Sustainability and self-reliance no matter where you are! AUST $9.95 incl GST
New Zealand $9.95 incl GST
No 277 Jun/Jul 2023
Print Post Approved 100009760
• Blockbuster Bantam • Pesto • Foil Deer & Rabbits • Organic Roses • Knit A Beanie • Heritage Breeds Farm • Winter Recipes
Lamb, Lavender, & Bushfoods
XXXXXXXXXX By xxxxxxxxx, xxxxxxxxx, xxx.
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Chin Chin Farm By Sonia Whiteman, Chintin, Vic.
This couple has found the right balance of activities and products along with the satisfaction of improving their soil and natural environment. My husband, Stuart, and I own a 160 acre property about one hour’s drive from Melbourne. On it we produce lavender, lamb, honey and bushfoods and also run workshops. We sell our lavender mainly as essential oil and dried buds, but we also make teas, hand creams, room sprays and soaps. Our lamb is sold at Woodend Market and Tallarook Farmers’ Market once a month through our lamb boxes, plus some is made into smallgoods. We flavour our honey as a way of differentiating it, so we have smoked honey, coffee honey, saltbush honey, lemon myrtle honey and, of course, a lavender honey. Our bushfoods are used in our meat rubs and teas. We have recently started to run workshops here, bringing people onto the farm and running activities with local artists, teaching people new skills. While we have lunch we tell them about what we do and why we do it, and spread the word about the motivation for regenerative farming, looking after the land and the techniques involved. This year we will open the lavender field for ‘U pick’ and we are planting a range of wildflowers for the same purpose. History
We bought our property about 10 years ago. Stuart and I both grew up in the Melbourne suburb of Templestowe at a time when you’d get home, grab your BMX and disappear until dinner time and your parents didn’t know where you were. You were busy making ramps for your BMX bike or building bridges across dams and the like. We have two boys, Max and Tom,
and in the city we were nervous about letting them outside the front gate by themselves! We started thinking about farms and ended up with one that has 24 hectares of native woodland that the boys could explore. Overall, however, the land was in very poor condition. What we saw as green was just really 100% capeweed and onion grass, but being the rookies that we were we thought that was great. It was beautiful and green and lush compared to living in the city. After the purchase, we brought the boys up and drove around the perimeter so we all knew where the boundaries were. After telling the boys to go out and explore, we found them still standing at the car. We said to them, ‘What are you doing?’ And they said, ‘Oh, are we actually allowed to do stuff?’ And we said, ‘Yes, of course, you can’t get lost so you’ll be fine.’ From that moment onwards we knew we’d made the right decision. That first summer, Stu and I were cleaning out the old shed and the boys came back from a walk and they were wet from top to toe, sloshing around with gumboots full of water. We said, ‘Where have you been?’ And you know, kids have that look on their face of ‘Holy crap, here it comes. We’re about to get into trouble,’ and they nervously said, ‘Well, we wanted to know how deep the dam was so we walked through it.’ Stu and I were like, ‘Awesome, this is why we bought this place!’ From then on we started farming with a dozen sheep and didn’t do too much with it other than try to remediate the land itself. We quickG R A S S
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ly realised the whole place was rundown so we spread some lime and a little chicken manure. About four years ago we realised how much we love it here and decided to look around for an appropriate enterprise. We soon worked out that 160 acres is not enough for a real sheep business so we investigated alternative crops. We researched options that would grow in bad soil and that don’t need much water, and I said to Stu, ‘Bingo, let’s try lavender.’ Stu has always loved lavender more than me, so we decided to plant a test plot and we also found an organically minded agronomist to assist us. We had to deal with the infestation of capeweed, and the soil was high in acidity, so we used a calcium-magnesium-phosphorus blend to modify the acidity and more chook manure to provide fertility. Lavender
Don’t let anyone tell you that lavender is easy to grow! It might be if you only have a few plants in the garden, but lavender farming is much more complex. We learnt that even though lavender can grow in poor conditions, it does much better (as most plants do) in good conditions. We started by applying the minerals and manure along with worm castings to the soil and rotary hoeing it. After a few weeks for incorporation, we planted the lavender with a product from a company called Soilcharge which stimulates root growth and soil bioactivity. Last was the application of weed mat. We found the lavender grew well, but the weed mat was not enough to control weed growth so
XXXXXXXXXX Traditional Breeds By xxxxxxxxx, xxxxxxxxx, xxx. By Judy Barnet, Glenlyon Dam, Qld.
