experiments – Gallifrey Forest Farm

Pedro Ximénez Grapevines 2022-09-30

2022/10/10 Danielle 0

[2022-08-27] Today I learned how to callus grapevine cuttings, from a very helpful and friendly gentleman at Harris Organic Wines in the Swan Valley. The same helpful and friendly gentleman who very kindly gave me some cuttings from his Pedro Ximenez vines, and talked to me about his vinyard and wine-making process (including, for example, that they make their own organic brandy there, to use in the fortified wines they produce). Previously, I’ve simply dipped the end of a grapevine cutting into rooting hormone powder and stuck it in a pot, and I’ve had about an 80% strike rate doing […]

Farm Club

2018/05/06 Danielle 0

The first rule of farm club is.. please do in fact talk about farm club. Tell anyone you know who might be interested. Encourage other people to start their own versions – maybe we can make it into a movement. Farm club is a combination of a (hopefully) practical co-op for food sharing and an attempt at a real-world version of a gifting/barter economy. The idea is that members offer “shares” in whatever they produce, along with what they need back to keep producing the thing, and other members sign up for those shares. So in our case, we produce […]

summer

2016/12/14 Danielle 2

No matter how much I like the longer days (getting home when it’s still light!) and warmer weather, I also dread summer a little. While the long, hot, dry days and the coastal breezes may be perfect for a holiday or a day at the beach, they’re not so good for growing anything. The dry summer season is as harsh in its own way as the cold winter of the temperate areas of the northern hemisphere. The theory is that our forest orchard will be reasonably self-sufficient once established, requiring minimal irrigation or care. That theory has a downside though […]

Drinking yoghurt and cultured milk products

2016/09/09 Danielle 0

A few years ago (quite a few, actually) I went travelling through Europe. Some of the trip I did with a dear friend of mine, some I did on my own. One of the things I discovered was drinking yoghurt. Now, drinking yoghurt (i.e. yoghurt which is thicker than milk, but thin enough to drink like a smoothie) used ot be not uncommon in South Africa when I was little, but it’s almost unheard of in Australia to the best of my knowledge. I remembered liking it as a child, so I tried some in the Netherlands, and in […]

June 22: wattleseed pancakes

2016/06/22 Danielle 0

Of the many species of wattle native to Australia, several produce seeds which are suitable for use as human food. Edible wattleseed has rich nutty, chocolate and roasted coffee flavours, and is well suited to both sweet and savoury uses. Australian aboriginal peoples ground dried wattle seeds to form a flour, which was then baked into damper (traditional campfire bread). The green seeds of some wattle species were also eaten, cooked and consumed as a green vegetable like peas or fresh beans. Wattle seeds have also been used as food in some areas in West Africa, where the wattle […]