Fryers Forest/8th WWOOF place

FRYERS FOREST
a gob smacking place


an intentional community of about 6 families on 330 acres nestled in the Castlemaine Diggings National Heritage Park - 15 minutes from the fabulous artistic community of Castlemaine and 90 minutes north of Melbourne

this is Stewart and Cath's house



May 21 to June 5, 2008


I spent all day on Tuesday May 20th hitch-hiking from Luc's house at Tailem Bend, SA to Castlemaine, VIC. That trip is 552k (345 miles) and is about a 7.5 hour car ride. It took me from 9am until 9pm and I rode with 7 different people. It went amazingly smoothly. If this is a trip to challenge my comfort zone, then this challenge definitely fit.





my new family for awhile - Stewart and Spike and Oscar and the little feathered Snowball who is always in the center of everything - here Oscar is making a secret compartment book and Stewart is helping cut away the book pages






this is THE BARN close to Stewart and Cath's house, a place for all visitors to Fryers Forest to stay, and for now is my little home - a great place to sleep and make a cozy fire in the wood burning stove at night - stack of wood on the left side right next to the composting toilet and the garden is out front
















Sandy's yurt and property at Fryers Forest











communal composting area that we made near the chooks - built with some of Sandy's pallets - then Anthony and I scooped horse manure - filled a big trailer with horse manure - then I transfered it into the new compost bins - the chooks were so curious and had to be in the middle of everything - I love these chook girls - loved feeding them - loved watching them run after me when they knew I had the kitchen scrap bucket - and I loved looking for their eggs












Melbourne was not far away so I went to the city a few times - Jon and I stayed there a couple of days to check out the art scene - a great city




one day/night in Melbourne I stayed in this building - the one with the 2 brick stacks - an old kiln for a brewery turned into apartments - the arches of the kiln still the shape of the apartment ceiling with the holes to the smoke chimney still there - great - a beautiful building in Melbourne - many still preserved just like the grain silos to the left of this photo converted into apartments as well - stayed in this old kiln with Sandy and his friends




making sauerkraut at Stewart and Cath's









cleaning out the chook apartment








HARVESTING NUT GRASS
































It was so great to see Jon again - he swung by on his way to Melbourne to sell his motorbike - we spent some good time roasting next to the roaring wood stove in the barn.





making bread - great recipe of Stewart's

8 Cups flour
4 Cups warm water
2 Tablespoons honey
1Teaspoon salt
2 Teaspoons dry yeast

baked in the wood stove oven






Snowflake hung out with us everywhere - he went to morning coffee with us on Mondays and Fridays, went on walks with us, hung out with us when we were roasting a lamb dinner in the campstove on the campfire, and even hung out with me in the wheelbarrow chewing on twigs while I gathered tinder for the fire









Stewart and Cath had some great cookbooks and I looked at as many of them as I could - I really liked this one, not so much for the recipes as for all of the stories and history and images of the aboriginal ways of using and collecting native foods

Tailem Bend/Luc's place

May 9th I took a bus - $46 - from Wilmington to Adelaide - about a 3-4 hour ride where I met up with a good friend of Lyle's, Luc Van DeGoor - who helped Lyle build his house. Luc was working in Adelaide and gave me a ride to his beautiful house in Tailem Bend.

TAILEM BEND

is about an hour and a half east of Adelaide - 96k
and to get there we cross the MURRAY RIVER on a little car ferry raft



MURRAY RIVER



Luc's great stone house - he built this himself

I was only at Luc's house 4 days, but could have stayed here a very, very long time - a beautiful place and great company



This was a great place to sit out at Luc's place - drinking coffee, looking at books, and with a great view of the Murray River right in front of me. Luc has a beautiful home - he built it with stones using the slipform method that is shown in this book...






Luc planted trees, trees and more trees...





walking to the river just down the hill from Luc's house




It is Luc's birthday and get ready, we are going for a boat ride on the Murray River - paddle, paddle and enjoy the quiet water!





pipe sucking up the Murray River for water usage - Luc's neighbor had to recently move the pipe out further into the river to be able to get enough water - results of the river levels being so low











Luc and his house and windmill behind him - we dug holes to plant new trees all along this path - I think 16 to 18 holes to plant red gums - his windmill he uses to pump water from the river to his house








The lot next door to Luc's place was abandoned and we found this beautiful and very massive clump of prickly pear cacti - all a bit prickly, but all very edible - I had never cooked it before so now was the time - I harvested a bit of the plant and the fruit and made birthday dinner for Luc - dinner and dessert...







sauted cacti with garlic, soy sauce and pumpkin seeds



cacti fruit cut up with fresh apples







nice fire on Luc's birthday








Luc and I picking olives - and washing, slicing. Luc's method is to slice each olive, and soak in water for 10 days changing the water twice a day, then put in brine or brine and oil, and ready in 6 months.









we filled up Luc's hat and more



























One day Luc dropped me off in Tailem Bend and I walked from Tailem Bend to Luc's house, about 5k or so. It was a beautiful walk, very quiet, along the Murray River at dusk to sundown.











Reading one of Luc's books: Primitive Hunters A Search For Man The Hunter
by Jan Jelinger published in 1989

and I found this bit on page 181 that I really liked - talking about the Bushmen of Africa -

survival is based on complete familiarity
with the local habitat,
on knowledge of food sources,
on aquaintance with the plant
and animal world,
and on the ability to make
maximum use of these
in the simplest way
without the development
of a more complete technology







The last night I stayed at Luc's house I cooked dinner on his wood stove in his beautiful kitchen - Luc makes soy milk every week and did not know what to do with the leftover crushed soybeans - he usually composts them - I asked if I could take on the challenge of finding something to cook using them - so away I went - I jumped on his computer and found several recipes - I chose CURRIED RICE SOY CAKES because I knew that he had leftover brown rice as well



CURRIED RICE SOY CAKES







2 other books of Luc's that I really enjoyed looking at...