its significant role in eradicating hunger and poverty, providing food security and nutrition, improving livelihoods, managing natural resources, protecting the environment, and achieving sustainable development, in particular in rural areas. 

 

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A few snap shots of farm activity this week..

Community building. I was approached by one of our CSA members asking if she could run a Red Tent gathering here on the farm. Following the reading of the book of the same name, she was keen to provide a safe place for woman to come together and share experiences, information, knowledge and skills. The first session saw us speak about our experiences of becoming young women. Surprisingly similar encounters! We will be holding the Red Tent once a month, for those of you women who may be interested.

We have had rain, glorious rain. Just over 60mls, which made the four year old's birthday party a bit wet. But not to worry, they all had a great time. I told a story about sunflowers and bees and the children got to plant a sunflower seed, watch honey being extracted from the frames, and take some seeds and honey home. One of the mums has already booked her little boys party for the end of March.

A little bit of seed saving, first through the sieves to get rid of the course material and then the winnowing, to be left just with the seed. We will keep a lot of the seed for our own use but the rest is sold during farm tours or at the Harvest Farmer's Market, where we set up our first stall last Saturday...

We sold seedlings, seeds and cotton dishcloths with an underlying focus on advertising our workshops, tours and parties. The markets are on every Saturday and we will make it there as often as we can. Our weekends are often busy with farm based activities and we won't be able to commit to a stall. Periodically we may have produce for sale also, but as our CSA boxes can handle as much as we can grow at the moment, sales of excess produce at the market will have to wait.

 

The pigs are loving their work so much that they have managed to cultivate one of their pens ready for us to plant some yummy pig food for them when next we rotate them to this area.

 They are also loving their play. Here's cinnamon rolling in the mud..

Our electro netting has arrived and we can now safely put them to work in the market garden.We did wonder how we were going to move them from their enclosure to the garden and have managed to make a run through the food forest to the garden. Along the way they have also cleaned up the forest.

This part of the garden was originally a no dig garden and so it is proving to be a pretty simple job for the pigs to cultivate. we are thinking we might prep this area up for asparagus once the pigs are finished. And we have already decided on  the next spot for the pigs to move onto. What a great resource they are!

Mark is working on a new chook dome to house those other marvelous cultivators, the hens. We have four chook domes in the Market garden, which means that four beds are being cleared and dug over. They do need to be  repaired at times and sometimes replaced.Like the pigs, the hens do a fantastic job of preparing the garden for planting.

Around The Farm

2014 has been declared International Year of Family Farming and so to celebrate I would like to share snippets of our family farm. So once a week for the rest of the year you can join us here for a slow tour of the farm.

The 2014 International Year of Family Farming (IYFF) aims to raise the profile of family farming and smallholder farming by focusing world attention on its significant role in eradicating hunger and poverty, providing food security and nutrition, improving livelihoods, managing natural resources, protecting the environment, and achieving sustainable development, in particular in rural areas. 

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Apart from growing food in our mandala market garden we aim to educate and provide a model of sustainable agriculture in a peri urban location. We are just 5 mins by car from the local shopping centre and we are quickly being surrounded by development. And so we have become a city farm. As a demonstration site we are including more examples of less intensive ways to keep livestock thus enabling us to educate visitors on choosing how their food is farmed.

So today I bring you photos of our finished pig pen. And let me tell you Cinnamon and Nutmeg are well pleased with their new digs.I did try to get photos of the two of them but they are so very fast. Worse than trying to take photos of toddlers I tell you.

 A lovely house filled with nice clean straw. The house was built with second hand building materials. The weather boards are from an old shed we dismantled a couple of years ago. Don't they look great. The silky oak was already growing there and it will provide much needed shade in the future.

 A little window to the north for some winter warmth.

 And doesn't every pig want a pond to wallow in? You won't see one of those in an intensive piggery!

 Their main yard opens up into another yard where they have free access during the day. When that space needs a rest (as surely it will with the work those pigs put into every day) there is another on this side where I am taking the photo from.

The pig house collects it's own water from the roof and it is stored in this tank. The pigs drinking water comes from here via a nipple attached to the wall. The little bit of orange is shade cloth we have erected until the rest of the trees grow.

There is still more to do. Waste water will be channeled into a banana circle, some more fencing to be completed and a few more trees to be planted. We also want to grow some more fodder for the pigs. In a few weeks time some electronetting will arrive and the pigs will have access to some more spaces, in particular, areas that we want to cultivate, as they are very, very good at that.

In the mean time they are doing a great job of taking care of our over sized zucchinis and cucumbers and any other waste produce we have.

Nutmeg and Cinnamon

Just a little while ago Mark and I visited a petting farm for a little inspiration for our ever increasing child friendly activities here on our own patch. We were keen to get some ideas on fencing and pens and how interaction between the children and the animals was achieved.

We got some great ideas..

But the thing that really caught my eye were the baby animals. Sheep, goats and pigs to name a few.

 

These lambs and kids wander free around the farm, spending a little time in here when it's time to milk the cow, so that they don't get in the way. Children are able to interact freely with these young animals. They even climb on the play equipment with the children.

 

 

 Now a sheep has been on my mind for a while. I'd like to get  one or two for their fleece, and goats would be handy to tackle a few weeds on the farm, and maybe we could even milk them except that I'm not much fussed on goats milk. But pigs? I have in the past voiced my opposition to pigs. ''They're smelly and dirty'' I would answer, when questioned on my aversion to them. We would never have them on the farm. Well wouldn't you know it, I saw a pen full of cute little piglets at the petting farm and I found myself being won over. And so a few weeks ago we took a drive up the Valley and picked up two little miniature piglets....

Nutmeg ....

 

and Cinnamon....

They will be part of the tour I take children on when they visit the farm for birthday parties, playgroup and such. They will be able to pet them and feed them, once we get them quiet. They are becoming used to us more and more each day and even allow us to pat them on occasion.

But we are a working farm and we can't have animals here that don't contribute in a more productive way, so they will also be used in a tractoring system to prepare ground for plantings...

 

..because they do love to root around in the earth!