moo i made it

a 'blitz too soon

noreply@blogger.com (moo i made it) — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 12:51:00 PDT

I turned down a Permablitz at our house today! It's a bit too soon. We were offered a 'blitz in November but we're in the midst of wedding planning because we're trying to get on top of it all early.

But it was nice to be offered already! I've been to four Permablitzes now and am just enjoying attending them, meeting other like minded people and learning valuable skills.

I think we will try and schedule one at our place after the wedding - a 'newly weds Permablitz' because really - it would be the best wedding present EVER!

And seeing we shamefully STILL haven't gotten around to getting our rainwater tank we're thinking perhaps we could ask people to put money towards us getting a rainwater tank for our wedding present. Rainwater tank and a chook run, ah I'd be so happy! Though, for the record we're not just thinking of ourselves. We're figuring out a way we can ask our guests to not just spend money on us, but to split it and to make a donation towards a charity as well, perhaps we could find a project we feel particularly connected to and raise money for it.

So perhaps an Autumn blitz in May, otherwise we could wait til August because that seems to be a good time - you can still get those bare rooted fruit trees in the ground then!

Tomorrow I am attending my first 'Permaculture Out West' meeting to see what they are all about. There seems to be a real burst of permaculture, social and community type activity in the west at the moment. It's tremendously inspiring!

Vietnam in my back yard

noreply@blogger.com (moo i made it) — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 15:21:00 PDT

[image from my flickr set]

Back in August I posted about the fantastic Vietnam On A Plate tours that are put on FREE by Maribyrnong Council in Footscray.

I was very excited to read in the local paper that they are running some more throughout October but turns out they are all booked out already! They really fill up fast.

Anyway if you live in the area keep an eye on the local newspapers. Hopefully with the demand they will run some more soon.

Open day @ Monica's in Moonee Ponds Sat 3rd October

noreply@blogger.com (moo i made it) — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 11:31:00 PDT

[image from flickr]

NEWSFLASH!

Remember the wonderful Monica whose blitz I blogged about a few weeks ago? See here to read the original post.

Well Monica is having an OPEN GARDEN DAY at her house in Moonee Ponds tomorrow Saturday 3rd October from 10am.

The address is 297 Ascot Vale Road, Moonee Ponds [Melway Ref 28 J8]

We will be popping along for sure and I really encourage anyone in the area to drop by and seeing her tremendously inspiring and productive garden.

They have also put together a CD that will be available on the day, that documents how the garden has come together over the years. I can't wait to see it.

Monica's house is a Sustainable home and Eco home, is also a heritage listed too.

She also has plenty of living creatures integrated in her design quail, ducklings, laying egg hens, rabbits etc.

Go check it out!

Permablitzin' Seddon!

noreply@blogger.com (moo i made it) — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 05:47:00 PDT

[from my flickr set]

I'm Permablitzin' faster than I can post em!

Here's one we did at Mel's place in Seddon, organised by the Permaculture Out West group. It's a quite new group, I attended my first meeting this week and have signed up! Check out the swanky new site here

I'm going to let the photos do most of the talking for this one. Here's the front of Mel's place. She had planted a native and perennial edible verge.

She also planted some green manure that needed turning in. That's what you can see here:

My wonderful weeding! There were some native grasses, warrigal greens and other natives and herbs amongst here for passersby to enjoy:

And yes it did give me a big kick up the butt to go home and finally tackle my OWN weeding! Here is Mel's great little courtyard area out the front which she plans to eventually turn into a food forest. Perhaps at a future Permablitz?

An essential part of any great Permablitz - a scrumptious, energising feed for the volunteers!

Woah check out that line of rainwater tanks! Jealous. Surely they'll just about be self sufficient in water with this much storage!

Putting together the chook house from scratch. Think we could put chook house on a wedding gift list?

Chook house was clad in reused weatherboard - so cute! Very nice touch.

Justa about done and ready to set up the chook run

Mel's also got a rabbit(s?) Soft, furry, cute and their manure is great for the yard.

There is usually a workshop or two run at a Permablitz. Here is Kate running one on propagating soft wood cuttings

Kate also runs a business called 'Rapunzel's Wild Garden' growing advanced edible seedlings to order, ready to put in your garden beds at home! Quite a brilliant idea. It means you need to plan ahead BUT gives you some wonderful choice of unusual heirloom varieties like those offered by Diggers Club, which are quite often not available at your regular nursery. Contact Kate at rapunzelswildgarden [at] bigpond [dot] com

She provided some WONDERFUL ideas about growing your own advance seedlings though. You can use strawberry punnets as mini glass houses to propagate from seed. And then you can pick them out and plant into the bottoms of 2L plastic milk cartons! Cut the tops and bottoms of them, fill with soil, plant your seedling. When they reach the size they are above, you can pop it directly into your garden bed and just slide the plastic off the top! You can reuse these a few times too. Brilliant idea and reuse of materials.

Now here is the area of the yard that believe it or not, was once all concrete! A wet concrete cutter was used to cut up the concrete to be reused to create raised garden bed (again - fantastic reuse of material!). Best thing about this method is that you can cut the concrete to the exact size you want it to be to create height of garden beds as well as a path to access them.

Here they are using builders sand to held level out the concrete pieces and compact it down to create the paths and walls for the garden bed

The beds were filled with soil and compost

A cover was made to protect the piping from the kitchen

Beautiful!

