Care for the Earth by caring for your earth
This recipe can be adapted to almost any combination of vegetables and/or cheese. If using eggplant, slice and salt both sides of eggplant first. All non-green vegetables should be sautéed first. Experiment with different combinations of fresh and dried herbs.
For best results, cook the pie in a baking dish, cast iron or scanpan that can be used on the stove as well.
(Makes up to 9 large serves)
2 medium onions, chopped
1 bulb garlic, finely chopped
large bunch cavolo nero (Italian black cabbage) / kale/ silverbeet or two bunches spinach, chopped
8 eggs
300g feta cheese
large bunch fresh, young nettle tips, stalks removed and chopped
6 sheets filo pastry
100g butter
1tsp paprika
olive oil
3 large handfuls mushrooms, roughly chopped (optional)
large bunch fresh herbs, eg parsley, chopped
Preheat oven to 160˚C. Melt butter in a pan - do not let butter brown!
Pour off butter and reserve for glazing.
Chef’s tip: to make garlic cloves easier to peel, crush with flat part of knife blade
Sauté onions, garlic and mushrooms, add oil as required. Using the same pan not only saves dishes but adds more flavour to the finished baked pie.
Place green vegetables and fresh parsley in a large mixing bowl.
Mix eggs in medium sized bowl and add paprika.
Chef’s tip: broken eggshell pieces can be removed using half a clean eggshell.
Add feta cheese, including liquid, to eggs and paprika.
Add liquid ingredients to chopped greens, sautéed vegetables and nettle.
Add extra olive oil to mixture if too dry.
With dry hands, spread two layers filo pastry across bottom of pan or baking dish.
Chef’s tip: handle pastry with dry hands. Two sheets of filo pastry are less likely to tear than one.
Spread half mixture evenly across pastry.
Add next two layers pastry opposite direction, and brush with reserved butter.
Add remaining mixture, fold in pastry and brush with butter.
Add top layer pastry.
Tuck in sides and brush with butter.
Bake in preheated oven at 160˚C for up to one hour.
When lightly browned, turn off oven and leave pie in oven until cool. Leaving the pie to cool inside the oven adds more flavour to the pie.
Reheat before serving.
Keeps well covered in fridge for up to several days. This pie is good served hot or cold and holds its shape, once cooked, for lunches.
- All images and recipe information intellectual property of Sian Bennett, August 2009.
We are very excited to announce the opening of our online shop. Over the next few months we will be adding products to help make your backyard biodynamic.
The first products on our virtual shelves are Brian Keats’ Astro Calendars for 2009 and 2010. These calendars are indispensable for planting and carrying out gardening activities at optimal times. Brian also includes a wide range of information about astronomical observation, weather forecasts and how planetary movements affect the Earth.
The 2009 calendars are half-price since the year is half over. So buy your calendar now for planning your Spring garden.
We are planning to stock homeopathic biodynamic preparations in the near future, as well as some necessary ingredients for homemade plant health and natural pest control. If there is something that you would like to see in our shop, please let us know by clicking on the Contact Us tab.
Spring seems to have sprung early on the east coast of Australia. In Sydney, there is colour bursting from flowers, beautiful blossoms have appeared overnight on bare branches and jasmine scents the air. Call it overexcitement, but I’ve sown some tomato seeds early. If it gets cold again, I can always take them inside for some mollycoddling.
So with Spring upon us, it’s time to think about preparing our garden beds and vege patches in earnest. Of course, you’ve all been working hard on that through Winter, haven’t you? If not, never mind. There’s still time to get things in order before you start growing delicious things to eat.
Start by spending some time observing your soil in different parts of your garden or the space in which you want plants, edible or otherwise, to grow well. Healthy soil is the most important element of a successful garden. Australian soils vary enormously around the country, and not many of us are blessed with naturally good loam. Many gardeners battle sandy soil, heavy clay, silty soil and everything in between. However, don’t lose heart if your current soil disappoints you. All soils can be greatly improved with biodynamic and organic methods.
