Time to Spring into action as Flowers and Gardens bloom !

We looked around yesterday and realized the weeds are on the move, the almond trees are blossoming , the banjo frogs are jamming down in the swamp and spring is springing. From now till Christmas we will be flat out in the vege garden seeding, weeding, mowing,  transplanting and mulching. I got my chilie , capsis tomatoes and eggplant planted in seed trays in the plastic house yesterday. Its a great time to put in peas and  potatoes direct in the garden. A month form now sunflowers, corn  and pumpkins can go in.  I will  admit to you we are just getting to transplanting the onions and haven't pruned the grapes yet. I did achieve bamboo cuttings recently.
We've been happy to host a young lady from Japan this week. Yuka is learning English and helping us out with a bit of weeding, tree planting and sales at markets.

Weeding the garlic and onions that did get planted on time.

 So wet at Karridale, the swales are more like dams, the paddocks are saturated and the swale mounds maybe the best place to plant tagasaste. Plenty of willows and poplars have been planted out  to bind the soil and feed the cattle and earthworms.

Bee and Yuka staying at the weeding task.

At Nannup Flower and Garden Festival this weekend, we will be cooking an all organic curry or two for the event, to be served with organic rice. Also from the Organic Food Van our roasted macadamia and pecan nuts with banana ice cream should not be missed, plus I will be  presenting a workshop in Nannup at 11.30am at the shire on both Saturday and Sunday. Our farm tour to show swales in action will be 4 pm Sunday at the farm ($20 a head, free tastings of produce ) Come and get an earful of great  growing advice this weekend!

Don't want to blow my own bugle but......

Sometimes when my stars for the week mean I will need to deal with criticism from many quarters and Im feeling like a failure, I turn to my testimonial page and just read....

Thank you so much Bee and Stewart for an amazing day, extremely educational and extremely delicious!! Please also add my new email address to your making list. 

This was one of the best workshops I've ever done, the learning was immense.  I was so excited I went foraging yesterday on Dad's property, looking for fungi, which I'm pretty sure I found in the composting layer on the forest floors.  I collected lots of samples from a variety of high biomass areas and I'm going to have a bash at using the samples to inoculate compost and soil at home....see if I can boost up the fungi levels!

 Just wanted to let you know, we had the rump roast rubbed with fennel seeds last night and tonight, and it was some of the most delicious meat we have ever had. So moist with the fat, and so tasty. So nice to eat meat that I didn't have to worry about - because I knew it had had the most perfect, happy life right till the end. Could just enjoy it for two reasons - firstly, it was perfect, so I didn't feel bad that some animal died for an average tasting bit of food, secondly, because I knew she had a good life. Plus, lots of lard saved for future roast potatoes. Food of the gods (apart from mash of course). The main difference I noticed with your pork compared to ordinary pork, is that the fatty bits are nice to eat, not a flubbery, grainy, nasty jelly mess like from other producers. Loved it, let me know when you are raising more meat of any kind, and we will have some. S J

I come in a few times to the organic markets when i lived in Belmont for your lovely roast beef, best I've tasted. J.M.

The lamb chops were amazing. The fat on your animals tastes completely different than other meats, it is crispier if that makes sense (even better than other organic grass fed meats). I wonder what it is that does that? The raspberries were the best I ever had, so firm and tasted just like raspberries if you know what I mean? I loved the yoghurt, it tastes more sour but I like that (and so does James). The more sour/fermented it is the more lactobacilli and other bacteria there is. Also it has less lactose, which is better. You can really taste the difference between yours and other organic yoghurts (which are only done for 6-12 hours). The bread is really delicious too.  RT

Hi Bee,

Thankyou so much to you and Stew for a fun, entertaining, informative and simply wonderful day. I learned so much and can't wait to get started with putting into practice some of the things I learnt today. It sure is daunting suddenly having 10 acres to manage with no farming experience let alone permaculture or biodynamics! but i am very willing to learn and have a go to help give the best nutrition to my family and do the right thing by the environment. Thankyou so much for opening your lovely home to us and being so generous with your time and knowledge. I feel very lucky to have been able to come along and am so glad I met you guys before listening to everyone else telling me that I must "make roundup my friend"!  

Hi Bee

I had a great time on the weekend, i was amazed at how quick you could feel at home in your home. For me it was great to meet you three in away that i felt you can live ge free and organicly and still fit in with society. Already have started my worm farm. Also has changed what i buy from the shops and working on the bigger plan. I even found myself looking up land in Nannup on sunday night.

I dont realy have much constructive critism, as it was great. I felt i learned a lot more once it was the three of us rather than saturday morning when we were with others that already knew a lot more, it got a bit complicated for me. So i think it would good if possible for people at similar stages to spend the weekend together as we had.  Also i think the more hands on stuff on the farm it what i remenber the most and would encourage that side the most.

I enjoyed it a lot  and would love to come again in the future.

