The Food Forest is just outside Gawler, about a 40 minute train ride NE of Adelaide, and is an incredible, established, 15 hectare permaculture farm and learning center.
This is where I stayed, a bunkhouse for pickers and guests, a very comfortable strawbale structure having three separate rooms accommodating about 12 people.
bunkhouse with a small carob tree on the right
Lena at the bunkhouse
These are photos of Lena planting fennel. Together we planted fennel, lettuce and broccoli in this spot.
It was early morning when we were planting and I saw these ants, very large ants, their upper bodies purple in the morning light. These ants were a regular occurance on the farm and there would be a trail of ants constantly on the same dusty paths that we walked.I found out later that these are LARGE PURPLE MEAT ANTS
Iridomymex purpureus / subfamily Dolichoderinae
These 8 mm long ants are omnivores and are also known as Mount Ants, Tyrant Ants or Southern Meat Ants and are found throughout Australia.
olives from their trees left to dry in just a bit of salt and boy they were yummy
We had early morning wake-ups to beat the heat a bit and I saw several sunrises. This one was especially red and Graham reminded me of the saying, morning red, shepherd's dread, morning white shepherd's delight". He was right because this day was a scorcher - 44 degrees Centigrade, which is 111 degrees Fahrenheit - and we were harvesting pistachios this day!
Annemarie and Graham, in the middle, talking to the ABC TV crew that was at The Food Forest filming. Lifeline will run a segment on The Food Forest in a few weeks. The crew came out several days and were filming all aspects of the farm, from harvesting pistachios to catching the endangered bettongs on film that were being reintroduced to the area.
These wood bins are for holding the harvested pistachios.
orchard/field entrance is on the left, the small brown building is the shower and composting toilet (the largest clivus multrum), and on the right is the learning center area
orchard/field entranceSAPOTE FRUITS
These are SAPOTE fruits growing at The Food Forest. They are like nothing I have ever had before. These have a creamy white inside, an avocado-like or custard-like consistency with a light sweet flavor. They are also called ICE CREAM FRUITS and I have been told that eating a frozen sapote is just like an excellent gelato. There are many different sapote varieties, this one is a white sapote I believe, but I have heard there are chocolate sapotes too.
composting toilet and JuJube tree to the right - wonderful apple like fruits, crispy and a dry sweet, that taste like dates - Chinese date is another name for them I think - they are good when fresh and also dried
roof rainwater catch barrel and the field in the distancefig trees, pistachio trees, carob trees, pear and apple trees
FULL ON PISTACHIO HARVEST
It was hot, 44 degree C days, that's 110 degrees F, and there were 1,000 pistachios trees loaded with fruit ready to be harvested. There was a crew of 11 of us including Graham and Annemarie, 2 of us were WWOOFers, Lena and I, and we all got dirty, sweaty and sticky and hauled in those nuts!
fresh pistachio right off the tree and ready to eatMachine for Processing/Dehulling Pistachios at The Food Forest
The ABC TV Landline crew was here to film the process from harvesting to dehulling - the landline program ran The Food Forest segment on April 6th(http://www.abc.net.au/landline/content/2006/s2208413.htm)
and I was on tv for several seconds in my droopy drawers dragging a tarp for pistachio harvesting - yippee WWOOF power!
pistachio harvest
Lena and group harvesting pistachios with tarps and sticks
we walked back through the dry field and Annemarie had lunch ready for all of us - good food and fresh grape juice squeezed in their wooden fruit press
dirt and sticky resin from the pistachio treesalmonds
we did not harvest any almonds, but I could not resist inspecting the tree and picking some nuts as we walked through the field
This is where the Gawler River should be - now a dry channel lined by Red Gums. And speaking of Red Gum trees, check out this massive tree in the photo below looming over one of the buildings at The Food Forest. Red Gums are known to drop their branches in times of dry conditions and this is what happened while I was at this farm. The lower limb in this photo dropped down on top of this shed. The shed was already falling down a bit so Graham and Annemarie did not seem to be too worried, but there is indeed a wise suggestion when it is said to "never pitch a tent under a red gum".
another Red Gum tree that dropped a limb because of not having enough water - this limb is really huge too although it is hard to see in this photo - the limb that fell looks like an entire tree
This is saltbush, a native plant that used to grow all over, but the sheep have pretty much eaten most of it. It is drought and salt tolerant and I found out later that it is good to eat. The leaves are salty tasting, good to dry the leaves and sprinkle them on top of a salad.
solar dehydrator
This is the water storage tank at The Food Forest - and one of the very, very, very hot days of pistachio picking, Graham and a couple of the guys took a dip before lunch. The first photo of the water surface you can see them swimming laps around in circles - just a little splash on the right and left of the photo.
Graham had pushed over a big sisal plant that he no longer wanted and I spied a leaf that I wanted to take and harvest the sisal fibers to make cordage.
I love this book! And the following photos are pages from this book. There is something about bushfoods and wild food foraging that I am drawn to. Gathering food successfully means understanding the local environment and knowing when and where to look for different foods. It is about a connection to place and a connection of people - the lessons of one generation of Aborigines had to be passed on to the next. Groups of women and children would go on walks, long walks gathering food.
bunkhouse and evening sky after harvest