The main aim of biodynamic soil nutrition is to create bacterial and microbial life within the existing soil, creating stable humus that feeds plant life. Humus is the organic matter in soil which is formed by the decomposition of plant material. Soils that have high humus content can support abundant living biological life which in turn processes plant material, animal manure and other organic material into more humus. Humus enables soil to retain moisture and therefore reduce irrigation needs. It also holds the necessary nutrients for balanced plant growth.
How to identify healthy soil
It is important to learn how to identify healthy soil so that you can remedy deficiencies and improve structure. Without living soil ― that is, soil that is full of living organisms such as worms and tiny fungi ― plants cannot thrive.
Soil that has a good level of humus is structured like crumbs and feels silky when rubbed between your fingers. The first few centimetres of soil, or topsoil, usually contains the most humus.
Dig down about 30 cm, look for a crumb-like open structure, and evidence of worm castings and worm holes. Roots and root hairs may run through the soil, and if they do, they should have soil particles clinging to them. This is another indication of humus content. Earthworms should be present where the topsoil meets the subsoil. Abundant soil life encourages worm activity and numbers. Earthworm castings have plant nutrients more readily available to plants than the soil itself.
In the next few posts, we’ll be discussing how to improve your soil, mineral deficiencies and ph levels.
In this video, Eileen demonstrates how biodynamic preparation 500 is made. Although you may not be able to make your own preparation in your backyard unless you live near a biodynamic farm with cows (manure from a lactating biodynamically fed cow being the key ingredient here), it is important to understand this vital biodynamic preparation.
Click the play button to watch Eileen show how it’s done.
Making Biodynamic Preparation 500 with Backyard Biodynamics from Angela Davies on Vimeo.
Recently, I had the pleasure of a field trip to Roseneath Organics in South Australia, as part of the Biodynamic Association of Australia’s annual conference.
Roseneath Organics’ founder, Adam Voysey, wasn’t always in the business of growing medicinal herbs; he was previously an engineer. When Adam’s stress-related health problems could not be effectively treated with conventional medicine, he took it upon himself to find a cure. He found it in the humble herb calendula, and his admiration for the power of herbs started a new career.
During our tour around his beautiful farm, Adam enthusiastically shared his knowledge of herbs. We learnt that some powerful healing herbs are common weeds such as petty spurge (Euphorbia pepulus). A traditional remedy for warts, CSIRO studies shows it acts against skin cancer. Another example Adam gave was the pepino plant, which is known for its fruit, but also holds an important medicine - the juice of its stem and flowers can be used to help treat drug addiction.
Roseneath Organics herb farm is NASAA certified organic and relies on biodynamic methods to maintain fertility in a stony hillside in Hahndorf, Adelade Hills, South Australia. On a small farm of four hectares, a huge variety of mostly perennial herbs are grown for use in healing and skincare products. The hillside has been terraced, and microclimates are created with shadecloth-covered areas and a greenhouse for subtropical species. A cohesive workforce has been created by moving the office to the growing and drying site, with the production facility at Mylor.
Herbal compost teas such as stinging nettle, yarrow, comfrey, and casuarina, are mixed with worm wee, biodynamic manure concentrate and 500. This mixture is stirred in a flowform for one hour, and then watered onto the compost heaps as they are built. The compost heaps are also enriched with basalt rock dust and zeolite to hold nutrition. The worm farm is constructed of large plastic pots so the matured worm compost can be carried directly to where it is needed. As the soil is poor, the terraced beds are dressed with well matured compost several inches thick before planting. Water is another limiting factor, and dam water is used judiciously to keep most plants alive during the very hot summer. The dam is covered to reduce evaporation.
When a customer requests a natural cure for a particular condition, Adam develops a new product for them, knowing there are other people searching for the same thing. Adam first thoroughly researches his library of traditional, Ayuvedic and Eastern herbalism, and then creates a remedy combining the best and safest herbs. Adam makes his products in small batches from scratch – no generic base creams are used. Roseneath’s by-line is “totally natural products that work”. This is achieved by using active ingredients in therapeutic doses, so results are quick and effective. For example, the head lice lotion is 96% effective, according to the results of trials at Flinders University.
