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AUSTRALIAN PERMACULTURE GROW . BUILD . EAT . THRIVE . NURTURE . DESIGN

GUIDE TO BEEHIVES . BROTH . PERMACULTURE TRAVEL . MENDING DESIGN PROCESS . EDIBLE PERENNIALS . LIFE WITH BEES . 18-DAY HOT COMPOST Beekeeping Naturally

‘It’s not just about the honey’

Natural, organic Beekeeping Courses with Keyan Top Bar Hives Spring and Summer courses Bermagui NSW | Melbourne | Canberra www.beekeepingnaturally.com.au CONTENTS

REGULAR 6. PERMACULTURE AROUND THE WORLD by Morag Gamble 8. PIP PICKS 10. NOTICEBOARD 11. PERMACULTURE’S NEXT BIG STEP by Ben Habib 17 12. PERMACULTURE PLANT: COMFREY by Beck Lowe 13. RARE BREEDS: CAYUGA DUCK by Tabitha Bilaniwskyj-Zarins 14. EAT YOUR WEEDS: DANDELION by Patrick Jones 15. SAVE YOUR SEEDS: LETTUCE by Liz Worth 89. COURSE PROVIDERS 92. COURSE DIRECTORY 95: REAL ESTATE 96. BOOK REVIEWS 32

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FEATURES: 22 17. LIFE WITH BEES by Simon Mulvany, Julie Armstrong and Robyn Rosenfeldt 22. NATIVE BEES IN THE PERMACULTURE GARDEN by Megan Halcroft 26. A LOOK INSIDE THE HIVE: A GUIDE TO CHOOSING THE BEST HONEYBEE HIVE by Adrian Iodice 32. ARTIST AS FAMILY: THE ART OF PERMACULTURE TRAVEL by Patrick Jones and Meg Ulman 36. PERMACULTURE TIMOR LESTE AND A TROPICAL PERMACULTURE GUIDEBOOK by Sarah Davis and 70 Lachlan McKenzie

2 | PIP MAGAZINE GROW: EAT: 38. SAVE OUR SOILS by Geoff Lawton 54. TOWARDS A PERMACULTURE DIET 42. MERRI BEE ORGANIC FARMACY by Ross Mars by Ian Lillington and Marita Zeh 44. PERENNIAL ABUNDANCE: TEN EDIBLE PERENNIALS 59. EMMA LUPIN: TROPICAL FOOD AMBASSADOR by Morag Gamble by Holli Thomas

BUILD: THRIVE: 62. THE LOST ART OF MENDING by Annie Werner 47. ATAMAI VILLAGE: A RESILIENT COMMUNITY by Rafael Joudry 66. JEFF NUGENT by Andrea Chapman and Georgina Warden 52: EARTHBAG BUILDING: HOW TO BUILD AN EARTHBAG STRUCTURE by Ella McHenry 68. CREATE A CO-OP: OWN WHERE YOU WORK by Emma Chessell 75 38 5459 59

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NURTURE: 70. WHY PERMACULTURE IS GOOD FOR YOUR HEALTH by Angelo Eliades 75. INTRODUCING PERMACULTURE TO CHILDREN by Lauren Carter

DESIGN: 78. PERMACULTURE DESIGN PROCESS by Hannah Maloney 82. AUSTRALIAN NATIVES IN A FOOD FOREST GARDEN by Dan Harris-Pascal

COURSE GUIDE: 85. A COMPLETE GUIDE TO PERMACULTURE COURSES 85 by Beck Lowe

PIP MAGAZINE | 3 CONTRIBUTORS

ELLA MCHENRY Publisher / Editor / Art Director: Robyn Rosenfeldt Designer: Miriam McWilliam, Subgreen Design Ella is a newbie farmer and social entrepreneur, who Subeditor: Bernadette O’Leary unexpectedly spent the past Marketing and Advertising Manager: Paul Goodsell two years collaboratively running a date farm an hour Editorial Advisor: John Champagne, Kathleen McCann south-east of Alice Springs. She has sailed from the Top Cover Art: Sonia Kretschmar www.soniak.com End to South Africa, ridden Editorial enquiries email: [email protected] a Suzuki DR-Z400 off road from Alice Springs to Darwin Advertising enquiries: [email protected] / 0401 920 041 and been shipwrecked near Cape Don (Cobourg Peninsula NT), and makes award winning preserves. Directory listings and classifieds enquiries: [email protected] She’s also held down various sensible but interesting jobs in the fields of community development, natural resource management and education, Submissions: We would love to hear from you if you and is en route to establishing a farm in South Australia, with her have ideas for articles. Contact us with the idea before partner Chris, in accordance with permaculture, keyline and restoration agriculture principles. See www.littlebunyip.com.au you write it. [email protected] Stockist enquiries: If you would like to stock Pip contact ANGELO ELIADES [email protected]

Angelo is a presenter, ------trainer and writer in CONTRIBUTORS the areas of sustainable Words: Ben Habib, Morag Gamble, Beck Lowe, Tabitha Bilaniwskyj- gardening and permaculture, Zarins, Patrick Jones, Liz Worth, Simon Mulvany, Julie Armstrong, and a passionate forest gardening advocate and Robyn Rosenfeldt, Megan Halcroft, Adrian Iodice, Meg Ulman, designer. His award-winning Sarah Davis, Lachlan McKenzie, Geoff Lawton, Ross Mars, Rafael demonstration food forest Joudry, Ella McHenry, Ian Lillington, Marita Zeh, Holli Thomas, Annie garden in Melbourne is Werner, Andrea Chapman, Georgina Warden, Emma Chessell, Angelo regularly open to the public. Eliades, Lauren Carter, Hannah Maloney and Dan Harris-Pascal. When he is not consulting, teaching, working in the Photos: Morag Gamble, Beck Lowe, Tabitha Bilaniwskyj-Zarins, nursery industry or enjoying Patrick Jones, Geoffrey Grigg, Simon Mulvany, Kaitlin Liemandt, time in his own garden, he Megan Halcroft, Adrian Iodice, Kirsten Bradley, Nick Killey, Michael supports community gardening projects and runs the educational website Joshin Thiele, Meg Ulman, Lachlan McKenzie, Ingrid Pullen, Bob Deep Green Permaculture. See www.deepgreenpermaculture.com Bucknall, Bee Winfield, Emma Lupin, Hemon Day, Anissa Thompson, Andrea Chapman, Georgina Warden, Alison Garland, Mark Tyler, ADRIAN IODICE Theo Kitchener, Karl Von Moller, Robyn Rosenfeldt, Lauren Carter, Oberon Carter, Leonardo da Vinci, Annie Preece, Donald Hobern, JJ Adrian is passionate about natural, sustainable, Harrison, Chris Clarke, Danielle Langlois and Hannah Maloney. biodynamic beekeeping. He started beekeeping with ------conventional Langstroth Pip Magazine is printed in Australia, by Finsbury Green on hives and has been experimenting with, and 100% FSC paper and printed with vegetable inks. studying, various hive designs ever since. He has concluded that the Kenyan top bar hive is most suited to his needs. He feels that every ‘backyard beekeeper’ should truly consider Pip Magazine is a published independently by Robyn Rosenfeldt. the hive design they will eventually use for the wellbeing of their PO Box 172 Pambula, NSW, 2549. ABN: 14 513061 540 bees. Adrian is currently co-creating a bee sanctuary in a small community in the Bega Valley of southern NSW, where he lives with Copyright: Pip Magazine is subject to copyright in its entirety. The his wife, three kids and great friends. He teaches natural beekeeping content may not be reproduced in any form without the permission of the in Bermagui and Melbourne. See www.beekeepingnaturally.com.au publisher and authors. Views expressed by the authors are not necessarily those of the publisher. To the extent permitted by law, the publisher disclaims any liability whatsoever in relation to advice, representation, statement, conclusion or opinion expressed in Pip Magazine.

4 | PIP MAGAZINE EDITORIAL

of caring for bees. I then got a beehive There are also our usual sections looking of my own and did a natural beekeeping at everything from why permaculture is course, and now I am hooked. good for our health, what a permaculture diet might look like, the art of free Putting together this issue I have talked travel and much, much more. to many dedicated bee advocates and have come to realise that everyone needs As always, thanks to the many wise and to understand how much we need bees, learned people who have taken the time to and it is crucial that we make major share their knowledge and passion in this changes – right now – to help save them. issue. And thanks to you for reading it.

In our opening article we look at the state Now buzz off and find a comfy spot of bees in the world, what is threatening to sit and devour this magazine. them and what we must start doing to save them. Then we look at native bees in Robyn the permaculture garden with Dr Megan Halcroft, a researcher into native bee biology and behaviour, as she explains in detail SONIA KRETSCHMAR what the native bees’ role is and what we Cover illustrator can do to invite them into our gardens. I am so happy to bring you issue four of Then Adrian Iodice delivers a complete Pip Magazine, with its bee friendly focus. guide to choosing a honeybee hive for your own backyard, and provides an in-depth I have learnt so much about bees and their analysis of seven different hive types. lives, their needs and their importance to our lives on this planet. A huge thank you I hope this issue of Pip opens your eyes to Adrian Iodice, whose infectious passion to the needs of bees, which humans and enthusiasm about bees has opened rely on – without bees there would be my eyes to the wonder of our tiny friends. no us. Wouldn’t it be great if everyone who read this issue made at least one My own passion for bees slowly crept small action to help make our planet a Web: www.soniak.com in as I began to hear and read about more bee-friendly place to live in? natural beekeeping and the importance Agent: www.jackywinter.com

PIP MAGAZINE | 5 PERMACULTURE AROUND THE WORLD

Words by Morag Gamble. Photos courtesy of projects.

BIJA VIDYAPEETH (SCHOOL OF THE SEED) INDIA

Bija Vidyapeeth is Dr Vandana Shiva’s Earth University in the Himalayan foothills. Dr Shiva is an eco-feminist, physicist, activist for the rights of the earth and farmers in India, and permaculture supporter.

People go to Bija Vidyapeeth to learn from nature, from organic farmers and from visionary thinkers like Dr Shiva and Satish Kumar, about how to become farmers of the future, activists for the planet and savers of seed.

The centre is located on the Navdanya Biodiversity Conservation Farm, a sanctuary for birds, insects and soil microorganisms – which has saved more than 1500 varieties of seeds and trees. The farm has created an environment where students are able to: explore deeply the key issues around organic farming, food sovereignty and seed sovereignty; and gain practical skills to support changing practices in how we interact with seed, soil and society.

Bija Vidyapeeth’s website states that the learning centre: ‘draws inspiration from Rabindranath Tagore, who created Shanti Niketan, a university based on living in and learning from nature’, and is associated with Schumacher College in England. It is part of a growing network of independent centres for positive change. Bija Vidyapeeth runs a series of programs, internships, courses, festivals and events throughout the year. It is also possible to visit as a volunteer.

See: www.navdanya.org/earth-university.

Vandana Shiva. (photo by Morag Gamble)

GREEN SCHOOL VILLAGE, BULGARIA

Green School Village offers programs boundaries with Greece and Turkey. team with varied educational and in permaculture, sustainable The centre provides opportunities for professional backgrounds – including community, natural building and learning in a natural environment, and architects, urbanists, lawyers, marketing personal development. It provides learning how to live sustainably. It is and cultural studies experts. It the opportunity for young people also: developing an investment project welcomes people to get involved. from around Europe to get involved for the reconstruction of the former in exchange programs, informal school in the local village; and working See: www.greenschoolvillage.org/?lang=en education and research projects on the development of integrated eco- with a focus on creating positive, centres and demonstration sites in alternative models for the future. Bulgaria, to promote alternative models of sustainable development as a solution The Green School Village project to the ecological and financial crisis. has restored a traditional 19th century house, and opened it as Green School Village is a non-profit an education centre in the Eastern organisation, established for public Rhodope Mountains, near Bulgaria’s benefit, and driven by an interdisciplinary

6 | PIP MAGAZINE PROJECT BONA FIDE OMETEPE ISLAND, NICARAGUA

Project Bona Fide is an internationally orchard, medicinal gardens, terraced recognised ten and a half hectare vegetable gardens, composting toilets, permaculture demonstration and education buildings using local materials, renewable farm situated on the stunning volcanic energy systems and water harvesting. Ometepe Island on Lake Nicaragua. Its focus is support for community self- Beyond the farm, Project Bona Fide reliance and regenerative living. supports a community seed exchange program, reforestation projects and The project researches and develops a children’s nutritional kitchen. It is agro-ecological systems, and cultivates a about to launch an initiative to grow diversity of resilient food plants to support and produce natural medicines for greater food security in Nicaragua. It the island’s free integrative health demonstrates permaculture strategies, clinic. The farm offers educational off-grid living, natural building, and the use programs and accepts volunteers. of biochar and appropriate technology. It includes a seedbank, extensive nursery, See: www.projectbonafide.com bamboo plantings, forestry plot, diverse

This community, with sustainable farming SOLITUDE FARM, INDIA at its core, embraces music and the arts Solitude Farm is the centre for and runs an organic restaurant: up to ninety permaculture and natural farming at per cent of the food served is produced Auroville – an emerging international on the farm, and harvested daily. The township of 2400 people in southern restaurant also serves food from other India, near Puducherry. Auroville has been Auroavillian farms; surplus produce goes researching sustainable living and the to Auroville shops and the central solar future cultural, environmental, social and kitchen – the community dining hall which spiritual needs of humankind since 1968. serves 1000 meals each lunchtime.

The two and a half hectare farm was Solitude Farm is home to six permanent started in 1996 by a group of young residents and a healthy population Aurovillians who had the vision of creating of volunteers who are welcomed to a self-sustainable farming community. experience life in the community. It also They were inspired by permaculture offers internships and workshops. and the ideas of Masanobu Fukuoka. See: The farm grows indigenous millets and www.aurovillepermaculture.com rice, oilseeds, grams and pulses, and a diversity of vegetables and fruit.

Contact Morag at [email protected], www.ethosfoundation.org | 07 5494 4833 PIP MAGAZINE | 7 PIP PICKS

THE ART OF FREE TRAVEL: A FRUGAL FAMILY ADVENTURE, CYCLING FROM DAYLESFORD TO CAPE YORK WILD CHERRY SCOOP by Patrick Jones and Meg Ulman (New South Books 2015) Made by axe, knife and a handmade In late 2013 Patrick, Meg and their foot-powered lathe, this handcrafted family, Zephyr (10), Woody (1) and Zero scoop is perfect for anything from the Jack Russell, set off on an epic coffee and spices to ice-cream. Every 6000 kilometre year-long cycling journey scoop is individually handcrafted by up Australia’s east coast and back. Spoonsmith – in a small workshop on the Far South Coast of New South Their aim was to live as cheaply as possible Wales – straight from the tree, using − guerrilla camping, hunting, foraging and a combination of traditional tools and bartering their permaculture skills – and techniques. These unique kitchen on a diet of free food, bush tucker and utensils are perfect for stirring, the occasional fresh roadkill. They joined dolloping and enjoying brilliant food. an anti-fracking blockade, spent time in Aboriginal communities, documented Scoop price is $65, and other spoons range edible plants along the way, and braved the from $25. See www.spoonsmith.com. country’s most hazardous highways. The au . Instagram @thespoonsmith Art of Free Travel is the remarkable story of a rule-breaking year of ethical living.

Release date is 1 October 2015. Price is $29.99 plus postage. Pre-order at www. pipmagazine.com.au/shop

SOLIDTEKNICS CAST IRON COOKWARE Much has been written recently about the benefits of cast iron cookware. For one, there is no coating that will inevitably chip away and end up in your scrambled eggs! And importantly, in an era where things are made to be easily replaced, good quality cast iron lasts forever. The SOLIDTEKNICS AUSfonte range, made in South Australia, is tremendous quality and, when well seasoned, provides a fantastic non-stick cooking surface.

Price starts from $119. See www.solidteknics.com/where-to-buy for stockists.

8 | PIP MAGAZINE PERMACULTURE COFFEE ‘SAVE THE BEES AUSTRALIA’ BLACK T-SHIRT This pure organic, radically fair coffee These funky 100% cotton t-shirts will help promote is sold at a fair price. It supports East the plight of the bees and make you look great. Timorese farmers and their families Forty per cent of sales goes back to Save The directly through a permaculture Bees Australia, which is working tirelessly to education project aimed at improving the educate people about the predicament of these livelihood of farmers by teaching them precious pollinators. www.beethecure.com.au principles of sustainable agriculture. The coffee is made from organic beans, Comes in kids’, ladies’ and men’s sizes, and price is $20–30 which are pesticide and fungicide free, plus postage. See www.pipmagazine.com.au/shop and are not fumigated with the poison methyl bromide when entering Australia! So far $1000 has been raised for Permatil and the rewriting of a tropical permaculture book. (see page36) THE DOME HIVE The Dome Hive is a bee-centric, environmentally-sound hive designed primarily to A one kilo bag is $33 – with $8 going sustain the health and wellbeing of the bee colony. Originally based on the Sun Hive towards Permatil – plus postage. See by Guenther Mancke, it has been redesigned to suit Australian conditions with the help www.permafund.faircoffee.co of a biodynamic bee expert, Tobias Mager. The Dome Hive’s rounded shape allows the bees to maintain the natural temperature of the hive with minimal energy expenditure.

Price is $800 plus postage. For further information see www.domehives.com

PIP MAGAZINE | 9 NOTICEBOARD

APC13 IN PERTH 3-5 OCTOBER 2016 DIGGING DEEPER INTO SOIL Perth will be hosting 18 October, 2015, Samford, QLD the next Australasian Permaculture Be inspired by and learn from renowned thinkers and soil advocates. Convergence at Swanleigh in Middle Millen Farm is hosting ‘Digging Deeper into Soil’, a half-day conference that will Swan, held at the set the scene of soil in Australia. Featuring the most recent research from local same site as IPC6 scientists, see how this research can be used to improve soil health for food 20 years ago. The theme is ‘Permaculture: production in everything from home gardens through to commercial farms. designing for resilience’ and we will be accepting submissions for presentations on Come along to dig down deep into soil topics, debunking some long-held topics relating to design and permaculture myths about soil management. Our expert speakers, Hugh Lovel, Peter practices. We particularly want lots of hands- Kearney and Mike Smith, will focus on how to understand your own patch on workshops to encourage participants and develop solutions specific for your soil and growing aspirations. to develop new skills and show how clever design can help everyone become Unearth the complexities of soil through a range of topics including more resilient to inevitable change. soil testing – understanding outcomes and illustrating how to use test results to improve soil, unravelling the biodynamics of soil and exploring There will be a one-day expo on Sunday the soil ‘food web’ and the implications for soil improvement. October 2. This will be open to the public with exhibitions, guest presenters and For information and bookings visit: www.millenfarm.org or contact hands-on workshops and activities as well Stacey Parish; [email protected] , 0490 125 604 as information booths and static displays of interesting projects and case studies. That night will be the formal welcome dinner.

The Convergence is for PDC and APT FAIR FOOD WEEK 2015 - 16-25 OCTOBER graduates and runs from Monday to This year’s Fair Food Week (FFW) comes as so much Wednesday. On Thursday and Friday unfairness has been exposed in the Australian food supply there will be tours (both one day and chain. And what makes it even more important is that it is also two day tours) and/or short courses. the International Year of Soils - healthy soil is vital to fair food. A two-week PDC will run prior to the Want to be involved? There are events all over convergence and an Advanced Design Course Australian being run in the name of fair food. Community garden activities, cooking and an Advanced Teaching Course will be demonstrations, farmers markets, seed swaps, open days, talks and workshops. run the October 10–14. For ticket sales go to http://permaculturewest.org.au/news/13th- Check out www.fairfoodweek.org.au to find an event near you. australasian-permaculture-convergence- apc13 or go to their Facebook page.

FOREST GARDEN DESIGN INTENSIVE WITH DAVE JACKE 25 March– 3 April, 2016

After a successful Australian tour in 2013, ecological designer and permaculture educator Dave Jacke is bringing his Forest Garden Design Intensive workshop back to our shores. This course focuses on cool temperate forest gardens and includes multiple practical design exercises, working within a team to produce a major design. The course is based at a working permaculture property in western Victoria. Dave will be teaching alongside David Holmgren, Hannah Moloney, Steve Burns, Kat Lavers and Paul Ward.

For more information call or email Steve Burns on 0409 551 539 or [email protected] or visit: www.chestnutfarm.net.au

10 | PIP MAGAZINE PERMACULTURE’S NEXT BIG STEP

Words by Ben Habib Photo by Robyn Rosenfeldt

The permaculture movement appears Andy Goldring from the Permaculture awareness of two online surveys, which to have reached a crossroads. As Association UK; Andrew Langford from are our primary mechanism to assess a holistic design approach based Gaia University; American activist and the needs of permaculture practitioners, on systems thinking, ecological author Starhawk; and Australia’s own gauge enthusiasm for greater international principles and energy literacy, permaculture elders Robin Clayfield, coordination and solicit input on what this permaculture has the potential to Ian Lillington and April Sampson-Kelly, enhanced cooperation might look like. have a transformative impact on how among many other talented individuals. Everyone who practises or works in we sustainably operate our social, The purposes of the work being permaculture can complete the survey, economic and agricultural systems undertaken through Permaculture’s as individuals and/or as representatives in a period of converging global Next Big Step are to: gauge what of permaculture organisations. The crises. The eleventh International permaculturalists want and need surveys are at the following URLs. Permaculture Convergence (IPC11) from a global entity (if anything); and in Cuba in 2013 formally recognised do the groundwork to get buy-in for Survey for individuals: www. that the permaculture movement greater coordination from across the surveymonkey.com/r/?sm=3 worldwide would benefit from worldwide permaculture movement. UAtnvsgbfK8tPbBjgzyqWf3pXa greater coherence at an international Our task is to formulate proposals for HflvCDdPmWO6cQYk%3d level, to follow through on this a more cohesive global permaculture promise of transformation. movement that facilitates linkages, Survey for organisations: www. educational opportunities and resource surveymonkey.com/s/269NLJW sharing across the movement, while The Permaculture’s Next Big Step preserving local autonomy that is The results of these surveys will be project was formed to facilitate a global integral to permaculture design. presented at IPC12 in September 2015, consultation on what we need, how where proposals for further action will we can work together, and what we At the twelfth Australasian Permaculture be workshopped and submitted for can achieve. This project has brought Convergence (APC12), in Tasmania in approval. Please complete the surveys together some of the best permaculture March 2015, I led a workshop to solicit and circulate the survey URLs across your thinkers from around the world to responses from participants on the networks; the more people who complete explore potential pathways for further Permaculture’s Next Big Step project. the surveys, the more representative international coordination across the Our presentation to APC12, and the the outputs of the project will be, and movement. Project participants include: workshop, were designed to raise the higher the quality of the proposals that are put forward for action.

With useful input, the Permaculture’s Next Big Step project may transform permaculture around the world.

PIP MAGAZINE | 11 PERMACULTURE PLANT: COMFREY

Words and photo by Beck Lowe

Botanical name: Symphytum officinale • A medicinal plant, especially useful for areas where there is likely to be root healing cuts, bruises and broken bones disturbance if you don’t want it to spread. Other common name: knitbone with a poultice of roots or leaves. Poultry are likely to destroy the plants if • The leaves are a great feed for they have direct access – feed leaves to Origin: Europe livestock, especially poultry. them by hand, or protect it with wire mesh. Description: A non-woody herb • With its formidable root system, Its fast growth enables it to use nutrients with large, hairy leaves growing it makes a useful barrier plant to help protect garden beds rapidly, making it a good plant to put from a central rosette, pale purple from creeping grasses. near greywater or septic outflows. flowers and thick roots. In good conditions the leaf mass grows up • As a companion plant for perennials. to fifty centimetres, with flower CAUTION stems emerging above the leaves. DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS Comfrey contains alkaloids that, Comfrey grows in cool, temperate and in large amounts, can damage the subtropical areas, but dies down in liver, and it has been banned as an PERMACULTURE USES winter in colder areas. It is a tough internal medicine in Australia despite plant but does best in nutrient-rich its long history as a food plant. • A classic soil builder – the fast growing, moist soil in full sun or semi-shade. mineral-rich leaves can be harvested PROPAGATION regularly for use in compost (as an Roots will sprout if broken or cut – it can activator) or liquid manure (comfrey be hard to remove or transplant without Very easy to propagate from root tea), or used directly as mulch. leaving root pieces. Avoid planting it in cuttings, and will also grow from seed.

12 | PIP MAGAZINE RARE BREEDS: THE CAYUGA DUCK

Words and photo by Tabitha Bilaniwskyj-Zarins

The Cayuga duck breed may have HOW DO YOU HOUSE DUCKS? WHAT DO DUCKS EAT? originated in South America, but was first ‘discovered’ on Lake Housing Cayuga, and ducks in general, If they are working all day in the garden can be a challenge as they are very messy Cayuga in New York state around or paddock, ducks will forage for any around water. It isn’t long before a yard the mid-1800s. It is thought to be a insects, spiders or snails. They do this is completely turned from green grass hybrid between an American black by burrowing their bills under the grass, or garden to mud city! So, do not house duck and a mallard. It is medium leaf matter or directly into the soil. In them with chickens. A duck’s immune weight – the drake weighs up to orchards they will clean up fallen fruit system is far hardier than any other birds. three and a half kilograms, the duck and help to control some pests. up to three kilograms – and cannot They require fresh water to be provided A little supplementary feeding daily, of fly. Its beautiful black plumage has at least three times a day in hot weather. wheat and poultry pellets, provides a a bottle-green sheen in the sunlight. They don’t really need a pond to breed balanced diet. They will be particularly It has a black bill and black legs. on, and are quite successful breeding on hungry when laying eggs and moulting, the ground. Movable tractor housing with when higher protein intake is needed. Be just a few ducks is okay, but more of a prepared for this, it will drives you nuts! WHY KEEP A CAYUGA? challenge with larger numbers as the watering detail and efforts to keep their BREEDING CAYUGA They are fast growing, and great for areas clean would be all consuming. egg laying and meat production, and During breeding season, only pair up the ornamental purposes. Cayuga ducks The best way to keep them is in a ducks that you want drakes to mate with, lay eggs at change of seasons such as protected yard where they can be locked and separate the rest of the females from at end of winter/spring and summer/ up at night away from predators, and the males. Keep them separate until young autumn. Incubation is twenty-eight days. then only allow them to free-range in are born. Drakes will be very persistent in areas where they will be most useful. pursuing the ducks on a daily basis, and I They are very docile, being content to Ducks are easy to train: just muster them have known some ducks to perish this way. forage close to the house. Unlike some to where you want them on the same ducks, Cayuga are not very noisy so are pathway, and they will start to do this on Cayuga are very rewarding and beautiful good in a smaller domestic situation. their own in a short amount of time. ducks to have in the garden or on the farm. They are also great with children.