Ready to plant out with all these goodies

Mel and her fabulous new garden even made it into the local paper! Check out the story HERE.

UPCOMING WEST-SIDE PERMABLITZES:

Both in West Footscray!
+ Sat 10 Oct - Permablitz #77 Michelle's at West Footscray [more info here]
+ Sat 31 Oct - Nyree's place in West Footscray More info here

Viva la spring. Please come and join Nyree and Willie in the West to help transform their small, barren, concrete yard into a scene from "The good life". We will be building and planting a chicken house and run, raised garden beds and a vertical garden using the wire frames from old bed bases that require stripping. We also need help pulling up the front fence and garden to prepare the soil for a future food forest.

I'm sad I won't be able to make the one this Saturday. I'm already booked into a CAE class to learn how to string my own pearl necklace! But hope to see you at Nyree's at the end of the month.

In the meantime be sure to check out the fabulous newlook Permaculture Out West blog!

moo loves you! - win a free Diggers Club 6 month membership

noreply@blogger.com (moo i made it) — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 04:21:00 PDT

[image from flickr]

Hope you all had splendid weekends! I meditated, saw a dance production at Melbourne International Arts Festival, did a permaculture workshop class and cooked Kosheri from the Ottolenghi cookbook. (If you don't have this cookbook, I am telling you HUNT IT DOWN!)

I'm about to put my Diggers Club order in to claim my free membership seeds. I also am ordering a few books, and coz my order totals over $75 I can claim a free 6 month Diggers Club membership to give as a gift to someone. (I do not 'gift' as a verb!)

So I thought I'd share the love with some dear reader. Membership means you will get their quarterly seed catalogues of hundreds of delicious, jaw droppingly exotic heirloom vegies that will inspire you to get out into your yard and food garden to your hearts delight! The catalogues also have some great articles in them. You will get a discount on all the items in their catalogue and you get some free seeds from them as well. Plus membership gives you free entry to their gardens (in Victoria, Australia - Heronswood down in Dromana, near Mornington and St Erth near Daylesford).

If you'd like the 6 month membership, please leave me a comment, tell me where you're from, what you like reading on my blog, anything really. I love hearing from my readers! I'll randomly pick a winner this week.

seems like a good sunday to veg out

noreply@blogger.com (moo i made it) — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 06:46:00 PDT

[click image to enlarge]
I've long heard about the fantastic, colourful community gardens at St Kilda, 'Veg Out'. They're having an open day this Sunday so seems the perfect opportunity to check it out!

You can check out more about the gardens here.

calling all westies! support letters needed for a maidstone community market garden

noreply@blogger.com (moo i made it) — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 14:26:00 PDT

[image from flickr
- imagine if we could establish something like THIS right here in Maidstone! To share with all!]

So many exciting community projects happening in the inner west at the moment!

Last month I attended my first Permaculture Out West meeting - I was so excited to hear it even existed! Like minds in my own neighbourhood, who'd have thunk it? Actually these guys put me to shame, I've just scrabbling to find out what's going on and helping where I can.

One project I am particularly interested in is a proposal they are putting forth to council to start up some market community gardens at a site in Maidstone. Council are wanting to sell the disused land that was once upon a time the old Maidstone Community Centre and later a tennis club. It's just a short walk from our place.

The POW group are pitching to council to delay the sale for 5 years and to let us try and establish some kind of community market gardens, in the model of CERES. The idea is that the organic produce grown at the gardens would be available for purchase and you could subscribe to get a $20 a week box of seasonal veggies delivered to your door etc..

They are collecting signatures and email to council, but it needs to be in by Oct 30. So if you are a local resident in the Maribyrnong Council area, and think it's a good idea, please take five minutes to write a short support email to the address below!

---

Maribyrnong City Council is seeking expressions of interest for the purchase of council land by public tender for Maidstone Public Hall site at 16 Thomson Street Maidstone.

Permaculture Out West (POW) is proposing that the land be kept in community hands.

Permaculture Out West (www.pow.org.au) is a group of individuals interested in growing more food in the city.

Our goals are:
to reduce our impact on the rural landscape;
to produce food in a more sustainable way. No petroleum based
to re-connect people to their community and to the land.

We are a not-for-profit group. Run by community members for the community.

POW’s proposal is to develop a market garden on Maidstone Public Hall site. Vegetables would be grown on site without the use of pesticides and herbicides. Water would be harvested from the site’s building.

Planned Services
a weekly box of fresh vegetables
box of vegetables delivered to your door
collection of your food waste. This will be composted and used for the garden beds.

We are proposing a commercial operation that will employ 2 people on site to maintain the gardens. Parking and traffic will be kept to a minimum. We respect the right for people to enjoy their neighbourhood and not add additional car traffic and parking problems.

If you support POW’s proposal to keep the land in community hands, please register your support by sending an email to KeepMaidstonePublicHall@pow.org.au. Please include your name, address, phone number and email address. We’ll use your name and address in the Expression of Interest application to show the level of support for a market garden. Your details will NOT be passed onto a third party, and we won’t attempt to contact you unless you indicate you’d like to be actively involved.

If you cannot email or if you want more information, please call Katerina: 0422 261 725.

