Congratulations to everyone that had a part in our first ever

Permaculture Design Certificate

It was a huge couple of weeks full of learning and friendship, music and food. We made use of our new building for the first time ever (the builders have moved back in now to finish the job) and the old barn provided and amazing space for meals, music and fun.

Every teacher had something new to add and participants were moving from activity to activity taking it all in. We squeezed in heaps of site visits and extras (occasionally too much) and students worked in groups to complete design exercises for both small scale and broad acre designs.

Claire teaching in the garden

Jamie teaching in the paddock

Scoutt working on a design

Anna and Linda marking contours

more good food!

Here’s a few pics.

Anyone can do a Permaculture Design Certificate……an internationally recognised course that takes place over 72 hours. We like to make it a live in (camp in) event as its the joy of making new friends and establishing new connections that makes the whole experience more special.

From one of our participants……

“Having recently visited permaculture farms throughout Australia and New Zealand, I can confidently recommend Fair Harvest Margaret River as a leading training venue in Australasia.

Jodie brought together a dream team of expert facilitators too good to pass up. Days were varied and stimulating, with theory broken up by farm visits, practical exercises and group work. The awesome healthy food straight from the garden helped us on our way, and it was great staying on site.

A PDC brought new friends and the tools, inspiration and knowledge to begin designing for ourselves.  My thanks, deep appreciation and congratulations to Jodie and the Fair Harvest crew – the best in the west!”

Lucinda Giblett, Stellar Violets, Manjimup

and a few more pics!

collecting fresh honey comb

Music on the straw bale wall

Music while making pizza

the chicken tractor Do and Bill made in their spare time

Design presentations in the new classroom

To join us on our next PDC fill in the form below and we’ll contact you as soon as our dates are set.

Hey guys,

Congratulations on all fronts for a fantastic National Permaculture Day 2012! We welcomed 17 new Design graduates to the family with the first PDC down in Margaret River. Well done Lockridge community garden for hosting a stella event as well!

Just a quick reminder that our next blitz is scheduled for the 26th of May from 9 – 1pm in a very special celebration of Sparkles birthday, so because of this our next meeting is on the 22nd of May at Sparkles house (not our usual last tuesday of the month)

Hope to see you all there!

Big love

Freo Permies

Sustainable  Orchard Management with Peter Coppin

Saturday July 21st 2012

Peter Coppin is a leading horticulturist and arboriculturist who is “Dedicated to promoting sustainable practices and healthy landscapes.” 

Peter will be offering a series of workshops on sustainable orchard management the first of which will focus on deciduous trees and vines.

By the end of this day you will understand why, how and when to prune your deciduous trees as well as their nutritional needs and requirements so you can get the best fruit.

Morning/afternoon tea provided

cost $95

A Clean Slate.

The old farm shed that has housed so many projects over the years has been being transformed over the last months to become our new farm venue.

The combination of old shed, clever design (by Paul) , beautiful craftsmanship (by Alex), bush poles from the plantation and recycled materials  is coming together to create a smart, rustic look.

The outside of the building is a clean slate for the PDC students to work on for their design project and the inside will soon be complete with a big commercial kitchen and a fuel stove

This place is coming to life and over the next couple of weeks it will be filled with the energy of permaculture students and teachers, what a great way to welcome in a new permaculture venue!

Official opening date to be announced soon.

Robin Clayfield “Dynamic Groups Course” August 28th – Sept 2nd 2012

‘DYNAMIC GROUPS, DYNAMIC LEARNING’ – 6 day Creative Facilitation and Teacher Training Intensive. 28^th Aug. to 2^nd Sept. at Fair Harvest, Margaret River. Presented by international facilitator and workshop leader, Robin Clayfield from Queensland.

The jigsaw puzzle of groups learning and working together becomes an adventure in Creative Facilitation, Interactive Learning Methods, Personal Empowerment, Confidence Building, Workshop Planning and Skills Development as Robin inspires participants with her cutting edge learning methodology and supports all participants to have the skills, tools and confidence to create dynamic groups and support effective, fun and successful learning environments.

This unique and highly acclaimed 6 day Training, developed and fine-tuned for over 20 years by Robin and Friends, is offered for Facilitators, Teachers, Trainers, Groups Leaders, Workshop Presenters, Change Agents, Community Development Workers and People in Creative, Healing and Sustainability Industries and on this occasion is specially for people involved in Permaculture, Community Gardens, City Farms, Transition Towns Initiatives, Environmental Education, Sustainability and Social Change.

Camping available on site (may be cold and wet) for all other local accommodation options click here.