In regards to the market, do you need to pre - order. What time does it start. Is there any chance you will have anymore of that berry compot, already finished it, yum. Were after yogurt, ice cream, bacon, avo and what size do the hams come in (i realy like the ham we had at lunch)

Regards b

thankyou so much for a truly wonderful stay.
i felt so nourished on every level.
it was a perfect mix….

just had your milk- best milk I have ever tasted in my life

Just did the course last weekend, it was absolutely brilliant! Such a beautiful farm with many happy animals.Organic farming has been a viable way of farming for thousands of years, things went wrong when scientists brainwash you into believing that food should come from a laboratory or a factory. Do the course and you'll learn how to grow your own in a natural sustainable way! Michele

Thank you so much for a fabulous weekend – Gres and I both thoroughly enjoyed being part of your organic farm and family and taking away so much information with us. We are very keen to start with small projects; baking our own sour dough bread, starting a worm farm, investigating a water tank, being aware of GM foods and buying the non-GM alternative and only feeding the kids organic meats, fruits and vegies. 

Dear Bee, a big thank you to you for having me in your very interesting Gourmet gardening weekend permaculture course. It's such a prestigious experience to see how permaculture works on your farm..and all these wonderful films we got to see and amazing food we got to taste. I am so glad I came. I will try and source some ingredients to make my first sourdough. I look forward to receiving the recipe. Also could you tell me the name again of that herb growing in the patch upslope from your compost? Epi...ti.

Hi Bee and Stew .Thank you so much for such a great weekend! It was so informative and we look forward to implementing things in our garden! Will be in touch soon

Again thank you for a great weekend. Emmy

And from a couple of youths who want to go all organic but are struggling to afford it:

Its just that we know that your produce is the best in Australia, and at the most outrageously good value prices, and we not only want to eat your stuff but also support you in what you do as much as we can. We have been thinking of a trip down south soon, and we will definitely come say hi and help out when we do!

 These emails were unsolicited and mean a lot to us .  Honestly, if I had a dime for very time we've heard people say or  email "  Your eggs ( or meat) is the best I have ever tasted by far" I would be a rich Merri Bee

 This letter today I am very proud of. (Remember if you want a good speaker on GM I 'll be there in a flash): 

Club B,

Silver Chain,

Peninsula Road,

Bridgetown 6255

01-08-13

Bee Winfield,

3 Thomas road,

Nannup.

beewinfield@westnet.com.au

Dear Bee,

Thank-you for giving your talk “Healthy Soil - Healthy Food -

Healthy people - Healthy Planet” to the members of Club B on Friday 26^th July 2013.

What a wealth of information you gave us. It really was a fascinating

presentation and stimulated a lot of interest in the members. Some of the information you gave was totally new to many of us. It was obvious that you had done a great deal of research and we were grateful that you made the information available to us.

Thank-you for giving us the little 'GE' pamphlets on the foods so we will be able to do more careful food shopping from now on.

Thank-you for taking the time to come to Silver Chain to give this

excellent presentation to our members. It was very much appreciated.

Kind Regards,

E. W

On behalf of Silver Chain

and Club B Organising Committee.

On behalf of the Balingup Small Farm Field Day Committee, thank you for your time and contribution to the field day with your composting demonstration.  

It is wonderful to have an experienced practitioner working with the stuff day in, day out, as you are on your Nannup farm.   

You made it accessible and interesting to people, and your detailed knowledge on the topic was appreciated. 

Thank you again for making the 2016 Field Day a memorable and successful event.

Kind regards,

Janine Milton

Coordinator BSFFD Committee

Snack foods are made by burning down the Amazon rainforest.

Snacks of chips are burning down the lungs of the Earth. Forests are being burnt to make way for palm oil plantations . The oil goes in to snack foods.  Please sign the petition ( Link in blue)

 If you are hankering for some chippies but dont want to support multinational food companies who wreak havoc on orangatangs may I suggest you  buy organic lard from our cell grazed pigs and make your own ? Munch away while healing the planet with your purchases.

 When the sows pictured below have turned that lot of grass into manure and urine and body mass they will move to the next small paddock between swales. Earthworms and smaller biology will convert the leavings into humus (that's carbon you know, carbon that was once in the air). Humus will remain in the soil for hundreds of years unless ploughing takes place whereupon it will be released as CO2. Trees will grow well on the edges of the paddocks to supply the air oxygen and us animals delicious fruit. If we are to survive on the planet , we will do so by harmonising with micro and macro biology. Had some Lard on popcorn last week. It was  rather  nice and negative  carbon emmissions.