Our expression of interest must be submitted by Friday 30th of October, so please contact us before then. This is our only chance to keep this land in community hands!

Cup Day Fashion - Spring Top

noreply@blogger.com (moo i made it) — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 10:54:00 PST

Finally back at the sewing machine!

Here's the winnings from my efforts this Melbourne Cup Day:

Got up early. Saw my acupunturist before 9am. Went to yoga at 10am. Came back had lunch and got my teeth into this project - a refashioned batik op shop shirt.

Used the trusty Simplicity 3742 pattern that I have used a couple of times. This pattern is SO EASY. It's in the 'Easy To Sew' range for a reason. A good one to do when you haven't sewn for a while. It's the first time I've used the Elna since I got served and it was so smoothe and quiet and running like a dream! Little workhorse that it is.

I made an obie belt using a very simple pattern out of the June 2009 Burda Modern magazine.

I tidied up the fabric stash this weekend too. I don't know why it hadn't occurred to me before but all it took doing was clearing out the linen closet, which really doesn't have THAT much stuff in it and there is more than enough room to fit the fabric stash in there! Now the key is to USE UP the stash, not just keep adding to it. No more fabric shopping allowed until I make a sizeable dent in it.

POW picnic this sunday

noreply@blogger.com (moo i made it) — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 13:52:00 PST

Permaculture Out West are holding an open BYO picnic at the Maribyrnong Living Museum this Sunday and you're all invited!

It's our end of year get together, and will be part of a full day of festivities as part of 'Memorybyrnong' project - celebrating all the stories of people living in the area of Maribyrnong.

If you haven't been to the Living Museum, here's a great opportunity to check it out! Situated by the Maribyrnong River in Pipemakers Park, off Van Ness Ave, Maribyrnong (Melway Ref Map 28 B10), it's a beautiful site. My favourite part is the History Of The Land Garden.View Map

There are other groups holding events throughout the day, Permaculture Out West will be having the BYO picnic from 4pm-7pm. You can come down to say hi, see what we're about, but it's also going to be the opportunity to put some faces to the email addresses on the mailing list! Should be a lot of fun.

If you're REALLY keen, POW will also be having a stall at the Braybrook Big Backyard adjacent to Braybrook Community Garden on Churchill Ave too:

Braybrook’s Big Backyard
Sunday 29 November, 12noon to 4pm
Braybrook Community Centre
107-139 Churchill Ave, Braybrook Park

So much happening out west!

ALSO while I'm at it, this looks like it's going to be lots of fun too!:

Hope to see you at one of them!

when all the planets align...

noreply@blogger.com (moo i made it) — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 07:47:00 PST

If you live in Melbourne, you may have heard astrologist Stella Woods on RRR or read one of her columns. I'm on her mailing list and she's generously given her followers $50 gift vouchers to give to friends and family, to go towards either an astrology or tarot face to face reading or phone reading.

The phone readings are a lot cheaper than the face to face ones, so with the voucher you could get a half hour reading for $40. Perhaps you'd like to hear Stella's take on what 2010 holds for you?

If you'd like one of the vouchers, please drop me a line with your email and postal address.

Let me know by Monday 15th Dec Melbourne time as she is only offering it for a limited time!

Nyree's Spring Blitz

noreply@blogger.com (moo i made it) — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 14:21:00 PST

Yesterday, Scott came around for an initial site visit of our yard to start scoping out it out for our Permablitz next year. So excited!

But I realised I have been very slack and have been HOARDING photos of delectable gardens that I really must share with you all.

First up, here's a Permablitz we did a month or so ago at Nyree's place in West Footscray. It was a lot of fun, and so organised! Nyree emailed out an overview of what we would be in for so we knew what tools would be needed and what kinds of things we'd be doing. Then when we turned up they had details of the projects to be done displayed with instructions and lists of materials to be used for them up and everything:

It was a relatively small site, but it's always so exciting to see just how much it's possible to fit in!

Here's the before shots of the front yard - concrete and geraniums.

With an army of 'blitzers though, the fence was dismantled,

concrete was smashed and ripped up,

beds built and paths made

Look how much bigger the space looks now! Sure beats unproductive concrete

This space has now been planted out as a FRUIT FOREST, veggie beds and sawdust paths.

Meanwhile out the back...

We ripped out some concrete in front of the brick shed, to create a raised veggie bed. Here we're measuring out where the bed will go by seeing how long the sleepers we have to work with are.

Ripping out that wretched kikuya grass, it even survives under concrete!

Digging a sharp trench to try and stop the kikuya from growing back into the bed

Building the frame

Recycled piece of sheet roofing used as a water barrier so as not to damage the brick of the shed

Thick layer of wet newspaper laid on the bottom, again to hopefully retard any kikuya regrowth

And now the great raised bed lasagne mix. Here a layer of food scraps on the bottom - the bed is quite deep so these will just break down into compost.

Layer of compost and soil

Then a layer of peastraw litter from a friend's chook house (!), compost, handfuls of blood and bone

Filling up! Though of course, this always breaks down and goes down a fair bit.

Don't forget to water between each layer.

Ready to plant!

And what was a disused little corner is transformed into a highly productive, sizeable garden bed!

And in true permie style, making the most of every bit of available space, this space under the is being converted into a chook run, and a raised chook house built (no, the cubbie's not being turned into a chicken mcmansion!)

