Winter course in Self-Sufficiency

 Hi Everyone. We are offering training for this winter for off-grid self-sufficiency, prepping and survival in the wilderness of Tasmania. We have 200acres of regrowth pine forest overlooking the Tarkine rainforest. Looking for people who want to learn about cool-climate self-sufficiency. It will be cold and can snow but what we teach you won’t find anywhere else. Please see the photo below. If you are interested please contact Lisa or Gavin on ghfarmtas@gmail.com or txt 0459 263 525.

 

Cabbages in the office

**This is from 25th October as spring has hurried on now and it’s got busy and I haven’t had much time to post.**


It’s been a very wet spring here this season and my peas rotted in the ground - so did my neighbours, and even my friends in town, and they’re right near coast. Cabbages have done pretty well though. I think Lisa is sick of hearing about the cabbages. She calls them ‘Findhorn’ cabbages - after the community in Scotland that reputedly grew giant vegetables, helped by the plant spirits, or devas. She likes eating cabbages more than me, though - I’m just the grower. Maybe she just dreams of giant cabbages, she is of Scottish descent after all.

My office, the BC garden, is looking a bit improved but not as good as last year at this time - although I have concentrated on a brassica crop this spring instead of as many potatoes. We’ve got potatoes in to come on after the brassicas but it’s been so wet I wasn’t able to put as much time into the garden as I would have liked. Still, it’s not looking too bad, and we’ve got food in the “hungry gap”. In fact we’re still eating the last of the apples and there’s plenty of dried chestnuts left as well as some maize and beans. We won’t starve.

Together with the Earth, our work in the garden provides for our bodies and nature provides beauty. So, here’s my office - and 'cabbages' for our souls.

Growing with Love is about Caring

Growing with Love is about Caring:

From Cracking Clay to Something Wonderful in 18 months

 

Gavin Edwards
Good Heart Farm
Lapoinya, Tasmania

We bought the farm mid 2012. I made the first garden here, the Hobbit garden, thinking we were going to stay in the packing shed but the shed turned out to be too noisy near the road. So then we moved down the bottom to the cabin. Of course, I had to make another garden down there (the Magic Circle garden in 2013).

September 2014 saw Lisa wanting to go to a herb conference in Arizona. I was against leaving in spring - after all it was a major planting time - and if we don’t plant we have to buy shop food - yuk! Lisa was determined to go however, so I said I’d go and protect her (Women! I’m a sucker, I listened to my heart). Besides, it gave me a chance to hike the back trails in search of native edibles.

We were going to need to expand the garden anyway. So I built onto the back of the Circle and made the BC (Behind Circle) garden.
It took about three days.

 

We were about to leave - the day before I planted the beds out to potatoes - just finishing mulching before we left. Close call.
This is what it looked like in November 2014.

and December 2014

January 2015

 

We ate a lot of potatoes that year! In fact we were sick of potatoes. Luckily I had good lettuce and peas in the Magic Circle to break the monotony.



Later in the year my goodly neighbour, Stan, then gave us, you guessed it, sacks of spuds! I thanked him.

January 2016 - and we’d had very little rain all winter and spring. It turned out to be drought. The ground (clay loam) cracked, nobody had any grass - it was the worst drought this area had ever known. Wisely, I left some beds in the circle unplanted - I figured I might not have the water to water the crops with and as it turned out I was right. We had drought followed by 100 bushfires burning throughout Tassie. I watered all my beds in the BCg by hand with watering cans.

But inside the fence was a different matter. This is how it looked on the 29 January 2016.
 

 Yes, an explosion of Food!

The yellow vine above is Dutch Purple podded peas ripening - pea soup in winter - yum.

Lisa in the corn 16feb16

Cucumbers and squash above

A heritage cherry tomato here - planted late on the back fence. Had about 200 off two bushes.

 Pumpkins growing 21st Feb 16

"Pumpkin!"

The harvest basket 23 Feb 16. Button squash (Patterson Panache Juane et verte), cherry toms and purple beans.

 First of March
and the pumpkins are still exploding and threatening to take over the whole valley



Time to harvest some (no frost yet but somethings starting to gnaw one - so time to come out just in case)

7 March 2016

This was in the driest summer ever and watered with watering cans. No poisons or chemical sprays - totally organic - you CAN do it.

I call this Self-Sufficient Gardening™. It works.

If you want to learn how to grow with love please contact us at The Good Heart School of Self-Sufficiency™

Hope to see you there!

Spring 2015 Classes

Intro to Self-Sufficiency: Spring                           Sat 5  Sept 

Want to get back to basics and start learning self sufficiency? Don't know where to start? This workshop is for you. Learn about what you can achieve doing self-sufficiency on a budget and what is best done in spring. Cost $50   Time: 10am-3pm

Beginners Organic Vegetable Gardening              Sat 26 Sept   

Always wanted to grow veggies but not sure how.? Join Gavin in the veggie patch on our farm where he will share with you his 45 years of gardening know-how on growing great veggies Cost $35 , Time 1-4pm (ongoing Saturday classes once a month).

Wild Herb Walk and Medicine Making                Sat 10 Oct

Walk around the farm with Community Herbalist Lisa McAndrew, where she will show you how to identify wild herbs and how they can help you heal. Make and take home a bottle of wild medicine from these plants. Cost $25 Time: 1-3pm (ongoing Saturday classes once per month).

Saving Our Food Plant Biodiversity                        Sat 7 Nov 

Join Master Seed Saver Gavin Edwards as he explains the threats to our heritage and heirloom food plants, Find out about the work of our Food Plant Sanctuary™ and learn about how and why biodiversity is essential to sustainable food growing.  Cost: $25, Time: 1-3pm.

Self Sufficiency learn by doing                              Sept - May

Ongoing instruction in self-sufficiency and organic growing are offered for people who would like to learn by doing as we run our smallholding. (Cost per day is $25 for 3 hours learning plus 2 hours labour. Please notify us of the dates that you would like to attend. We will teach you what we are doing on our farm at the time.

To RSVP please email ghfarmtas@gmail.com and state which workshop you will attend.

Copyright Lisa McAndrew, 2015. All rights reserved

Good Heart Farm Internships

 Good Heart Farm™

Internships 2015

Fantastic Learning Opportunity!

We have intern positions available on our farm for the autumn season.

We are looking for genuine, enthusiastic and creative people who are interested in learning about self-sufficiency and organic farming.

Be on the leading edge of knowledge, experience living on an organic farm and learn about the heart of self-sufficiency by joining us on our farm.

Good Heart Farm™ is located in the North West of Tasmania, on the edge of the Tarkine Wilderness.


We run the Good Heart School of Self-Sufficiency™ and Lapoinya Food Plant Sanctuary™ on our farm.  We are committed to teaching, promoting and preserving the Art of Self-Sufficiency as well as Saving Food Plant Biodiversity for the future.

Internships are for 6 to 8 weeks, starting March 2015. Accommodation is provided.
The internship is an exchange of our teaching for your help with work on the farm. This is a unique experience!  

Topics that you will learn about during your time with us include:

Organic Food Growing (including Organic vegetables, herbs, nuts, raising animals for meat and Organic Orcharding)   Herb Lore    Foraging & Wildcrafting   Food Preserving    Traditional Cooking    Building    Seed Saving   Recycling    Ethics and Philosophy of Self- Sufficiency    Saving Food Plant Biodiversity    Upcycling   Appropriate Technology   Traditional Arts and Crafts...  and more.

Come and join us and help us change the world!