Beechworth Urban Landcare and Sustainability

Fay and Charlie Robinson present the third workshop in the ‘Grow Your Own Food’ series which covers food production over the Summer months. Topics will include:

• Suitable vegetables to grow for our region;
• Succession planting;
• Organic pest control;
• Making a solar dehydrator;
• Mulching;
• Water conservation;
• Saving and using vegetable seeds.

A limited amount of free vegetable seeds will be available for participants. Contact Charlie via megamouth [AT] activ8.net.au for full details and directions.

The humble backyard vegie patch is back in vogue in the suburbs of Australia. But can growing spuds and greens in the cities really avert a coming food crisis?

Can our cities ever be self-sustaining? – Features – ABC Environment Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

Great video on building a compost heap

ABC OPEN – Projects – Whadyaknow – Contributions – Composing Compost.

by Charlie Robinson

I am living proof that good luck will always compensate for stupidity and ineptitude.  In my last article I bewailed my inability to produce even one drop of apple juice, despite a considerable investment in time, money, and expletives.  Good luck came in the guise of my inventive brother-in-law who just happened to have a pork mincer, with attached electric motor, lying around the shed (as you do).  Now, this pork mincer performs the task of apple scratting to perfection.  It looks like an over-sized meat mincer and seems custom made for the task at hand.

The quartered apples are simply shoved into the top chute and a knurled shaft forces the pieces through a sieve into the bucket at just the right consistency for pressing.  The scratted apples are then placed into the press and compressed by hardwood blocks and the juice escapes through slats into the base which then flows into another bucket.  A washing basket full of apples takes about an hour to scrat and press.  This is enough to produce 25 litres of juice which I leave for a couple of days, skim off the floating residue, and pour into a fermenting vessel.  After adding yeast and a kg of sugar, a lid with airlock is screwed on and the action commences.  Before long you can see the gas bubbling through the airlock and you know that fermentation is happening.

Once the bubbling has ceased, between 7 – 10 days, you can then bottle the fermented juice.  At this stage the liquid smells and tastes a bit rough but I’m assured that the taste will improve in the bottle over the next 3 – 6 months.  I will be calling on “guinea pigs” around September to verify this. Initial reaction from a few friends has been favourable and it’s certainly a huge improvement on the apple scrumpy I purchased at a fair in Oxfordshire a few years ago.

Not everything we’ve done on our property has flirted with disaster.  Our initial decision to plant a Lleylandii cypress hedge around the perimeter of our property was a good one.  We had achieved great results with these trees on our previous property in Bungendore and were keen to repeat the success.

Lleylandii cypress receives lots of bad press but I believe this is not the tree’s fault but the people who plant them.  Nurseries market them as hedging plants when they are actually massive trees when grown to maturity – the trick is to keep them under control early and they are quite compliant to the secateurs.

I’ve limited the height of the hedge to 3 metres and the width to 2 metres.  Although the hedge is still young, this year many of the trees reached their intended height so I simply snipped them off at 3 metres.  This cut will still be visible next year when I trim them back again.

Our decision not to plant a native hedge was an easy one.  There are several varieties of acacia that will do a similar job, and grow more quickly, but they have a limited life span.  The last thing I want to do when I’m seventy is to replace all 240 trees in the hedge.  Callitris are more long-lived but don’t provide the vegetative density I was looking for. There is a long row of dead Lleylandii near the White Spot (Everton) turnoff on the Wangaratta Road, evidence of the severity of the big dry.  However, I have found them to be extremely drought-resistant (more so than some eucalypt species) and there are several examples of long Lleylandii hedges throughout Indigo Shire, but they won’t survive months of no watering.

Many people reading this were brought up with a cast iron stove as the centrepiece of the kitchen.  We bought a new one when we moved into our home and this was a good decision.  It’s so nice to have a large container of soup bubbling away when it’s cold and wet outside while the kettle is always ready for a cuppa.

