{"id":168,"date":"2012-10-26T17:03:00","date_gmt":"2012-10-26T17:03:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/merribee.swcomputerlab.org\/index.php\/2012\/10\/26\/merri-bee-organic-farm-goes-to-the-nannup-food-bowl-festival\/"},"modified":"2012-10-26T17:03:00","modified_gmt":"2012-10-26T17:03:00","slug":"merri-bee-organic-farm-goes-to-the-nannup-food-bowl-festival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/merribeeorganicfarm.net.au\/index.php\/2012\/10\/26\/merri-bee-organic-farm-goes-to-the-nannup-food-bowl-festival\/","title":{"rendered":"Merri Bee Organic Farm goes to the Nannup Food Bowl festival"},"content":{"rendered":"

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, \u00a0Greens 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\u00a0but I can’t say the same for the alpacas who seemed to be working up spit balls fairly often.<\/p>\n

We are there this morning with divine GREENS food calendars and \u00a0a food for thought spiel :<\/div>\n
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\u00a0We at Merri Bee Organic Farm are into Permaculture. \u00a0On our very small patch (27 acres) we\u2019ve been developing Permaculture for 25 years, building soils and establishing food forests which bring rain and oxygen\u00a0 to our region and soak up carbon. \u00a0We are increasing biodiversity\u00a0 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 \u00a0abundance….. like 13 new muscovey ducks all of a sudden.<\/p>\n
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Our beautiful planet, strangely enough the only one known to be habitable out of the millions discovered out there in the universe, needs Permaculture\u2019s simple ethics now: care of people and all Earth\u2019s ecosystems, \u00a0Due to the activities of a rampant human\u00a0 population, ( a small 20% of which \u00a0use 80% of the world\u2019s resources,) in my half -century lifetime there\u2019s been \u00a0a 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 \u201ca minute to midnight\u201d. Now flood, drought, pollution and continual loss of soil threaten all lives on Earth.<\/div>\n
We join others whose mission it is to keep open pollinated seed stocks alive. We are saving and selling seed of hundreds of useful plants which may not always be readily available due to current practices such as genetic engineering and the irradiation of imported beans and grains. Seed catalogue here: http:\/\/merribeeorganicfarm.blogspot.com.au\/2012\/10\/merri-bee-organic-seeds_3190.html<\/a><\/div>\n
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\u00a0 common vegetables we grow, and GM canola will eventually contaminate seed stocks of plants like broccoli , kale\u00a0 and radish. www.madge.org.au<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0www.foodwatch.net.au<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/div>\n
We have well proven you don\u2019t need synthetic fertilizers and that food tastes indescribably better with natural fertilisers like compost and mulch. A typical fertiliser (urea) factory emits 3.5\u00a0 million tons of carbon into the air and uses 12 gigaliters of water per annum. \u00a0We have proven that with a bit of health building exercise you don\u2019t need\u00a0 fuel driven tractors, NPK granules, herbicides or pesticides and when you have the help of animals like earthworms, pigs, ducks\u00a0 and chooks doing the\u00a0 fertilizing, weeding\u00a0 and pest control for you ( and lovin\u2019 it), the environment stays clean.\u00a0 By growing you own food or buying fresh food\u00a0 from local organic farmers you reduce the 37% of Australia\u2019s GHG emissions which result from Agriculture: the growing, transport , packaging\u00a0 and\u00a0 refrigeration of food. And btw, the health of those who eat as nature intended is usually excellent.<\/div>\n
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So we are here in Nannup, \u00a0growing \u00a0and preserving hundreds of different delicious organic\u00a0 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\u00a0 Traveller, Scoop magazine to name a few. <\/p><\/div>\n

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\u00a0\u00a0Keep your eyes out for the \u00a0\u00a0Merri Bee Organic Food\u00a0 van<\/span> or tent\u00a0 at events this year such as\u00a0\u00a0 Nannup Music Festival and Balingup Small Farm Field Day. We glow with pride to hear comments such as \u201cThis food rocks\u201d and \u201cMy kids wouldn\u2019t eat eggs until they tasted yours, now they eat 2 a day\u201d. And \u201cIve just had one of your meals and it was like a religious experience\u201d. No wonder we love festivals.<\/div>\n

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<\/a> <\/div>\n
Do yourself, your family\u00a0 and Mother Earth a favour \u2026. \u00a0contact us for the best and \u00a0tastiest \u00a0fresh produce. Your support enables our work. \u00a0Good health and daily wonderment to you! <\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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, \u00a0Greens MLC. We took our alpacas and 3 little pigs down to the town. As usual I forgot my… <\/p>\n

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