Farmhouse blog
Summer
Summer will we ever be able to love you again? Or have you become a time of great loss and fire? To all those affected I am sorry. I am sorry for all of us for the situation we are in is complex enough to be difficult to grasp. I am sorry too because there are many...
Seasonal rhythms
It is spring and Madeline is here from Canada. And working with her is a dream. Her pace is calm and focused. Together we are working through various projects on our 15 acres of volcanic soil. In the morning we visit the hens. We place clean water in their heavy cast...
Permaculture, wetland, straw building
We are offering a tour of our burgeoning permaculture farm followed by afternoon herbal teas and home made treats on Sunday 15th December 2pm -4pm. Please go to our Workshop tab to book a ticket. We are on 15 acres in Blampied between Daylesford and Ballarat. We began...
How to care for chickens & how to choose them
Ancona We have chickens after a four-year break. First, we needed to build our home, the farm stay, the piazza shed. We needed to plant thousands of trees, and grasses, and fruit orchards and berries and chestnuts and oaks, and hazelnuts and our kitchen garden. There...
Naturally Leavened Bread Baking Class, Sunday 15th September
Naturally leavened bread baking class. Time: 9am -5pm Date: Sunday 15th September Cost: $95 ORTO Straw Eco Farm, Blampied (just outside of Daylesford). Overview Learn to make your own delicious sourdough bread loaf to take home. We will also make flat bread to have...
Natural Dyeing Workshop at Orto Farm, Sunday First of September
My dear friend Ilka White is an extremely talented handloom weaver and dyer of natural fibres. In the 1990’s I loved visiting her in a studio she shared with Nicola Cerini. I would ride my bike through the bustling city of Melbourne, grab a nori roll from Flinders...
Naturally leavened bread baking class for you
Naturally Leavened Bread Baking for Beginners Class I really love baking bread and I really love teaching. Come and join me at my home in Blampied. 9:45am-5pm Sunday August 4th. Cost: $95pp. Max 6. All tools and ingredients provided. Each participant will take home a...
Identity, village life and how to make lemon and lime marmalade
I have hosted dozens of young travellers here at my farm over the past three years. With each I have been privileged to witness the identity search that comes with this age. The question that often arises from my young visitors is 'who am I, who do I want to be and...
Apply Images to Plywood workshop with Nicola Cerini
Come oh come! I will be hosting my first workshop here at our eco property in Blampied with my dear friend Nicola Cerini. Apply Images to Plywood Saturday the 8th June from 1-4pm, $95 pp. We will begin with a tour of our property: kitchen garden propagation,...
Preserving
I have had a great summer. I must thank all my volunteer fairies for without them I would not be able to do all that I do. No way. There are so many tasks that take hours and hours to complete, such as harvesting herbs, stripping their leaves and placing them in...
Summer Harvest
I really try and make the most of summer...it is the most productive time of the year on our property. A time to restock the larder and discover new foraging opportunities. During summer I think about water a lot. Every time I harvest, every time I water my trees, I...
Human induced
More and more people from all sides of politics are feeling anxious about the really serious science of Human Induced Climate Change. And more and more people are taking action. Could 2019 be the year when we see large scale state of emergency changes being made? The...
Kitchen…garden
In November after the November frost I planted about 70 tomatoe plants in Orto two...Ralf had said 'wait another week after cup day because there is a frost coming'...'great and thank you'...so I waited. The tomato seeds I had sown in mid to late August were now very...
Cheese
At the Daylesford Sunday market I met Nardia, the cheese maker. It's the first time I have met a local cheese maker. A small scale, hands on artisan cheese maker who supports her family by making cheese. Had I been travelling through France, Italy, Spain or the Middle...
Winter Cycle
I'm letting all the summer tomato plants rot in the garden. Why take them out? I want all the organic matter to remain, to decompose so that I can dig it into the spring soil. In spring lots of tomato plants will self germinate and I will transplant them into Orto...
My wealth
The most important photo in this post is that of my friend Sam. I met her in year ten when we bonded over Bronte novels. She has been my friend for 29 years and her friendship has been a constant, steady stream of support, love and wisdom. I have often said to her 'we...
Soap – Season Two
I made soap again, this time with Maria. Maria from Veneto Italy. Maria who makes excellent gnocchi and really simple, delicious pasta dishes. Maria the fantastic pizzica/bio-dancer. Maria who corrected my Italian when I made mistakes. Maria who got a bit impatient...
Salt, garlic, strawberry trees, pizzica
All the garlic, minus a few heads have been planted. I hope to double my harvest this year. Ralf moved some of the rich top soil mounds and spread them to create a second kitchen garden. At first I kept thinking, how am I going to manage so much space...how will I...
Tomatoes and Gnocchi
I have had a really lucky month. I planted dozens and dozens of tomato plants in spring. My plan had been to grow enough tomatoes to make a year's worth of passata. But I had grown far more than a year's worth and after reaching my goal of 100 bottles of passata and...
Passive Solar & Summer Harvest
There is so much work being done. My motivation levels continue to be high. My energy levels rise and then fall. This is a brilliant time of the year, summer is so bountiful I want to make the most of it. I take enormous pleasure from using ingredients growing free...
Panettone & thank you
Thank you For sharing this year with me. It has been an experientially rich year. There have been many aspects that I have loved and am deeply grateful for. And I want to list some of those here. I am grateful to all the people that bring together community and that...