What a day!

Cycling On My Mind

noreply@blogger.com (moo i made it) — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 12:47:00 PST

Happy New Year everybody!

Hoping 2010 is treating you all well. We had a lovely Xmas and NY break, heading back to Adelaide and spending time riding old bicycles around the leafy suburbs, going to the local pool, going on bushwalks and of course catching up with friends and family. Then we headed down the Limestone Coast and stuffed ourselves silly on crayfish, but were too scared to go swimming too far from shore after hearing scary stories of white pointers in the area. We went out for a paddle on my birthday (NYE) in Beachport, the town is so pretty, and the water was so blue - but then I saw something with a fin swim past and I refused to go in past my knees after that.

Anyway, here I am on my very lovely Christmas/ birthday present. How lucky am I?! I've never been one for new year's resolutions, mainly I just don't think you should have to wait for the start of a calendar year to decide to do something differently. BUT I have decided I want to have more physical activity in my regular days. I feel so much better when I am on holidays, and I am sure it's because I'm not just sitting at a desk for 7 hours straight! So I've decided I have to consciously do something to change that.

So first up (and this is totally nanna, but anyone who knows me knows I'm rock-nanna so it's hardly a revelation), when we were out Xmas shopping this year I picked myself up a pedometer. I have always heard people say it really worked for motivating them to walk more and you know what? It totally works for me! Instead of thinking "oh I can't be bothered walking all that way" or wanting to park the car really close to where I'm going, everything's an opportunity to get more steps on the pedometer to meet the 10,000 steps/ day target! Highly effective psychology, tick!

As a result our dog is getting much longer walks now, an hour a day and he loves it as do we. It's a really nice way to come back together after a working day, and spend sometime with your partner. I'll be really sad when daylight savings end.

And secondly, my beautiful bike. I have only ever had mountain bikes in my adult life. I don't know why. Some old boyfriend must have told me it was the best one to get and I was too dumb to know otherwise. I had no idea what a huge difference there is to riding a mountain bike and a road bike. My mountain bike used to stick to the concrete like it was TAR!

My new bike (who I have named "Harriet"), which is beautifully vintage style, a step through with the cushiest brown leather seat EVER, has road tyres and it glides seamlessly over the road! It makes cycling a JOY! So easy. I can't believe how smoothe the gears are! I am sounding like someone who knows something about cycling and believe me, I don't. I have terrible balance and not very confident on the road. But this bike feels GOOD, and stable and I'm working out a route to ride to work so I can try and do so at least once a week.

Plus it's good to have inspiration for looking stylish on your bike:

Anyway, it's already a stupidly busy start to the year, but while it's summer I'm still determined to make time to enjoy it!

Only thing is, I have this little thing called a wedding coming up in 3 months time. Can't it just organise itself already? All I want to do it plan the honeymoon!

Moo's 15 Minutes

noreply@blogger.com (moo i made it) — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 02:57:00 PDT

Hey there! Sorry to have been a stranger the past few months. I've been busy with work, wedding and whooping cough! All have been quite unrelenting.

But now our time has arrived - AA and I have a REALLY BIG WEEK --

THURSDAY we're going to be on this week's episode of one of my faaaavorite shows Costa's Garden Odyssey. Check it out, here's a short preview:

Excuse the closeup of the funny look I gave my housemate - when he said to me, before 10.00am 'I'm dying for a drink' - and he wasn't talking coffee.

I just hope they don't use any bits of me talking, I was particularly inarticulate that day!

FRIDAY - we're going to the Old Treasury Building to 'do the paperwork' to make us married in the eyes of the law

SUNDAY - we'll be in Olinda, The Dandenong Ranges to have a ceremony lead by a close friend, to be married in the eyes of our dearest family and friends!

See you on the other side
xo Moo

moo has moved

noreply@blogger.com (moo i made it) — Sun, 30 May 2010 19:00:00 PDT

Just a heads up that the blog has undergone a REVAMP and has relocated from Wordpress to Blogger.

The website address remains the same - www.mooimadeit.com but any old links probably won't be working I'm afraid. All the posts are here though so if you're having trouble finding something please just let me know!

And as I realise I post about a variety of things and not all my gardening readers may be interested in my sewing posts and vice versa, it's now possible to just subscribe to the rss and/ or email updates of my 'grow', 'sew', 'taste', or 'what's on' posts if you wish (as well as the full blog of course). Just head to the main page to do so!

Oh yes, I do love to file.

mrs moo!

noreply@blogger.com (moo i made it) — Mon, 31 May 2010 05:29:00 PDT

Hey there! I'm back! And Mrs Moo now thank you very much.

I must say, we had THE MOST FUN EVER! And really, it was a fabulous wedding week - it really was a whole week of celebration shenanigans and happenings. A festival of wedding!

Before we set off to the marriage registry the Costa's Episode we featured in aired, AND we did an interview and photo shoot for the local newspaper about our unusual wedding gift registry.

As we've been living together for some years already now, in lieu of a traditional registry we instead requested, if our guests wished to give us a gift, if they could contribute some money to us getting a rainwater tank. And as luck would have it, just weeks before our wedding our local council announced a bulk-buy discount scheme they are organising for rainwater tanks and the like!