Judy has spent a life devoted to rare and heritage farm animals. I am a Director for the Rare Breeds Trust of Australia and it is my absolute passion to teach people about the beautiful breeds of domestic livestock available. When I decided I wanted to milk cows for a living I was very lucky to learn from one of the best dairy farmers in Queensland, well, the best, actually. One thing the Bourke family taught me that I love to pass onto people is that it costs the same to keep and milk a good pedigree cow as it does any old cow, but the benefits are so much greater, you know the output. Plus if you sell cattle at a sale I guarantee you will get a much higher price for a line of a breed than a bunch of crossbreds. I combine my love of rare breeds with my Airbnb farmstay and it has really paid off. People enjoy seeing the different animals and I hope that in some small way it may influence them in their life or their children’s. In fact, a few of my guests are now members of the Rare Breeds Trust.
Tom, Lottie, Judy and Dear Richie with the big cow at Highfields Pioneer Village.
I also write a weekly column for our local paper – the Warwick & Stanthorpe Today, ‘Tales from Traprock Flats’, which also features my partner, Dear Richie. We do have a bit of a Dad and Dave farm. This is a voluntary job and
I do it so the people now living in retirement homes that came off farms have something to read about farming and maybe a laugh. Most local papers have very little farming content these days. I am a longtime member of the Highfields Pioneer Village, near Toowoomba, and for many years in the pre-covid days I took a half a dozen cows for milking, 20 sheep for shearing and display, a sow and litter plus assorted poultry to its annual Easter Vintage Festival. Those were the good old days. Judy’s background
Dreams are free and that’s how it started. Back in 1986 I was a spring chicken of around 21 years of age. I had grown up in New Zealand and moved to Papua New Guinea with my parents, where I completed schooling and found an office job as well as doing voluntary work for the RSPCA. I guess I should mention that at one stage our family G R A S S
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had 16 dogs, all considered by the RSPCA as unable to be rehomed, with various problems such as one eye, three legs, well, you get the picture. From PNG I arrived in Australia with Mum and Dad, settling on the Sunshine Coast in Qld, and I soon found an office job in Brisbane. Always being a bookworm, the one hour train trip each way didn’t worry me. Once I discovered Grass Roots the dream grew and grew, taking on a life of its own. I won’t bore you by rambling on about the 37 odd years in between, but today I consider myself incredibly lucky and grateful that I now have 160 acres on the reaches of Glenlyon Dam, four hours south-west of Brisbane in the Darling Downs and just an hour from Tenterfield, NSW. RAre breed Farm
I moved here in 2014 after 15 years of milking cows, contract rearing dairy calves, working in a piggery and continuing part-time office work in Warwick. I had a small Ayrshire Stud for quite a few years as well as Large Black pigs. Here at ‘Tilba Tilba’ at Glenlyon Dam I built up my Large Black pig stud to a dozen sows. I sold most of my dairy cows before leaving Warwick – the country out here is quite poor, they call it traprock country, and it’s certainly not suited
to dairy cows, but I also had some beautiful old type of Shorthorn cows. As well, I had a flock of Dorset Down sheep purchased from one of the oldest studs in Australia by accident at the Warwick sheep sale, which was one of my main reasons for buying a bigger property. I also had a few Southdowns of the original type; it is a breed I have always loved. And poultry – I had bred and shown different breeds of poultry since the early 1990s. It sounds like living the dream – I guess I was, with a lot of hard work, but it all came crashing down when my partner of 17 years became very ill with bipolar disorder. He ended up in hospital for four months, leaving me sole owner of a new farm with a big mortgage in an area where I knew no one. I had an admin job in a lime mine 45 minutes from home so this enabled me to keep going – just. I didn’t know the country, and there were challenges with the sheep. Living on the land is not all beer and skittles; the hard times are what make you grow and learn. Anyway, learn I did and I was once again incredibly lucky to meet a new soulmate, Dear Richie. Together we plodded along, building up the sheep flock, leasing a bit of land for the Shorthorn cattle and breeding beautiful Large Black pigs. Then the drought came and
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that rocked me to the core. My commitment to the animals meant there was never a skinny animal on our property, if I couldn’t feed them they would have to be sold. The pigs were sold to a fantastic guy in Victoria who continues on with them today, and who also donated to me a full semi load of beautiful hay for which I am forever grateful. The cows, except a couple of weaners, were sold to friends, and the sheep culled down to a nucleus flock. After the drought came the floods which filled Glenlyon Dam. It was a amazing sight. As an irrigation dam for the cotton farmers downstream, a lot of the time it was just like a river at our place. We are at the head of the dam so the water just kept flowing through. We built the numbers back up bit by bit and then covid arrived. It brought a few little hardships, being on the border and not being able to get to work, but every cloud has a silver lining and just a week before covid we had taken on two young English WWOOFers, Tom and Lottie. The usual stay is three weeks but instead they stayed 10 months. During that time my contract at work came to an end and I didn’t know where I would get work as we are quite remote, being an hour from the small town of Stanthorpe.