http://ran.org/act//?t=f

ran.org

• 

Western Australia's Native Forest

Western Austrralia's  plantation timber industry ( which we should all support ) is failing. It can't compete with the bargain basement prices of our last remaining native hardwoods . Our government  sees votes in  "jobs for the boys" in sawmills. Outlandishly generous timber amounts were promised to millworkers  in my town of Nannup by Terry Redman MP before the last state election. Logging took place last year in vast areas which had been preserved by all governments since 1920 as high conservation value. This year logging is to continue all winter.   Jarrah is a  fantastically good fire wood (millable logs are currently burnt in the Alcoa smelter at Wagerup thanks to Minister Redman's pricing of just $5 a cubic meter, less than blue gum plantation waste which was planned to fuel the smelter. Couldn't mill workers be employed planting spotted gum and other species of  fast  growing structural timber, on cleared land?  These mills will inevitably have to close as we've  cut down nearly all the native timber that was here when white man arrived 200 years ago.  Jarrah seedlings  take about 300 years to grow .Like Karri, vast amounts of Jarrah was  cut down and shipped out  all over the world from the early 1900's. But in the early days this was done manually, didn't destroy the understory and employed a lot of people. Nowadays it is mostly done by machine, flattens everything, spreads disease and the Forest Products Commission runs at a financial loss!  The government logs large areas then kindly turns them into  " National Parks " so that  they can boast about the area they have reserved. They know there is nothing left of economic value in these so called National Parks for the next 300 years! Jarrah is nearly all gone, and along with it, world heritage ecosystems and biodiversity. The Black cockatoos pictured below are critically endangered. These individulas are being rehabilitated at David and Dee Pattersons sanctuary in Nannup. They were found emaciated and  starving to death  because ...these birds need to eat the seeds from 100 Jarrah or 50 Marri gum nuts a day. A Scientists' Statement on the Protection of Western Australia's South-West Forests was  launched last week. You can  download a copy of the statement and access the YouTube clips here. There was some good media coverage, including an article in the West. We are hopeful that the strong statement made by so many eminent scientists, many of whom are experts in their fields, has been heard and that their recommendations will be acted upon. The Auditor General's report into the supply and sale of our native forest timber was tabled in Parliament today. The report confirms that our forests are being mismanaged and that waste and environmental breaches are being overlooked by the Government's logging industry. WAFA has put out a media release and will follow up with a more rigorous response to the report in the coming days. Forest Legacy hosted a very successful and inspiring forest tour last weekend. Congratulations to Patrick Weir, Maggie Burke, Jo MacDonald and the team. You can find Forest Legacy on Facebook and on their website.  If you'd like to get involved in the WA Forest Alliance who do tireless work to save our precious biodiversity contact Jessica Chapman on 0457 441 102 or jessicachapman@hotmail.com The EPA will be releasing their report and recommendations on the next 10-year Forest Management Plan in a few weeks time. There will be an important opportunity to put in appeals. Phone Jess Beckerling  WA Forest Alliance 0488 777 592 Photograph: Family Photo: Forest Redtail Black Cockatoos (L-R) Dad, Bub and Mum. Taken at Jamarri Cockatoo Sanctuary Nannup. Courtesy Philippa Beckerling.

SWALES: Water capture and storage, .Carbon Capture and Storage

Swales are a water harvesting , food forest  establishment system which work for centuries passively building topsoil and holding water in the landscape which would otherwise run off into the sea. Swales have been proven to green the desert, manage salt, reverse land degradation and restore deserts to productive landscapes. Geoff Lawton's  acclaimed video "Greening the Desert" (available on You Tube) shows that swales work   in the some of the most arid zones of the world . When landscapes are rehydrated and revegetated with swales, springs and streams flow once more. See our swale page here: http://merribeeorganicfarm.blogspot.com.au/2012/06/swales.html

5 swales dug March 2011

We dug our first swale in an extreme drought year , 2010. Only 450 mls of rain fell for the year , less than

 half our average. The longer , greener growth  in the middle distance  is where the swale is. No grazing had taken place in this paddock  when pic taken.

                                               

Add caption

Join us for an interactive workshop  where  Stewart Seesink and Bee Winfield will give you the lowdown on surveying  a swale with a laser level or a simple “A” frame you can make yourself. With contours marked out, a couple of  hours work with a tractor or some while longer with a spade can generate long lasting  extreme benefits to the environment at very low cost. We have planted cow fodder trees along our swales such as tagasaste, poplar, willows , sapote, coprosma, grapes and figs. Most have done well without irrigation in extreme conditions.

Farmers and small holders particularly welcome. We look forward to  you registering your interest. When 10 people have, we will set a date.

Cost : $75 per person. Please RSVP to Bee   beewinfield@westnet.com.au 

Good Bug Bad Bug

                                                                                                      

What bugs you in the garden? What can be done to save our precious plants from attack WITHOUT resorting to harmful chemicals?

 Lots, actually! ...            .

 Hear interesting Organic pest control tactics with Bee Winfield from Merri Bee Organic Farm

Bee says it’s all about  BALANCE ....and using our big brains. Come and learn some tricks and maybe share a few of your own !

When?   Nannup’s Flower and Garden Festival  weekend.... Saturday August 17^th,  11.30 am till 1pm .  

 Where?  Adam Street     Shire office       Shirley Humble Room 

Proudly Supported by the Warren Blackwood Heal Programme.  Morning tea provided                                         

We recently had 2 Marvellous Woofers stay with us for 42 days. Julia and Matze were great! , Responsible, reliable, concientious and with all that, great to talk to. They weeded lots of kike and replaced it with terraced beds of alfalfa which we hope takes off. Julia and Matze became adept at moving pig fences.