April 2015 – Gallifrey Forest Farm

plant profile: moringa, horseradish tree

2015/04/23 Danielle 0

Moringa (Moringa oleifera), also known as drumstick tree or horseradish tree, is a pretty, graceful tree which produces edible seed pods (eat them when they’re green and tender, after cooking like snow peas) and edible leaves and flowers (eat raw or cooked as a green vegetable). There’s a tree growing over the fence of a back yard near my old house in North Perth, and I can confirm that both the flowers and leaves are very good raw, with a slightly nutty, broccoli flavour and a hint of mustard-like spiciness. They’re also very moreish. I’ve tried them in a quiche, […]

House Update – April 2015

2015/04/19 Danielle 0

It looks like, just maybe, we have a green light finally. I’m not sure if I’m even excited after all this time or just relieved that the bank got off its rear end and dealt with the mistakes they made when signing us up for this mortgage refinance shenanigans in December. The first progress payment has been released to the builder, so building can start now. We’re waiting to hear when the building will actually start, which will depend on what else in in the queue at the builder. So we don’t have a delivery date yet, but.. it’s closer […]

Blazing Swan 2015

2015/04/19 Danielle 0

A couple’ve weeks ago now (time flies! I meant to write this post just after we got back) we just spent the long weekend at the Blazing Swan festival, dancing and exploring and engaging with some quite amazing artworks and people. Blazing Swan is an offshoot of the famous Burning Man festival in the US, running in rural Western Australia. This is the second year it’s run, and I think it’s doing really well. I thought twice about writing about this, because on the face of it a music & art festival has nothing to do with sustainability or permaculture […]

Lessons Learned: Bunnies

2015/04/09 Danielle 0

This has been a long process so far, and we’ve learned a lot – mostly by doing it wrong and having to deal with the mistakes. The rabbits, for example, haven’t been nearly as successful as I’d hoped. We brought Tsuki the British Giant home almost 2 years ago. She was a bright, inquisitive bunny, about 4 months old, a soft tawny colour with good bone structure, good teeth (no hereditary issues visible) and she was already a big rabbit. The idea was that we’d get a boy bunny, and Tsuki would be the mother of a line of meat […]