obtained from monthly seaweed treatment, increasing to fortnightly when bushes are flowering heavily. The value of seaweed is that it stimulates plant growth and flowering, reduces stress and enhances root development. Roses also benefit from mulching. Lucerne, pea straw or even a good pine bark will keep the root area cool in summer, reduce water loss and help deter weed growth. A bare area of around 10cm should be left around the trunk. Eco Management
The Sargeants decided early on that an organic approach would be better for their health and would provide the standard of product that they wanted to be associated with. Aside from bringing in quality organic soil, they needed products that were reliable and worked well and could be used by anyone, not just commercial operators. That they were introduced to the Organic Crop Protectants (OCP) Eco range proved a blessing. The time saved treating pests, diseases and weeds has been able to be used more constructively on areas like breeding or developing new roses. The Eco range includes an oil to control sap sucking insects, neem to manage sucking and chewing insects, a fungicide for well-known
fungi like black spot, rust and powdery mildew, and a product called Eco-shield for snail, slug and slater control. Other products include seaweed; a liquid fertiliser made from recycled marine growth called Ecoaminogro for better growth for all plants as well as roses; a soil wetter and moisture attractant called Ecohydrate, and Slasher, a weed control spray based on plant oils that’s fast acting and non residual. The OCP Eco Organic Garden range is available from garden centres, hardware stores, online or from Silkies Rose Farm. Favourite Treatment
An ongoing maintenance program is carried out regularly with the roses and involves application of a simple, safe and economical spray. In a large bucket place 1 /4 cup Eco-fungicide, 1 heaped teaspoon Eco-seaweed powder and then add 1/4 cup Eco-oil while filling with water. Mix well together and spray leaves to run-off stage. Apply monthly or more often if pests or disease occurs or during critical periods. Seaweed Boost
For a growth boost, dissolve 1 heaped teaspoon Eco-seaweed in water in a 9lt watering can. Apply G R A S S
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to foliage or soil. Combine Ecoseaweed with Eco-aminogro in water for a powerful rapidly absorbed liquid fertiliser when needed. Bare-rooted Roses
Winter is the time to order bare-rooted roses; jump online and be inspired by the comprehensive range carried by Silkies Rose Farm. You need to get your sites chosen and prepared ahead, the hole for planting being wide, rough edged and deep enough that the bud union will sit just above ground level. Don’t be tempted to add fertiliser or animal manure to the hole, they’re appropriate later on, instead well rotted compost is recommended. With the hole dug, you need to consider staking because it’s best done at planting. The Sargeants believe staking of standard roses is necessary to ensure longevity. Bamboo stakes are inadequate; steel stakes are Graham and Diana’s choice. They recommend 1.80m long steel stakes for mature plant support, especially in windy areas. Once bare-rooted roses are collected or arrive, the damp packaging and plastic should be removed and the sticks and roots placed in a seaweed solution for up to 24 hours prior to planting. When ready to plant, shape fri-
able soil in base of hole in a mound and fan the roots out over this. Backfill, tamp soil around stem and give two buckets of water then apply seaweed solution. Don’t let roots dry out, but equally don’t over water. Fertilise once foliage appears. Enquiries Welcome
If you’re a keen grower you might like to access the Sargeants’ monthly blog, it features specific roses, helpful hints and Graham’s ‘Dad’ jokes. Go to https://rosesalesonline.com.au/rose-rambler/. Details can also be found on the range of bare rooted and potted roses for sale and on OCP Eco products. Enquiries are welcome via email: info@rosesalesonline. com.au or ph: 0418-337-765. A visit is an awesome experience, Fri to Mon, 9–4pm or by appointment. Silkies Rose Farm, 550 McDonald’s Rd, Clonbinane, 3659 (just off the Hume Highway). T
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XXXXXXXXXX Lilly Pillies ByByxxxxxxxxx, xxxxxxxxx,Qld. xxx. Jan Scott, Ormiston,
Use berries from this native tree in cooking or enjoy them raw.