Find out more about Robin’s work here

Cost

Full price $995 (govt/corporate/business)

Waged individual $845

Concession  $695

The Trout Have Arrived.

For every one waiting for an Aquaponics update you can see by  the pic that the greens (in the foreground) we planted are starting to look quite lush ready to eat, so far we have just had marron and goldfish in the system as we had to wait for the weather to cool down enough to add some trout. In the background is Gavin from Ferguson Springs releasing trout into the system, we released 23 into the larger tank and 7 into the smaller tank. We just have to watch now that we don’t get an ammonia spike that will potentially kill the fish, to avoid this we have to check the amonia levels until the bacteria are well enough established to transform the nitrites into nitrates so they will be accessible to the plants.

Next aquaponics workshop with Tony Carruthers from Life Aquatic will be on Sunday July 29

National Permaculture Day 2012.

May 6th 3pm

This year National Permaculture Day falls on the final day of our Permaculture Design Certificate, so we will be celebrating a whole new group of inspired designers going out to do their bit for the planet.

“Permaculture Day is an opportunity to shine a light on the diversity of permaculture projects and people that are building our sustainable future now.”

David Holmgren
Co-originator of the permaculture concept

Come and join us for a celebration with the amazing West African music created by Toobaboo

3pm

BYO drinks and snacks (and a paper money donation for the band)

To see some of the other events around the country click here

Greens in the garden and the paddocks.

What a beautiful time in the garden when the pumpkins are ripening, the first broccoli are ready to pick and the greens are starting to grow lush.  After that long dry summer it feels as though the earth is able to breath again and green shoots are starting to appear in the paddocks. It’s the best time for observation, the ground that has been left with some cover on (if only dry grass) is full of fresh shoots being kept moist by the dew and the mulch, indents in sandy soil where seeds, moisture and dry plant matter have collected are turning green and the Kikuyu is readying itself to raid a new patch of ground.

and to top all there’s baby chicks……….

Seed Savers and Plant Swappers Gather in the Barn.

Next Meeting  Saturday May 26th 9 am – 11am, gold coin donation.

All welcome, bring along seeds, cuttings, seedlings and plant material or don’t bring anything at all (you’ll be sure to go home with something). It’s also a great chance to swap ideas and information and keep our food growing community active and healthy.

Gretta cleaning parsley seed

A pocket full of packets

Seed Swappers

Cynda's amazing poppy pckets

24 pallets of 2nd hand bricks.

Sometimes the joys of recycling can be overwhelming, especially when 24 pallets of 2nd hand bricks arrive that need to be cleaned. Luckily we have a great crew here and everyone just picked up their favorite scraping tool and got into it (for 4 days!). The paving does look spectacular and has brought the outside of the building to life. Now we just need our Permaculture Design Students to see what they can do with the design of the garden which we have left as a blank slate.

The inside of the new Fair Harvest Venue is coming together to with a coat of paint making a big difference!

If you are interested in getting involved with Freo Permies, the group meets at about 6:30pm on the last Tuesday of every month at somebody’s house/garden. If you are not already a member, please email charlie@permaculturewest.org.au or sparkles@permaculturewest.org.au to find out about the next meeting. Otherwise details will be up here soon.

Hope to see you there!

Clothes Swap Party

Permaculture comes in all different shapes and sizes and when the idea of a clothes swap came up we knew it fitted with what we do……………it was reusing and recycling, it was creating community and it was having fun. International Women’s Day, full moon and a big barn to fill up with clothes……….thanks to Lauren who knew all the rules we all delivered our items of clothing across the table and went and socialized until she gave the word, then it was a mad rush as 30 women picked out tried on (sometimes even fought for) pieces of each others clothing. The make shift change room was a mad collection of women clothes and laughter and everyone seemed to leave with anew favorite item.

I love the never ending variety of ideas that grows from a few simple principles and the sense of well being and community that comes from taking a simple idea, making it happen and inviting your friends to share it, only next time I know I should invite a lot more because the more shapes and sizes that turn up the more satisfied customers go home.

• Bulls Blood from New Gippsland Seeds
• Heirloom Mix from Diggers
• Forono from DT Brown

• Red Rossa from Grower's Pride - a favourite and reliable Red variety
• Tonda Musona Organic - large, round and white skinned and fleshed
• Piatta Di Bergamo - aka "Flat onion from Bergamo" a small, flat, reddish-brown onion
• Tropea rossa lunga - known as the torpedo or bottle shaped onion, a red variety!