Maintenance is a breeze and we just wipe the stove with a paper towel and vegetable oil every few weeks to maintain its black colour.   The wood ash is used around our fruit trees and we‘ve never had to buy wood as there is always branches falling across nearby roads or neighbours looking to clear vegetation.   The stove prefers smaller limbs so we can use our fruit tree prunings as well. We also appreciate the stove’s ability to support the solar hot water system on those long overcast weeks when the sun’s power is compromised.  With the cost of electricity continuing to rise, of all our sustainability initiatives the stove gives us the greatest piece of mind.

Next time, I’ll continue to describe the continued successes and failures of our Fighting Gully Road venture.

By Charlie Robinson

Was it Kermit who sang “it aint easy being green”?  Most of the time I would dispute Kermit’s assertion but there are times when things don’t go exactly according to plan.

Here are a random collection of initiatives we have undertaken that have had their ups and downs.

Cider Making No matter how badly I construct something, I want it to last, just so future archaeologists can marvel at the ineptitude of 21st Century humanity.  A case in point is my cider press.  Cider presses are usually made to withstand a lot of hard work and mine is no exception.  The press was bought locally and is exceedingly heavy with lots of cast iron pieces that wouldn’t seem out of place on a steam engine.  I then proceeded to build an equally massive table to support the press with steel girders for legs and several hardwood planks measuring 200mm X 45mm.  The planks were screwed to the girder supports by 12mm galvanised bolts, the table was then bolted to the concrete floor with eight dynabolts and then the press was secured to the table with even more 12mm bolts.

Having perused many books on cider-making I had not seen a more solid construction and I fantasised about the years of cider making in front of me.  I visualised large groups bringing their containers while raw apple juice cascaded into empty vessels to be converted into cider and vinegar.

Yeah, right!  On the day of the first pressing I arranged tables on which the apples would be washed and prepared prior to receiving the attention of the press.  Boxes of pink lady apples waited expectantly in rows waiting for their magical conversion into juice.  Fay and I then chopped the apples into fine pieces, loaded the press as high as we could, and proceeded to turn the large steel arm which compressed specially-cut timber to squash the apples into juice.  We turned and turned until we could compress the apples no further and waited for the juice to flow.

Nothing happened. Rapidly retiring to our library to refer to our various texts on the subject, we discovered we had overlooked one vital step – scratting.  Scratting is not an initiation ceremony for Duntroon cadets but refers to the process of pulping the apples prior to pressing.  In the absence of a suitable scratting machine I commenced to pulverise the apples with a meat tenderiser but this method proved to be disappointing.

Subsequent research has uncovered locally-made scratters, powered by electricity, to retail for around $1700 so the search continues for a more-viable option.  Hopefully I’ll have better news next time.

Produce cellar When you have the potential to produce literally tonnes of fruit and vegetables over the growing period, you need a suitable space in which to store this bounty.  We have converted a concrete water tank for this purpose but, despite foil and fibreglass insulation and heat-resistant paint, the internal temperature still rises to 29 degrees C when it is 46 degrees C outside.  This is fine for most things but not fruit and vegetables.

An in-ground cellar should maintain a constant year-round temperature of 16 – 17 degrees C which adds significantly to the shelf life of perishable foods.

So, with the naivety of old age (you may describe this as dementia) I commenced construction.  When I say “I”, I mean a massive excavator which tore large chunks out of the ground like a hungry dinosaur.  This machine was filling a large truck every five minutes and, before long, the hole was completed and the reinforced concrete slab was laid.

I had noticed that the waterproof membrane which was supposed to be laid under the slab (and carried up the sides of the excavation) had been forced under the slab during the pour and this rang alarm bells but it was too late to rectify.  I attempted to circumvent possible ingress of water into the cellar by running a continuous roll of 500mm wide aluminium/bitumen dampcourse around the base of the wall, I added a waterproofing compound to my mortar mix, I also painted the outside face of the wall with bitumen paint, and (finally) clad the entire wall with a double layer of waterproof membrane.  All no good.   After the inside walls were painted, the excavation was backfilled, and the roof was poured, I waited with trepidation for the first rain and (sure enough) there was water on the cellar floor.  Not much, but enough to make me install the shelving on a course of bricks to prevent the timber from rotting.