PIP MAGAZINE | 13 EAT YOUR WEEDS: DANDELION

Words and photo by Patrick Jones

Botanical name: Taraxacum officinale can produce a delicious summer wine; 4. Spread chips onto a tray and put them petals brighten a salad; all parts can be into an oven preheated to 170˚ C. Roast Parts used: flowers, stems, leaves and roots juiced (need to balance bitterness with until you smell a baked cookie aroma, sweeter things). The roots can be roasted and then for another ten minutes. Description: a rosette of rough-toothed and ground into granules to produce a Roasting usually takes between forty- leaves from a single taproot. A ‘true non-caffeinated coffee substitute (see five minutes and one hour, depending dandelion’ produces yellow flowers each recipe). A root tea (dried, not roasted) on your oven/apparatus. Be careful of which sit on a single hollow stem, can be brewed to help with weight loss, not to turn the chips into charcoal. and that helps to identify it from look- rejuvenation and detoxification – of liver, alikes hawksbeard (Crepis species) kidney and skin – and is now reported to 5. Cool the chips and then grind them into granules using a mortar and and flatweed or catsear (Hypochaeris fight a spectrum of cancer producing cells. pestle or coffee grinder. Store species), which have multiple flowers granules in an airtight container. shooting from solid stems. HOW TO MAKE DANDELION COFFEE 1. Identify a patch of true dandelions To prepare dandelion coffee to drink, add Nutrients: vitamins – A, B6, E, K, (mistaking them for flatweed or two generous teaspoons for each person thiamine; antioxidants; flavonoids; hawksbeard will put you off ever to a stovetop, plunger, pot or other coffee alpha- and beta-carotene; minerals – wanting to drink this coffee again). making device. Add the milk of your choice high in iron and calcium, and contains and/or garden- produced honey to taste. magnesium, manganese, potassium, 2. Dig up as many taproots as you copper, choline and boron. think you can fit in your oven. You There you have it – a locavore’s coffee. can also use a Dutch oven on a Enjoy! small fire, or a solar cooker. Maligned by industrial agriculture, dandelion is a widespread weed much loved as a 3. Wash roots with cold water and a For more information contact Patrick medicine plant, and can also be enjoyed as scrubbing brush to remove dirt. Rinse at [email protected] or food and coffee. All parts of this old, bitter, and chop into small even pieces – you book into one of his foraging walks in well-travelled, temperate-climate commoner want the surface area of each ‘chip’ to Daylesford, Victoria (see advertisement). can be used: young tender leaves and stems be roughly the same so that they roast For Patrick’s dandelion coffee manifesto can be cooked or included raw in salads; evenly. Dry them in a sunny spot or go to www.vimeo.com/52577459 roots can be cooked as a vegetable; flowers dehydrator to remove excess water.

14 | PIP MAGAZINE SAVE YOUR SEEDS: LETTUCE Words by Liz Worth Photo by Geoffrey Grigg

Lettuce is self-pollinating, so it is an more unexpected crosses than commercial you can simply pick a few of the fluffy, excellent choice for beginner seed seed producers. Her take on this is that her white mature seed heads and pop them savers and those with urban gardens organic garden has a much higher number in a paper bag to dry. If you are trying to with neighbouring vegetable growers. of pollinator insects than are found in the collect lots of seed then you could bag The flowers are pollinated before monoculture fields of large producers. the whole flowering stalk with breathable they open, so there is little chance of fabric and let it continue to mature in varieties getting crossed. It is usually Does it matter for home seed savers that the garden. Otherwise, wait until around a small percentage of those pesky lettuce enough to keep flowering varieties sixty per cent of the flower heads on the seeds might be crossed? Not really. You separated by just a few metres. stalk are at the fluffy stage and pick the could simply eat any off-type lettuces and whole plant, put it into a bag or old pillow only save seed from those of the correct case and hang that somewhere to dry. type. Problem solved. Removing – and Sometimes things go a little awry: perhaps not saving seed from – plants that don’t Getting the seed out of the flower heads an insect damages the flower bud and perform well or aren’t true to type is can sometimes be a challenge. Rubbing transfers pollen into it early; or maybe always part of our job as seed savers. the heads on a ribbed rubber car mat flowers of two different varieties rub with a wooden cement float breaks them directly against each other and manage to As a self-pollinator lettuce is not prone out fairly quickly. Then a bit of sieving transfer the pollen that way. Some sources to inbreeding problems, so you can and winnowing separates out the seed suggest that it would not be surprising if up successfully save from just a single for storage. Lettuce seed is very likely to to five per cent of lettuce seed is actually plant each season, but it is better to have insects and their eggs among it; this cross-pollinated. If the other parent is save from five to ten plants of the can damage the seed and reduce viability. the same variety we’d never notice. variety you are trying to propagate. Sealing the absolutely dry seed in a jar Carol Deppe, author of Breed Your Own and putting that in the freezer for forty- Vegetable Varieties: the Gardener’s and Lettuce flowers mature sequentially, eight hours takes care of the problem. Farmer’s Guide to Plant Breeding and Seed which means that the first ones will be Saving (Chelsea Green Publishing 2000, dropping in your garden before the last second edition), says that she gets many mature. If you are only saving for yourself

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16 | PIP MAGAZINE FEATURE

LIFE WITH BEES

Words by Simon Mulvany, Julie Armstrong and Robyn Rosenfeldt Robyn Rosenfeldt Robyn

Without the pollination services THE STATE OF BEES complex and finely tuned. Bees that exist that bees provide our tables would together in a hive are referred to as begin to look very bare. Bees are As a result of human actions that do not one ‘organism’; the role they each play honour and respect the bees, they are responsible for one-third of the within that organism is strictly defined. dying around the world. It is understood food we eat. In Australia around that over the last fifteen years Australian two-thirds of European-introduced There is one queen, and there are worker beehive numbers have deteriorated to horticultural and agricultural crops bees (females) and drones (males). less than fifty per cent of what they were Each worker bee has a very specific are entirely dependent on bees. twenty years ago. Reasons for this include: role that changes depending on various the importation of inferior honey, the hive stages of the six or so weeks of its life, beetle, bee diseases and insecticides.1 including: keeping the hive clean; feeding Without bees, forget your apples, almonds, the brood larvae and tending the queen; avocados, broccoli, brussels sprouts, According to an annual survey conducted maintaining a constant temperature cabbages, carrots, cherries, cucumbers, by a bee partnership that includes the in the hive; grooming and feeding the celery, macadamias, mangoes and USA Department of Agriculture, two out younger bees; secreting wax to build more. All these fruits and vegetables of five American honeybee colonies died comb; protecting the entrance; making exist only because the bees exist. in the past year (the second-highest rate honey from nectar; and, finally, becoming in nine years). And in northern China, a forager for about twenty one days. Bees are the planet’s circulation. As honeybees are almost extinct, forcing plants have no legs they’ve evolved in humans to hand pollinate crops to produce One of the most staggering examples ways that enrol insects to be their ‘legs’: a harvest. Immediate action is needed. of bee behaviour is the way they bees spread pollen from one plant to communicate to each other about where another, leading to seed development the pollen and nectar sources are. When and fruit growth. Bees are the lynchpin LIFE IN THE HIVE a bee returns to the hive, after collecting that keep the whole web of life alive: if To understand what is threatening the pollen, it does what is called the ‘waggle’ they stopped moving pollen around the bees, it helps to understand life inside dance: this is when it moves in a figure planet, life as we know it would end. the hive. A honeybee colony is highly

PIP MAGAZINE | 17 Let your vegies go to flower to give the bees food. Robyn Rosenfeldt

of eight shape, and does a little waggle agriculture, the power of money and greed • suppressing the swarm instinct in the middle. The relative angle of the are pushing beekeepers into practices that • removing ‘nuisance’ propolis to dance to the sun tells the other bees in endanger the health and life of the very make hives more manageable which direction the food source can be thing they are trying to cultivate. In the found; and the speed and duration of the interest of increasing honey production • using chemical control agents waggle tells the distance to the source. and providing pollination services for disease and pests to large monoculture crop growers, • reusing old comb to increase honey As you can see, bees are closely in tune there are many practices that put the production time for the bees with one another, and rely on complex lives of bees and their hives at risk. communication strategies for survival. As • breeding bees to be artificially larger bee carers we must be very careful not The following is a list of ways and, therefore, more susceptible to to interfere with this. For example, bees humanity is known to interfere with disease, especially Varroa mite the natural process of bee life: communicate by sending vibrations through • supplying sheets of wax foundation, so the comb, which is why it is important that bees don’t have to build their own to allow them to build natural comb. • raising of larva in separate quarters • moving hives over long distances • artificially raising queen bees at the will of human intention SO WHAT IS AFFECTING OUR BEES? from worker bee brood • agricultural practices consisting Rudolf Steiner, the father of biodynamics • selecting bee populations for docility of monocultures that wreak who, among many other things, had and deselecting for aggression, havoc on honeybee diets, limiting an interest in bees, predicted in 1923 which reduces genetic vitality options once the dominant that if humanity continued to cultivate • ’re-queening’ after one or two crop is no longer flowering honeybees by artificial means we would, years, in contrast to the normal five within eighty years, witness the mass • use of insecticides, herbicides or six year lifespan of a queen disappearance of the bees. Steiner and fungicides warned against both meddling with • clipping of queens’ wings • keeping bees in boxes rather the natural process of hive society and • use of queen excluders, to than a variety of shapes that artificial manipulation of queen bees. prevent eggs being laid in they find in nature. inconvenient areas of the hive There are many different ways to keep honeybees and, as with all forms of

18 | PIP MAGAZINE Simon Mulvany Honeycomb built by bees in a compost bin. Kaitlin Liemandt

NEONICOTINOIDS • bees are unable to navigate back to by buying and growing organic and the hive, and die in the field; worker biodynamic produce. The more we One of the most serious threats to bees supply the colony’s food, and if they shift our farming systems to support honeybee populations is the use of don’t come back the colony can starve diversity and living soils and plants, neonicotinoids, also known as ‘neonics’. the better it will be for the health and These are systemic insecticides used to • bees that do return to the hive are wellbeing of all life, including us. kill a variety of crop-ravaging insects. covered in contaminated pollen, thus contaminating the rest of the hive.11 2. Plant pesticide-free, bee-friendly and Neonics are water soluble, and are applied native plants in your garden for year directly onto the soil where plants soak The use of some neonics has been round pollen and nectar. Take cuttings it up, or sprayed directly on seeds and suspended in Europe for two years from established plants. Buy bulk organic plants. When neonics are used as a soil because of concerns that they affect seeds in a group and share them. If you treatment they can remain in the soil for bees. Yet in Australia, there are hundreds love gardening, there’s a growing need years. Because they are systemic they go of products that contain neonics. These for small, organic plant businesses. into the tissue of the plant and stay there are widely available and sold in most throughout its life. As the plant matures, major supermarket, hardware and 3. ‘Ask before you buy’ plants from your the insecticide is present throughout gardening outlets.111 More worryingly, local nursery to ensure that they have all of its parts, killing the insects that many non-organic seeds and seedlings not been treated with pesticides toxic to eat it. When a honeybee arrives at a have been treated with them but bees, and educate your nursery about blossom to forage on pollen or nectar, there is no labelling to advise this. the dangers to bees of such pesticides. contact with the flower exposes much Support smaller nurseries which have of the bee’s body to the insecticide. WAYS TO BE BEE-FRIENDLY a closer relationship with their growers, and may be willing to be part of the ‘be Repeated exposure to neonics affects The plight of bees might seem bee-friendly‘ challenge. Let’s support the the bee and the entire colony: overwhelming and hopeless, but there businesses which are environmentally are many things that we can do to protect aware and willing to listen to us. • bees find it harder to groom the bees and to create an environment themselves, making them susceptible that will see them exist into the future. 4. Let your vegetables go to flower and to disease and mites, and weakening you’ll be surprised at how many pollinators their immune systems 1. The best way to support bees is visit your garden, even in the winter.

PIP MAGAZINE | 19 Simon Mulvany Robyn Rosenfeldt Bees communicating. Inspecting honeycomb from a kenyan top bar hive.

5. Build a ‘bee hotel’ to encourage a LIST OF RESOURCES www.naturalbeekeepingtrust.org range of life in your garden. Gardens ‘Nine lectures on bees’ by Rudolf contain many different species of Books Steiner (1923), see wn.rsarchive. insects, which benefit the garden At the hive entrance by H Sto org/Lectures/GA351/English/ and provide food for wildlife. rch (Createspace 2014) SGP1975/NinBee_index.html Bees by Rudolf Steiner Permi-apiculture – the Natural Beekeeping 6. Post a ‘pollinator friendly’ sign in (Steiner Books 1998) group, see www.naturalbeekeeping.org.au your front garden to let your friends and Global hive: bee crisis and compassionate neighbours know about what you’re doing Save Our Bees – Australia, see ecology by Horst Kornberger to make a difference for wildlife pollinators, www.saveourbees.com.au (School of Integral Art 2012) to inspire others to do the same. Save The Bees, see www. Honeybee democracy by Thomas Seeley beethecure.com.au (Princeton University Press 2010) 7. Hold a film night and watch a Spikenard Farm Honeybee Sanctuary, bee-friendly film to raise awareness The bee-friendly beekeeper: a see www.spikenardfarm.org/ of bees, and how beautiful and sustainable approach by David Heaf The Barefoot Beekeeper, see vital they are. See list below. (Northern Bee Books 2015) www.biobees.com The honey spinner: on the trail of For a map of local honey producers 8. Have a bee-friendly plant stall at ancient honey, vanishing bees and and stockists, see www.google.com/ your school’s fair, and ensure the plants the politics of liquid gold by Grace maps/d/viewer?mid=zzplKTnSjGhs. are not treated with pesticides. This Pundyk (Allen & Unwin 2008) is a great way to raise awareness of k8sAyx_T0CJE&usp=sharing Top-bar beekeeping by Less Crowder and bees, and to get the school involved ‘The real value of pollination’, see Heather Harrell (Chelsea Green 2012) in bee-friendly activities. It is legal for www.honeybee.org.au/pdf/ schools to have a beehive, and that’s a Toward saving the honeybee by Gunter PollinationAwareFactSheet.pdf great way for children to learn about Hauk (Bio-dynamic Farming & the wonder of bees, and how important Gardening Association Inc., U.S. 2009) Documentary films they are for the ‘kitchen garden’ plot. Websites Queen of the sun: what are the bees telling us? (2010) 9. Join the local beekeeping group and ask Act For Bees, see www.actforbees. More than honey (2012) them to hold a natural beekeeping course. wordpress.com (including information about plants bees love) Honeybee blues (2009) 10. Get a bee-friendly hive of your Australian Honey Bee Industry Council, own – it’s a great way to learn more see www.honeybee.org.au about bees. Always put the health of the 1 BackYardHive, see www. Gibbs J 2013, ‘Neonicotinoids in Australia’, bees before the collection of honey. The Australasian Beekeeper www.theabk. backyardhive.com com.au/article/neonicotinoids-australia beekeeping naturally, see www. 11 Earthjustice website ‘Infographic: bees’ beekeepingnaturally.com.au toxic problem’, see www.earthjustice.org/ Natural Beekeeping Australia, see www. features/infographic-bees-toxic-problem naturalbeekeeping.com.au 111 www.beekeepingnaturally.com.au/ Natural Beekeeping Trust UK, see neonicotinoids-australian-government-list/

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‘The keeping of bees is like the direction of sunbeams’ Henry David Thoreau FEATURE NATIVE BEES IN THE PERMACULTURE GARDEN

Words and photos by Megan Halcroft

Bees are under threat worldwide. rear their offspring (brood) instead of adapted structures for transporting pollen, As we urbanise our environments feeding them other insects; a complex called scopa. Some species have stiff we remove bees’ natural habitat – coevolutionary system developed. bristles under the abdomen where dry pollen we create flowerless landscapes Plants are immobile therefore unable grains are packed, while others – such as when we substitute concrete and to move about to find a mate, and blue banded and teddy bear bees – have lawn for flowering trees and shrubs. this is where pollination vectors such scopa on the outside of the hind leg, or on And agricultural practices, such as as insects play an important role. the inside of the hind legs and the abdomen. One of the most important aspects of these monoculture, remove the variety of Plants have evolved ways of attracting scopal hairs is that they carry millions of floral resources bees need for good pollinators to their flowers by enhancing dry pollen grains. These are available for health. Add to these the increasing the sugar concentration in their nectar, transfer from one flower to another as use of pesticides in crop management producing attractive scents and colours, female bees move over the flowers. and domestic landscapes, and and providing nectar guides to help the future for bees looks bleak. insects find the food source. This, in Solitary bees live their lives independent of turn, helps the plant to reproduce. other bees in various nesting substrates. Once a female has mated, she finds a Mention bees and people invariably think of Pollination is the transfer of pollen from safe nesting place to rear her brood. She honey bees. Humans have had an important the anther (male flower structure) to the forages for floral resources, returns to the relationship with honey bees for millennia, stigma (female flower structure). The nest, unpacks the pollen from her scopa managing them for honey and pollination stigmatic surface is highly nourishing and regurgitates swallowed nectar. She services. The social European honey bee and stimulates pollen germination. combines these resources into ‘bee bread’, Apis mellifera can be found in most parts As the pollen tube grows, it carries lays an egg on top, seals the brood cell and of the world, and was introduced into the male gamete towards the female leaves the egg to develop alone. This process Australia in 1822; however, this species gamete, within the ovule. Gamete union is repeated many times, until she dies. As is only one of 20 000 species of bees is called fertilisation, which leads to she collects her precious cargo of pollen and worldwide. Australia is home to almost seed set and results in the production nectar she performs pollination services. 2000 species of native bees, and most of of a plant hormone that stimulates fruit them are very important plant pollinators. tissue development. So, good pollination NESTING BEHAVIOUR produces good fruit quality and yield. We can support native bee health Seed produced through good pollination Ground dwelling bees and populations by improving our has superior germination qualities. Seventy per cent of bees nest in the ground understanding of bee behaviour, and and can dig burrows from five to fifty how that drives biodiversity. And SOLITARY BEES centimetres deep. Side branches are formed understanding the importance of bees is off the main burrow, and brood cells are about understanding pollination, which Of the 2000 Australian bee species created at the end of these branches. The facilitates plant sexual reproduction, fewer than fifteen are highly social number of brood cells can range from one and the bees’ role in it: biodiversity and colony-forming. Most species are to dozens, all created by a single female. relies on mixing in the gene pool. solitary and do not make honey, but Some species live in ‘aggregations’, where they are very important pollinators. dozens to hundreds of individuals nest close Female bees are experts at collecting FLOWERING PLANTS AND to each other. Ground dwelling bees produce and transporting pollen and nectar BEES COEVOLVED a water-repellent secretion which is painted back to their nests, to rear brood. Around 100 million years ago, flowering onto the internal surfaces of the brood cell to protect developing brood. These secretions plants (angiosperms) began to evolve. Most bees are covered with branched, also help to ‘mark’ nest entrances, enabling During this time, some wasps began electrostatic hairs, to which pollen grains individuals to find their home among the to collect pollen as a protein source to are attracted. Females have specially

22 | PIP MAGAZINE NATIVE BEES HAVE A SYMBIOTIC RELATIONSHIP WITH A PERMACULTURE GARDEN. Narelle Power Narelle A bee hotel.

PIP MAGAZINE | 23 many others. Some species develop a • Masked bees have distinctive employ in permaculture support native semi-social behaviour as the brood rearing bright markings on their faces. bee populations. In return they support us season progresses. Adult daughters by providing valuable pollination services, • Blue banded bees have iridescent remain in the maternal nest and share which produce high crop yield and good hair-stripes (varying from white guard duties; however, they are capable of quality seed for future crop production. to dark blue) on their abdomen. mating and producing their own brood. • Teddy bear bees have thick, orange hair. Email Megan Halcroft at megan@ CAVITY DWELLING BEES • Parasitic cuckoo bees lay their eggs in beesbusiness.com.au and find more the nests of other (host) bees. Their The remaining thirty per cent of bee information about her Bees Business larvae may consume all of the host- species nest in pre-existing cavities at www.beesbusiness.com.au such as old wood-borer holes, hollow larvae food provisions, or kill and eat or pithy-centred plant stems, and other the host larvae, or both. Because they Online resources: a guide to some cavity- nooks and crannies. Many of the cavity do not rear their own brood, females dwelling bees can be found at www. dwelling species create brood cells do not need to collect pollen, so they beesbusiness.com.au/articles/ successively, until the cavity is filled. have no scopa. They often have thick Halcroft_and_Batley_The_Bee_ hard exoskeletons to protect them Hotel_ID_Guide.pdf; www. against attack from adult host bees. DIVERSITY facebook.com/BeesBusiness; www.facebook.com/groups/ The world’s bees are divided into seven BENEFITS OF NATIVE BEES beeawareofyournativebees families, five of which are found in AND HOW TO SUPPORT THEM Australia. Species are classified into Use flowering plants families based on their mouth parts, how they carry pollen and nest construction. One of the best ways to support Species diversity is dictated by climate, bees is to plant large numbers of natural vegetation, soil type and floral flowering plants: ensuring access resources. The greatest diversity is seen to food resources throughout the in warm-temperate, dry regions; and year supports their reproduction. it is estimated that such regions could support up to 300 native bee species. Conserve and create habitat Conserving areas of natural habitat enables Australia’s bee populations are extremely female bees to find safe nesting sites, diverse. Short-tongued species usually and helps increase existing populations. prefer to forage on open, shallow Allowing plants to go to seed provides flowers. It is thought that the abundance bees with much needed floral resources of myrtaceous species, which have (and enables seed saving). Allowing plants, open flowers with cup-like containers especially those with hollow or pithy stems, of nectar, may have supported the to break down in situ, or to slowly rot in evolution of such diversity. However, piles in isolated corners of the garden, most native bees are generalist foragers, provides nesting sites for some masked including the long-tongued species. bees and reed bees. Other ideas for bee habitat are provided on opposite page. SOME NATIVE SPECIES Don’t use chemicals Not all native bees have a common name; however, there are some species that Avoiding chemical pesticides in your garden have been grouped together according is vital to the health of all bee populations, as to either their nesting behaviour or well as many other beneficial invertebrates: by distinguishing body markings. not using pesticides allows nature to take its course. For example, beneficial insects • Reed bees are semi-social and – such as wasps, hoverflies, robber flies, generally nest in hollow or pithy- predatory shield bugs and lady beetles centred reeds or plant stems. – and spiders are then able to multiply. These help to control pest species – such • Carpenter bees burrow into soft wood. as caterpillars, aphids, mites, grasshoppers • Resin bees collect plant resin and other herbivores – by eating them. Clockwise: Lasioglossum species. to seal the brood cells. Amegilla -Blue banded bee. Native bees have a symbiotic relationship Rammed earth block. • Leafcutter bees cut discs from soft with a permaculture garden. Many of the Megachile tasmanica Resin bee in natural young leaves to make their nests. cavity. non-interventionist techniques that we Wood block.

24 | PIP MAGAZINE HOW TO CREATE NATIVE BEE HABITAT EXAMPLE FLOWERING PLANTS TO SUPPORT BEES: It is easy to create habitat for bees in your There’s lots you can plant in your permaculture garden, to attract cavity dwelling species such garden to help preserve native bee populations. as resin, leafcutter, reed and masked bees. • garden flowers – flowers are an important part of Wood blocks the permaculture garden. The flowers attract the bees, the bees pollinate your vegetable and fruit Mimic natural nesting substrate, such as old borer-holes, trees and crop yields increase. There are many by drilling long burrows into hardwood blocks or dead tree flowers that will attract bees; bog sage, dahlia, stumps. Don’t use treated wood. A good variety of hole daisies, hebe, lavender, marigold, roses, salvia. diameters will attract a greater diversity of bee species: drill holes from three to eight millimetres in diameter to a depth • herbs – leaving herbs to go to flower provides bees of at least 100 millimetres. Larger holes attract larger-bodied with an abundance of food. Here are a few that do well; bees, which need holes to a depth of around 150 millimetres. basil, borage, mint, parsley, rosemary, sage, thyme. • native species – with a range of native species you can Reed house provide pollen and nectar to your bees all year round: Other nesting substrates include hollow or pithy-centred bottlebrush, eucalypts, geebungs, peas, tea-tree, grevillias. stems. When pruning plants, check to see if any have • vegetables – some plants produce flowers these types of stems. Simply bundle them up with some to produce fruit: tomato, pumpkin, cucumber wire (this can be tightened as the stems dry) and hang and others produce flowers after fruiting to them in a tree (horizontally) or on a fence (vertically). create seed; brassicas, onion, lettuces.

Bare earth • fruit trees – all flowering fruit trees: almonds, apricots, apples, citrus, peach. It is also desirable to leave some small areas of bare earth for ground dwelling bees to burrow. While some ground dwellers will nest in lawns, most prefer bare, slightly undulating soils that are not prone to waterlogging.

Rammed earth blocks

Blue banded bees will nest in rammed earth blocks but, because this species lives in aggregations of many nests, it is best to provide several blocks; more than three large blocks is desirable. Or fill hollow concrete blocks with a mix of damp (not wet) soil, and ram tight with a blunt tool. The mix should be a sandy loam that will hold its form when squeezed in the fist, but will break apart when poked. Imagine a tiny bee trying to burrow into the dried mud; it needs to be able to dig without the burrow collapsing.

These habitats are often placed together to create a ‘bee hotel’, and while these are ideal educational tools, recent research overseas has shown evidence of increased nest parasitism and disease levels in large nesting structures. So it is now recommended that a number of smaller habitats be placed throughout the garden, as would occur in nature.

PIP MAGAZINE | 25 FEATURE A LOOK INSIDE THE HIVE: A GUIDE TO CHOOSING THE BEST HONEYBEE HIVE

Words by Adrian Iodice

With so much focus on the plight of honeybees in the comb is put back into the hive after extraction to be refilled with media these days, beekeeping has had a huge resurgence. nectar by the bees. This maximises honey yields and saves Beehives are popping up in every suburb, in every city time because the bees don’t have to build more comb. of the world. Everybody wants to help the bees! However, when comb is reused, season after season, beeswax – a type of fat – absorbs heavy metals and toxins such as herbicides, fungicides and insecticides that the bees pick up WHY AND WHERE TO KEEP BEES? from the plants they forage on. Over time the comb and the hive Bees are the best pollinators: our gardens thrive with fruit and become a highly toxic environment for the bees to live in. vegetables when we have a hive in the vicinity. Raw honey and wax are amazing gifts of nature. And the enjoyment bees give can be QUEEN CARE overwhelming. Bees need all the help we can offer them at the Forcing the queen to live out her life in the brood box, using a queen moment, by giving them clean organic gardens to forage in they excluder, suppresses the whole colony. It also forces the queen to will be much healthier. lay eggs in a very limited space. Wing clipping of the queen, to stop her leaving the hive during a swarm, is another way that commercial Bees can be kept on your roof, in your backyard or on acres of bee management suppress the natural swarming impulse. land. They can be kept in all sorts of climates – from the tropics of Far North Queensland to southern Tasmania: they will adapt. If In natural beekeeping the swarm is celebrated: as a ‘rebirthing’ they can find a diverse range of flowers to forage, they will thrive. of the colony as an ‘organism’. Catching swarms multiplies and refreshes bee yards (apiaries) with local strains, which HIVE CHOICE have more vigour and are less susceptible to disease. Often the type of beehive and the management techniques employed is not well considered. Most colonies end up in MAINTENANCE conventional white box style hives such as the Langstroth. In framed hives, building frames can be a tedious job . Frames have to be built, wired, and foundation needs to be melted in Modern beekeeping practices mean hive movement, place. Specialised tools have to be used and skills are required. frequent hive inspections, artificial queen rearing programs, Hives also need to be protected from the weather with some sort routine medication and sugar-water feeding, which of timber finish. Most hives are painted with timber paints, but reduce colony vitality and weaken the bees’ immunity. natural beekeepers generally use raw linseed oil and beeswax. Fortunately permaculturalists, and other holistic carers, with their understanding of ‘the big picture’, are promoting ‘natural beekeeping’ MATERIALS as an alternative – becoming ‘bee-carers’ rather than ‘beekeepers’. The material of the hive and its components are important to There are several things to consider when choosing a hive. consider. For example, the impact of plastic on bee health is unknown. Significant lengths of stainless steel wire are used to HIVE INSPECTION hold the foundation in place on the frames in some hives. It is questionable what effect this may have on the bee organism. Most beehives mentioned in this article need to have the roof taken off to inspect and harvest. All the heat and vital nest scent SHAPE is lost in a quick upward draft; it is believed the nest scent acts as a protective cloud around the bees and keeps out pathogens. The shape of the hive can be important because in the colder months cold spots develop in the far corners of CARE OF THE BEES some hive designs. This creates more work for the bees to maintain an even temperature throughout the hive. This is mostly about how honeycomb is treated. Sometimes

26 | PIP MAGAZINE FOUNDATION Wax foundation, a thin sheet of wax embossed with the hexagonal cell shape, is used in Langstroth hives. However, different races of bees build different cell sizes that change to suit the cast or size of bee or the amount of nectar coming in. Wax foundation has a one- size-fits-all design which doesn’t necessarily suit the bees. In natural beekeeping bees are encouraged to build their own honeycomb. Plastic foundation is starting to be used by conventional beekeepers; this off gasses and is detrimental to the health of the bees in the hive.

ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT Hives and some hive parts are being made out of plastic! We need to consider the environmental impact from their manufacture and disposal. It’s also important to consider the health impact that these hives have on bees. Adrian Iodice LANGSTROTH HIVE Some hives (e.g. Kenyan top bar) can be simple to make using recycled timber, with plans available on the internet. Make sure This is the most commonly used hive in many parts that the timber isn’t treated with chemicals or insecticides. of the world –the hive boxes you see stacked when you travel through the countryside, usually white. PESTS Pros: Some hive designs have lots of nooks and crannies which gives • easy to manipulate, dissect and inspect pests (e.g. the small hive beetle and wax moth larvae) places • honey can be extracted from the comb to hide. By reducing likely hiding spots, bees can manage these using a centrifugal extractor pests themselves, which reduces the need to use insecticides. • extracted combs can be put back into the hive for bees to refill with honey EXTRACTING HONEY • more honey can be harvested Different hives require different procedures for extracting honey. • transporting the hive is relatively easy The most simple and cost effective way to extract honey is to cut the • parts and hives are readily available at all beekeeping supply stores honeycomb off the bar from a top bar hive and then crush it, either • most beekeeping courses and books will teach in a sieve or with a honey press. These presses cost around $350. using management techniques for this hive. Or you can make a press using an old car jack and timber – check the internet for ideas. Conventional beekeepers use a centrifugal Cons: extractor. A three-frame, quality extractor can cost around $550. • techniques and parts were developed to maximise honey production TRANSPORTATION • parts need to be measured and cut precisely to stop bees from filling gaps with either wax or propolis Ease of transport is only important if you are a commercial • wiring and waxing frames with foundation beekeeper, looking to cash in on a honeyflow – a mass flowering. is extremely time-consuming If you don’t mind a little less honey, and are happy with pollination • lots of fidgety parts and bits and the enjoyment of clean raw honey to eat, trade or share with • pests have lots of places to hide your friends, then transportation shouldn’t be an necessary. • the oblong shape causes cold spots to develop over the colder months COST • access can only be gained by taking the roof off • supers are stacked on top of the brood Some hives are mass produced, available from all beekeeping box, heat rises above the brood suppliers and easily shipped to all corners of Australia. Others • the queen is restricted to the bottom box are handcrafted by specialised hive builders and, depending • wax comb absorbs pesticides and heavy metals over time on the timber used and location of the builder, prices can vary • plastic components and hives are becoming more popular considerably. If you want something that looks great in your • full boxes are heavy to lift or move. garden and is more bee-centric, it’s worth paying a little extra. Price: around $300 To follow are some examples of beehives. Conclusion: the Langstroth hive is a commercial beehive and, in my opinion, most of its management techniques have no place in backyard beekeeping!

PIP MAGAZINE | 27 Adrian Iodice Flow Hive Flow THE HEX HIVE A stackable, hexagonal-shaped hive designed and FLOW™ HIVE built by Willow Hankinson in Australia. It uses both, As I understand it, this is basically a Langstroth hive three-sided frames and top bars to fill in the gaps. with a few extras for the convenience of the beekeeper (and, the inventors claim, for the wellbeing of the bees). Pros: Because the Flow™ wasn’t available at the time of • takes standard frames, readily available writing I could only speculate on its pros and cons. from beekeeping suppliers • Australian made Pros: • honey can be extracted from the framed honeycombs using a centrifugal extractor • honey can be extracted by turning a tap • top bars of honey can be crushed • parts are made in Australia, should be fairly easy to replace or buy • extracted combs can be put back into the hive for bees to refill with honey • the queen is free to wander around the hive • bees are encouraged to build natural comb • transportation of the hive should be fairly simple • the hexagonal tower shape eliminates cold spots • no harvesting equipment is necessary. by creating a natural vortex to circulate air flow • easily transportable Cons: • frames can be placed cold or hot in the hive • honeycombs are made of plastic • the hive is hand crafted from reclaimed materials • lots of fidgety parts and bits to deal with • the pitched roof holds a cushion of air • pests have lots of places to hide which helps to insulate the hive • the oblong shape causes cold spots to • aesthetically beautiful develop over the colder months • the queen has access to all areas of the hive. • access can only be gained by taking the roof off Cons: • the honey box is heavy to lift to inspect the brood • parts need to be measured and cut precisely to stop • wax will not be available for selling bees from filling gaps with either wax or propolis • honey cells may not all be ripe for harvesting; • pests have lots of places to hide honey may ferment once harvested • access can only be gained by taking the roof off • honey may crystalise in the plastic • wax combs absorb pesticides and heavy metals over time combs, and be difficult to extract • full boxes are heavy to lift or move. • may cause a separation between the keeper and the bees.

Price: $450 [available from Willow Hankinson Price: $600 in Warburton Victoria, +61 425 859 651] Conclusion: a newcomer and controversial; many questions Conclusion: beautifully constructed and about this hive were raised at the Beekeepers Association developed for natural beekeeping. of the ACT recently; time will tell how effective this hive is.

28 | PIP MAGAZINE Kirsten Bradley Kirsten WARRÉ HIVE Introduced into Australia by Tim Malfroy in 2006, this hive was designed as a stackable, vertical top bar hive, but without frames. Tim has modified this Nick Killey design by introducing three-sided frames. The hive comprises: a floor; three boxes, 300 mm square; frames DOME HIVE without wire or foundation; a quilt; and a roof. This hive’s design was inspired by the bee-centricity of the Sun Hive (German, woven, aerial, dome-shaped). The Pros: hive is a curved top bar hive, and can be hung from a • management principles are bee friendly tree or shelter, or placed standing on a tripod. It consists • Australian made of 101 pieces of kiln-dried pine assembled into a top • individual boxes are fairly easy to lift dome, a bottom dome and a central ring. Inside there are • bees are encouraged to build natural honeycomb ten top bars for honeycomb, and two for ventilation. • empty boxes are added under the brood box, so brood is always at the top where the heat is Pros: • shape allows a natural vortex to circulate • the egg shape creates the ultimate vortex inside air flow, minimising cold spots the hive, which promotes great air flow • the queen has access to all areas of the hive • the rounded shape promotes a healthy and strong colony • by harvesting the top box, and adding new boxes below, new comb is constantly being • bees are encouraged to build natural comb built so eggs are always laid in fresh comb • pests have little place to hide because • comb is crushed, no extracting tools are necessary of the smoothness inside • wax can be sold or made into goods • the queen has access to all areas of the hive • the quilt provides insulation, absorbs moisture and stops condensation forming on the ceiling in colder months • the bottom comes away, which allows for easy inspection • boxes are easy to build – plans are • the top dome lifts, so top bars and comb can be lifted out readily available on the internet • Australian made (Victoria) from plantation timbers • hives are easily transportable. • easily transportable Cons: • looks fantastic • a lifting device is needed when adding a new box under two or more full boxes • for the bees’ sake, it’s a pollination hive.

• comb is often attached to the frame below Cons: • frames are not available to buy, and are difficult to make, even for good woodworkers • the hive is relatively new – no honey is harvestable – so not much performance information is • when frames are used pests have lots of places to hide available; however, indicators are good • frames need to be measured and cut precisely to stop bees from filling gaps with either wax or propolis • old brood combs will be difficult to cull. • access can only be gained by taking the roof off. Price: $800.

Price: around $600 Conclusion: I believe this is the ultimate bee- Conclusion: a great hive for bees and beekeepers. centric hive. [contact [email protected]]

PIP MAGAZINE | 29 Adrian Iodice Michael Thiele

KENYAN TOP BAR HIVE (LES CROWDER VERSION) GOLDEN HIVE (EINRAUMBEUTE) OR ONE-ROOM HIVE The original was designed in Canada in 1971 for aid workers The Golden Hive was designed by Thomas Radetzki to take to Africa. The ‘Les Crowder’ version is better suited about 30 years ago for bio-dynamic beekeepers in to the Australian environment than the Phil Chandler. Europe and introduced to Australia four years ago. The body of the hive looks somewhat like a half hexagonal It is a one-room hive and has deep, large frames that trough, of about 1.2 metres long and about 500 millimetres can accommodate brood, pollen and honey on the one across the top. The sides taper down to form the hexagonal comb. Its built using the golden mean numbers. shape. About thirty-three bars rest across the top, forming the roof; this is what the bees attach their honeycomb to. Pros: • 30 years of use have proven it to be an Pros: exceptional hive for bee health • can be made using scrap timber with • the queen can move freely throughout the hive imprecise measurements • a wax cloth covers the top of the frames and • plans are readily available on the internet can be rolled open to only expose one frame at • not many places for pests to hide a time. Fewer bees are disturbed this way • inspection is from the side, minimising • no heavy boxes to lift as frames are loss of heat and vital nest scent harvested one at a time • honey is harvested from the outer bars, • easily transportable away from the brood nest • no wire or foundation is used in the frames • bees build natural comb thin timber skewers built into the frames • the queen has access to all areas of the hive hold the comb stable when extracting • old brood comb can be easily moved • the hive can be built on legs so it can be out to the ends and then culled worked at a comfortable height • a smoker is rarely used; bees are more relaxed • frames can be easily inspected because their roof is not taken off • bees are free to build cell sizes as they require • comb is crushed, no extracting tools are necessary • brood comb is constantly culled • wax can be sold, traded or made into products • the hive has a false wall that can be moved • can be built so that it stands at waist laterally to increase or decrease the size height, eliminating the need to bend of the internal space when needed • a lid covers the bars – stops rain, and shades out the sun Cons: • well suited for the elderly or people with • expensive extracting equipment is necessary disabilities, no heavy lifting needed unless comb is cut and crushed Cons: • heavy to lift when it needs to be moved • cross combing can occur • the oblong shape can create cold spots in winter • a small amount of wax may sometimes • parts need to be precisely measured and cut to stop attach to the wall of the hive bees from filling gaps with either wax or propolis not easily transportable. • pests have lots of places to hide due to the frames.

Price: Under $100 if made from scrap and up Price: $650 Contact Tobias Mager on +61 403 008 to $950 for very well crafted durable hives. 504 or [email protected]

Conclusion: I think the Kenyan is by far the simplest Conclusion: This is an excellent hive that really takes no fuss hive to use and really goes hand in hand the bees’ wellbeing into consideration and also offers when it comes to permaculture principles a commercial beekeeper a truly workable option.

30 | PIP MAGAZINE Eglu Go UP The new mobile easy-clean chicken house

• Top & bottom • Twin-wall insulation • Easy to clean of run door open system slide-out independently dropping tray

from $669

• Foot operated • Raised up to save • Strong steel wheels for easy you bending down predator-proof movement anti-tunnel skirt Flexible Design The Eglu Go UP is available with an integrated run to provide you and your chickens with an easy to move, secure area.

Low Maintenance Droppings fall through the slatted floor onto the slide out dropping tray, which can then be simply emptied onto the compost heap. The smooth plastic surfaces are non-absorbent and can be washed down quickly with a hose, making it super easy to clean.

Collecting Your Eggs The Eglu Go UP has a nesting box integrated with the removable roosting bars for easy access to your hens’ fresh eggs. Simply open the back and reach in.

Well Ventilated The Eglu Go UP has excellent draught free ventilation and insulated Adrian Iodice twin walled construction so your chickens will be cool in summer and Crushing honeycomb to produce honey warm in winter.

OVERALL CONCLUSION No Foxes Allowed The run is made from strong steel weld mesh impossible for predators Until recent years, backyard beekeepers have been to break. A unique anti-tunnel skirt sits flat on the ground, preventing directed towards conventional beekeeping methods: to animals from digging in. maximise honey production without considering the health of bees. Most backyard beekeepers, because they’ve Optional Wheels Choose an Eglu Go UP with wheels and you will be able to move it learned commercial management techniques, have not effortlessly around your garden. Using the easy foot operated wheel questioned how they manage and treat their bees. mechanism, one person can move it on their own.

The difference between conventional beekeeping and natural beekeeping is like the difference between a monoculture farm and a biodynamic or permaculture garden. Natural beekeeping is about providing optimal conditions for the health of the bee colony. There are now some fantastic alternative options that are great for bees and beekeepers alike, and I encourage you to use them. Two colours available For FREE DELIVERY! Adrian Iodice teaches natural, sustainable honeybee care call 0448 999 877 in Melbourne and Bermagui over spring and summer: see www.beekeepingnaturally.com.au or go to www.omlet.com.au use code: PIPFREE (valid until 30/11/15)

PIP MAGAZINE | 31 FEATURE ARTIST AS FAMILY: THE ART OF PERMACULTURE TRAVEL

Words and photos by Patrick Jones and Meg Ulman

When David Holmgren and Bill small animals; and we set up a number of greedily to all these low-status foods. We Mollison developed permaculture community food gardens with others in also swapped food and board for drawing up our town. All of these things helped with permaculture designs for people’s backyards. in the 1970s it was an attempt to our transition away from the supermarket reduce the growing environmental model of food, but it was observing and 4. APPLY SELF-REGULATION AND and social crises of modern life. Their interacting with our local environment that ACCEPT FEEDBACK is best described in concept emphasised designing low really improved our knowledge. To eat our letter to elders. On most nights we consumption, low pollution and highly for free and teach ourselves about new stealth-camped wherever we deemed productive human settlements. Nearly species as we travelled involved looking it safe. What concerned us was not the critically, documenting unknown species, council by-laws we actively ignored, but forty years later, we wanted to know researching them, and asking local people what permaculture-on-the-move that we didn’t have permission from the about their uses and ecological significance. elders whose country we were passing might look like. In November 2013, through. So we devised the letter in which we set off on a journey to find out. 2. CATCH AND STORE ENERGY was we were both applying limits and inviting important because food was our fuel, and feedback. We sent it ahead of us to various while we were cycling we were always Indigenous cultural centres, corporations hungry. As we moved further away from When we decided to travel up the east and co-ops. But we found asking permission our climate zone we became beginner coast of Australia by bicycle with our two in person the most satisfying as it was foragers again. We had dried several kilos of relationships, not just permission, we were sons (aged eleven years and fourteen fruit to take, and for our whole time on the seeking. These meetings would inevitably months) and our Jack Russell terrier, road we added freshly picked roadside fruit lead to conversations about bush tucker. we had no idea how far north we would to our stores. We were moving at a pace end up. When we loaded our panniers conducive to observing and interacting, so 5. USE AND VALUE RENEWABLE finding at least some free tucker every day onto our bikes and set off from our Unless it wasn’t just desirable, but achievable. On RESOURCES AND SERVICES. home in central Victoria we wanted was pouring with rain, or there was a day some glorious days we would eat only what of total fire ban, we used small stick-fires to to achieve several things: expand our we found and fished: guavas, blackberry cook on. After setting up camp, we bipeds knowledge of freely obtainable foods in nightshade, various sea fish, coconuts, headed out and in no time collected enough Australia; spend little money; live simply snakeweed tea, tropical almonds, purslane, renewable fuel – fallen branches or drift and outdoors; and produce no waste. pipis (in places such as North Stradbroke wood – to make a fire. Roasting fish and Island and Narragon Beach, Queensland); eels on coals became a great delight and is and brown trout and dandelion root, with So what does our form of permaculture now our preferred way of cooking them. We a salad of dandy greens, mallow and sow travel look like? To explain, we’ve travelled with a collapsible handmade timber thistle (in Tumbarumba, New South Wales). applied Holmgren’s twelve permaculture longbow for rabbits (although our dog Zero principles to our 400-day bike- was more successful at catching them), 3. OBTAIN A YIELD is particularly tailored and hand lines and a hand-spear for fish. camping escapade up the east coast of to cultivating plants, mushrooms and Australia to Far North Queensland. animals within the fences of settled life, but 6. PRODUCE NO WASTE. We rode about we applied this to how much free food we 9000 kilometres in the fourteen months could collect and transport on the move. 1. OBSERVE AND INTERACT explains why we of our journey, the great majority of which Throughout Victoria, NSW and Queensland chose to embark on such a journey. Before we foraged citrus, much of which was was pure pedal power. A small amount we left, we regularly incorporated over 100 planted but some, such as bush lemons, grew was electric power, as Meg’s bike had a autonomous plant and animal species into our autonomously. We obtained yields that we pedal-assist electric motor to help on the diet that could be found in walking and bike- didn’t lift a finger to produce; that in many riding distance of our home. These included: hills when schlepping our heavy toddler cases would otherwise have gone to waste. traditional bush tucker such as lomandra, was too much of a strain. With both pride One sugarcane farmer in central Queensland milkmaid tubers (Burchardia umbellata) and pragmatism Meg was extremely frugal told us his mother had planted ‘all those and yabbies; and naturalised species such using the battery, as we never knew when trees’, which to us constituted a food forest, as rabbit, plantain, apples, salsify, wood we would next find power to recharge. adding that ‘no one in the family could be blewits, saffron milk caps and chickweed. bothered with them now’. This attitude was We ran workshops on identifying edible not uncommon, and we’d help ourselves weeds and fungi, and killing and dressing

32 | PIP MAGAZINE ‘ON SOME GLORIOUS DAYS WE WOULD EAT ONLY WHAT WE FOUND AND FISHED.’

Clockwise: Day camp, Bundanoon NSW. Artist as Family awaiting the Stockton Ferry, Newcastle NSW. Gathering roadside guavas, Lawrence NSW. Skinning a rabbit our dog Zero caught, Winda Woppa Reserve NSW. Roadside apple gathering, Blue Mountains NSW.

PIP MAGAZINE | 33 ‘WE FELT LIBERATED BY OUR LACK OF POSSESSIONS,’

Clockwise this page: Patrick’s drawing of our Letter to Elders. Gutting fish at our stealth camp, Narragon Beach QLD All aboard. Pambula NSW Talking bush tucker with Ashley Boyd, Palm Island QLD Opposite page: On the Ridgelands Station Road, west of Rockhampton QLD Getting a fishing lesson from Neville Bowen, Hope Vale QLD

34 | PIP MAGAZINE After cycling all the way to East Cape York a sharp knife and matches. We took two but rather principles that different we ran out of time, so we hired a car to light-weight hiking tents, clothes and some people can apply in many different travel the return 2800 kilometres between basic tools. We felt liberated by our lack of ways. While our form of permaculture possessions, recognising that the more stuff Cairns and Sydney; which means we spent travel may not be for everyone, one has, the more complicated life becomes. just $350 on fossil fuels (including a few By using small and slow solutions over many we share it here as an example of ferries and trains) in well over a year. months we created something really big. the possibilities for an ecologically accountable way of travelling. Before we left home we hadn’t shopped 10. USE AND VALUE DIVERSITY at a supermarket for seven years, but When we arrived at our most northerly point, being on the road and away from our Hope Vale, north of Cooktown, we were Patrick Jones and Meg Ulman are productive home and community gardens invited to stay with and learn from Guugu writers, community gardeners and two- meant that our food-packaging waste Yimithirr elders Tim and Elaine McGreen. fifths of the collective Artist as Family. The knowledge we learned from Aboriginal increased a little. Back home with our You can read more about their travels people across three states – especially fishing and day-to-day adventures at www. poultry, worm farm, bulk food co-ops and and gathering bush foods – was a highlight theartistasfamily.blogspot.com. compost system, our household waste is of our trip. The generosity extended to us virtually non-existent. To mitigate waste was overwhelming: from Bundaberg to Palm Their forthcoming book, The Art of on the road we tried, as much as possible, Island; from Clump Point to Daintree Village; Free Travel (NewSouth Publishing) will to buy from farm gate stores and food from Walgett to Mystery Bay. The more we be in bookstores in October 2015. You can pre order from the Pip Magazine co-ops, glean, fish and forage for food, learned about bush foods and medicines, the more our growing list of free foods website at www.pipmagazine.com. and reuse packaging over and over. diversified. By the time we left Hope Vale our au/shop/the-art-of-free-travel list of free tucker had grown to 240 species. 7. DESIGN FROM PATTERNS TO DETAILS didn’t really apply as our trip was 11. USE EDGES AND VALUE THE MARGINAL not an exercise in design. was a principle we naturally incorporated because it was the edges of settlements 8. INTEGRATE RATHER THAN SEGREGATE and marginal lands that provided places fits bicycling well as it’s a close second for us to live temporarily and gather to walking as an ideal speed to apply the food. Tapping into these weedy, feral principle. As we roved slowly, our senses and neglected environments contributed moved with the changes in climate, altitude, to our successful autonomy. culture, terrain and temperature. We sensed rain on its way, and roadkill before we saw it. 12. CREATIVELY USE AND RESPOND We followed rivers to secret camp sites, and TO CHANGE sums up another reason we returned our mammalian and compostable set off on our trip. As well as wanting to wastes to leaf humus or the subsoil. We were improve our knowledge of free tucker, we predators catching fish and rabbits; and prey wanted to challenge ourselves: to become being munched by flies, ticks, mosquitos and more hardy, resilient and adaptable. Living sandflies. We accepted hardships and saw on the road and relying on our wits provided them as part of life, married to our joys. the right set of circumstances for doing this, and it also gave us many opportunities 9. USE SMALL AND SLOW SOLUTIONS to embrace uncertainty: to own it, smell sums up the premise of our trip – increase it, fear it and know its many flavours. simplicity. We carried only as much gear as we needed, and lived with a kitchen that One of the wonderful things about comprised a billy, four bowls (which doubled permaculture is that it is not a cult of as cooking pans), four sporks, four cups, abstract prescriptions, rules or laws,

PIP MAGAZINE | 35 FEATURE PERMACULTURE TIMOR LESTE AND A TROPICAL PERMACULTURE GUIDEBOOK

Words by Sarah Davis and Lachlan McKenzie Photos by Lachlan McKenzie

Fifteen years ago, permaculture broken up into bite-size pieces that can They believe permaculture is essential for grew roots in Timor Leste after the be easily absorbed, tested and duplicated. Timor Leste to be sustainable, resilient and Timorese people’s incredible and truly independent. Food sovereignty issues tragically brutal passage to gain Permaculture is becoming more popular are at the core of many Permatil activities. independence from Indonesia. in development work because its holistic, community-based design and approach They are also passionate about bringing is easily integrated into a variety of permaculture to young people. Ego has created PermaScout Camp, a week- Permaculture was introduced to Timor programs. Permatil train hundreds of long gathering of youth from all districts Leste by Steve Cran and a group of future trainers each year from NGOs combining scouts with environment, Australian permies which included and government as well as community organics and permaculture talks and Lachlan McKenzie, Julianne Hartmann, leaders, cooperative representatives demonstrations, local food cook-ups, Rob Swain and others. They were hoping and many farmers. In one project, local products expo, theatre and music. to help rebuild and renew the country Permatil trained and supported 200 in a sustainable, culturally appropriate government extension workers on water Permatil is also developing a school way. They teamed up with some of and soil conservation, sustainable land based permaculture curriculum for school Timor Leste’s student activists from the management, design and mapping, gardens to provide knowledge, skills and occupation, led by Eugenio ‘Ego’ Lemos, organic farming and agroforestry. food for cooking school lunches. They have who had already started an organic The promotion of industrial agriculture an ambitious aim to embed permaculture farming movement pre-independence. and the legacy of clearing and into the national school curriculum, perhaps the first country to do so. Permaculture grew and slowly spread burning is still a major challenge, but through training and demonstration permaculture is slowly being infused sites. It was already clear that through Timorese food production, TROPICAL PERMACULTURE GUIDEBOOK land management and culture. permaculture went hand in hand with In 2005, in response to a lack of tropical community based development work When talking with the Permatil staff they permaculture literature, Permatil created and could help guide growth, livelihood are clearly passionate about permaculture A Permaculture Guidebook from East and agricultural development. and what it offers them. They enjoy: Timor (Permatil 2005) working with Lachlan McKenzie, IDEP Foundation It was also clear that permaculture was • working in consultation with (Indonesian Development of Education eagerly accepted by Timorese people, not communities rather than just telling and Permaculture) and many others. just because of the techniques, design community members what to do ideas and common sense approach, The project started in late 2002 but because the focus on community • creating projects based and after three years a 400-page and fair share resonated strongly with around local resources comprehensive guidebook with over Timorese culture and identity. From • that permaculture is actually a 1500 illustrations came off the press! this initial work a Timorese NGO, mechanism for strengthening Permatil (Permaculture Timor Leste) culture and tradition The guidebook has helped provide was born and still thrives today. practical permaculture knowledge, • looking at the world with backed up by detailed illustrations Permatil takes a long-term approach ‘permaculture tinted’ glasses - which can be used by everyone. With to its projects. Results from community seeing resources where they once climate change and resource shortages consultation are turned into a multi-year saw waste and inter-connected biting, it is more relevant than ever program of training, demonstrations and systems and functioning patterns as a guide for program development, monitoring. All work is based around a instead of land to be controlled. implementation, training and referencing. permaculture approach with the end goals

36 | PIP MAGAZINE PERMACULTURE IS BECOMING MORE POPULAR IN DEVELOPMENT WORK BECAUSE ITS HOLISTIC, COMMUNITY-BASED DESIGN AND APPROACH IS EASILY INTEGRATED INTO A VARIETY OF PROGRAMS

Now Permatil and the original writers Lachlan McKenzie and Ego Lemos have joined with xpand Foundation and Disruptive Media to update, rewrite and generalise the guidebook for all tropical regions. They are hoping to produce a practical educational resource that will provide the same benefits in Africa, SE Asia, Polynesia, Melanesia, the Caribbean and the tropical Americas that have been seen in Timor Leste.

The new guidebook will be available in hard copy and online for free

download, chapter by chapter. They Lachlan McKenzie strongly believe in free share as Mong with Yohan on the guitar. a means to enable independence, community strength and resilience.

The guidebook will be online in English and hopefully different language versions will quickly follow.

We still need support to continue this project. We are negotiating for funding with NGOs

and private donors and accepting individual Lachlan McKenzie Permatil or group donations through our website: Soil and land management training Behedan. Solar dryer training. www.permacultureguidebook.org

Please follow our progress at the website and Tropical Permaculture Guidebook on Facebook. Permatil Lachlan McKenzie Lachlan McKenzie Soil and land management training Behedan. Solar dryer training.

