Nirvana Biodynamics

We have had a very busy time of late with the chestnut harvest,shed relocation and farm tours. Fortunately we had some excellent help from woofers', Emanuele and Federica from Northern Italy who where keen to learn about our farming methods and sustainable lifestyle. While they were able to experience our lifestyle and farming methods first hand we learned about chestnut forests in Northern Italy and their traditional foods, celebrations and way of life. The polenta and kangaroo is a merging of the two cultures. They were keen to experience food from paddock to plate .Here they are preparing birds for the table a valuable experience as they wanted to provide quality food for themselves in the future. A few new building skills never go astray. Emanuele also put 26 years of rainfall records on the computer (something I planned to do one day but never got around to.) Now its easy to see patterns and trends in our rainfall patterns. The busy patter...

As the weather finally cools the Summer vegies come to an end its now time to ensure a bountiful supply of vegies throughout winter an well into Spring.The garden has been largely ignored over the past month or so save for harvesting meal by meal and planting as we have been busy with chestnut harvest and relocating the shed.Now its time to harvest the last of the tomatoes, pumpkins, basil ,zucchinis and beans and then  plan the winter –spring garden. I also have to ensure there is enough vacant space to bury the biodynamic compost preparations. Many of the winter goodies where planted as seeds in February and now need to be transplanted into their own space these include cauliflowers,kale, cabbage and broccoli.The tunnel house has been planted with lettuce,mache, chard and  miners’ lettuce . On the next new moon seedlings from the garden can be transplanted into the tunnel. Although all these vegies grow outside in the garden it is amazing how much extra heat  one thin...

The chestnut harvest is underway. It started with 30+C days which was hard on the hands as the burrs were dry and easily penetrated the leather gloves. But now the Autumn rains have arrived the burrs open easily. The quality this year is excellent. They seem to benefit from the doubling of the irrigation to try and counter the drought and lack of subsoil moisture. Each morning we harvest, then grade the nuts. Now that the rains have come this is an especially good experience, the smell of damp soil and the explosion of fungus popping up everywhere. It would be much better if they where the edible types. Once the chestnuts are picked and graded they are stored in the cold room. The coldroom maturation starts the process of the starches converting to sugars. Fresh chestnuts are sold direct to the public from our farm shop. The shop is opened daily.We can pick and complete other chores because we have a radio controlled pager to inform us that you need serving. Once the cooler we...