We will find a solution to both the apple scratting and the wet cellar because problem-solving seems to be the key to succesful self-sufficiency.

Next time, I will relate how we think we have solved the rabbit problem.  Stay tuned.

By Charlie Robinson

For Fay and I, becoming as self-sufficient as possible has always been our objective.  In terms of growing our own vegetables we have fed ourselves for the majority of each year for the last twenty years.

We’ve always kept chickens and managed to supply ourselves, and our friends and neighbours, with fresh eggs for a similar period. However, we have consistently baulked at the thought of killing anything to provide a sustainable supply of animal protein.  We have preferred to let “someone else” process our meat for us. All of our previous chickens, even the roosters, have died of old age well after their productive lives were over.  We even kept a sheep that lived for about fifteen years.

The knowledge and skills associated with meat processing were commonplace in my parent’s generation, but over the last forty or so years, the emergence of supermarkets has superseded these fundamental tools.

We can expect the world’s stocks of oil to diminish rapidly in the next decade and, with oil’s demise, the availability of many of the foods we take for granted from the supermarket shelves. Hence the need to revert to the knowledge of our ancestors.

Chickens are a wonderful resource for anyone – witnessing their daily routines, both singularly and collectively, is a source of great entertainment; six hens can provide enough eggs for most households from Spring until Autumn; they can dispose of most food waste; and they can clean up pests from around your orchard.

If you have a rooster, you will invariably get chickens – some of whom will also be roosters.  Too many roosters will fight amongst each other and molest the other hens continually.  A cull is required, in which you can transform a problem into a solution (free meat). I don’t think killing animals is a job for amateurs, so we called upon a chicken-breeding relative to provide us with the necessary expertise. Once having caught the condemned birds, each rooster was beheaded with a sharp tomahawk.  This task wasn’t as problematic as I anticipated but may be initially confronting to some people.

The carcasses were then immersed in hot water.  We had an eighteen litre cast iron pot for this purpose which we heated on the cast iron stove for about three hours.  This provided enough hot water to process five birds.  After immersion, the feathers were removed very easily and I was surprised that this task could be completed so quickly.

Removing the bird’s innards was challenging and you need a very sharp knife to make the necessary cuts and incisions. The birds feet were first severed by cutting at the knee joint. By careful slicing around the vent, the innards could be removed but it took longer than we thought and required a deal of physical effort – our trainers made it look easy so it’s really only a matter of practice and experience.  The feet were then cleaned and the outer skin and toenails removed.  Apparently chook’s feet are a delicacy and I’ll report back on our verdict.  The crop was then dissected, all the sand and little stones removed, and then peeled – the crop can be diced and used in soups and stews. Once everything was removed, the carcasses were thoroughly washed in cold water and stored in the refrigerator for 24 hours and then into the freezer.

The total time taken to process five birds was approximately one hour and will be much quicker with greater expertise.  The learning experience was highly significant for us in our quest for self-sufficiency and we will soon be turning our attentions to another likely food source, the rabbit.

Stay tuned!

by Charlie Robinson

I can’t honestly say I’ve ever been really hungry, let alone starving.  Sure, there have been times when circumstances meant that I missed a couple of meals and I had that gnawing feeling which precipitates lurid culinary fantasies. But not starving.

During the sieges of Leningrad and Stalingrad following Germany’s ill-fated invasion of Russia during World War Two, some parents ate their children, some children ate their parents, and many other people were killed and eaten by the starving citizenry. This demonstrates of the extremes people will sink to, in response to starvation.  A citizen of Sydney or Melbourne is only four days from starvation if our transport infrastructure fails and people will resort to extreme behaviour to stay alive – read the book, “Alive”, about the Andean plane crash of thirty years ago if you want some graphic imagery!