PIP MAGAZINE | 37 GROW

SAVE OUR SOILS

Words by Geoff Lawton Photos by Ingrid Pullen

All terrestrial life depends on soil, grants – are doing most of the real research. groundwater rises, increasing aquifer directly or indirectly. Although our Moreover, these people are achieving pressure, and the aquifer feed of a distant understanding of topsoil has grown by results: creating high quality soil through spring may increase, causing upward flow. leaps and bounds over the past decades, water control, modest aeration and the we are still losing this invaluable assemblage of specific plants and animals. Water also flows down and across resource at a frightening pace. And this is done with careful consideration landscape profiles. By following the form of the sequence of these treatments. of the landscape, water and the elements dissolved in it can travel great distances. The crucial importance of soils is a direct Less than thirty per cent of the world’s consequence of the key role they play in This laminar flow of nutrients is common topsoil remains in fair or acceptable supplying us with our most basic needs, within the topsoil, and the higher subsoils of condition. The fragility of this vital layer can especially food. Accordingly, special the landscape, rather than the lower strata. be illustrated through a simple comparison: attention must be paid to soil cycles. In any Because this flow happens so close to the if one imagines the earth as an orange, the assessment of sustainability, the only way surface of the earth, it carries both inorganic extremely thin topsoil layer is no thicker to gauge on-ground success is by assessing elements (derived from deep within the than the shine on the skin of that orange. the stability of soils: farming practices are earth) and organic compounds (derived An astonishing variety of creatures rely on only as sustainable as the soils they are from living or once-living organisms). A this ‘shine’ for all of their basic necessities. on. For our long-term wellbeing, we must vast array of minerals and molecules are concentrated and redistributed across Our growing knowledge about soil has do better than simply maintain sustainable landscapes by the natural flow of water. formed the basis of new soil services, soil; we must mend the damage we have soil analyses and many well-intended soil already done. Agricultural practices must However, we can change these flows conservation attempts, yet we are still improve both the quality and quantity of soil. to accomplish soil sustainability goals by losing soil at an ever-increasing rate. If A truly sustainable system should not take harmonising our activities with the patterns of this trend continues for much longer, our a tremendous amount of labour. This is landforms and focusing on the accumulating, current form of society will eventually not just about efficiency: if sustainability slowing, spreading and soaking of water as collapse – and mainly as a result of in a system relies on extensive human a self-regulating water distribution system. practices as simple as over tilling. inputs it is too fragile to be considered Swales – water-harvesting ditches on contour At the same time, soil is being damaged truly sustainable. A sustainable system – are an excellent example of harmonisation. irreparably by salinisation, for example must ultimately be self-regulating. They slow water down to a standstill, resulting from the clear-cutting of forests eliminate erosion and let water infiltrate that are often far away. There are only a IMPROVING SOIL the surrounding area, while recharging few places in natural systems in which soils There are two approaches to improve groundwater and preventing waterlogging. are well conserved: uncut forests; under soil quality and increase soil quantity. Swales also fill dams, collect eroded soil, shallow lakes and ponds; native grasslands create new soil and grow vegetation. For more populated by perennials; and mulched and info on building swales see Pip3 pp.18–21. non-tillage agricultural production systems. MANAGE WATER The first approach focuses on water and ENCOURAGE LIVING ORGANISMS A SUSTAINABLE APPROACH the compounds that dissolve in it. Water may vary in pH, and that may change The second approach focuses on living Although this situation may seem while it dissolves and deposits compounds organisms, their metabolic rates and the extremely gloomy, there is hope in the as it passes through the soil, subsoil and broader systems of life, such as food webs. form of numerous sustainable approaches strata. Additionally, groundwater can carry All living organisms derive nutrition from to soil reconditioning, maintenance and elements both downwards and upwards their environments: plants pull nutrients from rehabilitation. Surprisingly, amateur when aquifer pressures overcome gravity. the soil and air; animals consume plants. gardeners and farmers – not scientists For example, under flood conditions, Manures are comprised of various elements. with big fancy labs and federal research

38 | PIP MAGAZINE RESPONSIBLE FARMERS MUST TAKE FULL ADVANTAGE OF THE ECOSYSTEM PROCESSES THAT HAVE BEEN BUILDING SOILS FOR MILLENNIA

Inspecting the soil

PIP MAGAZINE | 39 Chickens in the system. Harvesting worm castings. Worms.

Water also flows through animals. For Diversity is a theme of organic farming at The permaculture model of agriculture example, cows consume enormous amounts many levels. Even monoculture organic uses perennial tree systems to support of water, which passes through and comes farming is giving way to more diverse crops and pasture systems. This large- out as nitrogen-rich urine, with many approaches, and for a good reason: diversity scale blend of land uses promotes healthy other dissolved compounds. This urine is must become a central part of any attempt soil profiles by increasing both its quality distributed throughout the landscape, which at achieving sustainability. Intrepid farmers and quantity. However, we can also can be an enormous benefit to soil quality. are farming cows with chickens, and adopt such a strategy on smaller scales chickens with sheep; some are growing if we focus on the natural processes that Animals also build their complex bodies crops and raising animals together, allowing occur in forests and other ecosystems. – bone, flesh, muscle, brain and other the natural by-products of livestock to tissues – from nutrients derived from enrich the soils in which crops are grown. GARDEN-SCALE food and water. When they die, natural Soil can be augmented completely in forces – such as predators, scavengers, When people assemble these combinations, a garden or on a small parcel of land. decomposers and even aquifers – distribute through the process of trial and error, Gardeners can apply treatments to each the compounds from which they are they are determining progressively more square metre to easily and rapidly build comprised across the ecosystem. sustainable approaches. Diversity-based soil: by applying compost, mulch and techniques are both better for building beneficial biologically rich liquids such as By focusing on the aspects of this soils and are able to more efficiently use worm farm juice, compost teas and bio- massive matrix of factors that are resources within a system. Land is being fertiliser. This can build a rich soil biota, within our control, we can direct the improved in the long-term, while product while adding organic matter to create up management of animals through our yield is increased in the short-term. to twenty-five millimetres of soil each systems so that beneficial organic year. Doubling the application of organic compounds are reincorporated naturally. Natural ecosystems are complex, but by matter doubles the amount of new soil, manipulating this small set of elements – sustainably. Unfortunately the intensity Alternatively, we can take advantage of these the context in which plants and animals of compost applications at a larger scale concentrations of organic compounds as are cultivated – sustainability is possible. requires a prohibitive amount of material. the basis for organic farming: organisms, There are many other elements: soil and their waste products, make terrific organisms regulate countless processes fertilisers. Practical applications include: invisibly; macroscopic wildlife leaves its WORKING WITH NATURE worm farms, chicken tractors, chicken own marks while passing through. Responsible farmers must take full composting systems, compost, cover advantage of the ecosystem processes crops, small and large animal manures, RESPONSIBLE USE OF LAND that have been building soils for millennia. animal deep litter yards/straw yards, By permitting the majority of a landscape To optimise our sustainable use of compost teas, bio-fertiliser and biochar. to be governed by those larger ecosystem the landscape, we need to use all land processes it becomes far easier to achieve Mulching is another great organic soil responsibly. By some estimates, we could soil sustainability on an agricultural scale. additive, and suitable materials include hay, meet our needs from a total amount comprising thirty per cent agricultural straw, leaves, grass, stone, sawdust, bark We must now collectively submit to the land and seventy per cent forest. or wood. It is best with fifteen centimetres natural creative forces that have given us of material covering the soil. Mulching adds the soil we take for granted today. It is our Agricultural fields could grow crops plant nutrients, buffers soil temperatures, social, humanitarian and moral obligation and graze livestock. Production forests prevents erosion, promotes soil life, retains to implement systems that create soil at could grow trees and support foraging. moisture and restores soil structure. rates comparable to those produced by Ecosystem processes supported by the natural ecosystems of the earth. ORGANIC FARMING natural forests make sustainable clearings for the purpose of permaculture crops Farmers around the world employ a diverse and pastures much more productive. assortment of organic farming practices.

40 | PIP MAGAZINE Compost pile.

GEOFF’S 18-DAY HOT COMPOST Create the pile, and saturate it with water • if no water is seen, the pile is too as you mix the materials together. To dry – add water as you mix What you’ll need kickstart or speed up the composting • if two drops or more come out, the pile process add an activator to the centre • a rake and a long-handled pitchfork is too wet; this is a problem and will of the pile on day one. An activator • a minimum of 2.5 m2 of slow compost production by at least could be a dead animal, but others semi-shaded ground two days – ‘fluff’ the pile with a fork include comfrey, yarrow, nettles and and dig a chimney-type hole through • a water supply urine. Cover the pile if it is rainy, to the centre to let more air in (force avoid too much water getting into it. • enough compostable material to create an implement handle or pole in, and a pile 1.5–2 cubic metres high, including move it about to widen the hole). Turning the pile - one-third manure Temperature Turn the pile on day four. It is important - one-third fresh green material to turn your compost as air helps the By day eight your heap should be between (e.g. weeds, grasses, fruit and decomposition process, keeping the 55–65 °C, which is too hot to keep your vegetables waste, prunings pile in an aerobic state. With a pitchfork hand in. If you see white powder forming from non-allelopathic trees) thoroughly turn the pile inside out: in the heap it is too hot: do not compact the outer materials should, as far as the heap – ‘fluff’ it to allow more air - one-third carbon-rich material (e.g. possible, end up on the inside, and to circulate, and add sawdust or some ashes, shredded cardboard, corn vice versa. Turning should take about other shredded high carbon material. stalks, dry brown leaves, shredded thirty to forty minutes. Repeat this newspaper, peanut shells, pine process every two days for eighteen After eighteen days the compost should needles, sawdust, hay, straw). days, adding water as necessary. be ready: it should be dark brown, Making the pile quite fine, just warm and smell nice Correcting moisture content and earthy. This can be used in various Shred the carbon material to pieces ways: mixed with sand, for potting; added no bigger than five centimetres, and It is crucial to test moisture content as fertiliser to the top of the soil, or to crush them so that they are as fibrous each time you turn the heap. cover with mulch around your plants. as possible. Shredding offers more Pick up two handfuls of compost surface area for the composting and squeeze them together. process; this is more important in cold climates than in humid tropics. • if you see water pushing to the surface, or a single drop comes out, it is fine

PIP MAGAZINE | 41 GROW

MERRI BEE ORGANIC FARMACY

Words by Ross Mars Photos by Merribee Farm

Bee Winfield and her partner Stewart pecans, pine nuts, sapotes, macadamias, as chicory, alfalfa and perennial grasses; Seesink have transformed their eleven avocados, mulberries, figs, feijoa, cherry and sowing amaranth, millet, sunflower, lab hectare property, at Nannup in the guava and Japanese raison. They have lab and sorghum, most of which survive dry summers. Some areas have been south-west of Western Australia, by embraced bamboo for its many wonderful transformed into dark-chocolate coloured, building soil. Bee’s been obsessed with properties, and call it a biological air crumbly, moist soil, and irrigation required compost since she was a teenager, conditioner. Willows, poplars and has been reduced by about seventy per cent; and is still making it forty years later. timber trees have not been forgotten, every drop seems to be soaked up. Carbon After courses on permaculture, holistic and yields keep surprising them. is now being pumped out of the air and management, earthworks for water To help meet the rising demand for into the soil all year round, and at depth. harvesting, soil biology and life in pastured organic produce, extend the soil, Bee was ready to improve their experience and provide a buffer When Bee arrived the block was infested her soil; she and Stewart are so against climate change, the couple with doublegees and kikuyu grass; there focused on life below ground that bought another twenty hectares, in were only five trees. But Permaculture One their son describes them as ‘turd Karridale, in 2012. Bee’s mission is to (Bill Mollison and David Holmgren, Tagari nerds’ – Bee prefers ‘soil life coach’. perfect – and pass on to others – any Publications, 1981) was the ‘bible’, and a food technique to remove carbon from the forest was begun. Today towering pecans air and transform it into topsoil, fast. and spreading figs, oaks and carob trees Over the last decade their organic grace the hills, providing ecological services, farm business has grown in leaps and The couple’s intensive study of soil food and fodder – some species took twenty bounds. They regularly supply fully microbiology resulted from their farm years to bear, but don’t be put off! In spite tree-ripened fruit, vegetables grown being hit hard by climate change since of climate change, a quarter of the house is with compost, grass-fed meat, and 2007; they realised their district was devoted to food storage. Abundant chlorine- eggs and dairy to the Nannup and desertifying. Non-wetting sands and free water, plenty of healthy food and free Margaret River farmers’ markets, Perth steep clay hills bereft of topsoil are okay, energy are the rewards of permaculture. City Farm market and many others. while it rains, a lot! However, intense sun, Bee’s gratitude to Bill Mollison’s genius and longer periods between isolated rain and tireless devotion to permaculture is Bee and Stewart recently renamed events, have become the new ‘normal’: unbounded; his visit to Nannup in the late their farm ‘Merri Bee Organic Farmacy’ the average annual rainfall at Nannup is 1970s encouraged and inspired a generation. to highlight the fact that food grown about 1000 mm, but only 450 mm fell in in biologically active soil is the best 2010. Bee and Stewart have found ways to Bee and Stewart hope to inspire others preventative medicine, the cheapest keep young plants alive, using swales and too. They have a vision of regenerated probiotic, and the best food to nurture increasing biomass in the soil: more plant soil supporting intensively grazed animals developing children. Their animals also roots and associated microbes mean more between fodder-tree lined swales; get to enjoy wholesome organic feed passageways for air and water, and more they consider swales essential to tree and the freedom to express their innate fertility. The loss of biodiversity – above establishment. With bamboo, trees and behaviours; unfortunately, this sometimes and below ground – over vast areas of WA perennial pastures sequestering many tonnes means they dig up the carrots! has focused them on proving that biological of carbon each year, and providing nutrient farming works, including broadacres. dense foods, they know their approach works. Before Bee met Stewart she had built a passive solar mudbrick house, and she At Merri Bee the golden rule is ‘never For more information see: has continued to develop the permaculture bare the soil’, meaning full cover, all the www.merribeeorganicfarm.net.au. The farm will be on the south-west tour surrounding it for the last thirty years. time. Their soil is protected, by: growing The farm now boasts over ninety species masses of multi-species cover crops; at APC13 (Perth, October 2016). of fruit and nut trees, including: carobs, encouraging deep-rooted perennials such

42 | PIP MAGAZINE Clockwise: Stewart even looks like Old MacDonald! Now that’s what you call heritage produce. Look at that colour! This adds new meaning to the term ‘household pet’. Bee taking a moment in her garden by the feijoas. Mother pig and her piglets.

PIP MAGAZINE | 43 GROW

PERENNIAL ABUNDANCE TEN EDIBLE PERENNIALS

Words and photos by Morag Gamble

Edible perennials are at the heart of TURMERIC (Curcuma longa) ALOE VERA (Aloe vera barbadensis) a successful permaculture garden. These plants live for several years, are abundant, and bring diversity and resilience to the garden. They perform many functions in the system, and dramatically increase the harvestable yield.

Not only do perennials provide an ongoing supply of food, fibre and medicine for the Turmeric has been used in India for over gardener, they also provide structure to Aloe vera, a perennial succulent, has 2500 years. Well known as the yellow the garden, mulch, in-garden windbreaks incredible medicinal benefits and has been colour in curries, it is actually a medicinal or shade, habitat for beneficial insects, used therapeutically for over 5000 years. It powerhouse with a wide range of benefits. hides for birds and frogs, pollen for is excellent for cooling burns and sunburn, Eat some every day. Fresh is best – in bees, and organic matter for the soil. and soothing bites and chapped skin. It’s a juices, curries, grated in salad, yellow rice fabulous digestive aid and detox plant that … It is a pretty member of the ginger family, Perennials are easy to grow and harvest. can be added to salads and smoothies. It producing abundant rhizomes that are Well-chosen perennials need little survives in low water use gardens, but can ready about nine months after planting. maintenance to be healthy and come get sunburnt, and it is resistant to most pests. back year after year. Their root systems Plant it in easy reach for emergencies. access water and nutrients deep in the YACON (Smallanthus sonchifolius) soil, making them typically more hardy QUEENSLAND ARROWROOT (Canna edulis) and self-reliant than annuals. They can withstand difficult conditions and are great for challenging corners of the garden.

There are thousands of edible perennials to choose from. Here are ten easy ones to start with. Keep adding diversity.

Also known as Peruvian ground apple, yacon is a superb addition to a food forest Arrowroot is an ancient Inca food, and an or perennial vegetable garden. It grows extremely useful perennial: it’s easy to grow vigorously to two metres even in poor soils, and prolific; its edible rhizomes and young and the ground heaves with the abundance shoots provide food year-round; the leaves of tubers forming underground in autumn. can be used as mulch, providing abundant The crunchy sweet tubers can be eaten organic matter; and placed well, the fast raw – in salads, juiced – or cooked. growing stems can provide an in-garden windbreak or summer shade. The edible purple-skinned rhizomes are best harvested before the shoots become too big.

44 | PIP MAGAZINE WELL-CHOSEN PERENNIALS NEED LITTLE MAINTENANCE TO BE HEALTHY AND COME BACK YEAR AFTER YEAR

COMFREY (Symphytum officinale) DAYLILY (Hemerocallis species) KANG KONG (Ipomoea aquatica)

Comfrey is indispensable in a permaculture For half the year, daylilies add bright Fast growing tender shoots and leafy greens garden – an excellent soil conditioner, colour to the garden with very little care. are harvestable all year. A great tasting dynamic accumulator, mulch, compost Daylilies are considered a delicacy by green with high iron, vitamins and minerals activator, liquid manure ingredient, nutrient wild-food gatherers as many parts are – for salads and stirfries. Easy to grow in trap, weed barrier, animal and bee forage. edible – the young shoots, unopened a little pond or broccoli box. Excellent for It is also a great topical healing herb. flower buds and little tubers. limited space gardening and as a fodder.

TULSI, HOLY BASIL (Ocimum sanctum) SOCIETY GARLIC (Tulbaghia violacea) BRAZILIAN SPINACH (Alternanthera sissoo)

A sacred healing herb from India that helps Society garlic provides greens and flavour This edible groundcover is a leafy green reduce stress, strengthen immune systems, all year round and is very drought hardy. It which can be used raw or cooked and promote longevity, increase endurance, makes an excellent edge – dense clumps has a great texture. It forms an attractive fight infections, relieve congestion and of upright leaves can hold back mulch mound of decorative shiny leaves that is headaches, and improve digestion. Also a and help to keep weeds out. Both the productive all year round – guaranteeing rich source of vitamins and minerals. In a leaves and mauve flowers are edible, and fresh greens in your garden. As a permaculture garden its constant flowering make a great addition to salads, dressings, herbaceous border it requires almost attracts pollinators and other beneficial omelettes, stir-fries, soups and sauces. no attention and has few pests. insects, and it provides protection for small birds that help with pest management.

Morag Gamble of SEED International and the Ethos Foundation (ethosfoundation.org) is a passionate permaculture teacher, designer and activist who gives away over 10 000 perennial cuttings a year from her award-winning garden at Crystal Waters.

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EXPLORE THE OPTIONS finsbury.com.au 46 | PIP MAGAZINE BUILD ATAMAI VILLAGE: A RESILIENT COMMUNITY

Words by Rafael Joudry Photos by Hemon Day

The first stage of Atamai Village has several energy efficient homes which are now establishing their gardens.

Resilience means the ability to adapt common lands. In addition to private believe has the greatest likelihood of and respond positively to challenge purchase, a co-housing option is being remaining stable and pleasant in the and change. Small villages have been developed for greater affordability. face of anticipated climate change. the most enduring form of human settlement across continents and The key features for resilience Atamai Village is located in the Tasman across centuries and presumably will at Atamai Village are that: region, at the top of New Zealand’s South Island. The region is known for its apple continue to be so in a future filled • the founders have chosen a temperate growing as well as grapes, olives, nuts, stone with uncertainty around issues such region, with a diverse agricultural fruit and more. With light winter frosts, as climate change, rising energy base, so that villagers can produce enough to enhance the flavour of apples, it prices, food supply and job security. most of their own food and energy, is also warm enough in the summer to grow even in a changing climate melons, figs and avocados. With good rainfall (1000 millimetres annually), it also boasts The founders of Atamai Village in • all homes are equipped with the most hours of sunshine in the country! New Zealand have responded to solar power – passive and active – and use other locally available meet such challenges collectively, by The village is in a very picturesque energy sources such as wood focusing their energies on developing valley, and its moderate elevation puts a resilient community – a sustainable • The settlement design reduces it above rising sea level and flood areas, ecovillage. Atamai Village is a modern transport needs, plus villagers pool while providing good wind protection. example of a traditional village, with transport where possible to reduce Being on a large island in the southern new approaches and technologies carbon impacts and costs. hemisphere, with mountains nearby to designed to adapt as required. catch rain, it is well situated for relative Anyone looking for a smarter alternative climate stability in the coming decades. Atamai Village is purpose built to provide for their family and future is invited to find the best possible response to living well out if their family would like to be part of under the various challenges to the this adventure. There is a questionnaire on RENEWABLE ENERGY global economic system that are already the website to evaluate whether the project The plan for Atamai Village includes being in evidence. The permaculture-based is the right match for your requirements. prepared to provide for the community’s settlement was founded in 2006, and is own energy needs, to not only reduce now home to about twenty households. IDEAL CLIMATE costs and carbon footprint, but also to On completion it will include about reduce vulnerability to shortages, supply The founders have selected a location fifty households, as well as extensive interruptions and rising global energy prices . for Atamai Eco Village which they

PIP MAGAZINE | 47 Clockwise: The Atamai community orchard produces a wide range of organic, seasonal fruit for villagers’ needs. Photovoltaic solar power is the energy of choice for electricity at Atamai Village. Joanna Santa-Barbara produces a great array of home baked goodies in her wood fired oven. Patsy Blackstock supplies most of the family’s vegetables from her garden.

48 | PIP MAGAZINE ATAMAI VILLAGE IS A MODERN EXAMPLE OF A TRADITIONAL VILLAGE

Heating and cooling are big energy • reduces food miles, greatly reduces A VILLAGE ECONOMY consumers in most settings, but at the carbon footprint and reduces Atamai Village the design principles dependence on national and international Developing a village economy raises some used throughout mean that most supply chains – villagers will still have issues of adjustment which are unfamiliar heating and cooling is achieved their own food supply even if larger in our modern, compartmentalised through passive solar design. systems experience difficulties. world. It can be both refreshing and challenging to contemplate going back to All village lands are kept to organic Water heating in most dwellings is easily a more locally based model of trade. standards: the food is chemical free achieved by a combination of direct solar and rich in nutrients. Many villagers are heating and wood-fired backup, using A village economy provides livelihoods engaged in preserving, drying and other wood from the village’s own woodlots. for those selling goods and services low-energy storage methods, so that they to others: a benefit for the providers Cooking is done on wood or gas stoves, can eat their own crops all year round. and buyers. A village economy is in some dwellings with the use of likely to benefit many families. The village has its own farm and vineyard methane from a domestic bio-digester which provide a great range of produce, linked to the septic system. This Providers presumably want to provide good and also offer local livelihoods. traditional system has now been fully value, which benefits the entire community. adapted for the very modern home. Local providers will be proud of their goods LOCAL LIVELIHOODS and services, and will want to see them enjoyed by others in the community. This Transport needs have been reduced Working locally has many advantages can be a source of satisfaction which few by providing many of the goods and for workers, the environment and the providers have the opportunity to enjoy. services that families need from within local community. A strong community the village. Bicycle and walking tracks consciousness, with practical skills serving Knowing that providers are members of make self-propelled transport easy and community interests, likely to provide the community, and presumably motivated appealing, keeping residents healthy in a more stable income than the global to provide good value, consumers the process. Villagers pool transport economy, which is prone to the large and get the benefit. A direct relationship where possible to reduce carbon sudden fluctuations of international trade. impacts, fossil fuel reliance and costs. between provider and consumer offers an opportunity to influence what and Working within the village, or working how goods and services are provided. Electricity is required for electronic from home, means no commuting. High- equipment and lighting, but not much speed internet makes working from home The relationships that exist between more. With reduced electricity needs, a feasible option for many villagers. This providers and consumers – and many households are able to meet most through allows more time to spend with families, and villagers are likely to be both – provides active solar photovoltaic installations. to do useful work in the home and garden. These vary between self-contained and an exceptional feedback opportunity which could become the basis for developing grid-tied systems. Some are on individual By working in their own village or the exceptional quality goods and services that dwellings, and some are planned to local area, residents feel like part of can be marketed successfully beyond the be shared within a small hamlet. something they can all value. It has been village. Such success will build community shown that people get greater satisfaction and contribute to the overall prosperity LOCAL FOODS from their work when they feel they of the village: quality goods and services; are making a contribution to something The village aims to produce most of its good trade leading to stability and potential valued by them and their community. food within the village and to minimise for business expansion; happier villagers. imports to only those products that Developing a wide range of skills within can’t be produced there. Local food: The village policy is to: a community also better equips residents to deal with the challenges that may • is generally fresher, cheaper, 1. whenever possible, obtain goods and come, such as shortages of energy and more nutritious and tastier services from a village provider resources, or economic instability.

PIP MAGAZINE | 49 2. be willing to pay full prices for To re-establish communities of this type quality local goods and services today, we need to re-learn and apply these For more info visit www.atamaivillage.org skills and levels of trust and reciprocity. 3. provide feedback to the relevant This is as important to resilience as the village provider if we are not happy physical infrastructure. with their goods or services, and to give them an opportunity to improve

4. work with providers to help them improve by clarifying what we think would be better than what they are offering

5. only go ‘external’ if the above steps have failed.

This type of self-regulating quality assurance seeks to create a resilient community. It is a natural evolution for people who live and trade together long-term, and no doubt existed in traditional villages.

Clockwise: Water flowing through the village catchment is captured for both practical and recreational purposes. Atamai foods displayed at our Open Day. Children at Atamai have direct contact with many animals and other farm produce. Atamai Wines uses permaculture practices, integrating the vinyard with the village farm.