Their info session was scheduled for when we were to be on our mini-honeymoon so when I rang up to find out more info and mentioned our registry they got very excited and asked if they could include it on their press release... and we ended up with this:

click picture to enlarge

We had some generous donations and I'm very excited to report we have enough to cover a slimline tank and installation.

p.d.c. here i come

noreply@blogger.com (moo i made it) — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 07:16:00 PDT

[re-greening the suburbs via flickr]

Woooooooooo... I am very excited because I've finally signed up to do something I've been wanting to do for ages!

I am going to do my Permaculture Design Certificate!

Ever since I have attended my first Permablitz, I have heard attendees talk excitedly about how they are completing their PDC or how they recently completed one or reminisce with people they completed the course with.

Basically it's a recognised course that covers a broad range of subjects to provide a holistic overview of permaculture systems and sustainable living.

There are variety of ways of doing the course. There are residential courses where you go and spend 2-3 weeks on a site, intensively learning and applying principles in practical activities. But it can be a bit hard for those working full time to arrange time off to do the course in that format.

There are also a few places that offer the course as a series of weekend classes stretching over several months.

Either way the courses tend to be quite pricey, between $800 to $1000 for 70-80 hours from what I have seen. So you can imagine how excited I was when I saw this in the latest edition of PIE (Permaculture Melbourne newsletter):

click picture to enlarge

Not only is this course offered outside of regular working hours, it's also government funded so only $395! Actually affordable! The only thing is that I will have to drive out to Monbulk at least once a week for a few months but I don't mind. That's out near The Dandenong Ranges where we recently got married and will be about an hour each way. I think I'll barely notice it because I'll be so excited.

I think most people that do PDCs do it out of personal interest really, but I have met so many people who said it really was a lifechanging experience for them. The principles and philosophy behind permaculture are really holistic applicable to so many areas of life, not just the backyard!

So I rang up 9am the morning after I saw this ad and signed up! There have been courses before that I've been interested in and tried to enrol but they were booked out already so I certainly didn't want to miss out this time, especially at that price. And it's being taught by Pete The Permie who I've heard from about the traps. I believe he's a bit of an expert in heirloom fruit trees and has an except nursery up in Monbulk.

FURTHERMORE this works out rather perfectly as our newly-wed Permablitz has been postponed until October as POW's activities have been halved while I was in the midst of wedding planning and incommunicado. Which means we will now be having a Spring-time 'blitz, which is quite good really because the warmer months are always a bit easier to get the volunteers along to. We were originally aiming for August, mainly so we could get some barerooted fruit trees in BUT as it turns out, POW are taking over helping manage the heirloom orchard at Werribee Mansion and soon there will be grafting workshops and it will be possible to get grafts for really cheap! Funny how these things fall into place.

PLUS by that time I will have a several weeks of the PDC under my belt and will be able to apply some of this in our own back yard. Stay tuned...

watch out, moo has a new hero

noreply@blogger.com (moo i made it) — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 05:00:00 PDT

I've been rather obsessively trawling the internet for inspiration, instructions, photos, videos on how to build your own chook house, as well as looking out for affordable but decent quality ones to buy.

Amidst the search I stumbled across GardenGirl on Youtube last night. Inspirational! Lady with powertool, and not afraid to use it! I like it. I want to be that!

Just check this out, would ya? This one is actually a edited, combined video of several video tutorials she has. But she has a multi-series video about making a chook tractor that fits perfectly within one of her raised beds, so she can rotate them in the fallow beds in a crop rotation. GENIUS!

This is JUST the type of inspiration I need, especially after the huge headache I got today trying to sort out our rainwater tank. Have decided we're going to build a base for it ourselves. Hand me that power drill!

eating our way around bali!

noreply@blogger.com (moo i made it) — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 04:40:00 PDT

My favourite way to survive the Melbourne winter is to escape to much warmer surrounds for at least a fortnight! This year we returned to beautiful Bali for our belated honeymoon. Almost instantly after landing I lost track of what day it was. I did however, keep tabs on when it was time for breakfast... second breakfast... early lunch... late lunch... there's just something about Bali that stimulates the appetite and sets the tastebuds salivating for every opportunity to eat yet another delicious meal!

at Mushroom Bay in the beautiful island of Nusa Lembongan

We had a wonderful time, having fun getting up to lots of activities. Moo is now a certified Scuba Diver! We also did lots of swimming, snorkelling, trekking, canoeing, horse riding. We also did a cooking class and of course indulged in LOTS OF EATING!

We love to eat at the local warungs. Check this out:

See all this food? All for... under $5! From our favourite warung in Legian - Warung Mudah on Jalan Double Six.

The Balinese have wonderful sauces - sambals. It was great to learn how to make some in our cooking class (more on that next post).

Here is a raw sambal that our friend Janu's mother made for us in Nusa Lembongan. Janu showed us how to eat with our hands, Balinese style, and ate two delicious fresh grilled whole tuna with the sambal and rice. The sambal was made of coconut oil, lots of shallots and garlic, and of course chilli. I think it was possibly my favourite meal of the trip. So simple, so fresh and so tasty!

The coconut oil in Bali seems to be different from what I have been able to locate in Melbourne. The Balinese coconut oil is a light oil, not at all smokey, just a light fragrant taste and very light coloured and clear. Does anyone have any idea if it's possible to find this in Melbourne? I thought if we'd be able to find it anywhere it'd be at our local markets and stores in Footscray but our searches have been to no avail so far!

