June 2012 – Gallifrey Forest Farm

More trees

2012/06/26 Danielle 0

It’s tough, resisting the desire to plant all the fruit trees as soon as possible. We’ve planted a few, but only the tough species which can take our WA summers without too much coddling. Figs, pomegranates, honey locusts, natal plums, a mulberry. Dates and carob will go in soon, and possibly a quince and a few olives. To make up for that patience, though, we are going a bit crazy planting support species. Mostly that means wattles and a few black locusts, Persian silk trees, and pepper trees. But it also includes oaks. Oak trees aren’t the first “support” tree […]

Plant Profile: Roselle

2012/06/21 Danielle 0

Roselle, better known in Australia as Rosella (like the parrot, but less feathery) is an annual (or sometimes biennual), fast growing shrub in the hibiscus family. Like most hibiscus and mallows, it has edible leaves and flower petals, but Roselle is most famous for its edible calyx. The calyx, stems and leaves are acid and closely resemble the cranberry (Vaccinium spp.) in flavor. The calyx is used to make jams and sauces, and dried for tea. The tender young leaves may be cooked and eaten as a substitute for spinach, though somewhat spicier in flavour. Young roselle shoots, leaves and […]

Badger Badger Badger Badger…

2012/06/18 kai 2

…Mushroom Mushroom! D and I have been experimenting with exciting things that can be grown in an apartment setting. This months experiment has been Oyster mushrooms. We got a starter kit from a nice gentleman at the Manning Road farmers market. We brought them home and lovingly spritzed them with water and kept them humid and moist and indeed there has been success. As you can see above they grew quite prodigiously and provided us with enough for a large oyster omelet and quite a few left over. At his recommendation we kept the base after picking and kept it […]

Permie Porn!

2012/06/18 kai 0

It’s finally the rainy season here in Perth! We’ve been waiting for this for a while now and the first serious rains started up about a month ago. I meant to post this earlier but life has conspired to keep me busy. We were eagerly waiting the first big rains as it would be the first big test of the swales we spent so much time working on over the last few months. Our first visit up after the major storm was actually for our house warming night up on the land with the bonfire (We made up for the […]