50 | PIP MAGAZINE The magazine for those who want to build their own home

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To the way you live, to how you think, To evaluate to your finances, your needs Contact us at for future generations. T: 02 6689 1430 Make a difference with the www.rpc.com.au company that knows how. The Renewable Energy Specialist

PIP MAGAZINE | 51 BUILD EARTHBAG BUILDING: HOW TO BUILD AN EARTHBAG STRUCTURE Words by Ella McHenry Photos by Anissa Thompson

Earthbag building (or ‘super adobe’) GETTING STARTED is fully combined, so mix it well with a is a technique credited to Nader shovel. Damp down the mix to help the Khalili, an Iranian-born architect and Tools soil particles bind together inside the bag. humanitarian. The technique uses • 4 x post hole shovels You want it to be damp but not dripping. polypropylene bag (the kind of bag • 2 x heavy duty steel tampers 3. Filling the bag your chook food comes in, before it Cut a length of bag: long enough to • 1 x fencing pliers (or others strong is cut into lengths) as a continuous, avoid too many joins; and short enough enough to cut through barbed wire) flexible form to hold courses of to handle. For our 4.5 metre diameter earth, building up a structure layer • 250 mm plastic flower pot, tank stand we did half a course at a time by layer. Rendering weatherproofs with the bottom cut off (6–7 metres). Thread one end of the bag the structure, and is the final binding through the flower pot and fold it over the • 1 x robust garden wheelbarrow mechanism holding the bags together. outside edge of the pot. Then scrunch the • 4 x cementing trowels length of bag up onto the pot as tightly as you can. You should have a tail of bag left • 6 x 9L buckets. which is about 2m long: from the chest of Materials (what we used for our 4.2 the person holding the pot to just past the diameter x 900mm high tank stand) end of their foot. Fold the other end over • 150 m 300 mm wide polypropylene itself a few times, and lay it on the ground. bag material (purchased from A second person then buckets the earth the Bundaberg Bag Company) mix (or gravel, for footings) into the • 300 m barbed wire tube of bag. The person holding the pot jiggles the dirt down the tube to the • 1 cubic metre gravel end of the bag; as the bag fills, the pot • 4 cubic metres earth (an ideal mix holder jiggles to ensure an even fill. is about 30 % clay and 70 % sand) If you’re working in a circle, when you • 3 bags cement reach where you started fold the ends • 3 bags builders lime of the bag under and wedge the end of the bagging tightly against where • ½ cubic metre coarse builders sand you started. If you’re working in a line, • water. neatly fold the open end of bag under the filled bag when you reach the end. This is a job for at least two people. Earthbag building is great where we are in Central Australia, as there seems to be 4. Tamping and binding no shortage of soils with a reasonable METHOD Once your first course is laid, tamp down the bags. Listen to how the sound of sand/clay mix, and there’s not much 1. Marking out and footings the tamping changes: when it becomes else to build with. Sure, you need to Mark out where your earthbag wall a dull thud it’s well packed enough. buy the bag, barbed wire and rendering is going to go. Dig out below ground Once you’ve tamped, run two lines of materials; but the bulk of what you’re level for your footings. For our barbed wire about a quarter of the way building with can often be sourced from earthbag tank stand we used a layer in from the inside and outside edge of your site, and moved with the aid of little of earthbag filled with gravel below the bag, hooking the barbs into the bag. more than a shovel and wheelbarrow. ground level as footings. The approach Along with being cheap and simple, will vary depending on your project. Repeat steps 3 and 4 until your earthbag building is also tough, flexible structure has reached its full height. 2. Mixing the earth and provides good thermal mass – You need to make sure your earth mix enough reasons for us to give it a go!

52 | PIP MAGAZINE ALONG WITH BEING CHEAP AND SIMPLE, EARTHBAG BUILDING IS ALSO TOUGH, FLEXIBLE AND PROVIDES GOOD THERMAL MASS

5. Chinking We used a cob mixture to fill in the grooves between the bags for a smooth finish. This is optional.

6. Rendering Before rendering, thoroughly damp down your earthbag wall. Then mix up your render and apply it to the wall using a trowel or mortar sprayer. We used a cement render strengthened with chook wire for our tank stand, as we needed it to be tough and rainproof.

7. Finishing touches We filled the middle of our tank stand with sand. Once this was tamped we rolled the tank up onto the stand using the ute and some long planks. Plumbing the water in – and then having a shower with excellent pressure – were the final, satisfying steps!

This is a very basic run-down of a technique which could be used to build a whole community. For an excellent and detailed run-down of how to use earthbag as a building technique see ’Earthbag Building: the Tools, Tricks and Techniques’ by Kaki Hunter and Donald Kiffmeyer (New Society Publishers 2004). Our dog-eared copy has proved an invaluable resource.

See http://www.amazon.com/ Earthbag-Building-Tricks- Techniques-Natural/dp/0865715076 or https://www.newsociety.com/ Books/E/Earthbag-Building

Clockwise from facing page: Chris Nuss getting the first gravel filled bags going Imogen Semmler and Chris Nuss tamp the footing layer Barbed wire is used to bind the bags together The tank in place and the pipe in the ground All the bagging is done Annissa Thompson Kristy Schubert Ella McHenry Brian Thompson Robbie Hoad Chris Nuss The team assembled for the earth bag layers

PIP MAGAZINE | 53 EAT

TOWARDS A PERMACULTURE DIET

Words by Ian Lillington and Marita Zeh Photos by Robyn Rosenfeldt

A permaculture-designed diet is PRINCIPLES FOR A PERMACULTURE DIET permaculture ethics of people care, earth healthy, local and sustainable, with care and fair share; for example ‘fair trade’. Most mainstream doctors now leave it to much of the food grown in our own Alive. Food that is fresh and ‘alive’, not alternative medicine practitioners – such gardens, farms and communities. When over-processed or over-preserved to make as naturopaths, homeopaths and oriental we choose to eat what’s in season, and it last longer, killing any goodness in the herbalists – to make healthy eating to eat locally grown foods, we reduce process; for example fruit and vegetables recommendations. We think permaculture or remove the harmful and wasteful that look, feel and smell fresh, not limp has a role alongside such practitioners: aspects of processing, packaging, and lacking in colour and flavour. permaculture ethics and principles can transport, storage and additives, and we be combined with modern and ancient Local. Food that has travelled less, so begin to take control of what we eat. knowledge about healthy eating. it is fresher, has used less fossil fuel and supports your local community. Permaculture food is good quality with Increased interest in local food is one of Most people want to know what a good minimum energy used to produce, the positive changes of recent times. diet is, and many want to heal their bodies distribute, process, package and transport Seasonal. Food that is in season is through eating natural foods. For some it. Food from a supermarket uses around fresh and full of nutrients. Cold-stored it’s because they appreciate good food ten times more energy than is available food has often been picked unripe, and diversity of tastes. But for many it’s from eating the food; and most of that and has limited flavour and nutrients. because our wealthy Western diet is is from fossil fuels. Food from your If you want to buy apples or garlic all making them sick. Millions of Australians garden or local community is healthier, year round, there are times when it will suffer from a range of serious digestive and has a better ratio of energy in to have been in cold store for months, or diseases including diabetes, inflammatory energy out. And money spent with has travelled over vast distances. Get bowel disease, irritable bowel syndrome, local businesses circulates locally. coeliac disease and food allergies. to know what’s in season and eat it. By reducing our intake of processed and Reducing waste is also an important aspect Nutrition and diet are part of the solution packaged foods, and replacing them with of the permaculture diet. Using the whole to this epidemic of food-related illnesses. fresh and healthy foods, we are filling animal, preserving and fermenting when Until the middle of the 20th century, doctors our bodies with the nutrients that they foods are in season and using minimal still prescribed specific foods and herbs need, and reducing the negative impacts packaging means that there is less waste; to be used as medicine. In the 1930s Dr of artificial additives and processes. we get more from the food that we do have. Weston Price, a dentist, demonstrated the relationship between nutrition, dental health AN APPROACH THAT HEALS THE SUSTAINABLE OMNIVORE’S DILEMMA and physical health. He published Nutrition and Physical Degeneration: a Comparison We propose a permaculture diet that Tree changers and small farmers often of Primitive and Modern Diets and follows the acronym HEALS. end up with cheaper land that is not Their Effects in 1939 (see Benediction the best, for example land that is hilly, Classics 2010), detailing his global travels Healthy. Food in which both the marshy or with poor soil. Permaculture studying the diets and nutrition of various production process and the effect of seeks the optimal use for any area of land cultures. It was clear then that a move to eating the food are beneficial to health. for year-round production; and that will a modern Western diet (particularly white Food produced with care, from animals often include animals. Obscene methods flour, sugar and processed vegetable fats) and plants that are well looked after, is of factory farming, and documentaries resulted in nutritional deficiencies, major best; for example organic produce. such as Food. Inc, have put a lot of people dental issues and a host of other health Ethical. Food that you have produced off meat, but animals do have a place problems. See the box for the Weston A. yourself, or comes from local sources or in sustainable food supply. As Victorian Price Foundation® dietary guidelines. ethical businesses that take into account the farmer, Tammi Jonas, has said: ’Our society

54 | PIP MAGAZINE Fresh from the garden.

over-consumes meat to the detriment of moods, to our weight and our brain: it after eating bread or pasta, and find the planet and animals grown in massive can cause weight gain, ageing skin, fatty that they lose weight and feel more intensive systems. But that doesn’t mean liver disease and cardio-vascular disease; dynamic if they reduce or remove the same as “all meat eating is bad”.’1 and it compromises our body’s defence wheat, rye and barley from their diet. systems. And most people find it addictive. Using the fat, bones and organs of home- ALL THE GREAT THINGS YOU CAN EAT! killed animals for bone broths and stews GRAINS AND PERMACULTURE means all the goodness of the animal There are so many great foods to is being used and, in turn, we benefit Permaculture is sometimes criticised for not eat. They don’t have to be expensive, from that. Also, the red part of red meat providing enough – or any – grains through often they cost less – but make sure can be more of a health threat than the its perennial food systems. Small-scale they meet the ‘HEALS’ criteria. fatty parts. A paper published in Nature grain crops are not common, and large- in 2013 suggested that metabolism of scale grain production is often a mono- Bone broths are the essential healing food L-carnitine, a nutrient in the red part crop disaster, needing huge amounts of for an unhealthy gut. They can be made of red meat, increases atherosclerosis chemicals and fuel for a relatively low yield. from whatever bones are locally available – the narrowing of the arteries. A low grain, or no grain diet sidesteps these (see recipe). They must be boiled for many issues, and is good for us and the planet. hours over a low heat. Using all the edible On-farm killing and processing of parts of whole animals avoids the inefficient animals means that ‘waste’ products Many people react badly to cereals such focus on muscle meat. The high gelatin can be composted or buried instead as wheat, rye and barley, but don’t realise content of broth helps to heal problems in of being a burden on sewage it; these contain gluten, and people can be the gut – just like grandma’s chicken broth. systems or being dumped. allergic to gluten without being diagnosed as coeliacs. Further, gluten contains gliadin ‘Good’ fats include butter/ghee, lard AVOIDING SUGAR which stimulates appetite; increased hunger and any natural fats from poultry can lead to over-eating and weight gain. and other animals. These are used For prehistoric humans, honey was a Modern wheat varieties are genetically for baking, frying and cooking. rare treat, but sugar is now available different from traditional grains that humans to us in thousands of foods. Sugar is have become accustomed to over many ‘Good’ oils include olive, coconut, a major contributor to ill health. That generations, and they are harder to digest. sesame, sunflower, almond and other Sugar Book (Macmillan 2015) and That seeds and nuts. They should be cold Sugar Film by Damon Gameau show Regardless of the reason, many people pressed and not genetically modified. how sugar affects everything from our describe feeling ‘not quite right’ These are added to salads and condiments, and sprinkled on meals.

PIP MAGAZINE | 55 Fermented foods help digestion and are a great way to use up surplus fruit and WESTON A. PRICE FOUNDATION® DIETARY GUIDELINES vegetables from the garden. Fermenting • Eat whole, natural foods dairy products makes them easier to digest by introducing beneficial yeasts and • Eat only foods that will spoil, but eat them before they do probiotics. Some people who are lactose • Eat naturally raised meat including fish, seafood, poultry, intolerant can handle fermented dairy better, beef, lamb, game, organ meats and eggs as it is partly pre-digested: fermenting consumes the lactose and casein in the • Eat whole, naturally produced milk products from pasture-fed cows, preferably raw and/or fermented, such as whole yogurt, milk. Fermented drinks include: kvass – cultured butter, whole cheeses and fresh and sour cream from beetroot, lettuce, or carrot, always with garlic and ginger; kombucha – a cold tea • Use only traditional fats and oils including butter and other animal made from green or black tea with honey fats, extra virgin olive oil, expeller expressed sesame and flax oil not sugar; and kefir (fermented milk). • Eat fresh fruits and vegetables, preferably organic, in salads and soups, or lightly steamed Local fruit, nuts, seeds, eggs and vegetables. Grow what you can and purchase the rest • Use whole grains and nuts that have been prepared by soaking, from local growers or organic growers. sprouting or sour leavening to neutralise phytic acid • Include enzyme-enhanced lacto-fermented vegetables, fruits, By applying permaculture design to beverages and condiments in your diet on a regular basis our diet, we can: have sustainable food that is healthy, ethical, alive, local and • Prepare homemade meat stocks from the bones of chicken, seasonal; care for ourselves and our beef, lamb or fish and use liberally in soups and sauces ongoing health, and the planet and the • Use unrefined Celtic sea salt and a variety of herbs and people on it. So enjoy staying away spices for food interest and appetite stimulation from the supermarkets, and be liberated • Use natural sweeteners in moderation, such as raw honey, maple from sugary foods with poor nutrient syrup, dehydrated cane sugar juice and stevia powder content! Enjoy the taste of simple fresh food – grown locally and made at home! • Use only unpasteurised wine or beer in strict moderation with meals 1 see www.abc.net.au/news/2015- • Get plenty of sleep, exercise and natural light 05-08/open-drum-how-to-deal-with- vegan-abolitionists/6455044 • Think positive thoughts and minimise stress

• Practise forgiveness

56 | PIP MAGAZINE Clockwise from left: Organic locally grown asparagus. Home grown kale is full of goodness. Carrots as fresh as they get. Fermented Sauerkraut. Bone broth. Homegrown mushrooms with parsley and garlic.

HOW TO MAKE BONE BROTH Ingredients

• 2 chicken frames, or 2 handfuls of marrowbones (beef, pork, goat, lamb or other meat e.g. kangaroo); marrow needs to be exposed

• at least 5 litres of good water, preferably rain or springwater

• 1 bay leaf

• 5 peppercorns or other favourite spice

• 2 pinches of good salt (without an anti-caking agent)

• vegie scraps or peelings (optional)

Method

Place the meat/bones and other ingredients into a large saucepan. Bring to a boil and then simmer on very low heat for 2–3 hours (chicken) or 4–5 hours (for other meat). Longer simmering releases more minerals.

Pour the ingredients of the pan carefully through a sieve, reserve the liquid broth and compost the rest.

Season the broth with more salt, a pinch of finely chopped parsley or other greens.

Enjoy it in a mug, or refrigerate it and add it to your soups and stews throughout the week. The broth will keep for at least five days, in the fridge. Freeze any excess.

PIP MAGAZINE | 57 LOCAL. ORGANIC. SUSTAINABLE. FAIR.

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PUT YOUR GROCERIES TO GOOD WORK CERESFAIRFOOD.ORG.AU

Your affordable grocery & healthy living store Melliodora Guided Tours 1000s of Join Su Dennett and David Holmgren at Hepburn in the Victorian central highlands, for one of the best examples of affordable working cool-temperate climate permaculture in the country. See how permaculture can produce an abundance of food products and other yields from a beautiful living environment. A morning home and afternoon garden farm tour are 100s of available, which includes an eBook download of the property along with a wholesome morning / afternoon tea. bulk lines Tours run September till May, book now at holmgren.com.au CO2 neutral website Delivery across Australia Rowe Morrow’s Earth Users Guide to Permaculture, is now printed in Australia by www.kombuwholefoods.com.au Melliodora Publishing, available from our website. 1 Church St Bellingen NSW 2454 1300 741 192

58 | PIP MAGAZINE EAT EMMA LUPIN: TROPICAL FOOD AMBASSADOR

Words by Holli Thomas Photos by Emma Lupin

You may shy away from the idea of eating cane toad leg stir-fry; Emma Lupin will not. As a Northern Territory resident for the last seven years, Emma has channelled all her efforts into learning the ways of the tropics, finding local produce and searching for sustainable ways to grow it and delicious ways of cooking it – including cane toads, which she doesn’t recommend because they’re poisonous.

Finding and using local produce in the remote city of Darwin isn’t easy. Emma says a lot of dry goods can travel up to 30000 kilometres to reach there. Motivated to change how Territorians view their exotic local produce, Emma began a website ‘tasteofthetopend’ where anyone can go online to view and share their produce and recipes: ‘I thought there was a real need to get people in touch with local food and to tell them more about it’.

The website is just a fraction of what Emma has done for the sustainable community in Darwin. After a three-year role as Kitchen Specialist at the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Foundation, Emma began to realise that there wasn’t much information about preparing the produce their own food. Recipes and knowledge community awards to back up her years of grown in the region, ‘so we experimented are exchanged at meetings. ‘A lot of the experience in living sustainably. Emma’s and invented recipes made with local people who hold the knowledge for the efforts are obviously paying off locally: the produce that we were growing, that could exotic and tropical produce in Darwin come harvests in Darwin’s sustainable backyard be cooked by the students’, she says. from Asia – it’s in their culture to cook with gardens are looking good – ‘There are these things’, Emma says. Her aim is to take now all these great local gardens that Before living in Darwin, Emma also gained that knowledge and share it with those in are going off!’ she says. However, she extensive knowledge as the cook on board the community who don’t use the produce believes there is still work to be done, a boat that travelled throughout the Pacific because they don’t know how to prepare it. educating people about how to cook with Islands: she would visit the markets on the local produce, particularly in the tropics. islands, and buy the local produce. She Educating the community has turned into began to explore the idea of local produce a full-time effort for Emma who has now The permaculture community in Darwin in Darwin through community gardens and completed a Bachelor of Environmental isn’t as big as Emma would like it to be. community projects. ‘My Sister’s Kitchen’ Science, and received the Delicious. There is only one local produce market, is one initiative that Emma is involved in, Magazine’s ABC Local Radio Community and most of the suppliers have only two assisting refugees to grow and produce Award and a wheelbarrow load of other responses to questions on recipes: ‘curry

PIP MAGAZINE | 59 or stir-fry’. She noticed that people to do that on a small, urban scale’. want more than that, and reckons that it will take more than recipe variety to With the support of larger organisations, get people involved. The local council small-scale sustainable farms can endorses Emma to take ‘Talk and Taste’ make a living; Emma believes this is tours of the local produce market, proving incredibly important for the future of that her ideas are starting to catch on. Darwin – although they are not there yet, ‘the vision is getting bigger’. Emma sees herself as being an educator in the future. Given the heavy reliance Another reason that Emma believes eating Western society has on using big locally is important is connection to place: supermarkets, she believes it is important to ‘Where I can help people on a small, urban ‘bring producers and consumers together, scale, in their own backyards, I do’. Emma either by people growing their own food believes that eating locally – food from your in community gardens, schools or in their own climate, such as monsoonal Darwin – own gardens; or by using local markets can help people deal with the extremities and meeting the producers from small- of living a tropical life. Emma is determined scale farms. Here it is really important to to put sustainable living and eating, and educate a wide range of people on how to the exotic produce of Darwin, back into use the local produce and to make the gap the minds of the locals, one cane toad leg between producer and consumer smaller.’ at a time.

Emma believes that backing for local growers is the solution, and it needs See: www.tasteofthetopend.com and www.mysisterskitchen.org.au to happen soon, because of the population growth of Darwin: ‘We don’t produce our own food and we need

LOOFA (LOOFA AEGYPTIACA)

A few facts • Feed with organic fertiliser occasionally.

• The loofa pictured is a smooth loofa How to grow more – also spelt luffa or loofah – and it’s • Loofa is easily grown from seed, in the cucumber family. Its origins collected from the dried loofas. are in Asia and the Middle East. Dry the fruit in the sun, and the • It produces loofas from yellow seeds can be shaken out. flowers. The small fruit can be • It is best sown directly, but can also be eaten, and the older fruit used sown in small pots and transplanted as a scrubber for washing. out after developing a few leaves. • Angled loofa Loofa actangula How to eat them can also be grown. • The loofa fruit is eaten when How to grow small – less than ten centimetres • Loofa is a climber, easily grown long – and soft in the middle, all year round in full sun in a free otherwise it is stringy and hard. draining place with a trellis to climb • The spongy centre can absorb up. It also loves plenty of water, a lot of flavour and is great in and is prolific in the wet season, curries, stir-fries and many dishes, climbing over fences and up trees. used much like a zucchini. • Loofas grow quickly so keep an • The loofa is a source of carbohydrate, eye on them, or let the fruit grow protein and some vitamin C. large and then dry them in the sun and peel, clean them and remove the seeds to make a scrubber.

60 | PIP MAGAZINE THAI GREEN CURRY WITH LOOFA AND CHICKEN

Ingredients (serves 4–5) • chopped coriander leaves • Cook for 5–10 minutes and then add the lime leaves, other vegetables, • 2 loofas • 1 bunch of spring onions the lime juice/zest and fish sauce. or garlic chives • about 20 pea-sized eggplants • Add the coconut milk. • brown rice (to serve) • 1 bunch of snake beans • Simmer for 5–10 minutes more, Method • 1 medium taro, cassava or until the veggies are just tender. sweet potato (about 450 g) • Prepare all the ingredients, cutting Serve in a bowl, sprinkled with coriander, the vegetables into slices and the • 500 g free-range other herbs and spring onions, and spring onion into diagonal strips. chicken thigh (optional) accompanied by brown rice. Cut chicken into pieces if needed. • chilli to taste • Pre-boil the taro/cassava/ If you use fresh coconut milk, it • 8 Kaffir lime leaves sweet potato for ten minutes. can be almost entirely local!

• 2 tbsps sesame or • De-seed and then finely chop peanut oil (for frying) the chilli and break the lime • 3–4 tbsps of Thai curry paste leaves into little pieces.

• juice and zest of 3 limes • Place a wok over medium heat.

• 1 tbsp fish sauce • Add oil to the wok, and then when hot add the curry paste. After a couple • 500 ml fresh coconut milk of minutes add the taro/cassava/ • 1 handful of chopped Thai basil, sweet sweet potato, and chicken if using. basil or Vietnamese mint

PIP MAGAZINE | 61 THRIVE

THE LOST ART OF MENDING

Words by Annie Werner Photos by Robyn Rosenfeldt

Have you ever had to throw out a use a piece of foam, but I find that piece of clothing because it got a stain a brush is easier to use, especially you couldn’t remove, or a hole you for inexperienced felters. couldn’t mend? In our efforts to reduce • A spray bottle with water in it, our burden on the planet many of us or a damp cloth, and an iron. buy second hand clothes, or pass on Method the clothes we don’t want anymore so that they can have another life Identify the sections of the garment that with another owner. But what about need repairing and mark them out (e.g. the clothes that are just too stained with pins). Now comes the fun part. Lay or damaged to be passed on? your garment out flat and place the brush underneath the area you will work on. Pinch off small amounts of fleece. Resist While some of us are crafty, and quite the temptation to grab a huge chunk: happy to darn our favourite stripy socks, it’s much better to build it up as you go, others feel overwhelmed by the prospect especially if this is your first project. of having to mend or alter a piece of clothing. Never fear! The following ideas Use the needle to ‘stab’ the fleece onto the for altering and repairing old clothes garment, covering up the stains or holes. will have you rebirthing old clothes The special barbs on the needle will mesh into a whole new sartorial array. the fibres together, creating a felted shape that is firmly attached to the garment. This can be applied to any woollen garment that has a hole or stain. It 1.. NEEDLE FELTING: FOR REPAIR Keep adding fleece in smallish pinches requires no skill, and only a small AND DECORATION until you achieve the shape and thickness investment in needle felting tools, which that suits your project. Simple shapes can be purchased easily at your local (e.g. spots and love hearts) are good for craft shop or online. Please note that, beginners, but as you practise and gain while this project is suitable for kids confidence you can make almost any and beginners, it does involve sharp shape that comes to mind. Clouds made needles so please exercise care! from natural fleece are especially lovely.

You will need Once you have created the shape you • A wool or mostly-wool garment want, to the thickness you want, and all that has holes and/or stains. I of the fibres have been felted together had a beautiful wool vest from so that you can see no loose strands, an op shop which had both. remove the garment from the brush. This might be a bit tricky at first, but just go • A small amount of fleece or wool slowly and gently. Lightly dampen the roving (available from craft shops felting and iron it well on the reverse or online). I used a handful of hand- side of the felted patch. And here’s a tip: dyed fleece bought from a local the ironing part is recommended but not grower at the farmers’ market. essential. I live in an off-grid house and • A needle felting needle and brush. don’t own an iron, but have successfully The brush is optional, and you can used this method on many a cardy.

62 | PIP MAGAZINE 2.. APPLIQUE: FOR REPAIR Method 3.. REPLACING BUTTONS: FOR AND DECORATION Identify the sections of the garment REPAIR AND DECORATION that need repairing and mark Sometimes buttons fall off; sometimes them out (e.g. with pins). they’re ugly or boring, or not the best Cut out pieces of fabric which are big enough to cover the holes or stains. I used leaf shapes because they’re easy and pretty, but you could use other simple shapes (e.g. circles or squares). Obviously, if you’re an advanced sewer (or ambitious) you could make other shapes, but the leaf is my favourite.

Lay your garment out flat, and pin your shapes over the stains or holes. If you have a big stain, you could layer several shapes together. Pin generously. If you have a stretch garment don’t stretch it as you’re pinning, or it will pucker.

Using the sewing machine, or a needle and thread, stitch around the shape to fix This can be applied to any garment that it in place. I don’t turn the edges under, has small holes or stains, or even to a and use a zigzag stitch on my machine colour. It’s amazing the joy that a simple garment that just needs a little jazzing so the fabric doesn’t fray. If you’re hand button replacement can bring. Replacing up. It would be a good project for a stitching, you could use blanket stitch. buttons is not difficult, and can be done beginner who has some experience using by anyone, even someone with no a sewing machine, or it could be done Repeat until all the holes or sewing experience. All it takes is a little by hand. Please note that this method is stains are covered. care and patience. Replacement buttons not recommended for very big holes. can be purchased from an op shop, online or from your local craft shop. You will need You will need • Any garment that has holes and/ or stains. I used a yellow cotton • A garment that needs some cardigan that had both. exciting button replacement action. I had a gorgeous woollen • A sewing machine or hand cardigan from the op shop, but the sewing needle. buttons were not to my taste.

• Scraps of fabric to make shapes. • Enough new buttons, or a • Pins and thread. matching replacement button. • Needle and thread, and pins.

PIP MAGAZINE | 63 Method of the stitches that secure the button, looping You will need the last one through itself to make a knot. Lay your garment out flat. If you’re replacing • A plain top. I used a maternity Repeat until all buttons are sewn in place. the buttons, carefully snip the threads T-shirt from an op shop. holding the old buttons in place. The buttons • A small amount of matching, you remove can be saved for another project, 4. SEWING A COLLAR ONTO AN contrasting or interesting fabric. or passed on for someone else to use. OLD OR RECLAIMED TOP • 25 mm bias binding (available from This is a great way to fancy-up a plain top Locate where to sew on the new buttons. your local craft shop or online). If you’re replacing buttons that have been • Sewing machine, or needle and thread. removed recently, you may be able to see a piece of thread which indicates Method where the old button was. Alternatively, or if you’re replacing a button that’s long gone, use the buttonholes for reference: carefully align the garment opening, and locate the pin(s) through the buttonholes.

Now, stitch on your buttons. There are many and varied methods for sewing on buttons. This method is strong and not too complicated. Using doubled thread, thread your needle so that you will be sewing with four strands. Tie a knot in the end. Starting from an op shop, and can also be used on the wrong side of the garment, bring to cover up a stain or alter a too-tight If you are changing the neckline of your top, the needle through the garment, through neckline. This is a project for someone with cut the neck to the shape you want. If you’re the button, and then back down through the a reasonable amount of sewing experience, not changing the neckline, cut off the existing garment. Before pulling the thread tight on as it involves using a sewing machine to neck band carefully, as closely as you can. the other side, pass the needle through the sew curved lines, and using a combination loop made by the knot at the end of your of stretch and woven fabric, which can be Make a shape for your collar. I made a classic thread. Pull tight, to close the loop. Stitch tricky if you’re a beginner. You could do this Peter Pan shaped collar, but you can make three times through the garment and button, project by hand, if you have the patience. any shape you want. Using some scrap finishing on the wrong side of the garment. paper, make a template for the collar pieces, Make three small stitches through the back ensuring the inside of the collar follows the

64 | PIP MAGAZINE shape of the neck hole. You can do this 5. PATCHING by laying the paper underneath the top and tracing it with a pencil. Cut out four Patching is a great way to prolong the of the collar shapes (two for each side). life of a favourite piece of clothing, and is especially handy for kids’ clothes that can With right sides facing, stitch together often wear out in one spot (usually the knee) the collar pieces on the outside curve but are otherwise fine. You can patch using only. Turn right side out, and press. a machine or by hand, and it’s not too tricky. Pin into position on the neckline. Pinning a patch before stitching is the secret.

