Harvest season . Some wonderful early rain in a few big doses but long warm spells in between has the farm looking lovely. We are all dealing with so much these days, hope you enjoy these scenes from the Farmacy . May is the month that Fuerte avos can be picked, and hooray for them.
In GAPS protocol we say sunbathing is not optional, and the weather has been great for that. If you eat enough saturated fat, you will never burn. The fat just under your skin turns sunlight into vitamin D, so important to every process in the body that it is now called a hormone. People who burn easily really need to do GAPS. Why? They have a lot of toxicity coming out through their skin. same goes for those with rashes and acne. Rebalancing the gut flora , eating fermented food and meat stock daily, and avoiding environmental poisons ( such as conventional food, sunscreen, shampoo and detergents) can eventually result in tanning (not burning), but meanwhile, gradually building up the time spent in the sun is vital.
We’ve been taking quinces, Golden Del apples, limes, pomegranates , feijoas and the beginnings of the lemonade lemons to the markets. Very grateful to our farmers market customers and some wonderful new local customers alike, as without you we would have no cash coming in.
The 2 do list is as long as ever, and the days are short. The cows are confined to the yards and we are carrying everything they eat to them, which is a big chore. This is to allow the grass to get big in the paddocks. Obviously if we tax it too soon it will not grow deep roots, nor will the tops get big. Its like you with a parsley or basil plant, if you have a tiny seedling and start picking its tiny leaves off it every day it will never get big. If you refrain and wait till the plant gets big, you can pick handfuls off it every day and it will not mind at all. Anyway, sick of cutting and carrying branches and hay ( yes it is the time of year to prune deciduous trees and throw them in to the cows) we released the bovines into one inter swale paddock which looked quite advanced….. but they mowed it to billiard table in a day. This was semi intentional, as the plan is to seed that paddock with perennial grasses as soon as Stew is finished seeding at the Witchcliffe Eco Village.
Pomegranates are growing on me. So glad to make the discovery that you can squeeze out the juice in the citrus press.
We collected carob pods for people and the cows, have a few trees to visit yet. Cows just love carob, it helps their rumen microbes digest hay just as molasses does. Stewart is having to shoo parrots away from the pecans every morning , I hope we end up with some.
Pixie and Trixie the calves are growing well. They spend the night in the calf shed together
I’m planting seeds of everything everywhere, it is a bit late but it has been warm and very dry till now. The bees are fairly buzzing around the Desert Ash, spotted gum and carob trees….yum, honey coming up! The Monarch butterflies are mesmerizing to watch as they dance and land on zinnias and the and vanilla scented purple flowers of the geisher girl shrub.
Just near Geisher girl is the white sapote tree and I am reminded of one of Bill Mollison’s quip: “We could be in grave danger of falling fruit. “
White sapote is not something you will ever see in the super market coz it does not travel well, it is hard and green up till the day it turns yellow and mushy, plus they have a few spikey pips inside . As you can see it has abundant fruit ( as in half a ton per tree) and grows 20 meters tall. White sapote, after peeling away the thin skin, tastes like sweet mashed banana, so yummy with creamy yogurt ( thanks Belinda) I hope the pigs will get a taste for them. Pigs don’t seem to like sweet fruit. However Matilda does! Looks like we will be freezing lots, a messy undertaking, but worth it.
The tagasaste tree that has fertilized and shaded the huglekulture mounds for 2 years has just checked out after a short but useful life, and just in time the pear trees planted between the mounds are going to take over the role by next summer. They have powered along .
It’s pleasing to see our swale paddocks responding to the re gen practices, greener than the river flats far below.
Fabby grass thanks to the chooks in the slider Spotted gum feeding butterflies and bees
Some agent unknown has busily dug around all the trees, I suspect piglets. A big re mulching and re planting that will resist piglet snouts is a priority now. What could resist piglet snouts you ask? I’m thinking the unstoppable golden rod, lab lab bean, pig face and banner grass could do the trick. It would be ever so nice if alfalfa would survive, but it rarely makes it through infancy.
If you would like to learn about soil creation and permaculture from us by helping out on the farm, please get in contact.
Hi Bee
Great looking website – and really enjoyed the Dairy Friend or Foe article. Thanks for sharing such a well thought through amount of info. Hope to see you – eventually – when I get down to Nannup. I am currently doing the Holistic Management course through Muresk with trainer Brian Welhburg. Loving it… but wishing I was doing more practise to back up the fascinating theories….got the hat, got the book – need the herd and the paddocks…..Amanda xx
Hi Amanda, and thanks indeed. Ah yes Brian Welhburg, ggod man, I did a refresher with him. Well Amanda we have the herd and paddocks and need a manager so I look forward to your visit my dear.
Bee this is fab fab fab!
What a gorgeous update!
White sapote a big favourite of mine from Nugents place. This time last year we were gobbling during lockdown1.0
Maybe I could purchase 3kg of the perennial grass mix at the MR markets?
Xxx grace in witchy
Hi ya Grace, thank you. Frozen sapote could stand in for ice cream too! Will have 3 kgs of pasture mix for you tomorrow at the markets.