Hi Y’all,

Freo permies is about to have it’s first group meeting at one of the group members houses. So, we will be meeting at “the house of fluff” in Hamilton Hill on the last Tuesday of this month, 27th of March 6pm. Included in this visit will be the poultry info and sharing session we’ve all been waiting for! Thank you to Kelly and Alaya for being our rockin’ chicken/duck/quail/whoknowswhatthepoultryelse team!

Please contact us on email if you want more specifics!  sparkles@permaculturewest.org.au

warmth your way this equinox

Sparkles

This is a test post of the new Freo Permies website. More coming soon!

MANASSEN FOODS GROUP NO LONGER AUSTRALIAN OWNED

Margaret River Dairy Company
Sunbeam Foods
Chrystal Fresh
Angas Park
Don Vica

On 30th November 2011 Manassen Foods Group was acquired by Bright Foods Group Holdings Pty Ltd, which is 75% owned by Bright Foods of China, one of China’s largest food companies.  Given the recency of the transaction, some Manassen Foods Group products and brands still carry an “Australian Owned” label.

Manassen is now working hard to remove and update all labeling, packaging and other material including signage that may still carry the Australian Owned claim.

The company has made every effort to limit exposure to such references before the transaction was concluded and confirms there has been no change to such things as the procurement, processing and packing or otherwise of these products.

Welcome to WordPress. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging!

Autumn in the Garden

While the last of the summer fruit is ripening it’s time to start planting for the cooler and wetter months ahead………..this is the time we really love, when we don’t have to be worrying about water and the plants are growing in a less stressful environment.

Giving the winter greens and brasicas a head start  so they can get up and away with the warm weather is what we are focusing on now. While we can’t do a huge amount of planting till the rain starts we have set aside some irrigated beds for this purpose. Planting a little at a time so it doesn’t all ripen at once is a good idea.

I’ll try and get into the habit of doing a small and regular blog about what we are doing in the garden so if you are new to veggie gardening  you can follow and plant with us, if you feel you need a bit more hands on and interactive learning come along to our new Monday “beginners in the garden classes” . see more

Seed Savers Margaret River

Thanks to Troy and all that attended the seed savers workshop over the weekend we now have a Margaret River Seed Savers Group. Everyone got super enthusiastic when the seeds and plant material came out and busily got to work winnowing seeds and squishing fruit.  The barn was a hive of activity as packets were and stuck in back pockets and fruits were passed around that had never been tasted before.

Getting together to do is fun so we decided that roughly every 2 months we’ll do just that…………..meet in the barn to clean, save and swap seeds and plant material………….everyone is welcome especially those who have nothing to swap as this couldn’t be a better way to start.

Next meeting is on the 31st of March, 9 am – 11am in the Fair Harvest Barn……….bring seeds and plant material if you have them, Morning Tea to share and a gold coin donation

If you want to find us on the Seed Saver Network go to http://seedsavers.net/local-seed-networks

Margaret River Cycle Trek 2012

Organized by my dad and my brother each year, this great cycle trek donates all funds raised to the Margaret River environment centre…………..if your into cycling it’s a beauty, they know all the best tracks and the environment centre crew compete with each other in the catering department.

Hi Everyone,

Having surveyed our riders from last year the following additions have been made to this years ride.

• An all new six day route incorporating the best of 2011 without the long hike into Augusta.
• More bush tracks.
• More single track through Boranup Forest.
• Lunch at Miller’s Ice Cream Shop Day 2.
• A tour of Lake Cave in the afternoon on day 5.
• Lunch a Surfers Ponit on day 6.
• Camping at Contos Day 5.

ALL THE GOOD STUFF WE’RE NOT CHANGING

• Dry chain lube available at the breakfast table.
• Only one tyre pressure recommendation for whole ride.
• Morning tea at Wylabrup Cliffs Day 2.
• Lunch at the Berry Farm Day 3.
• Camps at Taunton Farm, Cane Break, Chapman Pool, Hamelin Bay.
• Breweries, Wineries, Ice Cream and Coffee stops.
• Breakfast team cooking up a storm.
• Cakes, Lunches, Dinners and Deserts – delicious as always.
• Plenty of hard and soft ride options.

COSTS

The cost is all inclusive except for alcohol and cappuccinos.

The tour is limited to maximum of thirty riders.

$950 for those who join before June 30.

$1050 for those who join after June 30.

Nicole Foss Visits Margaret River

Making Sense of Economic Decline in an Age of Peak Oil

A Discussion with Nicole Foss

(Nicole has been speaking to packed houses around Australia)

Nicole Foss is one of those rare people who understands and explains the links between the global dangers of resource depletion, economic failure and increasing inequity. She has multiple degrees in biology, neuroscience, psychology, international law, and air and water pollution. After years as editor of The Oil Drum Canada writing about peak oil and finance, Nicole is now co-editor of The Automatic Earth.

