Congratulations to all the new graduates from the 2013 Permaculture Design Certificate course. It was a huge 2 weeks full of knowledge and inspiration from our outstanding collection of South West teachers.

Here is one of the beautiful testimonials from a student and a collection of pics taken over the PDC

“Before doing this course I thought my life was already on a great path but after completing the PDC its even better! For me it has filled all the empty spaces and connected all the separate parts to form a way of life that is even more whole. Permaculture is beyond gardening,

I would recommend this course to anyone with even an inking of interest. You will find something that resonates with you, if not everything! The content of this course is invaluable. Thank you Fair Harvest for providing the opportunity.”

Large Scale grey water management with PB Foreman

In the garden with certified organic grower Bee Winfield from Merri Bee organics

Compost making at Burnside Organic Farm

Learning from the author of the well known “Permaculture Plants” book Jeff Nugent in a shady grove at his property

Making Native Microbe Seed with Harry Wykman

One of the many inspired, hands on sessions given by Jamie McCall from Burnside Organic Farm

Collecting Honey at Fair Harvest

Spinning freshly collected honey at Fair Harvest

Final designs

We will be setting the date for the 2014 PDC soon so stay tuned .To see more details our teachers and the general format of this course click here

The post Permaculture Design Certificate 2013 Update and Pics appeared first on Fair Harvest.

Harry Wykman

Harry Wykman

Harry is passionate about moving into a life within ecological limits
— a low-energy life that is characterised by satisfying work and
harmonious, diverse communities of mutual assistance. This passion has
developed from an interest in permaculture. This interest began when
Harry read permaculture one and two at 18 years old.  Since then he
has been trying to become a gardener, designer and educator.  Harry
now has more than 10 years of gardening experience and lived in an
intentional community for 8 years. He has practiced permaculture
design thinking in community gardens, in Timor Leste, farming in the
UK and as the principle worker of a Perth-based edible landscaping
enterprise.  Harry now works for Perth City Farm where he is
responsible for intensive urban agriculture projects.

               and

Lucinda Giblett

Lucinda Giblett

A descendant of two pioneering farming families, Lucinda Giblett is a passionate steward of the land, speaker, writer and community volunteer

After university studies in communications, Lucinda travelled for several years before returning home to Manjimup. Her farther Harvey was embracing organic apple farming and this drew forth Lucinda’s desire to farm and her commitment to land stewardship.

As an answer to the question “how can we tuly live well?” Lucinda founded the charity “Stella Violets”. Named for her grandmothers, Stella Violets seeks to enrich local life, land and tradition.

Projects include converting a farm ute to fully electric power, making compost and biochar, nutrient cycling, preserving the harvest, recording local life stories, sharing wisdom ad growing beauty – both in our gardens and our lives.

Like to know more about Stellar, Violets Life Library, Living Museum and Gallery?  stellarviolets.org/connect

Lucinda and Harry will both be teaching on our 2013 PDC

The post Introducing two great new teachers to our team. appeared first on Fair Harvest.

For a quick look at the farm and a chat with some teachers and students click play….

To find out more about our PDC, our teachers and how to sign up click here

Thanks again Blair for your hard work and wishing you all the best in making videos for healthy, sustainable, earth loving projects.

The post Fair Harvest PDC Interviews and Video appeared first on Fair Harvest.

Fantastic night guys! Fabulous food, great people, local produce …….and of course an awesome setting.

Congrats to the Fervor Team for putting on an amazing show and thanks to Blair for being there with his video equipment to catch it all on camera

The post Pop Up Restaurant in the Fair Harvest Barn with Fervor Food appeared first on Fair Harvest.

A definite highlight of our visit to the Margaret River was a stop in at Fair Harvest. Fair Harvest is a permaculture farm located within Margaret River as mentioned in my Plot piece. Jodie and Do are passionate food growers who aim to inspire and enable people to grow their own produce. They host monthly swap meetings for locals and have recently renovated their old farm shed to provide an ideal venue for workshops and local events. On our arrival Jodie gave us a laminated card to read as we self-toured the farm. We started at the aquaponics bed and marvelled at the lush veges growing in it, and then moved onto the vege patch. Given that WA gets its rain in winter, the top 4 beds of the vege garden are irrigated in the summer while the rest of the garden is used for hardy perennials or winter annuals. The bathtubs dotted around the garden are home to hundreds of worms who work hard to convert the kitchen scraps into worm wee for fertilising the gardens. The citrus orchard is irrigated by the compost shower and is also home to the ducks, geese and chickens that do their bit by fertilising as they control the pests and mow the grass!