Adam uses niche marketing rather than trying to compete with the big organic skin care manufacturers. He feels there is deception in many products marketed as natural, organic or herbal which contain very little of the promoted ingredient. The quality of Roseneath Organics products sells themselves, and sales are mainly through word of mouth.
You can purchase Roseneath Organics products at www.roseneathorganics.com.
While at the recent Biodynamic Agriculture Australia Conference, I had the pleasure of interviewing Sid Hazel. Sid is a tutor of Organic Horticulture at Coffs Harbour TAFE (Technical and Further Education Institute) and is involved in some great environmental initiatives in Bellingen, on the mid-north coast of New South Wales.
In this podcast Sid discusses the advent of Transition Towns, which are part of Rob Hopkins’ (UK) proactive response to the question, “Can you imagine your town beyond oil?” Rob’s vision is a town that incorporates resilience, sustainability, and environmental responsibility through growing food where people live (zero food miles), thereby reducing the CO2 emissions generated by the distance food currently travels. Rather than waiting on governments to provide answers, communities decide their future, and indeed their children’s future. Australian Transition Town initiatives are currently underway in Hervey Bay, Armidale, Bellingen, Bell, Newcastle and on the Sunshine Coast.
In Bellingen, Sid is involved in a community garden, a local food network, and efforts to create community supported agriculture enterprises. Sid says the Bellingen Local Food Network is about “local food for local people”, which reflects a growing trend for food sovereignty which emerged from the peasant farmers’ movement, La Via Campesina, and offers a community empowering and environmental alternative to the global food production system.
Community-supported agriculture (CSA) is a socio-economic model of agriculture and food distribution. A CSA consists of a community of individuals who pledge support to a farm operation so that the farmland becomes the community’s farm, with the growers and consumers providing mutual support and sharing the risks and benefits of food production. CSA’s focus is usually on a system of weekly delivery or pick-up of vegetables and fruit. The CSA movement began in the early 1960s in Germany, Switzerland and Japan as a response to concerns about food safety and the urbanisation of agricultural land. Groups of consumers and farmers in Europe formed co-operative partnerships to fund farming and pay the full costs of ecologically sound, socially equitable agriculture. In Europe, many of the CSA style farms were inspired by the economic ideas of Rudolf Steiner and experiments with community agriculture took place on farms using biodynamic agriculture.
CSAs are yet to catch on in Australia, with just three that I’m aware of: foodconnect.com.au, purplepear.net.au/csa.html, and biodynamic-food.com.
Purple Pear Garden with chicken enclosures
Community gardens are “about taking back the ability to produce food for ourselves. At the supermarket, you not only don’t connect to the food system, but the money goes out of the region. People are looking for a sense of community, and they find it in their local community garden” (Claire Cummings). Find Australian community gardens and community supported agriculture at communityfoods.org.au.
Hear what Sid has to say by clicking the play button below.
In this video, we show you how to make and apply biodynamic tree paste. Before you watch the video, take a look at our earlier post on tree paste, which details how to make and apply it.
I recently attended the annual Biodynamic Agriculture Australia Conference, which was held in the Adelaide Hills and attended by 140 enthusiastic biodynamic practitioners. And what a great conference it was! A highlight of the conference was Manfred Klett’s lecture series, Manuring From the Kingdom of Nature, in which he explained the need to provide nutrition to plants through well prepared compost. Manfred is a biodynamic farmer, former director of the Department of Agriculture School of Spiritual Science (Dornach, Switzerland) and author of Principles of Biodynamic Spray and Compost Preparations.