Join us for a graphic presentation and question and answer session when Nicole will outline the direction and characteristics of a new environmentally sustainable economy and what this means in our everyday lives.  She will discuss what is coming, why it is coming, what you can do about it, and how urgent it is that you do it now. She will prepare people to work with their communities to create a brighter (though lower energy) future

6pm Tuesday 28th February

Margaret River District Club

Tunbridge Street, Margaret River

$10

(price includes a light supper)

Presented by Permaculture West &  Sustain Margaret River

Bio Vital Farms

Return the life back into your soil and the Profit and Enjoyment back into Farming

2 and 3-day courses with Paul Taylor May 17th, 18th and 19th 2012 Margaret River

Now with Farm Ready approval (3 day only)

(see also  Perth courses )

“Long-term soil fertility depends on vital living soils, how we return the vitality back into the soils is a complex science of soil microbiology and advanced plant science, here at Trust Nature we work to demystify the complex sciences and provide real solutions to real problems on real farms.” Paul Taylor  Trust Nature

Course Participants will have a genuine, classroom and ‘in the field’ understanding of the science of beneficial soil biology and how biological management will reduce input costs while maintaining or increasing production of food production systems. An important element of this workshop is that the participants will have a hands-on understanding of how to grow, manage and apply beneficial soil microbes as high value compost and compost tea on the farm.

This is a system that is not just sustainable but a system that gives you a genuine understanding of soil management where year by year you increase your topsoil and improve production.

This workshop is focused on presenting an introduction to the complex science of soil microbes and the principles of soil biology in an easy to understand form so that attendees can embrace the benefits, prepare for climate change, and achieve sustainability and profitability while enjoying working on the land.

At the end of this workshop, you will have the tools and understanding about how to make high value compost, compost tea as a ‘vital soil inoculum’ and understand the basics of making valuable bio-fertilizer, where the gardener/farmer/producer can now realistically be more self reliant and ‘go to the shed, not to the shop’.

Some short videos to whet you appetite
Part 1 Paul Taylor Compost, Compost Teas - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LAB3KP0KLj4

Part 2 Paul Taylor Compost, Compost Teas -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6H0BTnP5Qc

For Farmers – Paul Taylor and Elaine Ingham (Soil Food Web) Farmers Compost Tea homemade kit - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dEJg0Ob5cg

Have a look around youtube but here is one example of results – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSchmkTjrnE

About Paul Taylor:

Paul Taylor has been an organic farmer and has extensive experience with returning non-productive soils back into profitable systems for more than 30 years. He’s the managing director of Trust Nature Pty Ltd. Paul works as a soil health advisor, an educator, and a Permaculture designer and consultant.

Paul is an energetic, easy to understand speaker with a wealth of practical, hands on knowledge, promoting the practical understanding of beneficial soil microbes as the basis of a productive management system. He has taught in Australia, New Zealand, USA, the Middle East and India over the past three decades.

Timings and Venue

TheBio Vital Farms Workshop by Paul Taylor, will run on the 23rd, 24th and 25th of March 2012. Workshop hours run from 9am – 5pm. You will need to attend all days.

The course will be held at Fair Harvest Permaculture Venue
Accommodation to see our recommended accommodation options click here

Catering: Morning and afternoon tea and lunch are supplied to all participants. Given the tight 9-5 timeframe Breakfast and Dinner cannot be provided.

Course pricing / bookings

Price

2 day $350

3 day $500

Limited number of 50 places.

Farm Ready Grant Assistance for 3 day course

Eligible Participants are able to claim up to $1500 per financial year to attend FarmReady-registered courses, with additional funding available for associated reasonable travel, accommodation and childcare expenses. Registered courses focus on areas designed to equip primary producers with the tools to manage and adapt to the impacts of climate change. Find out more

The Farm Ready number for this course is FRTC 1089

PAYMENT

enrol now 2 day only click here

enrol now 3 day click here

or

Direct Deposit

Fair Harvest

ANZ Margaret River

016-520

905720678

Make sure to put your name as the comment when making the transfer

If you are using this option please send your name  and contact details to  info@fairharvest.com.au

WHAT TO BRING

It is likely to be quite hot in March and there will be a combination of indoor class based presentations and outdoors practical sessions. Therefore it is recommended you bring:

• Sun Hat, sunglasses, sunscreen, water bottle
• Reading and looking glasses for both book reading and projector based presentations.
• Casual and comfortable clothing, consider long-sleeved for when outdoors.

For further information for this course please contact info@fairharvest.com.au