They also have a deciduous orchard with almonds, nectarines, apples, pears and other fruits which is netted to protect the fruit from the hungry parrots. I have never seen such healthy looking and laden apple and pear trees anywhere as I saw here.

Fair Harvest also offer B&B – with a difference – you get to stay in a wonderfully decked out tee pee set in amongst the gardens – complete with its own compost toilet and rainwater shower!

As we wandered back to the main area we passed the straw bale seating recently created during a workshop. Back inside we were lucky to enjoy freshly baked muffins with our coffee and have a yarn with Jodie and her family who had come for a visit to celebrate Jodie’s niece’s 3rd birthday. We left Fair Harvest inspired and reinvigorated, and thoroughly recommend a visit to anyone who is in the region. Find out more about Fair Harvest by visiting their website fairharvest.com.au.

Thanks Fran!

The post Fabulous Feedback!……..Uki Garden Club appeared first on Fair Harvest.

Mums and Kids learn about worm farming with Do

Cape to Cape Homeschooling Group Visits the Farm

kids writing labels for their seeds

Wow! It was so good having this enthusiastic, friendly attentive group visit us at the farm. The children ranged from toddlers to teenagers and were just a great group to test our kid skills on. After a solid hour of exploring the gardens, orchards and animals they were super ready to do something and we had  a propagation exercise ready.

The older kids learned about the role legumes play in the garden and the multiple ways they can be used before planting their seeds, while the younger ones stuck to the simple but satisfying activity of selecting, planting, labelling and watering in seeds.

To finish of a great morning everyone picnicked, played and drank cappuccinos before taking their little pots home to grow.

The post Cape to Cape Homeschooling Group Visits the Farm appeared first on Fair Harvest.

Compacting the compost (see the last system in the foreground)

Creating a Compost Shower

Over the last year we have been developing our Compost shower system. Based on the Jean Pain composting system it is simply uses  the heat energy created from decomposing organic material to create hot water for our outdoor shower.

coiling the polly pipe inside the compost

To create the ideal hot water compost we use %100 wood chips and ensure they are very well watered and compacted, we are aiming to create an anaerobic situation, the bacteria that thrive in this situation create heat as they busily metabolise and reproduce. Remember that the primary aim is to have a consistent temperature over a long period of time, not a quick compost for the garden. The ideal temperature for the shower is between 38 and 42 degrees, our last compost shower hot water system gave us 5 months of hot water!

   Other bonuses include………………………

Beautiful compost for the garden at the end

A great little outdoor shower

Water run off directly onto our citrus orchard

and at the end …compost!

Our latest compost shower is getting ready for our Permaculture Design Certificate coming up in just a couple of weeks.

The post Getting ready for the PDC!……..Hot Water from the Compost appeared first on Fair Harvest.

End of Oil

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Fair Harvest Margaret River April 21st – May 5th 2013

This is a unique opportunity to gain your Permaculture Design Certificate (PDC) while studying under some of the South West’s most renowned teachers and growers. If you have bought or are thinking about buying land in the South West, think about spending 2 weeks learning about others successes and failures and what their research and experience has taught them. This is a group of teachers that care deeply about the earth and want to do the right thing by the land while growing food for their families and communities.

Students will be based at Fair Harvest Permaculture and have the use of all the facilities we have developed here  over the years. Camping on site is highly recommended , but for those of you that really don’t like camping there is a great selection of accommodation in a 5km radius of our farm.

Teaching will take place on site at different farms and properties so that living, permaculture in action will be the classroom.

Students will receive a recognised certificate after completing a full deign process on a given project and will leave with a richer understanding of their environment and it’s potential.

Teachers include Jamie McCall from Burnside Organic Farm Bee Winfield from Merrie Bee Organics, Claire Coleman from Living Waters, Jeff Nugent who wrote “Permaculture Plants” and more

To see more about our teachers, course details and online sign up  click here

The post South West Permaculture Design Certificate at Fair Harvest appeared first on Fair Harvest.

Our Wonderful Raw Food/vegan Chef Sach has now offered to run this fantastic workshop on how to make your own Tofu, Tempeh and Seitan….he will also pass on some of his great recipes on how to enjoy these products. Everyone will then be welcome to sit down to a long table dinner to enjoy a meal together.

Thursday March 21st  6PM – 8PM

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