Nirvana Biodynamics

After a busy and productive harvest season , my newly rebuilt north facing shed was ready for me to do the internal fit out so I could snuggle up on bleak winter days to create a basket or two. Its payed off, as well as being the greatest way to add another creative element to gardening ,keeping active in winter I scooped the pool at the Royal Adelaide Show in the basketry section with my creations. . Bread n’ cheese won best basket overall Spring happens  slowly here and is often unpredictable but the tunnel house continues to supply food for the table . The fruit type vegetables have, as usual been planted in the propagator (2days before the August full moon.) to get a head start before being planted out on the new moon in October.This winter we enjoyed a regular supply of small red and yellow capsicums. I've found they do 2 seasons well in the tunnel a this summer (2nd season) they will produce the most ripe ones from early in the season til the end.I’ll also plant some new ones...

Australia being a young country made up of many cultures as an ever changing food traditions.Each region , even parts of regions have very different seasons and range of produce that grow and so develop their own recipes and way of using foods. Unfortunately if you pick up a magazine or heaven forbid see a TV cooking show you can almost grantee  the regional seasonal foods are missing or worse they are among a vast array of ingredients  (usually ingredients that are not in season at the same time)designed to kill off any fresh  subtle flavours. Early Summer here in the Adelaide Hills is usually about berries, as well the orchard produces a wonderful  perfume from the chestnut and linden flowers and waves of common brown butterflies and dragonflies fill the air.The vegies are just starting with an abundance of fresh greens, carrots, beans and the first of the Richmond green cucumbers. When people think of berries they usually think in terms of adding cream, ice-cream ...

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...

Growing nuts is one thing, being able to make the most of the bounty and having a good supply for the kitchen needs good equipment.There are many types of nutcrackers some work and others may be total duds and a waste of effort. While staying with a friend in France, we visited her parents and her mother gave me this great nutcracker. She said it was Swiss made so of excellent quality. (She was Swiss) She was right and its so efficient to use. It does not matter how large or small the walnut or hazelnuts it does a great job. I have seen similar nut crackers in Australia – they are often promoted as champagne openers. I think there are easier ways of opening champagne. Macadamias present a challenge. There shells are extremely hard. I used a hammer where as Quentin preferred to use vice grips.Both method were very slow and inefficient so the harvest of macas just sat in storage and where cracked only in small quantities usually only to make pesto. Recently we brought a Queensland made m...

According to this young goslings the shahtoot mulberry near our veranda, along with another tree in the mixed fruit orchard, belongs to it.It spends its day alone cruising between the two mulberries trees.It is not alone in liking these sweet fruits as the tree is constantly visited by wattle birds, silvereyes and blackbirds.These birds are quite clumsy and knock the mulberries down to the delight of the gosling.The gosling has also learnt to jump up and grab lower limbs and shake off the mulberries. These are the sweet yummy mulberries. The red shahtoot mulberry is popular as well but we have it netted this year.

Now the teaching season is over, the orchard weeding almost caught up I can, weather permitting get stuck into the gardens around the house including the vegetable garden. Its been an ‘average season’ which is great as we have had a several drought years where there was no subsoil moisture. The plants especially the trees have responded well and look lush and happy. The flowers have been  abundant as have the bees. The Elder is abundant with flowers. Yesterday I made a batch of elderflower cordial and next week a couple of batches of elderflower champagne. In the vegie garden the main seasonal  harvest is of broad beans and asparagus. While many of the winter vegies are going to seed (many to be saved) there are still plenty of greens,the last of the carrots, the peas are almost ready, the garlic is looking good as is my crop of rye , planted to make a traditional dough raising basket from the straw and a few grains of rye for the bread as well. The new crops of tomatoes, caps...

The potentially devastating news that chestnut blight has been found in north eastern Victoria puts all chestnut growers on edge. In USA it wiped out the entire industry in 3 years! Chestnut blight is a fungus that enters through wounds in the bark. Which is a real worry for us as our trees are regularly smashed by the neighbour’s unmanaged Stringybark's.It grows underneath it causing a canker which will girdles and kills the branch above the infection point. The disease can kill the tree if the trunk is girdled by a large canker or several cankers growing together. The first signs of infection is often seen as wilting, yellowing and death of leaves and shoots.Yellow –brown to orange cankers on young smooth  barked trees or branches may also be early signs of infection. The fungus is spread by animals (especially humans in this global village) that come into contact with the cankers and through the air after rain. If you suspect anything  or need more information contact...