I have a love-hate relationship with the Australian native plant, the lilly pilly. When we bought our house 11 years ago its small back garden was bordered on three sides by mature lilly pillies. Pretty evergreen foliage, yes, and they were shady trees which attracted many beautiful birds. But I wanted space for herbs and vegetables so my mission became to grub out as many lilly pillies as I could. Twelve trees were aggressively attacked and I kept
some branches and trunks for stakes and edgings. But now for the love. My remaining six lilly pillies produce edible berries which I’ve come to appreciate, as do the birds! THE BENEFITS
The orangey-red small berries appear in summer after clusters of pretty fluffy white flowers have studded the trees. Aboriginal people refer to the berries as ‘medicine berries’ and think they help to prevent colds and infections. Scientists agree the berries are very high in vitamin C. A few years ago, I began to use the prolific berries (not just rake them up for the compost). They have a tart but spicy flavour and I now use them in multiple ways. Lots of my berries are seedless, but any seeds are easily pushed out from the berries. I add the washed berries to our muesli, I cook them in cakes and loaves and muffins, I add them to salad dressings, I make jam and chutney with them, I combine them with bananas for a delicious fruit loaf. I haven’t tried making lilly pilly gin yet … G R A S S
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HOW TO GROW THEM
Here in the subtropics lilly pillies love our climate. I have to prune my trees because of space, but that new red-brown foliage is so pretty. There are over 60 varieties of lilly pillies so it’s worth finding a size and variety that suits your garden. The Acmena type have more upright foliage and smaller leaves while the Syzygium is sometimes troubled by psyllids, a native pest that causes pimply foliage. Not all will produce berries, so make sure yours do if that matters to you. All lilly pillies love well-drained soil, but don’t seem to need much additional watering, fertilising or mulching. Mine certainly don’t get special treatment. TO HARVEST THE BERRIES
Because my trees are so mature and tall, I wait till the ripe berries fall on my pavers and into the mulch. Bending and stooping for them is only a small problem, and it means there are still scores of berries left for our beneficial wildlife. Now perhaps you might understand my love-hate relationship with lilly pillies. T
aUthors: Are you Aware of Copyright?
At GR, we occasionally recieve submissions that unintentionally breach copyright laws. Copyright laws make it illegal to copy or disseminate any form of original work. This includes articles and photos from newspapers and books, including recipe books. It is not sufficient to quote the source, the written permission of the author or publisher must be gained before we can republish it. Copyright law also covers information that is readily available on the internet, such as facts, botanical details, recipes, patterns and digital photographs. Where such information is used for inspiration or as part of research, it must be reinterpreted and reworded to create an entirely new and original work. Infringement penalties can be quite high, so if submitting work to a magazine like GR, please ensure it is your original work, or that you have the copyright owner’s written permission to republish. Thank you!
Revamped Table By Janet Hall-Frith, Kyogle, NSW.
This well-made picnic table may have been an heirloom, but came up a treat after Janet restored it. My husband Michael received a bequest from his late Aunt Olive in the shape of a timber slatted table with metal legs and three similar chairs, all painted in mission brown. They have sat in our gazebo for a few years and we used them for morning teas, lunches and so on. I enquired the age of the set from Michael’s mother Bernice as they originally belonged to her parents. Aunt Olive was Bernice’s sister. It turns out that they are approximately 40 to 50 years old. How amazing. They are such solid and well-made pieces of timber furniture and after this restoration project should last quite a few more years and maybe be handed down to the next generation sometime in the future. I removed the old screws and laid the slats on a table in the order I removed them from the legs and sanded them with my lovely little electric sander which saves a lot of effort compared with using sandpaper. Then I chose the paint I wanted to use and wouldn’t you know it I had quite a lot left over from a previous project which I didn’t want to waste and it was a lovely bright orange. That would do nicely. I gave the slats three coats before I was completely happy with the finish, allowing it to dry thoroughly between coats. Next step was to sand back the metal legs which was a little more tricky than the timber slats, so I used my little sander but had to finish off with sandpaper around the hard-to-reach places, which took much more time, but I wanted this to be a good job so I persevered. I then chose to use black gloss spray paint; again, I had some left
Janet is as proud as punch with her finished table.