Manfred advised us to:
John Priestly
We are very pleased to bring you a podcast of Eileen Kaufman’s interview with John Priestly, an expert biodynamic citrus grower and consultant from the Hunter Valley in New South Wales. Recently, John was a guest speaker at the Parsifal College Applied Biodynamic Course, of which Eileen is one of the main tutors. To listen to the interview, click the play button.
John packs seven topics into this 13 minute interview, including:
- his philosophical background
- ecology of the soil - keeping it healthy
- foliar sprays and tonics
- recommendations to treat spray-contaminated soil
- alternative nitrogen sources (instead of animal manure) for home composting
- ecologically safe snail control methods
- deterring fruit eating birds.
John brings a wealth of information through a lifetime of experience in sustainable farming and land management. His past clients have even included an airport and a racecourse. John takes an ecological approach to solving pest problems, explaining “All pest and disease problems originate from the soil”. For example, weeds are dynamic accumulators - they accumulate particular minerals that are present in very low concentrations in the soil. Over time, weeds balance out nutrient deficiencies. By applying the deficient nutrient to the soil the weed gradually disappears. For instance, yellow dock accumulates iron, so iron chelate is used to treat the soil to reduce this problem weed.
John also explained his method for tree planting. He doesn’t put compost in the hole and this forces the tree to send out roots in search of nutrients. After a year, once the tree has established itself, compost is applied.
Eileen will be attending the National Biodynamic Agriculture Australia Conference this weekend so you can look forward to hearing more interviews from biodynamic experts. She has also promised to send a post from the conference (too much biodynamic wine and it could be a very interesting post! Just joking, Eileen is way too professional for that…).
Soon we will be entering winter, and it’s time to think about making and applying tree paste to deciduous, pruned and exhausted trees. I love tree paste because, not only does it do wonders for the health of trees, but it also practically demonstrates the wisdom of Rudolf Steiner’s concept of the trunk of a tree being likened to an elongated mound of earth, upon which plants (leaves) grow:
[T]here is an intimate relationship between what is within the contours of a plant, and the soil surrounding the plant. It is not at all true that life stops at the plant’s perimeter. Life as such continues on, namely from the roots of the plant into the soil, and for many plants there is no sharp dividing line between life inside them and the life in their surroundings. Soil that is permeated with humus like substances in the processes of decomposition, actually contains living ether … something etheric and alive, this means it is on the way to becoming a kind of plant sheathing. It just doesn’t go as far as to become the kind of sheathing that draws itself into the bark of a tree.
- Rudolf Steiner, Spiritual Foundations for the Renewal of Agriculture, Biodynamic Farming and Gardening Association, 1993
Tree paste nourishes the tree through its bark and cambium (the ever growing layer under the bark), so it is applied to the bark of trees rather than via the soil. Tree paste seals and heals pruning wounds, fills crevices where pests can over-winter and it is also highly effective in ridding trees of scale infestations.
There are a number of recipes for tree paste. Here is the original simple recipe for tree paste that can easily be made at home:
4 parts cow manure (not fresh dung)
2 parts silica sand or diatomaceous earth
3 parts potting clay or bentonite
Enough stirred cow horn manure (500), or very dilute liquid manure, or plain rainwater to make a sloppy paste
Biodynamic Agriculture Australia makes and sells an excellent tree paste with extras such as biodynamic nettle tea, manure concentrate and seaweed concentrate. This is available to BAA members and non-members.
Remove any loose bark, moss, lichen and so on from the tree trunk. Apply the paste to the bark with a large paintbrush. Go as high as possible.
Note: Commercial farms and orchards find it more practical to spray tree paste, but to do this you need to strain the paste, use diatomaceous earth rather than sand, and use a very coarse spray nozzle. But really, don’t try this at home if you don’t have a huge number of trees that you need to treat.
Winter is tree paste time. Apply it after pruning and before bud-burst. Choose a descending moon time to help stimulate growth and heal pruning wounds.
We will have a practical tree paste demonstration video when it is the right time to apply. Until then, stay tuned.
Backyard Biodynamics is a place where you can learn, share and be engaged by biodynamic gardening in your own backyard. 