Nirvana Biodynamics

Awoke to large piles of icy hail around the place , 43.5 mm  in the rain gauge for the past 24 hours and more rain,hail and wind on the way I headed to the polyhouse to get things done.Normally in winter polyhouse there are daily harvests of greens for us and the chooks. Our flock require a large basket  full of greens to be blended into their mash daily and the outside gardens never grow fast enough in winter to keep up.   This year has been quite different as I was out of action from Spring to Autumn with firstly with a broken leg (Thanks to neighbours goat, which is still managing to climb the fence to my vegies garden.) Then a new knee! Over this time the polyhouse became covered in lovegrass whose seeds latch on to your clothes and was proberly responsible for the invention of Velcro. To remove this weed required me to wear a polyester type bee suit,and long gumboots and still some seeds ended up on my socks.Once removed the beds where dug over to remove invadi...

The summer has been long, hot and dry as well as and busy with harvests and keeping the water up to the trees. Preparations for a new covered orchard, mainly for our own use is underway but Autumn heralds our 30th  chestnut harvest. Every morning we start picking up the fallen chestnuts which are then graded and put into the cold room. After a short maturation, where the starches start turning to sugars, they are available direct from our farm shop and then to keep you warm , roasted in Stirling an weekends . Another very important event happens here in Autumn. Members of the Adelaide Hills Biodynamic Group   come together to make the preparations that underpin the Biodynamic method of farming and gardening. This is an important day as old hands share their wisdom with new members.The day started with the filling of the cow horns with manure to make horn manure or 500. The horns are then buried and spend winter underground while the earth is most active. By Spring the manur...

The first thing you notice about my home vegetable garden is that it is well fenced to keep poultry and dogs out. The large banana passionfruit vine is a good deterrent as they can’t see through and see what they are missing. As you enter there is always a vast array of vegies, some growing, some ready for the table and some going to seed to ensure future crops. Established in 1983 the annual  garden is 10 x 18 m and includes a tool shed (in need of new door!) propagation area, cold frames and its own compost area. THIS VEGETABLE GARDEN IS DESIGNED TO PRODUCE A STEADY SUPPLY OF TOP QUALITY PRODUCE WITH MINIMUM WORK. THE BASIC FEATURES ARE : *PERMANENT RAISED BEDS. The soil from pathways was used to build beds. Each bed is enclosed to keep soil in. The width of the bed ensures easy reach. GARDEN BEDS SHOULD NEVER BE WALKED ON!!!! *VEGETABLES ARE GROWN IN SOIL ENRICHED WITH OUR OWN BIO DYNAMIC COMPOST. * EAC...

With the late start to summer and the Christmas rush over the berries are now at there best. The raspberries along with their cousins, the English gooseberries, black currants ,and red and white currants are all ripe and dripping with flavour. All the berries are grown using biodynamic methods in a cool spring fed valley. We take the same care in picking our berries as we do growing them. This ensures only the best are sold. We don’t sell seconds for a couple of reasons-(1) the way they are grown and picked and (2) we do all our own value adding. Our berries are only available from our farm shop which means they have travelled no more than 300 metres. While we are picking, people drop in to the farm t o buy berries. It is nice to stop picking for a few minutes and chat with regulars who enjoy buying directly from the producer. We receive direct feedback and the visitors take away high quality, fresh, biodynamic food. Our farm shop is unique as it only sells our produce, fresh fruits i...

The winter garden excels in quality and taste . The winter chill produces sweet crunchy carrots, parsnips, turnips, beetroot and salsify all planted in February and March ,all perfect for winter stews, soups and roasts. The range of greens is equally impressive but the cold has slowed their growth to the extent that they are not growing as fast as we (and the chooks) consume them. Crunchy salads are part of most meals even in winter.To ensure a continual supply of crisp greens I move some seedling from the garden into the polyhouse. It is amazing how a thin piece of plastic can change the growing conditions. Wind chill and cold temperatures outside, inside toasty warm.The polyhouse is 7 x 4 metres and contains around 15 square metres of in ground growing space and a propagating area. The beds are 80cm wide –one goes around the edge and then there are 2 beds in the centre.Between the beds are narrow 30 cm paths made from tiles and pavers. These help define the beds and add some therm...

Tonight I sat on the veranda and celebrated the completion of putting out the autumn bio dynamic preparations. After a long hot and dry summer it was wonderful that autumn arrived and delivered some much needed rain, although the springs have not started running or the creek flowing yet it’s a good start. If the ants are any indication the serious rains are on the way as they have built up their nests at least 4inches. While walking through the orchard th e other morning I noticed the most amazing aroma, an aroma I had never experienced before, an arom a that eclipsed that of rain on dust! Up to that moment my most favourite smell. But the earthy, damp, sweet, like humus rich compost aroma filled the air.It felt like the soil had become light and moved into the air. I thought may be being morning it was rising from the earth and the dew had contributed to the aroma and feel so I retur ned latter in the morning then early afternoon and again at sunset it was the sa...

June is the time for clearing up, pruning and preparing for the winter rains. One important job that requires doing before winter sets in, is to make the biodynamic preparations. So last weekend with a perfect autumn day a few of us from the Adelaide Hills Biodynamic group set about filling the horns with fresh manure from Paris Creek BD farm, preparing the compost preparations of yarrow, chamomile, oak and dandelion. The horns where buried in their usual pit of rich soil and the horn silica (501) was retrieved after spending summer in the earth. The compost preparations in their clay pots are buried in the humus rich soil of the vegie garden. The oak is down in the wet valley. Another job is to brush cut the banks after which they had an application of cow pat pit followed by horn manure (500). I then planted some mixed legumes and wheat seeds and within 24 hours the geese where systematically grazing the banks. But really it’s a win, win situation as they don’t often graze these ste...

The challenge in the vegetable garden as the seasons change is to continue to get the last of the summer bounty harvests while at the same time continue planting to ensure harvest in the months to come. At present I’m still harvesting the last of the tomatoes, zucchinis, capsicums, basil, beans and about to harvest my cardoon. The pumpkins will be harvested in the next couple of weeks meanwhile carrots, chard, chicory, lettuce, endive, nasturtiums, augula, spring onions, kale, red cabbage, celery, parsnips, turnips, beetroot and self sown garlic as a salad green are all being enjoyed. Veggies planted previously for future harvests include cabbage, cauliflowers, brussels sprouts, leeks, fennel, carrots, parsnips, Swedes, turnips, kohlrabi, spinach & an array of salad greens. The garlic, planted last month into warm soils, followed by gentle rain look wonderful already over 25 cm tall. The romanesco broccoli Kate gave me as seedlings in spring may be just getting around to setting a ...