Friday 25th of October was a good day for many students from South West schools when they visited the Nannup Food Bowl, and Merri Bee Organic farm was there, albeit on the fringe, with Giz Watson, Greens MLC. We took our alpacas and 3 little pigs down to the town. As usual I forgot my camera. The pigs seemed to enjoy the social occasion but I can’t say the same for the alpacas who seemed to be working up spit balls fairly often.
We are there this morning with divine GREENS food calendars and a food for thought spiel :
We at Merri Bee Organic Farm are into Permaculture. On our very small patch (27 acres) we’ve been developing Permaculture for 25 years, building soils and establishing food forests which bring rain and oxygen to our region and soak up carbon. We are increasing biodiversity on our land by simply letting it be, and by importing the best food and fibre plants from all over the globe. With every passing year we introduce many new plants and see and hear new insects, birds and animals. Like a deepening soil, the better it gets, the better it gets, and more complexity means greater resilience , true wealth and abundance….. like 13 new muscovey ducks all of a sudden.
Our beautiful planet, strangely enough the only one known to be habitable out of the millions discovered out there in the universe, needs Permaculture’s simple ethics now: care of people and all Earth’s ecosystems, Due to the activities of a rampant human population, ( a small 20% of which use 80% of the world’s resources,) in my half -century lifetime there’s been a huge loss in vegetation and biodiversity coupled with an unprecedented fossil energy use. This has lead to excessive atmospheric carbon and to climate change just as predicted in my teenage years when it was “a minute to midnight”. Now flood, drought, pollution and continual loss of soil threaten all lives on Earth.
We have campaigned long and hard to maintain the moratorium on GM crops in WA, as for one thing canola is a brassica related to dozens of common vegetables we grow, and GM canola will eventually contaminate seed stocks of plants like broccoli , kale and radish.
www.madge.org.au and
www.foodwatch.net.auWe have well proven you don’t need synthetic fertilizers and that food tastes indescribably better with natural fertilisers like compost and mulch. A typical fertiliser (urea) factory emits 3.5 million tons of carbon into the air and uses 12 gigaliters of water per annum. We have proven that with a bit of health building exercise you don’t need fuel driven tractors, NPK granules, herbicides or pesticides and when you have the help of animals like earthworms, pigs, ducks and chooks doing the fertilizing, weeding and pest control for you ( and lovin’ it), the environment stays clean. By growing you own food or buying fresh food from local organic farmers you reduce the 37% of Australia’s GHG emissions which result from Agriculture: the growing, transport , packaging and refrigeration of food. And btw, the health of those who eat as nature intended is usually excellent.
So we are here in Nannup, growing and preserving hundreds of different delicious organic fruits, veg, nuts and herbs. We produce quality eggs, pork, lamb and beef dairy and freshly ground whole meal sourdough breads. We do regular deliveries to the southwest towns of Nannup Busselton, Bunbury and Perth, and have been mentioned favourably in many a publication: Spice magazine, 2009 edition of The Food Lovers Guide to Perth, Vogue Gourmet Traveller, Scoop magazine to name a few.
Keep your eyes out for the Merri Bee Organic Food van or tent at events this year such as Nannup Music Festival and Balingup Small Farm Field Day. We glow with pride to hear comments such as “This food rocks” and “My kids wouldn’t eat eggs until they tasted yours, now they eat 2 a day”. And “Ive just had one of your meals and it was like a religious experience”. No wonder we love festivals.
I thank the Universe for the forests that surround Nannup, our beautiful country, for my wonderful partner Stewart and son Lee, and the help of some terrific young ones who come to our corner to learn about Permaculture and help us on the big task of revegetating the world and truly nourishing people. If you would like to join us on an internship please email me here
beewinfield@westnet.com.au Do yourself, your family and Mother Earth a favour …. contact us for the best and tastiest fresh produce. Your support enables our work. Good health and daily wonderment to you!