The table before restoration was an uninspiring brown colour.
over from a previous project. I gave the legs two coats of the spray paint. I bought some new screws in the same design as the old ones and my hubby very gladly lent me a hand to get it all back together and get the screws and nuts inserted and tightened. Finally the finished article. I am very pleased with the outcome; you could say I am as pleased as punch. It’s cheery and still sturdy and ready for a cuppa or two to be had and has been saved from going to landfill. The only thing now is I have three of the chairs to restore; I can see that I am going to be busy in the near future! T
The slats were all removed.
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Sanding of slats.
Ready for painting.
Three coats were applied.
Metal legs before restoration.
Sanding has begun.
Painting of legs completed.
Side view.
The finished table.
Ready for use; a job well done.
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Beaut Beanie By Nerida Thomas, Walcha, NSW.
Thank you for the wonderful magazine I have been reading for over 30 years. The beanie pattern I would like to share is very easy to knit and comfortable to wear. I make these in the local football colours and gay pride colours and other colours and sell them in a local shop. I knit all year round to keep up with demand. We live in cold climate country. Beanie Pattern
You need 4mm needles and 150g 8 ply wool. Leave 35cm tail on wool. Cast on 136 stitches. Row 1: K2, P2, K2, P2 to end.
Row 2: K2, P2, K2, P2 to end. Repeat these rows for 20cm. Row 3: K10, K2tog, K10, K2tog to end. Every alternate row purl. Row 4: K9, K2tog, K9, K2tog to end. Row 5: K8, K2tog, K8, K2tog to end. Continue decreasing in this manner until you do K1, K2tog, K1, K2tog. Next Row: P. Next Row: K2tog right across. Extra Row: P. Cut wool leaving 35cm tail and thread it through the remaining G R A S S
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stitches. Use bottom tail to sew the bottom half of the beanie and tip tail to sew the top half. Variations
The pictured beanie is sized for women. If you want a turn up on it do K2, P2, K2 for an extra 5cm. For larger sizes add 8 stitches for each 2.5cm. Once you knit one you can work out whatever size you want. You can knit these in one colour or a couple of stripes or use your leftover wool from other projects as in this example. The stripy ones are popular with ladies, and in darker colours for men. T
Easy Knitting By Gwen Deem, Murwullimbah, NSW.
Anyone can make these simple knits and they are ideal for using up yarn left from other projects. My husband and friends call me a knitaholic and that’s fine with me as I do love to knit. I sell my knitting and all the money goes to the Fred Hollows Foundation, which helps treat and prevent blindness. My mum taught me to knit when I was only four years old. Mum was a really good knitter, but never learnt to follow knitting patterns. Consequently the little jumpers she made for her many grandchildren would not fit over their heads. So the task to unpick the necks and make them bigger fell to me once I could read the pattern. There are some items that don’t need a detailed pattern and can be easily finished in a short time. And they look good. This scarf is a good seller and very simple to knit as it’s all in garter stitch (the easiest) and there are no increases or decreases. Ideal for a beginner. It measures 13cm wide by 30cm long.
Materials
You need the long needles in size 5.5mm or 6mm, and 8-ply yarn. Tension is not important as long as you use the right needles and yarn. I knit this scarf in different yarns, but I find buyers prefer a natural yarn like wool or alpaca rather than acrylic. Acrylic is the cheapest yarn and can be washed in the washing machine whereas the more expensive natural yarns must be handwashed. However acrylic releases plastic microfibres when being washed. SCARF Pattern
In garter stitch cast on 185 stitches. Then the whole scarf is knitted in garter stitch. The scarf takes 22 rows before casting off. A useful tip is to check as you finish each row to make sure the end stitch is taut and not loose. This gives neat edges. I usually fringe each end but it’s not essential. G R A S S
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To make the fringe, use 4 strands of yarn in 28cm lengths. This scarf is a great way to use up lengths of leftover yarn because it makes interesting horizontal stripes. Beanie Pattern
For a matching beanie, cast on 85 stitches and rib in 1 plain, 1 pearl for 8 rows. Then garter stitch for 18cm or length required. To start shaping, follow each decrease row with a row of garter stitch. The first decrease row: knit 10, knit 2 together, and repeat that to the end of the row. Then decrease in alternate rows with one stitch less at each decrease. When there are 12 stitches on the needle leave a long length of yarn then cut it off and thread it through the stitches. Pull the yarn firmly and make a few stitches to secure it, and sew the seam. T