The vibrant colours of Food
Permaculture
Permaculture is a term created by David Holgrem in the 1980's when he developed a system of growing food in a replicated forest. There are 7 layers to a food forest and each layer depends upon and feeds into the whole system. From canopy trees providing shade, to vines and down to the herbage, everything you could possibly want to eat can be grown in this complete system.
I discovered Permaculture in the early 1990's, and had the great pleasure to do a PDC with Bill Mollison. I loved the whole concept and had a whole property to embrace it. While I spend the first years developing the property it was not until more recently I started the food forest. I have has some wonderful help along the way and learnt so much from them all.
I discovered Permaculture in the early 1990's, and had the great pleasure to do a PDC with Bill Mollison. I loved the whole concept and had a whole property to embrace it. While I spend the first years developing the property it was not until more recently I started the food forest. I have has some wonderful help along the way and learnt so much from them all.
Kelle ForrealKelle an enthusiastic horticulturist lived at Huntly for 2 years and helped design the beautiful food gardens. Kelle radiates good health, she is passionate in the garden and has a vigilant eye for troubleshooting. Chooks were another of her specialties, breeding up and coming generations constantly. Kelle was such a joy to have here and she had the place humming.
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Rohan |
WeruschcaWeruschca was a blessing from Patchamama when she came to stay for six weeks. She took us to new levels of the understanding of Permaculture and the commitment. Rush is on a mission to redesign and restore the precious earth.
Weruschca redesigned our garden & setup and changed the flow of energy around it. She introduced us to IMOs and EMOs, effective microbes we have in our soil and showed us how to multipy them. She introduced us to many things including the broad folk she is demonstrating. The passion and energy beaming from Rush is magnetic. Weruschca was a power house of inspiration and ideas. |
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Rohan is our residence Permie these days. He left Sydney to find a healthier way of living and has been on a huge journey of learning about the quality of the food we eat. He is our compose king and with the help of his chooks, produces the most beautiful rich soil, black gold!
Rohan is passionate about his food and getting back to the raw basics of living. He loves hunting and will eat anything, including the brown snake he shot near his chickens. He is ever curious and always learning. Lunch with Rohan will always take you to new horizons! Rohan comes with other valuable skills as a boiler maker and steel engineer. His little inventions always make life a little easier. If I can find him a wife (????) he might stay forever! |
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The French Connection
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My father had an affiliation with a French Agriculture college in Lille and every year these pale thin students would arrive for 6 months of hard labour. My father found plenty of projects for them and by the time they left they had transformed to solid bronzed muscle!
I caught the thread of the second generation, the daughter of Valerie who came out to do her practice work in 1985. Thirty years later her daughter Fanny began a new connection at another Ag college in France. Most of the students that came out were girls, passionate about growing, preserving and processing good healthy food. Their curiosity and thirst for knowledge was infectious. Right: Fanny & Thakur measuring soil carbon. |
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If you own land in France it is compulsory to attend an Agriculture college for 5 years!! That is how important they take their food! The Colleges send their students far and wide to learn other cultures techniques and secrets, and these beautiful french filles share and apply it with passion.
Each Student who came to Huntly had a project to work on so we always choose something I was keen to evolve and worked together. It was always looking at some aspect of the soils, carbon levels, composts, microbiology. They were amazing, Fanny, Mel, Camille, Zaz, Killian. We learnt so much! |
That was before covid.
One day I hope they will all return and see how the fruits of their labour have grown!
Maybe there is another generation on the way.
One day I hope they will all return and see how the fruits of their labour have grown!
Maybe there is another generation on the way.
I love you from my head tomatoes 2017
Xavier had been working on a tomato farm in France and wanted to build a hot house on Huntly so we could grow tomatoes over the winter. I love tomatoes, you can never have too many, they are so versatile. Xavier was inspired and passionate. He germinated every tomato seed I had been saving for years and at night he would bring the small seedings inside to keep warm. We designed the framework for the hot house then Xavier embraced the smelly old welder and built a statute of productivity and grandeur.
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Fanny returned to Huntly in 2017 with a passion. Her vibrant enthusiastic energy was catapulted with the company of Mel, her mate and Xavier, her love. Fanny and Mel shared a love of horses and were going to break in the indominable Della. Xavier and Fanny study at Ag Collage and both are passionate about growing food. Xavier was coming to visit for the month of April. All three were a blessing for me.
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After Xavier returned to France, the project was carried on passionately by Fanny and Mel. They coated the house with the slippery plastic, laid out the irrigation, installed the trellises, painted creative touches and planted out lovingly every tomato plant. All this was being supervised closely, electronically by Zaz, from the other side of the world! There were 50 plants and each one had a name. The first three were Xavier, Fanny and Mel. Names of mates, mates kids, kid mates and pets were always being dropped when they were actually only referring to the tomato bushes.
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At the end of June Fanny and Mel went on a road trip and I was bestowed the huge responsibility of caring for the tomatoes. Tomato fever had taken over as I dreamed of the salsas and sauces I was going to make. So I mulched and manured, watered and watched. They grew huge and prolific. Fanny returned before flying home to France and did a passionate prune and in August Mel came back for a month and went through them all thoroughly again.
Rodney was taking me camping with his mate Danny, up the WA coast and Mel was back to look after everything. I was worried the tomatoes were all going to ripen while I was away but 3 weeks later they were just ready for the first harvest, four buckets.
Tomato dreaming’s over, I’m in tomato heaven now! Thanks Xavier, Fanny and Mel!
September 2017
Rodney was taking me camping with his mate Danny, up the WA coast and Mel was back to look after everything. I was worried the tomatoes were all going to ripen while I was away but 3 weeks later they were just ready for the first harvest, four buckets.
Tomato dreaming’s over, I’m in tomato heaven now! Thanks Xavier, Fanny and Mel!
September 2017
Fishing April 2017 - caught 21 Barramundi
In 2016 we put in 500 barra fingerlings into Boil the Billy dam. Last Easter school holidays (2017), Sandy and the Yorkies, Fanny, Zaz, Mel and I thought we'd see how big they'd got.
It was an afternoon that makes all others insignificant. The scenery, the water, the mountains & the last radiant rays of sunshine and the fun. The fish were jumping out of the water to catch that bait. Sandy was so busy killing and gutting, and I got not a moments repreive from scaling. We decided to cap it at 20, but when Fanny had not yet caught one, Sandy presented her with the lucky lure and she too revelled in glory. Oh the fishing stories that night as we sat around the fire grilling them.
It was an afternoon that makes all others insignificant. The scenery, the water, the mountains & the last radiant rays of sunshine and the fun. The fish were jumping out of the water to catch that bait. Sandy was so busy killing and gutting, and I got not a moments repreive from scaling. We decided to cap it at 20, but when Fanny had not yet caught one, Sandy presented her with the lucky lure and she too revelled in glory. Oh the fishing stories that night as we sat around the fire grilling them.
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In our growing food forest we have mangos, custard apples, peaches nectarines, apples, lots of mulberries, avocados, all types of citrus, wompy, bananas, berries, pecan nuts and macadamias.
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