Upon returning to Ubud, we headed straight to Ibu Oka opposite Ubud Palace for their legendary babi guling - suckling pig! I think if I had to choose a last meal, it would be babi guling! Gets me every time. As you can see, it's very popular with the local dogs too.

There are many hikes you can do from Ubud, up to the surrounding rice terraces and villages. We took a jalan jalan up Jalan Kajeng and followed it all the way up the top of the hill through the rice fields

And across to the Sari Organic Cafe - where they support local farmers and actively promote and encourage them to grow organic crops. They have an onsight kitchen garden where they harvest produce for use in the cafe.

breakfast!

you wouldn't expect it but they have the tastiest potatoes in Bali!

We took a day trip to Kedisan, to spend a half day canoeing Lake Batur.

canoeing Lake Batur

It was a very fine day, perfect conditions for canoeing - very little wind and the waters were very smoothe. Still after a few hours of canoeing lunch was very welcome! And delicious! That's a fresh-as-it-comes fish from the very lake we were just canoeing in.

Back in Ubud we also booked in for a very expensive meal (and I mean expensive by western standards let alone Balinese standards!) at the exclusive, internationally renowned Mozaic. It was a full degustation meal but truly an experience! Eat dish was an explosion of flavour. Some samples for your eyes:

This trip we made the journey across the island to West Bali - it took about 4 hours drive from Ubud. Along the way we stopped in at Lake Bratan which has a stunning temple on the lake:

lady of the lake

And then we headed up to a village in the surrounding mountains, called Munduk which has a beautiful waterfall you get hike down to:

And of course after all that walking, we had worked up a fierce appetite. We stopped in at a new restaurant opposite the waterfalls entrance with this tremendous view of the valley

And we tucked into some wonderful homestyle cooked meals.

a soothing clear broth soup with minced pork, chillies and fresh chives - ultimate comfort food!

beef curry

In West Bali we stayed at a resort in Banyuwedang, very close to the West Bali National Park (Taman Nasional Bali Barat). We ate at the resort restaurant most of the time while there which had a great selection of Balinese and Javanese cuisine (it's just a 30 minute boat ride from west bali to Java, we could see it from our resort!) as well as Japanese and western cuisine.

Bali is plentiful with fresh, tasty snapper

nom nom tuna steaks

grilled seafood special - king prawns and calamari

ramen

We rented a motorbike and travelled up the road to have lunch at the stunning Bali Tower Restaurant - originally built as an observatory tower for the West Bali National Park.

this was *the* best fried ayam (chicken) with a tomato type relish and chilli sambal

a daily delight - mee goreng!

black rice pudding mmm

All in all, a wonderfully relaxing trip! Next post will be sharing our Balinese cooking class! Stay tuned...

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes!

noreply@blogger.com (moo i made it) — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 02:01:00 PDT

Well it seems that getting married wasn't enough life change for one year for me...

After seven years in my dream job as a music publicist and over a decade in the music industry, I've decided it's time to move on and pursue the other passions I have been exploring in this blog the past two years - food and gardening.

In a few weeks time I will be joining the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Foundation as their new Project Officer for Victoria and Tasmania! I'm so excited but also still a bit in shock that I managed to score such an amazing job.

I'll be working with primary schools, helping them set up fruit and veggie gardens and kitchens to run classes in and helping them implement the SAKG program which teaches students between the ages of 8 and 12 to grow, harvest, cook and share their own food every week for 3 years of their schooling lives. It's such an incredible, unique and groundbreaking program, I'm so thrilled to be working on it. It's all about pleasurable food education - giving the kids a full, fun, sensory experience of food so they are not only learning skills but developing a genuine LOVE of food, growing it, preparing it and sharing it, sitting down for a meal and experiencing it and how food can bring people together!

Next week I start my Permaculture Design Certificate and then a couple of weeks later my new job. Talk about throwing oneself into a new field!

I seem to be moving through a whole array of emotions this week, this is a gigantic life change for me. I'm really sad to be leaving the music industry and the family that I consider the small company I work for, but in my heart I know it's the right time for me to do this. Working in music is all I ever wanted to do when I grew up and I did everything it was possible to do in the music world in my small hometown. I of course listened and consumed as many new exciting sounds as I could, when I was old enough to go to licensed venues I was at at every show from the first strum of the opening band til the headline act. I wrote about it, I organised shows, I booked a venue, I managed bands, I worked at a record store (and yes it was just like that film High Fidelity!), I started doing publicity for friends labels and tours and then all the stars seemed to align and I managed to get a full time music publicity job for an incredible independent label that gave me the opportunity to move to Melbourne and work with my favourite bands. It's been such an amazing ride, and I'm getting rather nostalgic this week.

At the same time I'm also really looking forward to music purely being my hobby again and also feel good knowing that by me moving on, there will be an opportunity for another really young, hungry, enthusiastic music fan to fill. For me it will hardly be a door closing, I will always love music, and I'm looking forward to being nothing more than a fan again! And once again it seems that all the stars have aligned to allow me to move onto this new and exciting next chapter of my professional life...

