February – Permaculture Food Gardening in Subtropical Australia

February – Permaculture Food Gardening in Subtropical Australia by Ewa Bekiesch, Permaculture designer, educator, self-sufficient and sustainable living consultant, and healthy food advocate. Hot and humid! However, nature is generous with rain at the moment and we appreciate every single drop and enjoy the food we harvest at this time of the year, and there is plenty to harvest! We are not running out of jobs in the garden, however, we are limiting the work to the early morning and/or very late afternoon hours. In addition to the summer gardening jobs listed below, February is the month when I prune all sorts of my perennial and self-seeding bushes. Especially Pigeon… Read More

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Our Beef Steak Tartare Recipe – Simple And Good

It is super tasty and so simple to make. If you never tried a steak tartare, you should definitely have a try. If you like a nice and juicy steak from BBQ, you will love steak tartare, too! Beef Steak Tartare one nice piece of beef, topside is the best onions, we take about two small to medium size onion for about 700g beef 2-3 egg yolks soy sauce, salt and pepper Mince or cut the beef into very small pieces. Add all other ingredients and combine. Taste and add some more spices if needed. Keep in fridge. You should eat it all on the same day.  Here my video… Read More

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Easy Way To Protect Plants From Sun And Bugs

I just have to share it with you as the gardening makes so much more fun since I started to use the nets over my annuals in the raised veggie patch. It protects the plants from the strong sun we have in Australia over the summer time and of course the bugs have nearly no chance to get in means more harvest for us :).The water comes through as well so easy watering. You just need to make sure that the net you buy is food safe. The best you can buy is made of brand new HDPE: High Density Polyethylene (HDPE). HDPE is used to make bottles for fruit… Read More

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Chili Garlic Organic Pest Control

Here the recipe for my Chili Garlic Tea I am using to get rid of the white mould on my plants and for many different pests in my garden. I always got it in my garden shed, ready to use. I take about 1 cup of chilies and 8-10 cloves of garlic, crash it together in a food processor, add it into about 1.5L of water. Bring it to boil, lower the heat and simmer for about 10 minutes. Take off the heat, leave until cool. Drain through the sieve and keep the tee it in a jar. Before spraying, dilute 1:2, one part of the chili-garlic tea : two… Read More

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Slow-Smoking Smokehouse Dimensions

For all who asked about the measurements of our smokehouse, please see below. It is just a quick drawing to give you the idea about how we have done it. I hope it helps 🙂 Cheers The fire place which you can see on the left is bigger than you would usually need for a smokehouse but we use it as a wood fired BBQ as well so it works for us very good both ways.Here again the link to the video how we built the smokehouse, how we prepare the meat for the slow smoking and a sneak peek of the smoking process. How to build a smokehouse How… Read More

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How To Prepare Meat For Smoking – Old Traditional German Way

This is the traditional and best way of preparing meat for smoking. No nasty chemicals, no special pickling salt. You only need the regular salt and garlic. That’s it! Tasty can be healthy! Ingredients: meat: pork belly 500g or more table salt 1 or more garlic bulb Processing: Clean the meat if needed (we usually always rinse it in hot water when store-bought) Crush lots of garlic and mix it with plenty of salt. We used one large garlic bulb. Rub in and cover the meat with the salt garlic mix Cover with a clean towel and keep in a fridge for 4 days. Check every day and remove the… Read More

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How To Build A Smokehouse

Yes, our smokehouse is ready and I love it. It works great! I will tell you more about our first smoked products in my next post. Here is the video how to build a smokehouse or how we did it and the finished product. Tips: If you want to build a smokehouse using timber, it is VERY VERY important to use NOT treated timber. You don’t want to have the poison in your meat later… the smoke goes up, thats simple physic so make sure your channel outlet is not too low (we did the mistake at first and had to re-do the channel, watch the video and you will… Read More

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