An old mate of mine was a German POW after the battle of Crete and he told me of surviving by living on cockroaches for extended periods. I take it from these examples that real starvation, and not simply skipping morning tea, is not a condition that I wish to experience.

But that may change.

Starvation caused from climate change is already happening in northern Africa and could be a global reality within a decade.

Think it couldn’t happen here? Don’t be so sure. Consider these current scenarios:

Penny Wong is inviting farmers in the Sunraysia region to sell their permanent water entitlements to the Federal Government.  For many farmers, battling increasing aridity and decreasing water allocations, this offer is too good to refuse.  However, part of the condition of sale is that farmers must pull out their existing crops (usually wine grapes, table grapes, or oranges) and the accompanying irrigation infrastructure, at their own expense.  So where will our food come from?

Last month, a number of Victorian peach growers were left to ponder their future following SPC-Ardmona’s decision to slash its annual canning peach intake by up to a quarter. Like their Sunraysia cousins, they too have suffered from The Big Dry, not to mention hail and frosts (which, in October 2006, caused millions of dollars damage).  Those growers affected by the cannery’s decision will have no option but to bulldoze their trees.  So where will our food come from?

In January this year, potato growers in the Casterton region predicted that extreme temperatures caused by climate change would render this historic potato-growing region unviable for future production.  So where will our food come from?

In 2001, Australia produced 1.2 million tonnes of rice, in 2008 a meagre 19,300 tonnes (the lowest yield since 1928), and this year 75,000 tonnes.  This has led to mill closures and job shedding by SunRice, the most recent cuts in March of 36 staff at the Leeton mill. So where will our food come from?

Around the globe, and particularly in the U.S., our insatiable need for fuel has spawned a massive growth in the production of corn, soy, and other cereals – all to create ethanol to feed our cars.  Land devoted to producing corn alone in the U.S. is the most since 1941. So where will our food come from?

In our global economy we may be able to rely on imports to temporarily compensate for our national underproduction but, since food production has not kept pace with world population growth since 2005, how long can we depend on this avenue for salvation? For instance, Cuba announced this week that it was seeking urgent food aid from Russia to arrest diminishing food stocks.

I remember the truck blockade of the Hume Highway near Picton in 1979.  Supplies of food to all supermarkets in the ACT and NSW dried up and within four days all shelves were empty.  Being reasonably self-sufficient, even then, I had no real personal concerns about running out of food, but I was curious as to what effect the blockade was having, so I visited the local Woolworths supermarket in Dickson, ACT.  I was greeted with a chaotic scene of women fighting over the last few loaves of bread and a panic gripped the shoppers – an image I will never forget and a constant reminder of the fragility of our food supply system.

Our dependency on oil is a huge concern in relation to food production.  Don’t be beguiled by the recent news of the availability of plug-in hybrid cars, they won’t solve our food supply issues.  Think about it – most of our food is produced using oil, whether it’s diesel for our farm machinery, production of pesticides and herbicides, chemical fertilisers, and then there’s the transportation of this food to storage and processing facilities and onto supermarkets where we drive our cars to shop.

A recent report by the UK Soil Association refers to the 2000 fuel protest that brought London to within three days of running out of food – the head of the Countryside Agency reported to Tony Blair that “the nation is just nine meals from anarchy”. August 2009 Earth Garden p9.

I can’t predict when the oil will run out, but it’s probably sooner than we realise, and I’m not prepared to play Russian roulette with the calendar.  The earlier we are prepared for the inevitability of food shortages, the better.  Each of us should be on the same footing as England was during World War Two when nearly every lawn, backyard, and empty space was devoted to the growing of food for the war effort.  Peak Oil and Climate Change will present even bigger challenges for us, and the rest of the world, than Hitler and the Luftwaffe did for England.

If you don’t know how to start, or what to do, I suggest you attend the numerous events being planned and conducted by Beechworth Sustainability over the next few months.  Anybody can afford to produce their own food and our last two harvests have cost virtually nothing as we have used seeds from the previous year’s crops or obtained from the annual seed swapping event. How easy is that?

