A slapdash harvest

Purple king beans and butter lettuce, March 2014

 Now that Autumn is over, and not much is coming out of the patches, I'm remembering the late Summer-Autumn bounty.

  Very chuffed to have picked our first avocados (Reed).

 We picked our first avocados off the trees on the swale in November last year. Unfortunately, since then, the parrots appear to have discovered them. Small, unripe ones have fallen to the ground with peck marks on them (sigh).

Carrots and garlic, Feb 2014.

A good crop of garlic and carrots. I dried and braided the garlic again. We're eating it in sourdough garlic naan, a new favourite with kefir yoghurt.

 Sourdough garlic naan. Good with kefir yoghurt, and tandoori chicken (made with kefir yoghurt, of course!).

 The awesome Sharon Namubiru teaching worm farming in Uganda, Feb 2014.

Sharon Namubiru, who I met in 2009 in Uganda on a permaculture course, has been teaching permaculture again, this time in Tanzania. She sent me some photos. Here is she is inducting people into the amazing power of worms. Go Shazmaz!

Sharon works the crowd.

April harvest

The squash went ballistic this year - might plant a few less next year as I was struggling to use them all. The rats monstered the sweet corn, but we still managed a few tasty cobs.

 Squash madness.

Pulled up the last of the tomatos in late April and set about making passata out of them, using the trusty mouli to separate seeds and skin after cooking.

Despite my slapdash bean teepees, the purple king beans put on their usual stellar performance

Spaghetti squash in foreground, purple king beans in background, cucumbers next to purple kings.

From the one almond tree we got around to netting, came a decent crop of almonds.

 Chestnuts. Removing the VERY PRICKLY hull was a pain in the patooty.

Have attended some great workshops lately, including: 
- a carbon-farming session attended by CSIRO's leading soil scientist, Jeff Baldock. What a fantastic science communicator.
- a farm tour showcasing conservation work done by a local dairy farmer on his property, over a 15 year period. The before and after shots were so inspiring.

Revegetated dam on dairy property in Gippsland, April 2014. Among the benefits of extensive revegetation around the property: reduced erosion, increased habitat for native animals, improved soil health, improved water quality.

"Let us permit nature to have her way, she understands her business better than we do." (Michel de Montaigne, 1533-1592)