Grow it, Graft it!

noreply@blogger.com (moo i made it) — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 05:19:00 PDT

Low and behold, I recently discovered that despite my lack of postings the past few months, people are still reading my blogs. So I best start updating more regularly huh!

Permaculture Out West just announced a Grafting Workshop next weekend. I have heard excellent feedback from the grafting workshops held at Braybrook Community Garden in the past but never been able to attend one myself. This one will be run by some of the same people so I am going to make sure I get down to this one though.

From what I currently understand, grafting is where you get a plant with a strong 'root stock' - good strong, root structure and you graft another plant onto it that might not have as strong a root stock as the one you are grafting onto. Commonly this is done with fruit trees. The trick is in where joining the two together - where to cut each plant, how to join them together, how to avoid either getting any disease into their open 'wounds', knowing what graft will take onto what stock. I have never tried it myself but am quite excited to learn. We visited an open garden a few years ago and there was an elderly Greek man there showing how to make simple grafts. In the garden they had grafted all sorts of things, the one that I was most impressed by was an eggplant on some kind of strong perennial root stock - with eggplants the size of footballs hanging off it! You also can graft several different types of plants onto the one root stock - sometimes you see those 'fruit salad' trees - one root stock with several different fruit trees grafted onto the one tree. Not sure how successful they are in the long term but great idea for those short on space!

Anyway I can't wait to find out more and have a go myself. Just $15 and you get to take home your own grafted fruit tree, bargain!

Grafting Workshop

Learn the tricks of grafting your own fruit trees for your backyard orchard in a friendly atmosphere with plenty of opportuniuty for asking questions and learning with people witrh similar interests to yourself.

Held at:

Maidstone Community Centre

21 Yardley street Maidstone (enter Via Gibb Street gate)

Sunday, August 15,

10:00 AM until 1:00 PM

Tea and Coffee provided

Cost: Only $15:00 per person PLUS you get a newly-grafted fruit tree to take home!

Numbers strictly limited

Book via the POW website: www.pow.org.au

Brought to you by Permaculture Out West

and

Werribee Park Heritage Orchard

how embarrassment!

noreply@blogger.com (moo i made it) — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 02:29:00 PDT

Yes I realise I have shamefully dropped off the Blogosphere! A million and one apologies, I'm so embarrassed. I've just been so busy - with the new job, amidst my Permaculture Design Certificate course which we're on a break from for 6 weeks, and for some reason I decided I could therefore fit in a digital slr photography course in between there, plus lots of Permablitz organisational shenanigans. It's all going on!

Just quickly wanted to share something I just stumbled across happening up in Castlemaine. Looks fabulous! It starts this Sunday though so if you're interested better hop to it, though it's possible to attend them in individual sessions too! Click for details.

busy as a bee...

noreply@blogger.com (moo i made it) — Wed, 17 Nov 2010 03:45:00 PST

Whilst I'm a rather ashamed that I have become such a non-blogger this year, the fact is it's because I've been far busier DOING rather than BLOGGING. So inactivity online hasn't meant inactivity in real life. It just makes me a little sad because many people have come to know me through this blog - to the point where there is one regular Permablitzer who calls me "Moo" whenever he sees me! He actually says "Ah, Moo's here!" which I think is rather hilarious.

I suppose it's only natural - now I'm able to do a lot of garden related things in my work life, I haven't really needed this other outlet to express my thoughts and ideas on the subject as I did previously, when I was only just rediscovering this interest. I'll probably end up starting a music blog in a few years haha! Ahhh maybe not. It's the last thing the world needs another one of.

But how funny that I now spend pretty much ALL my time thinking, doing, looking at designs and studying permaculture.

Some days I'm lucky enough to get to spend my time with kids doing this

My Permaculture Design Course is ticking along very nicely. I'm thoroughly enjoying it, there is so much to cover and though I'm learning so much I feel like we're only scraping the tip of it really. It's like an introduction really - just opening the door to a whole new way of looking at EVERYTHING in life. Care of the earth, care of people, fair share... far, far, farrrrrr beyond growing veggies in your backyard which is how I came across permaculture in the first place. It's really, quite literally, blowing my mind.

I'm constantly looking at garden plans, and from what I have learnt in my PDC and just generally all those garden workshops, blogs I've read, Permablitzes I have attended, I am now able to apply all this knowledge I've been gathering and finding I actually know something! It feels quite funny being on this side, finding I know a little something on the topic rather than forever being the student. I am still very much the student though. In some ways, the more I learn, the more I realise I have so much more yet to learn!

For now though I want to share a little something with you I'm secretly very proud of. I was involved in my first Permablitz from BEHIND the scenes. Whilst I don't have the confidence to feel I could do a design just yet, one thing I know I can do is organise so I helped in that way as best I could.

It killed me I wasn't able to attend on the day, I had a very good excuse though - I was attending my PDC, learning all about sustainable house design and how to draw out site plans. So I just turned up at the end to see the realisation of all we had planned. So thrilling!

It was a Braybrook Blitz, and I get so excited by any kind of community activity in the inner west. There are so many amazing people living out this way.

The blitz included the construction of raised garden beds, digging out of a rather boggy-prone area and filling with small pebbles to create a low maintenance area for the family to enjoy, and a magnificent chook house and the chook proofing of the side of the house - including reinforcing of front gate, side of house, and construction of back gate to give the chooks a nice large run at the side of the house.