Here’s Allan’s method for perfect sun dried tomatoes

• Use small to medium size tomatoes. Roma are ideal.
• Wash and dry tomatoes.
• Slice tomatoes in half but do not cut right through. This makes it easier t o place tomatoes on tray.
• Place tomatoes cut side up in a wooden tray -3 ply is ok- 1 metre X 500mm. Sprinkle cooking salt on tomatoes.
• To prevent ants from spoiling fruit use 3 or 4 flattish tins filled with water. Stand a brick in each tin ( brick on its end). Place tray on top of bricks.
• Dry in hot sun-3-4 days. Do not leave trays outside at night. Tomatoes are dry when pinched between fingers and they feel dry.
• Dried tomatoes can then be packed in a sterilised jar with olive oil, basil and garlic.
• Store in a cool, dark place.

Following the successful compost workshop on Sat May 9th, our resident Compostwoman, Donna, has provided these hints and tips for the perfect compost .

What ingredients go into a good compost?

A good compost, like a good cake, is a balance of different ingredients. All compost bins, or heaps, should lie on a soil base and need a balance of materials that:

• are high in nitrogen, such as blood & bone, Dynamic Lifter or chook manure
• contain carbon, such as dried leaves or shredded newspapers, and
• contain both carbon & nitrogen, such as kitchen scraps, pea straw and green garden prunings.

In addition, the compost heap/bin needs:

• water, but only enough so that the contents are moist but not wet
• oxygen, from air, added by regularly turning over the contents of the heap
• warmth, by putting it in a sunny place.

In the next section you will find further composting hints, tips, and solutions for common problems:

Contents:

Can I add……to my compost? Solving common compost problems The Lasagne method of composting

Can I add…..?

• meat scraps – yes, but best to avoid.
• fish bones – yes, but mix them through the heap, rather than leaving them on top.
• old jeans (cotton-based) or old cloth nappies – yes, though cut them up first.
• office paper – not if it has been bleached or is glossy.
• old tyres – not a good idea.
• weeds – yes, if they are without seed heads. No, if they are bulbous, such as oxalis, or spread by runners, such as couch grass.
• dog & cat faecal matter – a health risk, best avoided if you use your compost for veggie plots.
• wood ashes from open fires – yes, in small amounts, but be careful if you add your compost to heavy clay soils as the ash may compound the problem.
• tree branches – shredded before adding.
• eucalyptus leaves – may take a while to decompose so run them over with a lawn mower first.
• lawn clippings – yes, but not in large quantities unless some dry matter is added at the same time, such as dried leaves or shredded newspaper. This helps prevent the clippings becoming a putrid, slimy mess.
• oranges & lemons – these are highly acidic and may take a while to break down, unless they are chopped up before adding.
• kitchen sponges – yes if they are made from cellulosic fibres and will decompose. Check the wrapper for details.
• coffee grounds and tea bags – yes, and yes – and the tiny staple on the tea-bag will eventually add a bit of iron to your soil.
• take-away pizza round cardboard containers – tear them up first and they act as carbon matter for the heap.

Solving common compost problems Why is my compost:

• left with half decomposed big lumps? Adding smaller pieces to the bin should ensure that it all decomposes evenly. Avoid avocado seeds, pineapple tops, twigs and other woody items unless they can be crushed or chopped before adding. Always crush eggshells.

• smelly? Either : Too much nitrogen containing matter and not enough carbon i.e. add more dry materials such as dried leaves and newspaper. Or: Make sure you aid decomposition by using a garden fork and turning over the heap occasionally (maybe once a week) to introduce more air. This prevents anaerobic bacteria from taking over and producing the smells.

• crawling with ants and slaters? The heap is too dry. Add a sprinkling of water or less dry matter. Ants and slaters are not harmful at all but they do indicate that your compost will not decompose rapidly enough.