Stitch bias binding around the neckline, You will need being sure to enclose the collar as you go. • A piece of clothing with a hole in it.

You could also add buttons, rickrack • A scrap of fabric. or other braid as you feel inclined. • Sewing machine or needle and thread.

Method

Lay your garment out flat and cut a piece of fabric slightly larger than the hole Be brave, and note that there are many good you want to cover. Square shapes are tutorials for sewing techniques online. best if you’re a beginner, but you can use any shape you want. Make sure that any patch is at least two centimetres bigger than the hole on all sides.

Pin the patch over the hole, turning under the edges as you go.

Stitch around the edge of the patch. If you’re using a machine, a zigzag stitch works well. If you’re hand sewing, experiment with something like blanket stitch.

PIP MAGAZINE | 65 THRIVE

JEFF NUGENT

Words and photo by Andrea Chapman and Georgina Warden

WHAT’S YOUR BACKGROUND and furniture; is resistant to fungal and During the first PDC I taught in Nannup IN PERMACULTURE? insect attack; and is a beautiful tree. years ago one of my students bought two hectares of cleared farmland in a I did my PDC with Bill in 1983 in Quito palm Parajubaea cocoides shared property. He asked me what he Stanley, Tasmania, when I was thirty. because it is unknown in the wild. It should do, and I told him to throw in Everyone loved the course. I was was known as a street tree in old Incan pioneers; within twelve months he was studying Environmental Science at cities, and it looks like a coconut but living in a forest of his own making. Murdoch Uni at the time, and had the exists 2500 metres up a mountain. opportunity to explore permaculture in HOW DO YOU SEE THE FUTURE FOR one of my units. I kept studying until 2015 IS INTERNATIONAL YEAR OF PERMACULTURE? HOW CAN WE it got in the way of permaculture. SOILS - CAN YOU GIVE US YOUR MAKE A MARK IN THE WORLD? BEST TIP ON SOIL BUILDING? HAS CLIMATE CHANGE AFFECTED Keep teaching. Permaculture is out there YOUR PROPERTY IN NANNUP? Shifting to terra preta soil (‘black earth’) already, and people will find it when is very important. This rich dark soil they need to. Setting up alternative 2010 was our first seriously dry year. has high levels of charcoal and organic financial arrangements – such as We went away for a few months and matter, and has been documented to LETS or Timebanking – is essential. returned to find our soak was merely have locked up carbon for over 3500 a puddle. We had to stop irrigating years in the Amazon basin. Biochar is its WHAT’S NEXT FOR YOU? several acres, and ended up watering equivalent today, and this provides habitat only our annual veggies, by hand. The for all the organisms that our soils need I’ve promised Jody from Fair Harvest established plants and trees had to so badly. We collect and use the char Permaculture that I will finish my palm suck it and see! I was amazed at what from protective burns on our block. and ferns book by the end of the year. survived. We raced out and bought a rainwater tank, and pulled everything in WHAT WOULD BE YOUR TOP TIP FOR I’m doing a bit of work recording around our house rather than spreading music for Charlie McGee, and I’m PERMACULTURE BEGINNERS? out too far. We realised we hadn’t been still recording my own music with growing as many waterwise plants as Consolidate your energies: don’t spread friends which we post on YouTube. we thought, and that our management yourself too thin and in too many practices had to change. We now use different directions. I’ve been thinking I’m working with Byron Joel, filming wicking beds, trays and pots extensively. that I should write a long list of tips him documenting different tree species. that Bill Mollison gave me that I haven’t And I’m considering heading to Africa DO YOU HAVE ANY CLIMATE CHANGE followed, including ‘Don’t mess around in October to document permie projects for a Canadian friend. I’ll be able to drop RESILIENCE STRATEGIES? for months building a house, knock it up in a week and get on with life’. in on past projects of mine there. We aim to be as waterwise as possible, and store water using What would you do differently I am looking forward to Perth hosting the earthworks, dams and tanks. now from when you were twenty- Australasian Permaculture Convergence one and buying your block? (APC13) in 2016; it’s been twenty WHAT ARE YOUR FAVOURITE years since we had a permaculture PLANTS AND WHY? I would have bought cleared land and conference. Our property will be one thrown in plenty of pioneer plants. I would of the sites for the south-west tour. Capulin cherry Prunus salicifolia do earthworks first – including water because it: has great tasting fruit; is harvesting and swales – once the house good timber for tool handles, and guitars site was determined, and start planting.

66 | PIP MAGAZINE PIP MAGAZINE | 67 THIVE CREATE A CO-OP: OWN WHERE YOU WORK

Words by Emma Chessell

Co-operatives are re-emerging as where they work – they can often buy 6. co-operation among co-operatives a global movement, as workers in over time through their wages. around the world – faced with rising 7. concern for the community. unemployment and a slow transition Non-commercial co-ops: a to a sustainable economy – employ useful structure for achieving STARTING A CO-OP a common purpose. themselves in jobs they would rather • Find a group with a common vision – be doing. Co-op laws provide a you’ll need at least five for a board. flexible framework for members to PROS AND CONS organise alternative ways to buy, sell, • Make plans for what you’d like to Although co-ops have been around achieve, and draw these out in a and manage work and pay. While since at least the 1830s in Australia, feasibility study and business plan. companies benefit shareholders, and include some of our biggest and co-ops serve their members, who oldest companies, traditional investors • Register. Similar to registering a participate in the business as suppliers, can see co-ops as ‘new’ and shy away company, but governed by different buyers, workers and/or owners. from them. However, co-ops often have legislation – each Australian jurisdiction other channels for raising funds, from has or will have law consistent with members and the local community. the Co-operative National Law. The co-op model is a natural fit for • Draft rules that comply with the relevant a permaculture business – self- Co-ops allow flexibility in law; model rules are available. determination and independence, member organising the workplace. Get participation, integration with other co-ops ready to live your principles. • Draft a disclosure statement to let and valuing diversity are all core co-op members know of their obligations. principles. A business model that reflects Costs to set up and maintain a co- • Once the co-op is registered, and permaculture structure also aligns with op are lower than for a business. the documents are approved, the principle of designing from patterns hold a formation meeting. to details – co-op structures are flexible. One of the biggest challenges of organising as a co-op is that • Sign the rules and you’re in business. CO-OP TYPES it doesn’t provide the top-down Integrate don’t segregate. Co-op workplace we’re used to – but that federations operate in most states, and Buyers’ co-ops: customers organise as is also a precious advantage! some co-ops support the development a buying group. This is a great model for of others; for example, the Earthworker selling local or sustainable food through SEVEN CO-OP PRINCIPLES Co-operative which focuses on a local food-box group. Growers and renewable energy enterprises, especially customers can both save time and money. Seven principles are applied by the co-op movement worldwide. These where workers need an urgent exit from the fossil economy (as in Producer co-ops: producers market were formalised in 1995, based on six Victoria’s Latrobe Valley, opposite). their produce together. This works well principles drawn up in England in 1844. for agricultural products, on any scale. 1. voluntary, open membership Beechworth Honey is an example. 2. democratic owner control WHILE COMPANIES BENEFIT Owner co-ops: members provide capital for an enterprise, and are more involved 3. owner economic participation than in traditional investment. The SHAREHOLDERS, CO-OPS Hepburn Wind Project is an example. 4. autonomy and independence 5. education, training and information SERVE THEIR MEMBERS Worker co-ops: workers own the company

68 | PIP MAGAZINE SOME CO-OP EXAMPLES The Blue Mountains Food Co-op

Over thirty years ago, a small group of local people joined together to buy and share quality organic food at affordable prices. The Blue Mountains Food Co-op is a not-for-profit community-owned and managed organisation. With well over

two thousand members located from Garland Alison Sydney out to Orange, its the biggest little food co-op in the Southern Hemisphere. All co-op members receive a ten per cent discount in the shop and volunteers receive a further discount. They also welcome produce from local growers.

Eureka’s Future Workers’ Co-operative

This Earthworker co-op emerged from mutualisation of Everlast Hydro Systems, now manufacturing high quality solar- ready, stainless steel hot water tanks in Dandenong, Victoria. It aims to support

a network of co-ops to create a strong Mark Tyler economy of jobs with a future. Workers will buy into the business through their wages. Earthworker has responded to industry ups and downs caused by Australia’s indecision on renewable energy by extending the focus beyond manufacturing.

Hepburn Wind Project

This Victorian wind farm is a trailblazer for community owned renewable energy in Australia – something that’s common in other parts of the world. Members from the surrounding suburbs invested to build the wind farm, and many now buy electricity from an associated power company. Other communities in Victoria are waiting to set up community- von Moller Karl owned wind farms; however, current planning laws make this difficult.

Resilient Co-operative Network

This non-commercial co-op aims to farm across front yards and nature strips in Melbourne suburbs. Members run workshops and fix bikes together, share childcare and have plans for a savings pool, a food processing co-op, and other business ideas to help pay the rent! Theo Kitchener

PIP MAGAZINE | 69 NURTURE WHY PERMACULTURE IS GOOD FOR YOUR HEALTH Words by Angelo Eliades

How does permaculture tie in even further, there’s also the phenomenon THE ILLUSION OF SEPARATION with our understanding of health? of permaculture as a social movement. Humans are organisms existing within Can it realistically be seen as a nature and subject to her laws, though ‘health promoting movement’? A NEW PERSPECTIVE ON HEALTH humanity is plagued with the illusion of Health can be defined in terms of our disconnection from nature. This mental personal state of being bodily and mentally delusion fools some people into thinking UNDERSTANDING PERMACULTURE vigorous and free from disease. This that they are somehow above or apart Permaculture began as ‘permanent raises the question of what it takes to from nature; that the environment is agriculture’, a sustainable food production create and maintain a sound body and ‘out there’ and as a result nature can be system based on ecological principles. mind. This is about more than balanced exploited, damaged, raped and pillaged Growing our own food is extremely good meals, regular exercise and adequate sleep with no consequences to humanity for us and there is an indisputable and and it is about more than the individual. itself. Scientific knowledge more than ever-increasing body of research, which adequately explains a lot about how Since permaculture is based on the supports the health benefits of gardening: nature works, but to some the science science of ecology, if we are to explore it can improve our health through stress of ecology is an inconvenient truth. its connections with health objectively, relief, exercise, mental activity and better first we’ll need to abandon any subjective, People speak of ‘returning to’ nature nutrition. Certain strains of a harmless anthropocentric perspectives that skew or ‘reconnecting with’ it, but in reality soil-borne bacteria Mycobacterium our perception of reality, and take a there is nothing to return to because we vaccae have been found to stimulate strictly ecological perspective. can never leave it. Everything we have the human immune system and boost comes from planet earth: nature provides the production of serotonin – a shortage To quote John Seed, the renowned all our needs. The connection to nature of this mood-regulating brain chemical Australian ecologist and one of the is also much deeper, more intimate, is associated with depression. Who world’s leading environmental activists for than humans usually acknowledge. would have thought that playing in rainforest protection: ‘… instead of seeing the dirt could be so good for you? the world as a pyramid with humans on Our bodies are in a state of continuous top, envision a web with life at the centre. exchange of materials and energy with Permaculture has grown to embrace We are only a strand on the web. A leaf the world around us. The basic things more of the human experience than just on the tree of life. One of ten million which keep us alive – air, water and food food production, to become ‘permanent species that inhabit our planet. In reality, – have been cycled and recycled through culture’. Despite the tendency of nothing special.’ We are a small element nature since time immemorial, and will some to try to make it all things to all in a much larger web of life, and we are cycle through our bodies and flow back people, permaculture is essentially a interdependent on many other living into the complex natural cycles which system of ecological engineering. organisms to stay alive and healthy. keep all things alive. Even a rusty nail By understanding how natural systems accidentally dropped in the dirt is recycled Ecology is a branch of biology, concerned work, how all things are interrelated and by nature: its iron might be taken up by with the relationship between organisms interdependent, and how they interact with spinach growing in that soil; when the and each other, and between them and each other, we can create human-designed spinach is eaten, the iron becomes the their environments. Organisms live in systems that reflect the properties of iron in the haemoglobin in blood, allowing habitats which provide their primary natural systems – which are sustainable, it to carry oxygen. We are not separate needs and ensure their optimum chances energy efficient, harmonious and life- from even such inanimate objects. for survival (and health). Nothing lives affirming. We can design food production in a vacuum, and the health of any The extent to which our bodies exchange systems, intentional communities, organism is dependent on the state material with our surroundings is sustainable businesses or any other human of the ecosystem it resides in. significant: each second 10 000 000 system in this way. To complicate matters cells die and are replaced in our bodies

70 | PIP MAGAZINE WHAT WE DO TO OUR ENVIRONMENT AND TO THE PLANET, WE DO TO OURSELVES

We are but one part of a complex web of life.

by material provided through food. For obese people had much less. Diet was human being? If we perform a quick, if example, carbon taken up from the air by found to be a critical factor in health of the limited, functional analysis of a human, plants (as carbon dioxide) is incorporated gut ecosystem and, unsurprisingly, diets we can get a clearer picture of what it into our bodies when we eat them. of processed foods were linked to a less keeps us healthy in mind and body. We are not separate from nature. diverse gut ecosystem. Gordon’s team was able to demonstrate in mice that an We are quite complex creatures YOUR BODY - OR IS IT? unhealthy diet prevented the good bacteria indeed, with a wide range of needs from colonising the gut and multiplying. on multiple levels. If these needs are It gets better. Our health is not our own not met, that will have an impact on because our bodies aren’t either!1 Not It should be very clear by now that our physical and mental health. only do we organisms exist in a web our health is determined by external of life, but we are each very complex and internal ecosystems. How can Our state of mind is important, and mental ecosystems. Of the total number of cells we possibly be healthy if we live in a health is a growing issue, especially in our body, ninety per cent are bacteria! poisoned, contaminated and polluted in affluent first world countries. The Such bacteria – in our digestive system, environment? What we put into nature, World Health Organization predicts in our mouths on our skin – play an we ultimately put into ourselves. that mental illness will be the leading important role in maintaining our health. cause of illness and, consequently, the A PERMACULTURE ANALYSIS OF leading loss of revenue in the first world As an example, research led by Dr Jeffrey HUMAN HEALTH REQUIREMENTS by 2020. WHO has also reported that Gordon from the Center for Genome unipolar depressive disorders alone were Sciences & Systems Biology at Washington Permaculture introduces us to the design the third leading cause of the global University11 found that gut bacteria have concept of functional analysis – where we burden of disease, and predicted that by a role in obesity. Researchers found that identify a design element’s needs, products, 2030 these will rank first in the list. overweight people have different types behaviours and intrinsic characteristics. and amounts of gut bacteria compared Every permaculture student has seen the to lean people: lean people had higher classical functional analysis of a chicken, diversity of gut bacteria species, while but how about a functional analysis of a

PIP MAGAZINE | 71 Working together in the garden can increase mental wellbeing.

ESTABLISHING THE PERMACULTURE- a stable, supportive and emotionally FUNCTIONAL ANALYSIS HEALTH CONNECTION healthy community which prospers. OF A HUMAN Permaculture, as a social movement, also Permaculture supplies the critical needs creates both a meaningful purpose to Description: A member of Homo identified in our functional analysis bring people together and the opportunity sapiens species, a culture-bearing, through its ethics of earth care, people for collaborative action to create a upright-walking, social primate care and fair share. Let’s have a look world that truly fulfils their needs. which lives in close communities at how these guide our actions. with others of its kind. Shows Fair share – also called ‘return of adaptation to a wide variety of Caring for the earth means caring for surplus to earth and people’ – is quite climates and natural environments. the soil, which is a very complex living simple: if we take only our fair share, ecosystem on which all life depends. then there is enough for everybody, Physical needs: Clean air and It means caring for our forests, which and there will continue to be in the water, natural food, warmth, are the lungs of the planet, ensuring future too. Furthermore, when we shelter, safety, protection. a supply of clean air. Forests are also share our surplus produce we build Emotional needs: A sense of inextricably linked to the process of more bonds between people, again belonging, acceptance and love rain formation and the water cycle and, fostering a sense of community. It also provided through community, therefore, play a key role in ensuring our embraces the concept that we don’t friendships, family and intimates. supply of fresh water. It means caring waste resources or generate pollution for our rivers, which are the veins of our in accumulating unnecessary surplus. Mental needs: A sense of self- planet, circulating the water which all life esteem and self-respect gained depends on. If our physical environment By embodying and living within this through recognition, attention, is healthy, our bodies are too. ethical framework, we ensure the competence, mastery, self-confidence, continued survival of our species and independence and freedom. Care of people is about promoting self- the health of the planet and maintain Higher needs: Self-actualisation – reliance by sharing knowledge and a healthy respect for life itself. the fulfilment of an individual’s full experience, to skill people up so that potential in life. Self-transcendence they can provide for some of their HEALTH FROM A HOLISTIC – finding meaning and purpose in a basic needs. It is also about taking ECOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE higher goal outside of the individual, responsibility for, and looking to help, such as in altruism and spirituality. one’s community. Humans are communal In conclusion, what we do to our and social animals, and cooperative in environment and to the planet, we do nature: beyond physical interdependency, to ourselves. Our health and wellbeing humans need community psychologically. are inextricably tied to the state of It is a commonly accepted scientific fact our surroundings, and to all the other that having a community is beneficial living things that we depend on. to the mental health of an individual, and lack of community is detrimental. Permaculture embodies principles of harmonious coexistence with When people collaborate to support nature: through working with nature, each other, and to meet their collective we ultimately work to support and needs – both physical and non-physical enhance the very systems which – this creates a bond which builds maintain our physical health.

72 | PIP MAGAZINE Getting your hands in the soil can boost the immune system and serotonin levels.

Working together as a community for the greater good allows us to realise our true potential and contribute meaningfully to a significant purpose, the continuity of future human generations and all life on the planet.

So, permaculture truly does promote health, but it goes far beyond the limited notion of individual human health: it promotes the notion of holistic health of all life on the planet, of which we are an intrinsic part. This is a much wiser approach, since all life is interconnected and interdependent.

When we care for the health and wellbeing of all life, we not only honour our own health and wellbeing, we step up to a higher level of functioning as humans and express our higher nature.

Angelo is presenter, trainer and writer in the areas of sustainable gardening and permaculture, and a passionate forest gardening advocate and designer. His award winning demonstration food forest garden in Melbourne is regularly open to the public. For further information see www.deepgreenpermaculture.com

Eating healthy nutritious food is integral to good health.

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74 | PIP MAGAZINE NURTURE INTRODUCING PERMACULTURE TO CHILDREN

Words by Lauren Carter Photos by Lauren and Oberon Carter

Permaculture theory and design are table or during a meal. You might like example, the question ‘I wonder what concepts traditionally communicated to have a picnic in the garden, or a might happen in an ecosystem if people in an adult forum. Children may pick local park, as a way to create relaxed use too much of [something]?’ might be up snippets of information living within space for conversation to flow. Bring a great introduction to a discussion on and around a permaculture system, books to ponder, observation tools, the ethics. Inviting children to share their perhaps learning more as they grow sketch books and cushions, and settle thoughts by asking what they think can older. However, children can reveal in. Set aside some time – free from also be helpful, as long as they feel that themselves to be very adept at taking on distractions – to talk, play and work their thoughts are valued. Many concepts will be intuitive for children, so allow them permaculture concepts when they are alongside each other, and then begin. space to discover and voice their responses. presented to them at an early age, or Some families like to jump straight into an activity or an outing together, chatting Show interest and explore ideas together. adopted as part of the family vernacular. as they go. You know what will work best for your family, so do what feels KEEP IT LOCAL natural for you and mix it up a bit. The ethics – earth care, people care Relate your discussion to a place or and fair share (or return of surplus) – environment that your children know well, make sense to a child’s sense of justice POSE QUESTIONS to draw out their knowledge. You may and understanding of their place in the Ask your children for their perspective find that they are experts on the macro- world, so the best time to begin talking on issues, what something might mean, invertebrates which inhabit the sandpit, or about permaculture as a family is now. or how something might work. When it that they have all sorts of insights about But how do you introduce permaculture comes to permaculture, the three ethics a local patch of bush you visit. Maybe to children? Here are some ideas. are a great place to start. Rather than they’ve discovered something about quizzing them on what they know, try the compost heap. Or they’ve noticed SET THE SCENE starting questions with open statements, how people work with the environment such as ‘I wonder...?’ This creates in your backyard or at their school. Create a comfortable space where an open playing field for everyone to everyone can talk freely. Some of the best share their thoughts, without setting Young children tend to live in a smaller, conversations happen over the dinner you up as an authority or expert. For more immediate world than adults.

PIP MAGAZINE | 75 This will change as they get older and as composting – or a social science or world – for example, ask older children see the world and human interactions art-based activity which allows for further how permaculture might apply to the game on a broader scale. Older children may exploration. You might like to hatch some Minecraft, and set some challenges for appreciate discussion and exploration of tadpoles, draw a picture together, cook them together, or play alongside them! world issues, incorporating adventure something, go for a bushwalk, observe Invite them to collaborate on ideas for your and real-life skills, expanding their your local beach, go foraging or start a home permaculture design, and hear their knowledge beyond what they already know. seed swap ... Have something up your view on the world you inhabit together. Encourage older children to explore ideas sleeve that relates to what you’ve been and techniques independently, or help discussing and be creative! Have fun Understanding and implementing them to find a mentor if they need more and get outside as often as possible. permaculture concepts as a family happens specialised help than you can provide. naturally when we work in partnership SEE WHAT RESOURCES ARE OUT THERE with our children. Not only are we helping EXPLORE BEAUTIFUL TANGENTS to create a world for them to thrive in, You might follow up your activity by we’re handing them the tools to work with, Some of the best, most creative thinking reading a book, or watching a film or alongside us, as earth stewards for a world and learning happens when we allow documentary together. Think about the they will inherit. There is no better time to ourselves to wander and go off-topic. core message of the ethic or design begin learning about living together on the Rather than being concerned about principle that you are exploring, and then earth than right now. sticking to the topic you’re exploring, allow see what you can find that relates a yourselves to wander. Be prepared to similar message, perhaps from a different end an activity or discussion before its angle. Visit the library and make a list of Lauren and Oberon Carter home educate completion if interest wanes, and follow resources. You may find a range of family their three children and run Spiral Garden, any enthusiasm to explore something favourites already apply to what you’re facilitating online permaculture courses for else together. Allow the questions to talking about; set some time aside to revisit families, local workshops and adventures, a flow, and seek answers together. them. This allows for further discussion design service and an online shop, based in and helps to reinforce those concepts. Hobart. ‘Seedlings’ is an interactive online Share what you already know, or new permaculture course for families. Watch out things you’re learning. Encourage children SHOW INTEREST IN HOW CHILDREN for their ‘Saplings’ course for older children and young adults, launching soon. Find out to find answers for themselves, but in a APPLY PERMACULTURE IN THEIR WORLD helpful way. Rather than delegating the task more at www.spiralgarden.com.au of finding out and seeking answers, join You might find instances where the in! If a concept requires deeper research, permaculture ethics and principles apply in or if you’re out and about and not in a your daily life – for example, sharing fruit place to find answers, take note and revisit in the fruit bowl might lead to a discussion it later. If things get stale, go out for a about making sure there’s enough for walk and see how the conversation flows everyone – ‘fair share’, ‘apply self-regulation’ when urged on by a little observation. and ‘accept feedback’ come to mind. Adopt phrases like ‘produce no waste’ into your DO SOMETHING PRACTICAL TOGETHER family vernacular, and you may be surprised to overhear them again as your children Observe, create or build something chat to friends, further down the track! together. The permaculture principles allow for all manner of practical applications, Encourage children to think creatively about whether they are more traditionally how permaculture can be used in their regarded permaculture techniques – such day-to-day lives, and show interest in their

76 | PIP MAGAZINE THE BEST TIME TO BEGIN TALKING ABOUT PERMACULTURE AS A FAMILY IS NOW

PIP MAGAZINE | 77 DESIGN

PERMACULTURE DESIGN PROCESS

Words by Hannah Maloney Designs by Hannah Maloney and Jane Hilliard

For us at Good Life Permaculture, visit the property. The types of questions lines and making sure we pick up the ‘vibe’: permaculture design incites deep we ask about the landscape include: if you can nail the vibe, you will nail the excitement of what’s possible, but design. A good design is one that is true it also humbles us: landscapes and • Do you know the history to the client and not our own preferences, people-scapes are vast, complex, of the property? which should be left at the door, mostly. ever-changing and unique. I think • How much time do you have Vision statement that’s why we hold onto permaculture available to maintain your Towards the end of the meeting we’ll start so strongly. Permaculture is the best garden on a weekly basis? to summarise what we’re hearing from our tool I’ve found to date (I’m always • What type of aesthetic ‘look’ clients into a rough vision statement, and open and looking) which: helps are you aiming for, for example bounce this off them to make sure we’re navigate not just landscapes, but formal or wild style? on the right track. The vision statement is life; grounds you in a solid ethical a short paragraph, written in present tense, • What do you most love framework; but still allows you to be which encapsulates the design. This helps about your property? responsive, and work in any context. makes the design ‘real’ for the clients, and • Who’s likely to implement this design? allows them to think about and feel into what they’re about to embark on. It’s a way And our favourite questions: Imagine We design from urban to small farm of testing the design’s focus, and provides your design has been implemented and properties, and offer a sliding scale of a reference point for us as designers. it’s ten years down the track. What does design options which allow everything your property look and feel like? How from a one-off site visit for a casual The vision statement for this example would you describe it to someone who’s chat, through to detailed concept designs design is: ‘Our home connects us to the never been there before? This leads to the with fat, written reports. In recent beautiful views and natural bushiness. creation of the ‘vision statement’, later. months we’ve started collaborating We have space to play, socialise, relax with Tasmanian building designer Jane and be together with family and friends. Before we meet our clients, we make Hilliard, from Designful. Together we We love the fresh air, sun, comfort and a base map of the site which we take design both the house and landscape to productive food patches. We feel like to the meeting to use as a canvas to develop the ultimate, integrated package we have the best of everything.’ record information on. We make our for clients to work with. Combining base maps using free online software the house and landscape allows us to It’s a broad statement which doesn’t called Inkscape. Details of the base design holistically, something that any provide specific design ideas; it mapping process are available on our permaculturalist craves. The following creates a simple framework. website at www.goodlifepermaculture. steps through a recent collaborative com.au/make-basemap/. process for a property in central Hobart. Site analysis and assessment Once tea, cake and people analysis have FACE-TO-FACE MEETING FIRST CONTACT AND LAYING finished we start the site analysis and THE FOUNDATIONS Connecting assessment process, both inside and outside. For outside, I map the sectors The next step is to visit the client. Jane and Once people find us (generally through the – the external energies affecting the site I spend the time to go over any information internet) we have an initial conversation to – including elements such as sun, wind we’d like to flesh out, ask more questions see if we’re a good fit. We send our clients and water, and the unique attributes of the and, most importantly, connect with our some questions to answer and return to region. Views, bushland and wonderful clients. Connecting is best done over tea us before our first meeting, which helps neighbours were important to this site. and cake. During this conversation we’re us to get a feel for the clients’ house and listening really hard, reading between the land, and gives us a head start before we

78 | PIP MAGAZINE Sector analysis Bubble diagram

Rough draft Annie Preece Annie

North side of house Peppermint gum and view

PIP MAGAZINE | 79 A GOOD DESIGN IS ONE THAT IS TRUE TO THE CLIENT

I do laps of the property with and without functions to, for example identifying that via email, Skype, phone or a face-to-face the clients to get a good feel for the space. the sunny section of the property would catch- up, where we drink more tea and The first time I go around I try not to do be best used for food production. It’s a hopefully eat more cake. We’re also tweaking much except notice things. The second, really basic and accurate way of reading a the draft vision statement we’ve provided third and fourth times I go around design landscape. I’ll also use it to place the zones to make sure it rings entirely true with the ideas and solutions pop into my mind. While for the property. On the example urban clients: if their eyes don’t light up when we’ll discuss some of them and take note of block there are only two zones, focused they read it, it’s wrong. We’ve noticed that them, I’m not attached to any of them at this around the kitchen garden, and the home the better we get at the initial face-to-face stage as I’m still in the analysis stage: simply orchard with small animals. However, meeting (where we’re reading the people), seeing what’s there. Back at home I’ll start the existing bush and native shrubs the fewer changes are required at this to assess these options, and determine what could slot into zone four as windbreaks stage. Usually changes made now are strategies and techniques are appropriate. and a source of wood for fireplaces. ‘tweaks’ rather than complete overhauls.