A family friendly 'blitz. Some raised garden beds made of recycled materials and filled using the Esther Dean inspired "lasagne" technique of layers of carbon (straw etc) and nitrogen (compost, manure, greens)

A low maintenance area for the young family to hang out, amongst their beautiful raised veggie beds, the structure and beds made by Rayna's dad from salvaged decking timber.

Me and Mara, one of the two fabulous co-designers. The other amazing designer was the very heavily pregnant Amanda, who facilitated the day. That incredible lady's energy just amazes me - always smiling, she's the embodiment of pure joy! Going straight on my list of inspirational mums-to-be. A list that seems to be ever growing. A and I are finding ourselves increasingly becoming the minority. Certainly pretty much all our cool friends in the 'hood are awesome young parents with no signs of slowing down!

Kids inspecting the coup inside and out. Nice ramp!

The chicken coup design was made up on the spot, by a couple of the very experienced VEG crew who volunteered on the day too. They improvised with all the fantastic salvaged recycled materials the blitz hosts Karl and Rayna have been gleaning. I think it's just brilliant. WANT ONE!

Utilising the little pockets at the bottom of the pallets - creating little trays to plant some chook food in

And water from the roof to flow into it. Brilliant permie thinking! Multiple functions.

A salvaged cupboard becomes a two door access to the coup to collect the eggs.

Tada! Nesting box.

I think I may have a serious case of chook house envy.

PDC me

noreply@blogger.com (moo i made it) — Sun, 19 Dec 2010 03:33:00 PST

Moo I did it!

passata passions

noreply@blogger.com (moo i made it) — Sat, 05 Feb 2011 16:33:00 PST

Oh woe is me.

All my life I've dreamt of finding an Italian family willing to adopt me as a long lost cousin, just a few times a year - but especially during the great passata making festivities!

And here I am, so close and yet so far --

On Sunday 27th February, there will be a local Sustainability Expo, just around the corner from our house, where they will be doing a great big tomato bottling session with the local community. FOR FREE! Alas, we're already committed to going to another workshop that day.

So here I am passing on the info to the rest of you. With any luck our workshop will get postponed to another week :(

Preserve the Harvest - Preserve the Planet - Sustainability Expo

Sunday, February 27, 2011. 10AM - 2PM

Maidstone Community Centre

21 Yardley Street Maidstone

Hold onto your tomatoes! This is the event you have been waiting for.

Have you ever watched one of those foodie programs on TV, where four or five generations of one family get together to cook-up and bottle a years worth of tomatoes? Have you ever wished you could be part of an event like that? Well, here is your chance: Everyone is invited to come along and join in the very first Maribyrnong Community Tomato Bottling. Learn the dying art of turning your excess crops into homemade food for throughout the year.

BUT WAIT! -there's more!

Fruit and Vegetables for all

We will also have activities, displays and expert presenters to inform you about Fruit preserving, Home food drying, Bee keeping, Budding and grafting fruit trees for the home garden, making 'Local Lemonade' and herbal teas, and Permaculture Playgroups. There will also be displays by local providers of products and information for your sustainable lifestyle and much, much more.

And of course, we're going to keep you entertained and well-fed: There will be local musicians, a Henna tattoo artist and Face painting for the kids (maybe have you child painted to resemble your favourite dried fruit!). Have a bowl of pasta smothered in the sauce you just helped make. Grab a locally-made Halal sausage, cooked by locals on the local barbecue!

A fun and information filled day for the whole family.

"How much will all this cost?" you ask. And we answer "Zero, Nada, Nuffin',

Not a cent! It's a FREE event."

- It's a Community Event and you're a Community: Come and join us.

Plenty of bicycle parking will be available and the event will be on rain, hail or shine.

Local Carbon Offsets will be purchased for this event.

Proudly presented by Maribyrnong City Council

Enquiries:

Scott Hitchins

Sustainability Officer

Maribyrnong City Council

0411 861 412

It's Spring, it's time to get a Sew-along!

noreply@blogger.com (moo i made it) — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 23:40:00 PDT

What glorious weather we're having here in Melbourne, and what better time for Moo to come out of hibernation?

I'm running a sewalong/ pseudo-workshop for Permaculture Out West ~~this Saturday~~. Would love to see you there!

Sorry I'm sick so tomorrow's sewalong has been cancelled.
Stay tuned for Remake/ Remodel rescheduled!

~~Sat 6 Aug~~ Remake/ Remodel

- a refashioning sew-along!

Got an op shop habit? Keep meaning to “do something” with that totally too-big frock, crazy shirt or vintage pillow case, but just haven’t gotten around to it?

Well now’s the time to drag out the guilt pile and do some reinventing!

Come along and meet other folk who like to nip & tuck, reinvigorate, repurpose those vintage finds. See what others have done and find out how they did it, get inspired by each other’s creativity and learn where to start if you’re new at this.

BYO scissors and sewing machine or good ole fashion needle and thread. Bring along projects you’ve worked on and ones you need help starting with and we’ll get you going. It’s easier than you think.

Remake/ Remodel – a refashioning sew-along!

~~Sat 6 Aug 2pm-4pm~~

~~Maidstone Community Centre~~

~~21 Yardley Street, Maidstone~~

$15 | $10 for POW members

To book your place click here and fill in the online form