• developing into biological warfare? If you get attacked by tiny flies (Drosophila) every time you open the lid, rest assured that they are there because they enjoy the contents of your bin, especially if you have been adding fruit peelings, such as apples or kiwi or pineapples. Add a blanket cover to the contents of your bin, such as hessian sacking, carpet felt underlay or the Saturday Age.

• plagued with rats/mice/blowflies or maggots? Meat scraps or fish bones can be added to the bin but only if it is working efficiently and quickly. They are best avoided since they do encourage vermin, especially over summer. Rats and mice enter the bin by digging underneath, so fasten a piece of chicken wire under the bin before commencing.

• taking so long to do anything?!!! The carbon/nitrogen ratio needs to be altered. Remember: too wet, add dry matter, such as newspaper. Too dry, add water along with some high in nitrogen compost activator, such as blood & bone or Dynamic Lifter pellets, or chook poo. And don’t forget to regularly turn the heap over!

The Lasagne method

Materials

• Green mulch- weeds, lawn clippings frit and veggie waste
• Dry materials- hay pea straw raked leaves woody weeds
• Manure – any herbivorous animal manure or plant material that is high in nitrogen eg comfrey or legumes)

Method

• Lay a base of dry material about 1-1.5 m across and 15 cms high.
• Cover it with a layer about 3 cm thick od manure and fluff this into the dry mulch.
• Wet the pile down until quite damp.
• Cover with about 10 cm of green mulch. You could pour over a bucket of seaweed brew or compost tea at this point.
• Repeat these steps finishing with a layer of dry material.

Turning the pile

• 1st turning: 5 to 7 days – white thread like fungus present – the compost starter
• 2nd turning:10- 12 days – humus brown colour fungus has been overtaken by bacteria
• 3rd turning: 15-17 days pile almost all brown and beginning to develop crumbly texture
• 21 days  earthworths and beetles present- nearly ready!

When turning break up any large clods, incorporate as much air as possible, sprinkle with water as necessary to keep it as wet as a sponge and move the outside to the inside as much as you can.

Harvesting Seed Only save seed from the most vigorous plants with the best fruit and avoid using seed from weak or unusual looking plants. In this way you will be naturally selecting the traits you wish to encourage in your crops.

• Tomato seeds: Allow the fruits to fully ripen on the plant and scoop out the seeds and pulp. Place in a jar of water and leave for a few days, swirling them in the water daily. After a few days, the seeds should have come free from the pulp and sunk to the bottom. Pour the liquid away and rinse the seeds. Leave them to dry on a paper towel and, when fully dry, store in an envelope in a cool, dry place.
• Pepper seeds: Harvest seeds from peppers after the fruit has fully ripened on the plant and started to wrinkle. Remove the seeds from the peppers and spread them out on paper towels to dry. When fully dry, store in an envelope in a cool, dry place.  You can also use this method for chillies.
• Peas and Beans: Allow the pods to ripen on the plant until they are dry and start to turn brown. Remove the pods from the plant and spread them out on a tray indoors, to dry. Leave them for at least two weeks before shelling the pods or wait until you are ready to sow the seeds the following spring.
• Eggplants:  Choose the first fruits of the most vigorous and healthy plants and leave them until they are about to fall off the plant. Pick and hang the mature fruits in a shed until their colour dulls. You can get to the eggplant seeds by cutting off the top and grating, or blending the bottom which contains the greater density of seeds. If you use a blender cut the eggplant into cubes and whiz them up with water at a slow speed. Pour out the mass and collect the seeds from the bottom. Wash and spread the seeds thinly on a sieve, leaving them to dry for a day or so. Place in a paper bag and hang for a further couple of weeks ,before storing.

Storing seeds Seeds should be stored in individual envelopes, in an airtight container and in a dry place above ground level. This prevents moisture from spoiling the seeds or animals such as mice eating their way through your supply.

It is equally important to label your seeds correctly, including the name, variety, and date you collected them. Not only does this ensure that you know which seeds you are sowing but you can also evaluate how successful each seed-saving project was.