Before we leave the property we do After that I can start to design: the messy FINAL DESIGN some very rough sketches on paper of process of scribbles and loose thoughts possibilities, and make sure the clients are slowly becomes solid. In any design Once we’ve got all the feedback, we make happy with the direction we’re heading there will be some defining elements changes as needed and go deeper into in. We don’t go into specific detail yet, but which you will need to base your detail with everything. We do hand-rendered make broad sketches outlining potential design around, in this example access designs to scale, and provide a report social spaces, key access paths and food paths, sun and slope were critical. expanding on key elements; basically we production zones. The detail comes later. create a manual for the client’s property ROUGH DRAFT so that they know how to move forward BACK AT HOME by themselves or with contractors. I do my At this stage, Jane and I start to talk about designs with pen and watercolour, scan Jane and I go our separate ways to how best to integrate the house and them in Photoshop and then type text. consolidate information and get our concepts landscape, and work with each other to down on paper, in solitude. Here’s what I do maximise the opportunities that present And at the end of the design job, it’s always to process information about the landscape. themselves. In this example it meant the a bonus to get some kind words: ‘Thanks proposed house renovation wouldn’t affect for amazing listening, and capturing the Before diving into detail, I’ll make bubble some of the best growing spaces, but would essence of what we are after’ or ‘It’s been diagrams of the property, dividing it help to create a hot microclimate (important a great process’. according to its functions or feeling such in our cool temperate climate). We were also as main social space, access paths, able to integrate food production onto the microclimates (e.g. shady, cold, wet, hot, northern deck of the house, making the most This design process has been heavily informed dry). Once these large bubbles are in place of one of the hottest spots on the property. by Dave Jacke who I was lucky enough to I’ll include the fixed elements, which can work with in his 2013 trip to Australia. be determined by client or landscape. For The rough draft is put together and shown to example, bushland may have a covenant the clients for feedback. This draft is still nice For more information see: Good on it – meaning it can’t be removed or and loose, with just enough detail for the Life Permaculture at www. tampered with – or the clients may love a clients to understand what we’re proposing. goodlifepermaculture.com.au and particular tree which they want to keep. We provide an overall plan plus additional Designful at www.designful.com.au sketches and notes to make everything clear. The bubble diagram technique is a great way to prevent yourself from diving into FEEDBACK AND TWEAKS detailed design straight away. I find this incredibly useful to form the pattern of Depending on where our clients live, we the landscape, which I can then map do a feedback session on the rough draft

80 | PIP MAGAZINE PIP MAGAZINE | 81 DESIGN AUSTRALIAN NATIVES IN A FOOD FOREST GARDEN

Words by Dan Harris-Pascal

Well-designed food forests and Wattles – Acacia species (family Fabaceae) Grevillea species (family Proteaceae) forest gardens are a versatile food Wattles are perfect plants for a forest garden. Grevilleas provide beautiful, large bird- production solution that, in addition There is a huge variety of species, and attracting flowers which were also to producing food, are able to provide yields include pollen, habitat, microclimates, traditionally used by humans as a source for a wide range of animals and firewood, timber and mulch. These plants are of sweet nectar. Additionally, plants in fungi that create the connections legumes and fix nitrogen in the soil, making the Proteaceae family have special roots between the plants in our garden. it easier for all plants to grow. Choose a for obtaining phosphorus from the soil, few species that are well suited to your and then recycle this nutrient when the area, or from an area that is slightly drier leaves or branches are mulched. Grevilleas As well as being focused on food for the than your climate as this can reduce water are versatile, but the best for food forest people who are involved in the project, competition. Acacias fit really well into early gardens are spiky shrubs such as Grevillia the plants that are selected for a food succession environments, but will need juniperina and G. rosmarinifolia which have forest garden need to provide food and to be cut back and managed as the forest abundant flowers, and provide great habitat for beneficial birds, insects and garden matures. Some excellent choices habitat for insect eating birds. There is other animals. Without these supporting include Acacia floribunda, A. howittii (sticky also a range of ground covers which look elements, these creatures will not inhabit wattle) and A. rubida (red-stemmed wattle). great and add structural diversity to the a forest garden and instead of a designed garden, including cultivars such as Grevillea plant community that mimics the patterns Bottlebrushes – Callistemon lanigera ‘Mt Tamboritha’ and G. ‘Raptor’, and and processes of a natural ecosystem, species (family Myrtaceae) the prostrate form of Grevillea juniperina. there will simply be a collection of plants. Bottlebrushes are beautiful and excellent Westringia species (family Lamiaceae) support plants for a forest garden. Their long, While there is a wealth of information about colourful flower spikes provide an aesthetic Westringias are extremely hardy native the plants that can be grown to produce a quality to the garden, as well as good food shrubs. Being from the mint family, their fruit or food yield for people, there is much and habitat for native birds and insects. The flowers are perfect for providing food less available about the support plants to leaves are often aromatic which can assist in for beneficial insects. It is important in incorporate into a food forest garden. The pest control, and their dense, shrubby foliage a forest garden that there are flowers books that are available on the subject is perfect for birds to live in. Species are and food available for these insects generally feature species from the northern available that grow either as shrubs or larger and all pollinators throughout the year, hemisphere, and it can be difficult to trees, so bottlebrushes make great living and some westringias have abundant understand where Australian species fit in. fences, hedges or windbreaks for fruit trees. flowers year round. My favourite is (coastal rosemary) Australian native plants are worth including Excellent species for a forest garden include Westringia fruticosa because of its hardiness and purple or in forest gardens anywhere in the world. Callistemon citrinus, C. subulatus and C. viminalis. white flowers. Other excellent species The flora of Australia has evolved to Mint bushes – Prostanthera include and support a huge range of insects and Westringia glabra W. longifolia. species (family Lamiaceae) birds, and Australian ecosystems are some of the most productive in terms of Prostantheras are in the mint family, with Dan Harris-Pascal runs Seed Head flowers containing nectar and pollen. deliciously aromatic foliage, and provide Design, a design business specialising flowers which are perfect for beneficial in food forest gardens, ecological design The selection of plants below will help you insects, and essential oils which assist and education. He has designed and to select native plant species to support your in pest control. Their dense foliage also implemented food forest gardens around fruit trees and aid in the creation of highly provides good habitat for beneficial birds. Australia and in South America. For an diverse model ecosystems. The family for each Any mint bush will fit well in a forest garden. overview of forest gardening check out his has been provided as this often provides a Nurseries often stock species including recent Tedx talk. He is currently working on a book on forest ardens in Australia. guide to plant function, needs and products. Prostanthera ovalifolia and P. rotundifolia.

82 | PIP MAGAZINE Clockwise: Acacia rubida by Donald Hobern Callistemon citrinus by JJ Harrison Prostanthera rotundifolia by Chris Clarke Westringia fruticosa by Danielle Langlois Grevillea rosmarinifolia by JJ Harrison

PIP MAGAZINE | 83 84 | PIP MAGAZINE A COMPLETE GUIDE TO PERMACULTURE COURSES

Words by Beck Lowe

Undertaking a permaculture course is a very rewarding experience. Not only will you gain skills and knowledge, but you may end up viewing the world in a new way. You will also interact with a group which is interested in similar things as you, and learn from practitioners with plenty of experience.

There is a wide range of permaculture courses on the market in Australia. This article outlines the main types. It also summarises what you should look for when choosing a course. Beck Lowe

PERMACULTURE DESIGN COURSES (PDCS) undertake a group permaculture Some PDCs run closely to the original PDC design; on others students will format developed in the 1980s, but PDCs The PDC is the classic permaculture course. undertake individual designs. do change and evolve. Topics such as PDCs have been running since the early ‘Transition’ initiatives and climate change 1980s, and many participants describe the PDCs run for a minimum of seventy-two have been added to some PDC curricula. experience of a PDC as ‘life changing’. hours; however, many PDCs are longer to Some PDCs are tailored to focus on urban allow for field trips, further content, or more systems or a particular climate, but they A PDC will introduce the broad concepts detail on particular topics. Formats available should still cover all the general topics in the of permaculture, and give you the skills to include: the traditional block of ten days to original PDC curriculum. Some PDCs are undertake a basic permaculture design. two weeks; a day each week for a number very focused on the land-based aspects of There will be an overview of topics as of months; a weekend a month for a whole permaculture, while others might put more diverse as sustainable building, useful year; or a combination of weekend days and emphasis on technology, financial systems or plants and earthworks; however, rather evenings. There are also online options. community development. It is worth asking than providing much detail on any of these, about the curricula of potential PDCs to the PDC will help you to develop your Intensive PDCs, particularly those with a ensure that what is offered will suit you. permaculture thinking and observation. residential component, tend to be a very intense experience, allowing you to focus ADVANCED PERMACULTURE COURSES There is rarely time for practical components exclusively on permaculture and connect in a PDC, but some courses will include with other participants. Other formats may Advanced courses are aimed at those who practical work, such as making compost. Field not be as intense, but allow more time for have already completed a PDC, or have a trips to permaculture properties – to see information to sink in, and for individual good knowledge of permaculture, and are theory put into practice – are often a highlight reading and research between sessions. looking to extend their skills in a particular of PDCs; thus it can be useful to attend a PDC Weekdays can be useful for parents with area. For example, courses in permaculture in a climate similar to your own. Some PDCs children at school, while evenings and aid work, advanced design skills, earthworks are based at working permaculture properties, weekends will suit those with daytime and forestry systems have been offered. giving participants a further chance to commitments. Courses spread over immerse themselves in permaculture. weeks or months tend to attract locals, Permaculture teacher training and creative while residential courses often have facilitation courses are useful for those A design exercise is a requirement for interstate and international participants. looking to share their permaculture PDC completion. On some PDCs students

PIP MAGAZINE | 85 Kirsten Bradley Kirsten Bradley Kirsten

experience with others. These courses APT qualifications have a strong emphasis two years. This is a great way to have your cover techniques for facilitating learning on the practical side of permaculture, skills and achievements acknowledged; and ideas and on creating lesson plans whether it is building a swale or facilitating however, these diplomas should not be and curricula, with plenty of tips and a community project. As with all nationally confused with the nationally accredited hints from experienced trainers. accredited courses, you will need to be APT diplomas. Often the organisation able to demonstrate your competence in issuing these diplomas requires you to ACCREDITED PERMACULTURE TRAINING (APT) all aspects of the curriculum, generally have done a PDC approved by them. through a combination of physical APT qualifications fit within the national demonstrations of activities, written tasks INTRODUCTION TO PERMACULTURE Vocational Education and Training (VET) and, at the higher levels, portfolios of work. WORKSHOPS system and can only be delivered through APT qualifications give you a nationally a Registered Training Organisation (RTO). recognised certificate which can be useful in An introductory workshop can take self-employment, or in finding employment anything from half a day to five days. Most Like other VET courses, there are in areas such as community or school assume that students will be complete five levels of APT training: projects, consultancy or local government. beginners, so there should be an overview of permaculture principles and practices, • Certificates I and II cover Another reason why people choose APT and examples of permaculture in action. basic permaculture skills, and is to organise their permaculture studies. A longer course will cover a reasonable have been delivered in schools Having regular assessment tasks helps amount of what a PDC might, for instance and community gardens to ensure that readings are completed the basics of permaculture design. • Certificate III is a ‘trade level’ and practical tasks are undertaken – it certificate, providing the skills might be possible to do these things These courses are ideal for introducing and knowledge to develop and without being enrolled in a course, permaculture, and are a good way to maintain a permaculture system but too often life gets in the way! help you decide whether to continue to a longer course such as a PDC or APT. • Certificate IV has a strong focus For those with extensive experience on the design and implementation in permaculture, and the evidence to INTERNSHIPS of permaculture projects support this, it may be possible to obtain Some permaculture practitioners welcome • the Diploma of Permaculture covers areas a qualification via recognition of prior people wanting to learn practical skills on a such as management, strategic planning learning (RPL), rather than undertaking working permaculture property. This can be and research, as well as design skills. a complete course. An assessor will go a win-win situation: the intern gains valuable through evidence of your past permaculture There is no need to undertake a lower experience, while the property manager has activities – for example photos, site certificate before progressing to a higher an extra helper available. This relationship visits and statements from colleagues or one; you can start at any level. It is can be arranged in different ways: food and managers – and assess those against the important to be clear about what you accommodation may be available for the requirements for each unit in a curriculum. want from an APT course and to pick the intern; interns may be paid for their labour, appropriate qualification. While a Diploma may have to pay for the experience, or there might sound impressive, if you are more OTHER PERMACULTURE DIPLOMAS may be no monetary payments either way; interested in the hands-on development Some permaculture organisations offer a time may be set aside for theory, or all of a food growing permaculture system, Diploma of Permaculture after a period of the learning might be carried out through a Certificate III would be more relevant. post-PDC experience, often a minimum of practical activities. Be very clear on what

86 | PIP MAGAZINE Robyn Rosenfeldt Robyn Beck Lowe Hannah Maloney Hannah

Beck Lowe PIP MAGAZINE | 87 MANY PARTICIPANTS DESCRIBE THE EXPERIENCE OF A PDC AS ‘LIFE CHANGING’.

is, and isn’t, expected of both parties before Graduate Certificate in Permaculture, the with support from Adult, Community you commit – short-term trials can be very first postgraduate course of its kind. and Further Education Board funding. useful before making a longer commitment. Postgraduate students undertaking a APT courses are often eligible for SPECIAL INTEREST WORKSHOPS research qualification may be able to tailor government subsidies that will vary their work directly to a permaculture topic. depending on the state, the RTO and the There are many short courses and individual student. Many courses will be workshops that can support your THINGS TO CONSIDER subsidised for students without a higher permaculture activities. Topics and activities qualification, and an Australian Government may include methods of natural building, Once you have decided what sort of course FEE-HELP loan may be available to cover aspects of food growing or livestock keeping, will best meet your needs, you can start the cost of a Diploma. Austudy or other weed walks or starting a community garden. looking at those available. Here are some benefits can help students studying a things you might want to consider. Certificate IV or Diploma full time. Research your presenter(s) first to see if they are sympathetic to permaculture (even Curriculum. Make sure you are clear on Check what the course cost covers, for if they do not call it ‘permaculture’). Although what the course will cover, for example: how example lunch on a short course, or you should be able to adapt information much time will be spent in the classroom accommodation on a PDC. If a course is from a workshop to a permaculture system, compared with out in the field; and whether substantially cheaper or more expensive it is more useful to undertake workshops the curriculum is set from the start, or if than similar courses, it is worth asking where the content is compatible with students will have input into what is covered. why – there is usually a good reason. permaculture; for example, the presenter(s) suggest plants to feed and nurture Facilitator/tutor. Find out something If you are really keen to attend a longer chickens, rather than advocating reliance about who is running the course and course such as a PDC but cannot afford the on formulated feed and pharmaceuticals! their experience and, especially on longer investment, you could ask the organisers courses, if the tutoring is shared. Some if there are any concessions, scholarships Neighbourhood houses and local PDCs have one main tutor, possibly or discounts available. Some organisers permaculture groups are good places to with guest speakers, while others are may be able to arrange a partial work find workshops. In some states government collaborations between permaculture exchange in return for course participation. departments or councils run useful courses, educators who share the contact hours. often heavily subsidised. If a course isn’t No matter how interesting and experienced ONLINE STUDY. available, and you can get an interested a tutor is, seventy-two hours can be Various permaculture courses, including group together, try contacting someone a long time to listen to one person! some APT level courses, are available with the skills and ask if they could run a online, and at least one online PDC has been workshop. Neighbourhood houses or other Costs/investment. It is better to think running for over two decades. Online study community groups may be able to offer their of the money you will pay for a course provides flexibility to fit study around other facilities (and insurance) for the event. as an investment rather than a cost, as there should be multiple benefits responsibilities, although it does require organisation and self-motivation. Some UNIVERSITY LEVEL COURSES for you into the future. What you pay for the experience will depend on the online courses facilitate plenty of student– There are a few courses at universities length and nature of the course, and student interaction, and some focus on that are directly related to aspects of sometimes the experience of the tutor. individual mentoring from the tutor. permaculture, such as sustainable agriculture or community development, and Some permaculture courses are now run a couple of qualifications have included with government subsidies that reduce costs Refer to our course directory on the a permaculture unit. In 2016 Central considerably. For instance in Victoria, some following pages for an extensive Queensland University will be offering a PDCs run through community organisations list of courses in Australia.

88 | PIP MAGAZINE COURSE PROVIDERS

BEGA VALLEY PDC 8 OCT - 28 NOV 2015 BROGO PERMACULTURE GARDENS A part time Permaculture Design Course (PDC) run over 8 Permaculture Design Course, April 2016 consecutive weeks. Thursday evenings and Saturdays. Bega Our property on the South Coast of NSW has seen 21 years of development in and surrounds. We present a dynamic and engaging experience temperate permaculture design. We offer an annual PDC, workshops in because we believe a PDC should be a life changing event. Earthworks and Teachers Training as well as having Open Days to explore the property. We welcome those that have completed PDCs to make contact and P: 0400310616 E: [email protected] stay with us to experience the practical understanding W: www.pipmagazine.com.au/courses of working on a permaculture property. www.permaculturedesign.com.au E [email protected] P (02) 64 927306.

Teacher Training, Creative Facilitation & Group Leadership Course Earth homes sit beautifully within permaculture gardens and philosophy. We can help you achieve your dream of building a safe, healthy, comfortable, desirable ‘DYNAMIC GROUPS, DYNAMIC LEARNING’ with Robin Clayfield and affordable home in any climate using a range of earth building techniques 15 to 20 November 2015 at Crystal Waters Permaculture Eco-Village. and integrating other appropriate, renewable and sustainable technologies. Celebrating over 23 years of Training Permaculture Teachers Globally Our services include building, training and consultancy in earth building Fully catered, 6 day residential. Only 1 in Australia this year. technologies. Peter has 33 years experience to share practical hands-on Many leading Permaculture Teachers have trained with Robin workshops to give you skills and confidence. and incorporate ‘Dynamic Groups’ skills into their courses. P: Peter 0408425855 E: [email protected] [email protected] www.dynamicgroups.com.au www.earthbuildingsolutions.com.au

We teach Permaculture Design Courses that give you Fair Harvest Permaculture in Margaret River offers a two week live- the knowledge to live the in Permaculture Design Certificate with some of WA’s foremost good life. Plus they make permaculture trainers (next PDC is 10 - 24 January 2016). your heart sing. We also offer a range of short courses including; An Introduction to Beekeeping (12 September 2015) and An Introduction to Permaculture (3–4 goodlifepermaculture.com.au October 2015). We specialise in promoting local knowledge and experience. For more information on other courses and events, go to our website. Hobart / Tasmania W. www.fairharvest.com.au [email protected] P. 08 9758 8582

OPEN DAY & COURSES AT THE FOOD FOREST, SA Open Day: 11 Oct See and taste the success of sustainable design at self- reliance and commercial levels on this iconic, organic permaculture farm and learning centre. Short courses: Oct/Nov. Building with Strawbales, Introduction to Permaculture, Growing Organic Vegetables & Poultry PDC: Permaculture Design Cert with David Holmgren, the Brookmans & guests. April/May 2016. P 0885226450 E [email protected] www.foodforest.com.au

PIP MAGAZINE | 89 COURSE PROVIDERS

PERMACULTURE INSTITUTE SYDNEY MILKWOOD - HANDS-ON SKILLS FOR LIFE Located at Bandusia Country Retreat, Upper MacDonald, offers Permaculture Design Course: 10–23 Jan 2016, Sydney a diversity of courses and workshops including: - Permaculture Design Certificate Biointensive Growing: 19–20 Sept: Gerringong NSW - Introduction to Permaculture Gourmet Mushroom Cultivation: Sept: Sydney + Byron Bay - Earthworks and Waterworks Starting an Organic Market Garden: 25–27 Sept: Sydney - Poultry and Sheep Market Garden Masterclass: 9–11 Oct: Gundaroo NSW - Rural Skills Advanced Permaculture Design: 17–18 Oct: Sydney www.permaculturesydneyinstitute.org Phone: (02) 4568 2036 More info at www.Milkwood.net or 02 5300 4473 Email: [email protected]

Learn about Permaculture and other aspects of living sustainably in the beautiful setting of Rosnay Organic Vineyard and Orchard near PERMACULTURE DESIGN COURSE Canowindra NSW. The Perma Pixie and Moonrise Permaculture, 9 September 2015 Intro To Permaculture - September 12-13th, 2015 Wednesdays 6:00pm 9:30pm (4 month duration). Some Saturday classes Covering the ethics and principles of Permaculture and outlines design techniques, Dandenong Ranges, Vic. $700 or $550 concession such as zoning, site analysis and working with nature. For backyards, vineyards, Join Taj Scicluna and Tamara Griffiths in their creative facilitation of this PDC, farms and businesses. You’ll leave looking at your house, garden and landscape tailored to individual learning styles, to give participants a deep understanding differently. This course at Rosnay incorporates: a local feast; music; yoga. and a sense of empowerment and inspiration. Learn how to make more informed and conscious choices, develop an understanding of the natural world and For more information about this and future courses: www.rosnay.com.au/permaculture design various garden, housing and social systems for regenerative outcomes. Contact: [email protected] or phone 0412 861 586 www.thepermapixie.com

SCHOOL OF SUSTAINABLE LIVING Young Ethos Scholars, Courageous Conversation, Nature Kids Including: EDUCATE DESIGN CONSULT Hands-On Permaculture Workshop 3–4 Oct, Eco-masterclasses days for kids Sept 23, Net-Positive Development 9–13 Nov “Aspects of Permaculture” workshop series Venue: Crystal Waters Permaculture Village, QLD Teachers: www.savoursoilpermaculture.com.au Morag Gamble, Evan Raymond and many special guests [email protected] Contact details: [email protected], www.ethosfoundation.org. 07 5494 4833

Want to promote your next course or workshop to an engaged audience? Pip Magazine is one of the most trusted TERRA PERMACULTURE - VALLEY’S END FARM voices in the permaculture education space Part-time PDC on the NSW Central Coast –every Saturday for 12 weeks – Spring and Autumn start (suits students with children or work commitments). in Australia. Our readers are largely new to At Valley’s End Farm, Terra Permaculture offers affordable courses in various locations to explore backyard and small acreage permaculture applications. permaculture and are wanting to learn. Come and learn everything you need to know for modern homesteading less than two hours away from Sydney. To discuss our Course Provider listings or to book for next issue contact P 02 4355 1275 E [email protected] Paul at [email protected] or 0401 920 041. www.terrapermaculture.com

90 | PIP MAGAZINE BEEKEEPING COURSE PROVIDERS

• Beginner Workshops • Bee related products • Field Days • Bee friendly advice BEEKEEPING NATURALLY COURSE PROVIDER • Mentoring Programs • Hive fresh Honey We’re committed to helping bees by passionately passing on what we know. We teach natural, organic Bee-caring skills using the Kenyan Top Bar hive. • Beekeeping Supplies • And more… Our unique, two day courses are fun and packed with information to give you the confidence and skills for honeybee guardianship in your own backyard. A variety of workshops are held around Melbourne throughout the year. Check www.becsbeehive.com.au for updates and further information. P 0409 971 128 E [email protected] Beekeeping gear is available to order online and delivered Nationally. www.Beekeepingnaturally.com.au

BACKYARD BEEKEEPING COURSES

Permaculture Victoria offers training courses in bee- and beekeeper-friendly beekeeping. Natural beekeeping aims to balance bees’ wellbeing and desire NATURAL BEEKEEPING COURSES WITH TIM MALFROY for honey. We aim at backyard beekeepers and offer training in beekeeping that is easy on the bees and also on the beekeeper, both in terms of costs 8–9 + 22–23 August: Byron Bay NSW 26–27 September: Sydney NSW and workload. Courses are organised on regular basis depending on demand, 17–18 October: Gerringong NSW primarily from mid-winter to mid-spring. The Natural Beekeeping group 14–15 November: Sydney NSW 5–6 December: Bathurst NSW meets on the 3rd Monday of the month in Kew, in the inner eastern suburbs. More info at www.Milkwood.net or 02 5300 4473 E [email protected] www.naturalbeekeeping.org.au

all good things take time

30 years ago Juan Anton had an epiphany. He stopped using chemicals and began making observations of nature to inspire his work in the garden. His greenhouse provides a micro-climate that builds on the diversity of his edible forest; sharing what he has grown and learnt with dozens of people who stay over for meetings that last several days. The vision? ‘To change the world’, no less, beginning with small, thoughtful actions. 12 images, each with their own story, illustrate the design principles. Take the time to absorb them over a month, while keeping track of what’s going on in your life.

$ 14 PIP MAGAZINE | 91 COURSE DIRECTORY Do you want your course featured here? Send your details to [email protected]: Name, location, courses, web, phone, email.

[email protected] PERMACULTURE & KIMBRIKI - ECO HOUSE & GARDEN, Kimbriki, Composting, Worm Farming, Beginners & Advanced PIP MAGAZINE HQ, Pambula, PDC, Natural SUSTAINABILITY Organic Gardening, No-Dig Gardening, Introduction Beekeeping, Fermenting, Sourdough Breadmaking, to Permaculture (Short & Full Workshops), www. Organic Gardening, www.pipmagazine.com.au, kimbriki.com, (02) 9486 3512, kimbriki@kimbriki. 0408375991, [email protected] ACT com CANBERRA PERMACULTURE DESIGN, Canberra, PURPLE PEAR FARM, Anambah, PDC, Intro to Intro to Permaculture Principles, Permaculture LAGUNA EARTH HOUSE, Laguna, Earth/Straw Permaculture, Mandala Gardens, Preserving, Zones, Waterwise Gardening, Making Wicking Pots & Building, Preserving, Bread Making, www. Sourdough, Cheese & Yoghurt, Compost Making, Beds., www.canberrapermaculturedesign.com.au/, facebook.com/lagunaearthhouse, (02) 4998 8072, Biodynamics, Propogation, Worm Farms, Grafting, 0410 121 272, [email protected] www.purplepearfarm.com.au/, (02) 4932 0443, [email protected] MILKWOOD PERMACULTURE, Sydney, PDC, Intro ROSNAY ORGANIC VINEYARD AND ORCHARD, PERMACULTURE EXCHANGE, Canberra, Intro to to Permaculture, Organic Gardening, Organic Canowindra, Intro to Permaculture, www.rosnay. Permaculture, PDC, Specialist courses eg. Farm Market Gardening, Natural Beekeeping, Aquaponics, com.au, 1300 767 629, [email protected] establishment, homesteading, forest gardens, www. Mushroom Cultivation, Fermentation, permacultureexchange.org.au/, 0400 165 403, www.milkwood.net/, (02) 5300 4473, SAGE PROJECT, Moruya, Market Gardening, [email protected] [email protected] Seed Saving, Medicinal Gardens, Beekeeping & Hive Building, Backyard Gardening, Fermenting, NSW NATIONAL ENVIRONMENT CENTRE (CAMPUS Drawing, www.sageproject.org.au, 0439 032 038, OF TAFE NSW RIVERINA INSTITUTE), Thurgoona, [email protected] A GARDEN FOR LIFE, Helensburgh, Garden Design, Cert IV (Design a Permaculture Property), Organic www.agardenforlife.com.au/, 0404 123 747, Farming, nec.riverinainstitute.wikispaces.net/, (02) SUSTAINABILITY SYSTEMS & SERVICES, Sydney, [email protected] 6043 6700, Workplaces, Water and Energy Efficiency, Ethical Investment, House Design & Construction, www. ALLYN RIVER PERMACULTURE, Allynbrook, PDC, [email protected] sustainabilitysystems.com.au/, 0414 385 644, Intro to Permaculture, Soils & Composting, Small NATURE CONSERVATION COUNCIL OF NEW [email protected] Animals, Gardening Sustainably, Garden to Market, SOUTH WALES AUSTRALIA, Sydney, Seed Saving allynriverpermaculture.com.au/, (02) 4938 9748, & Seasonal Planting, www.nature.org.au/, (02) SYDNEY COMMUNITY COLLEGE , Sydney, [email protected] 9516 1488, [email protected] Permaculture: An Introduction, Beekeeping for BROGO PERMACULTURE GARDENS, Bermagui, Beginners, www.sydneycommunitycollege.com.au/, NORTH SYDNEY COUNCIL, Sydney, Sustainable PDC, Earthworks, permaculturedesign.com.au/, (02) (02) 8752 7555, [email protected] Investing, Sugarbag Beekeeping, Preserving, 6492 7306, [email protected] Edible Gardens, www.northsydney.nsw.gov.au/ SYDNEY ORGANIC GARDENS, Jannali, Organic CAROOLA FARM, Mulloon, Converting to Organic Waste_Environment/Get_Involved_Green_Events/ Gardening, www.sydneyorganicgardens.com.au/, Production (SPCA Organic Standards), caroolafarm. Green_Events, (02) 9936 8100 , 0416 229 154, [email protected] com.au/, (02) 4842 1899, [email protected] THE QUIET GARDENER, Sydney, Intro to [email protected] PERMACULTURE COLLEGE AUSTRALIA, Nimbin, Permaculture, www.thequietgardener.com.au, 0412 CHARLES STURT UNIVERSITY, North Wagga PDC, APT–Cert IV, Diploma. Advanced Courses 130 221, [email protected] Wagga, Sustainable Agriculture, www.csu.edu.au/ –Creative Community Facilitation, Permaculture THE VEGGIE LADY, Narellan, Backyard Veggies, faculty/science/saws, (02) 6933 2765, Teacher Training & Facilitation, Sustainable Aid for Sensory Gardens, Healing Gardens, theveggielady. [email protected] Permaculture Development Work, Advanced Design Skills., permaculture.com.au/, (02) 6689 1755, com/, 0411 579 778, [email protected] COFFS REGIONAL COMMUNITY GARDENS, [email protected] TRUST NATURE, Byron Bay, Permaculture Soils Coffs Harbour, Meal Planning to Reduce Food & Organic Fertiliser, Living Soils & Composting, Waste, Insect Reservoirs, Plant Propagation, www. PERMACULTURE RESEARCH INSTITUTE trustnature.com.au/ , 0408 66 2468, coffscommunitygardens.org.au/, AUSTRALIA, The Channon, PDC, Hand Tools, [email protected] [email protected] Renewable Energy, Permaculture Teacher Training, Understanding Earthworks, Permaculture Life Skills, YABBA PERMACULTURE, Sydney, Energy, Intro to ELEMENTAL PERMACULTURE, Warrawong, PDC, www.permaculturenews.org/, (02) 6688 6578, Permaculture, www.yabba.com.au, 0421 378 939, elementalpermaculture.wordpress.com/about/, [email protected] [email protected] 0424 241 881, [email protected] PERMACULTURE SYDNEY INSTITUTE, Sydney, Intro to Permaculture, PDC, Cider & Wine Making, QLD GARDEN TO TABLE PERMACULTURE, Charlotte Biodynamics, Fruit Tree Pruning, Earthworks & ACS DISTANCE EDUCATION, Nerang MDC, Organic Bay, Organic Gardening/Permaculture, www. Water, www.permaculturesydneyinstitute.org/, (02) Farming, www.acs.edu.au/default.aspx, (07) 5562 gardentotablepermaculture.com.au/, 0413 769 530, 4568 2036, [email protected] 1088, [email protected] [email protected] PERMACULTURE SYDNEY NORTH, Lindfield, PDC, CITYFOOD GROWERS, Samford, Biodynamic HEALTHY HARVEST KITCHEN GARDENS, Intro to Permaculture, Sustainable Property Tours, Gardening, cityfoodgrowers.com.au, 0401 156 532, Springwood, Organic Gardening, healthyharvest. Specialist workshops (seasonal kitchen garden [email protected] com.au/, 0431 383 516, courses and compost tea), CRYSTAL WATERS, Conondale, PDC, [email protected] www.permaculturenorth.org.au/, (02) 9858 3074, crystalwaters.org.au/, PDC, (07) 5494 4620, [email protected] HUMBLE DESIGNS PERMACULTURE, Sydney West [email protected] & Blue Mountains, PDC, sites.google.com/site/ PERMACULTURE SYDNEY SOUTH, Sydney HILL TOP FARM COOKTOWN, Cooktown, Food humbledesignspermaculture/, (02) 4575 3235, South, Vertical Gardens, Biochar, www. Gardens, Thinking Like an Ecosystem, Cost- [email protected] permaculturesydneysouth.org.au/, reductions in Horticulture through Ecological [email protected] JAMBEROO VALLEY FARM, Jamberoo, Intro to Practices, hilltopfarm.wix.com/beyondsustainability, Permaculture, Social Permaculture, PDC, Soil, www. (07) 4069 5058, hilltopfarmcooktown@westnet. PERMACULTURE SYDNEY WEST (TOONGABBIE), com.au jamberoovalleyfarm.com.au/, (02) 4236 1505, Sydney West, Developing Sustainable Balcony [email protected] Gardens, www.permaculturesydneywest.com.au/,

92 | PIP MAGAZINE

NORTHEY STREET CITY FARM, Windsor, Intro to CENTRE FOR ADULT EDUCATION, Melbourne, A THE WALLABY’S ROCK GARDEN, Garvoc, Garden Permaculture, PDC, www.nscf.org.au/, (07) 3857 Year in the Garden: Vegetables & Herbs, Backyard Design, Natural Building, Appropriate Technology, 8775, [email protected] Beekeeping, How to build a Traditional Wood-fired www.wallabygarden.com.au/, Oven, www.cae.edu.au/Pages/default.aspx, andrew @wallabygarden.com.au PERMACULTURE RESEARCH INSTITUTE (03) 9652 0611, [email protected] SUNSHINE COAST, Kin Kin, PDC, TREAD LIGHTLY PERMACULTURE, Dunnstown, permaculturesunshinecoast.org/, (07) 5485 4664, CERES INC, Melbourne, PDC, Gardening, Cooking, PDC, CERT III, Intro to Permaculture, Glass House [email protected] Cheesemaking, Craft, www.ceres.org.au/, Design, Compost Loo Construction & Design, (03) 9389 0100, [email protected] Compost, Mulch, Plant Propogation & Seed Saving, PERMACULTURE TOOLS, Indooroopilly, Beekeeping, www.treadlightlypermaculture.com. Permaculture earthworks. Hand tool CHESTNUT FARM, Ballarat, Forest Garden Design au/, 0400 261 233, courses, permaculturetools.com.au/, sales@ Intensive, PDC, Intro to Permaculture, Grafting [email protected] permaculturetools.com.au internship, Permaculture Principles Master Class, Powering up Your Community Group, Practical VERY EDIBLE GARDENS, Brunswick, PDC, ROBIN CLAYFIELD AND FRIENDS, Maleny, Dynamic Skills. Individual grafting tuition available, www. Biointensive Gardening, Edible Weeds, Rocket Groups, Dynamic Learning, Creative Community chestnutfarm.net.au/, 0409 551 539 / Stoves, www.veryediblegardens.com/, (03) 9005 Governance & Decision-Making, Permaculture (03) 5331 3110, [email protected] 6070, [email protected] Meets Creative Design, Permaculture, Deep Ecology & Earthcare Design, Earth Healing and CULTIVATING COMMUNITY, Richmond, Food Waste WA Nurturing, TAA40104 Certificate IV in Training and Avoidance & Recycling (composting, worm farms & AHAM VRITTI HERBAL, Perth, PDC, Assessment, dynamicgroups.com.au/, bokashi) , www.cultivatingcommunity.org.au/, (03) OrganicGardening, Creative Facilitation, (07) 5494 4707, [email protected] 9429 3084, [email protected] www.ahamvrittiherbal.com.au/, 0406 449 369, [email protected] SAVOUR SOIL PERMACULTURE, Laidley, Intro to DELICIOUSLY INSPIRING GARDENS (DIG), Geelong, Permaculture, Aquaponics, The Art of Balanced Organic Gardening & Farming, Livestock, Chickens, CANDLELIGHT FARM, Perth, PDC, APT, www. Beekeeping, www.savoursoilpermaculture.com.au, Soil, www.facebook.com/pages/Deliciously- cfpermaculture.com.au/, (08) 92951933, (07) 5465 1399, [email protected] Inspiring-Gardens, 0423 150 448 [email protected]

SEED INTERNATIONAL, Harper Creek, Hands on ELTHAM WORMS, Melbourne, Composting & Worm FAIR HARVEST, Margaret River, Beekeeping, Permaculture Design, Gardening with Kids, Farming, www.elthamworms.com.au/, (04) 1931 Cheesemaking, Introduction to permaculture, PDC, www.seedinternational.com.au, (07) 5494 4833, 0003, [email protected] www.fairharvest.com.au/, (08) 9758 8582, info@ [email protected] fairharvest.com.au EMPOWER, Melbourne, Creating & Maintaining SA Small Space Gardens, www.facebook.com/ PERMASEED, Bunbury, Intro to Permaculture, PDC, events/1431512460484444/, 0401 822 915, FOOD FOREST, Gawler, PDC, Bushfoods, Aquaponics, Wicking Beds, www.facebook.com/ [email protected] Preserving, Natural Building, Fruit & Nut Growing, peppalucisediblelandscapes?ref=bookmarks, 0427 456 699, [email protected] www.foodforest.com.au/, (08) 8522 6450, HOLMGREN DESIGN, Hepburn, PDC at Yoga [email protected] Ashram, Permaculture Forestry, Advanced Design TERRA PERMA DESIGN, Perth, PDC, Soil, Edible Principles, holmgren.com.au/, (03) 5348 3636, NADJA’S GARDEN, Adelaide, Intro to Permaculture, Weeds, Food Forests, Watering & Irrigation, Chooks, [email protected] Composting, Pruning, Organic Gardening, www. Nutrient Cycling, www.terraperma.com.au/, 0466 633 275 , [email protected] nadjasgarden.com.au, 0410 636 857, KINGLAKE RANGES PERMACULTURE, Kinglake, [email protected] Seed Saving, Propagation, Managing a Garden: ONLINE preparing/storing/trading/marketing the harvest. GEOFF LAWTON, PDC, www.geofflawton.com, (02) TAS Mushrooms, Bees, Livestock, 0430 637 748, 6688 6578 GOOD LIFE PERMACULTURE, South Hobart, PDC, [email protected]; [email protected] Real Skills for Growing Food, Fermentation Fest, PERMACULTURE VISIONS, PDC , www. How to Grow Mushrooms, Intro to Permaculture, LANEWAY LEARNING MELBOURNE, Melbourne, permaculturevisions.com/, (02) 4228 Small-scale Beekeeping, goodlifepermaculture.com. Gardening & Sustainability, melbourne. 5774, [email protected]; info@ au, 0418 307 294, lanewaylearning.com/, permaculturevisions.com [email protected] [email protected] SPIRAL GARDEN, Hobart, Seedlings Permaculture RESEED, Penguin, Various courses, NORTHERN MELBOURNE INSTITUTE OF TAFE, for Families e-course, Saplings Real Skills for Young permaculturetas.org/main/locations/reseed-centre/, Epping, Information on Organic Agriculture, infohub. Change Makers e-course, spiralgarden.com.au, [email protected] ifoam.bio/en/node, (03) 9269 1042, marlid-aas@ 0401 438 668, [email protected] nmit.vic.edu.au URBAN FARMING TASMANIA , Launceston, Permaculture Workshops, PERMACULTURE SOUTH WEST VICTORIA, urbanfarmingtasmania.org/, [email protected] Warrnambool, Permaculture, Home Skills, Appropriate Technology, Fruit Tree Pruning BEEKEEPING VIC & Grafting Workshops, www.facebook.com/ BALLARAT PERMACULTURE GUILD, Buninyong, groups/613129832112923/, VIC PDC, Intro to Permaculture, Practical skills (keeping [email protected] VICHONEY, Upper Beaconsfield, Beekeeping, chickens, grafting, pruning, wicking beds, starting a organichoney.melbourne/, [email protected] veggie garden, greenhouse skills, seedsaving, tool REGRARIANS, Bendigo East, Regenerative sharpening, cheesemaking, preserving, fermented Agriculture, www.regrarians.org, 0431 444 836 or THE PRACTICAL BEEKEEPER, Thornbury, History foods, edible weeds, medicinal herbs), www. 0400 840 845, [email protected] of Beekeeping, Getting Started with a New Hive, ballaratpermacultureguild.org, 0488 077 628, info@ Extracting Honey, RMIT UNIVERSITY, Melbourne, Permaculture & ballaratpermacultureguild.org www.thepracticalbeekeeper.com.au/, 0418 863 Sustainable Living, www.rmit.edu.au/, 884, BULLEEN ART & GARDEN, Bulleen, Ornamental 0419 779 886, [email protected] [email protected] Edible Garden Design, Preserving, Sowing & Saving TELOPEA MTN PERMACULTURE AND NURSERY, Seeds, Vegie Gardening for Absolute Beginners, Monbulk, Advanced Permaculture Skills, Preserving, WA Balcony & Small Space Gardening, Successful Cheese Making, Cider Making, www.petethepermie. PHARMCO PTY LTD, Perth, Intro to Beekeeping, , Composting & Worm Farming, www.baag.com.au/, com/, 0418 665 880, 0412 136 945, [email protected] (03) 8850 3030, [email protected] [email protected] ACT CASTLEMAINE COMMUNITY HOUSE, Castlemaine, THE PERMA PIXIE, Dandenong Ranges, PDC, BEEKEEPERS ASSOCIATION OF THE ACT - CIT, PDC, Cert III in APT, www.cch.org.au , (03) 5472 Herbalism, Rewilding & Soil, www.thepermapixie. SCHOOL OF HORTICULTURE, Bruce, Backyard 4842, [email protected]; com, 0450 375 528, [email protected] Beekeeping, www.actbeekeepers.asn.au , (02) 6282 [email protected] 8112, [email protected] PIP MAGAZINE | 93 NSW VIC BEEKEEPING NATURALLY, Bermagui, Natural J BEEKEEPING SCHOOL, Diggers Rest, NATURAL BUILDING Beekeeping, www.beekeepingnaturally.com.au, Beekeeping, www.jbeekeeping.org.au/, [email protected] [email protected] NSW MILKWOOD PERMACULTURE, Sydney, Natural AREC, Bombira, Sustainable Building, AMAZING BEES, The Basin, One-on-one Coaching, Beekeeping, www.milkwood.net/, (02) 5300 4473, arec.com.au, (02) 6372 3899, [email protected] www.amazingbees.com.au/, 0414 558 400, [email protected] [email protected] EARTH BUILDING SOLUTIONS, Georges Basin, NATURAL BEEKEEPING AUSTRALIA, Sydney & Building with Mudbricks, Making Mudbricks, Mudgee, Natural Beekeeping (in conjunction with BEC’S BEE HIVE, Kallista, Beginners, Kids, www. Wood-fired Earth Pizza/Bread Ovens, Milkwood Farm), www.naturalbeekeeping.com.au/, becsbeehive.com.au/, 0409 850 735, earthbuildingsolutions.com.au/, 0408 425 855, [email protected] [email protected] [email protected]

SAGE PROJECT, Moruya, Beekeeping & Hive BESWICK BEES, Ringwood East, Beekeeping, LAGUNA EARTH HOUSE, Laguna, Earth/Straw Building, www.sageproject.org.au, 0439 032 038, beswickbees.com.au/, (04) 3305 3358, Building, www.facebook.com/lagunaearthhouse, [email protected] [email protected] (02) 4998 8072, [email protected]

SYDNEY COMMUNITY COLLEGE, Sydney, CENTRE FOR ADULT EDUCATION, Melbourne, A STRAWTEC, Jervis Bay, Strawbale Construction, Beekeeping for Beginners, Year in the Garden: Backyard Beekeeping, www. strawtec.com.au/, 0408 415 806, www.sydneycommunitycollege.com.au/, (02) cae.edu.au/Pages/default.aspx, (03) 9652 0611, [email protected] 8752 7555, [email protected] [email protected] SA THE URBAN BEEKEEPING, Sydney, Beekeeping, KINGLAKE RANGES PERMACULTURE, Kinglake, FOOD FOREST, Gawler, Natural Building, www.theurbanbeehive.com.au/, 0411 191 232, Bees, 0430 637 748 , [email protected]; www.foodforest.com.au/, (08) 8522 6450, [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] QLD THE PERM-APICULTURE BEEKEEPING GROUP, Melbourne, Natural Beekeeping, www. VIC SAVOUR SOIL PERMACULTURE, Laidley, The Art naturalbeekeeping.org.au/, [email protected] THE STRAW BALE HOUSES, Axedale, How to of Balanced Beekeeping, Build a Strawbale House, www.straw-bale-houses. www.savoursoilpermaculture.com.au/, TREAD LIGHTLY PERMACULTURE, Dunnstown, com, 0428 246 868, [email protected] (07) 5465 1399, [email protected] Beekeeping, www.treadlightlypermaculture.com. au/, 0400 261 233, THE WALLABY’S ROCK GARDEN, Garvoc, SUGARBAG, Brisbane, Sugarbag Beekeeping, [email protected] Natural Building, Appropriate Technology, Stingless Bees, www.sugarbag.net/, 04 3441 www.wallabygarden.com.au, 6053, [email protected] WA [email protected] TAS FAIR HARVEST, Margaret River, Beekeeping, AUSTRALIA WIDE www.fairharvest.com.au/, (08) 9758 8582, GOOD LIFE PERMACULTURE, South Hobart, MUDMOB, Natural Building, Cob Building for Animal [email protected] Small-scale Beekeeping, Shelters, www.mudmob.net/, goodlifepermaculture.com.au, 0418 307 294, [email protected] [email protected]

94 | PIP MAGAZINE REAL ESTATE

PERMACULTURE SUBTROPICAL PARADISE CONSERVATION TRUST. Interested in buying a property that also provides 25 mins from Noosa’s beaches in a lush green valley is a peaceful, private, refuge for endangered plants and animals? With exciting designs to flat, 7 acre, food filled permaculture paradise. As a 20 year mature design modernise the historic homestead and 760ha of bush and grazing land for it has it all...beautiful glassed open plan 220 sqm, 4 bdr, 2 bath brick home, horses or livestock, ‘Llanelly’ is only 55 km south of Canberra and 5 mins ionised pool, low maintenance humus and mineral rich vegetable gardens, drive to the village of Michelago. Enjoy 760ha of spectacular land ranging food forest (orchard) and well fenced rainforest-creek fringed paddocks. Also from steep snow gum ridgelines and timbered hills to pastured slopes 4 quality sheds, chicken, cow and pig systems, 96 000 litres rainwater, 3 and gentle valleys, with flats giving easy access to the long boundary with dams, automated watering system, solar, plus plus. Optional education/tour Michelago Creek. The panoramic views of the Kosciuszko Main Range will income. $770 000 Ph 0754425530 0439760881 [email protected] 59 beckon you to the nearby ski fields of Perisher. Contact: Adam Dawson, Killawarra Rd Lake Macdonald QLD. 0448 801 391, [email protected] Michelago, NSW.

EXPRESSIONS OF INTEREST: 47.2 high rainfall acres, clean springwater for gravity feed, fertile red volcanic topsoil up to 5m deep; ancient home/sheds on RARE OPPORTUNITY FOR SELF-RELIANT LIFESTYLE on 2.25acre weedy 5acres; power, phone, school bus available. Blackwoods, treeferns, rare permaculture property in residential zoned Hepburn with 4 passive solar wildlife. forest/emerald green clearings/rainforest. Location 200 km Canberra, 50 buildings, space for more housing, gardens or enterprise, all services + km NSW Far South Coast, 1 km SouthEast Forests NP. Altitude 750–825m. All orchards, gardens, tanks, grid PV, solar HW, firewood supply, equipment if aspects. Treated as Organic. Consider all Possibilities, Think PC Ethics: Land- required, $790K ono. Fun Open Days in Spring see share, Leasing, Co-housing, Retreats, Earthships, Outright Purchase, Half-share, www.holmgren.com.au/Birrith.Birrith. Contact [email protected] Cooperative PC Projects, Bio-banking, Volunteering. Email proposal 0353482592. 8 Fifteenth Street, Hepburn Springs, VIC. [email protected], including bio. NSW.

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Support permaculture’s community development Acquire know-how through Learn and inspire by donating to Permafund Accredited Permaculture Training™ through our website and social network permacultureaustralia.org.au/permafund/ permacultureaustralia.org.au/apt/ permacultureaustralia.org.au BOOK REVIEWS

A YEAR OF PRACTICULTURE: RECIPES FOR LIVING, THE ART OF NATURAL CHEESEMAKING: USING GROWING, HUNTING & COOKING WITH THE SEASONS TRADITIONAL, NON-INDUSTRIAL METHODS AND RAW by Rohan Anderson (Hardie Grant Books INGREDIENTS TO MAKE THE WORLD’S BEST CHEESES 2015). Review by Robyn Rosenfeldt by David Asher (Chelsea Green Publishing 2015). Review by Emily Stokes The second book from the author of Whole After making cheese, and Larder Love: Grow, Gather, Hunt, Cook (Power questioning my methods, for years House Books 2012), A Year of Practiculture (is it imperative to sterilise every focuses on ‘a way of living where daily choices surface with chemicals? pasteurise are made based on their practical outcome’. our milk? use freeze-dried cultures When you give up your main source of income made in some far-off lab?), this and stop buying food from the supermarket, book appeared magically in my life. you need to know how to survive by hunting, foraging and growing your own food, and knowing how to cook it. Inspired by the principles of ecology, permaculture and organic Starting in spring and working through the year, this book takes you on farming, David Asher came to a journey of living with the seasons and off the land. The 100 recipes natural cheesemaking after realising that the microorganisms are interspersed with Rohan’s humorous and honest insights and needed to make cheese are right there in good raw milk, just observations of a life of ‘practiculture’ As always with Rohan, beautiful as the bacteria in cabbage is there to make sauerkraut. photography and design make this book a pleasure to read and cook from. It’s about simple food straight from nature, and delicious ways to cook it. He shows how to: make your own rennet; use milk kefir as a cheese starter culture; cultivate your own Penicillium roqueforti on Although Rohan does claim that this lifestyle isn’t for everyone – beware! sourdough bread; make your own cheese forms and presses; and – you might be inspired to give up your job and spend your days in avoid unnecessary and questionable additives, and plastics. Beautiful nature, gathering and providing food for yourself and your loved ones. photos and clear instructions accompany the thirty cheese recipes, as well as guides for making kefir, yoghurt and cultured butter. This dynamic and inspiring book is for cheesemakers and cheese lovers.

BACKYARD BEES: A GUIDE FOR THE BEGINNER BEEKEEPER If you are willing to adopt a more natural, ethical and safe by Doug Purdie (Murdoch Books 2014). Review by Clare Voitin ‘clean but not sterile’ approach, embrace the rich microbial communities in raw milk, and delve into age-old traditional Doug Purdie draws you in with the cheesemaking methods, then this is the book for you. story of his unplanned journey to become a ‘beevangelist’. It’s easy to get caught up in his passion THE PERMACULTURE CITY: REGENERATIVE DESIGN for beekeeping; and his desire to FOR URBAN, SUBURBAN, AND TOWN RESILIENCE. raise awareness about the plight By Toby Hemenway (Chelsea Green 2015). Review by Paul Goodsell of bees worldwide makes you eager to help him in his cause. Toby Hemenway did what many permies do. He and his wife Kiel, up and left their Backyard Bees is a step-by-step urban life for the greener pastures of a seasonal guide, detailing everything rural one. They dreamt of space to grow you need to know about owning food and raise animals; of quiet solitude. your own beehives, from the “But… I noticed a few persistent glitches in equipment you need, location and space, to beehive management. our dream” writes Hemenway. Friends were miles away. Petrol usage This book removes the intimidation of beekeeping, and homes in was through the roof. And they on why it is crucial for us to appreciate the realities of what will realised they were tied to civilisation. This realisation led to happen to our environment if we don’t take care of our bees. relocation to the progressive US city of Portland, Oregon.

You will also be introduced to a number of inspiring local apiarists, In The Permaculture City, Hemenway explores life’s necessities who share their personal stories about how beekeeping came into their through an urban permaculture lens. The book relies on an lives. It is inspiring to see such passion shine through in sustainable assumption (based on Hemenway’s own experience) that beekeeping businesses. This book was written to encourage the transformation will and must take place in the city. The book ‘bearded hipster’ to start beekeeping, and knowing that sets the starts out in the garden and then looks at to community, water, mood for this wonderfully informative yet engaging book. It may energy, livelihoods, and finally the role of place in society. well motivate you to become part of the beevangelist movement. Given that many Australian permies yearn for a rural paradise, this is essential reading for those still living in the city, before they take that plunge.

96 | PIP MAGAZINE STUDY PERMACULTURE AT CQUNIVERSITY NEW IN 2016

CQUniversity Australia is proud to introduce a new graduate certifi cate in permaculture available to study from Term 1, 2016 – the fi rst of its kind in Australia. Benefi t from the fl exibility to study by distance education with residential schools hosted by industry partners offering practical learning experiences. For more information visit www.cqu.edu.au or call 13 27 86.

CRICOS Provider Code: 00219C | RTO Code: 40939 AD_150358