Ecoportal website: new local resource

We're super excited about the new Ecoportal website, featuring local community groups and events related to sustainability. It’s at www.ecoportal.net.au. 

The site is a collaborative project created and maintained by volunteers from a range of community groups and built by Jaime Schmidt. It features group listings as well as a calendar of events. It aims to offer a central place to find out about the many wonderful sustainability-related things going on in North East Victoria and Southern NSW.

There are plans to add to the features of the site over time, but for now it’s great to have it live, even in a simple format. The site went public on Friday (30th March) and there are currently 23 community groups listed! 

Well deserved thanks and congratulations go to the many people who contributed and supported the project to get it to this stage. May it continue to grow!

Movie screening: 'Queen of the Sun'

click for larger viewI know it's late notice, but it is very exciting that this award-winning movie will screen this Saturday night in Thurgoona. It's all about bees!

Here's the low-down:

QUEEN OF THE SUN: What Are the Bees Telling Us? is a profound, alternative look at the global bee crisis. Taking us on a journey through the catastrophic disappearance of bees and the mysterious world of the beehive, this engaging and ultimately uplifting film weaves an unusual and dramatic story of the heartfelt struggles of beekeepers, scientists and philosophers from around the world including Michael Pollan, Gunther Hauk and Vandana Shiva. Together they reveal both the problems and the solutions in renewing a culture in balance with nature.

You can watch the trailer or read more about it on the movie's website at www.queenofthesun.com.

Tim Malfroy will be in town for the sold-out Natural Beekeeping Course and has arranged a licence to screen the movie while he's here. The details are below. Please RSVP if you plan to attend so the room and chairs can be arranged accordingly.

When: 6pm, Saturday October 15th. The movie runs for just under an hour and a half.
Arrive from 5:45pm, we'll start the screening promptly at 6pm. 

Where: National Environment Centre (TAFE), 97 Ettamogah Rd, Thurgoona.
Easiest access is via Elizabeth Mitchell Drive, see map.

Cost: Gold coin donation

To RSVP or find out more contact Karen on 0428 629 099 or email karenretra@gmail.com.

Sustainable House Day - Sun 11th Sept 2011

The disappointing news is that The Border Eco-Living Program are not opening any homes in Albury Wodonga for this national event this year due to unforeseen circumstances that occured late in our planning for the event.

The good news is that means we can be visitors at other houses and see what else is on offer regionally!

The Wangaratta Sustainability Network have put together a wonderful mix of offerings for the event. I, for one, will certainly be making the most of the opportunity to take a squiz. They will open four homes in and around Wangaratta, as well as the Wangaratta Eco-Living Centre (a converted community centre dedicated to education around sustainable living in various forms).

 

Regular readers may recognise Mary Anderson's home among the Wang offerings. Also note that those with bikes could easily get to three of the openings very comfortably on two wheels from central Wangaratta (and what a great way to act sustainably, not just 'see' it!). You could make a trip of it and include all five, if you wished.

For more information, visit the national event site (www.sustainablehouseday.com) where you can find the details for more than 300 homes across Australia that will open on Sunday. The Wangaratta Sustainability Network website provides more detail about each of the openings they are co-ordinating, including the key features as well as the full address of each location. Keep an eye out for Saturday's Living Lightly column, too, which will also have details about the Wangaratta event.

Sustainable House Day homes and ancillary events will be on offer across Australia from 10am to 4pm on Sunday 11th of September. Entry to all homes is FREE.

Perhaps we'll see some of you in Wang on Sunday?

Seedy Saturdays

As you may know, the Hume Murray Food Bowl Farmers' Market organisers have created an opportunity for community groups to have a stall at the markets on the Causeway, Wodonga. The spot can be booked for just one market or a couple, by groups and for events that promote sustainable living.

What you may not know is that Seed Savers Albury Wodonga were at the most recent market (August 6th). And, they'll be there again at the next two markets (August 20th and September 3rd).

A band of seedy characters (that's a compliment!) will be there:

• explaining what the group does and why it's relevant 
• offering discount memberships (August special of $15 for the year, which includes dips into the seed bank, workshops and newsletter); and
• selling seeds collected by members.

There was such a good response last market that the seed for the stall needed replenishing. On the Saturday between markets an eager team of about 15 gathered to package up more seeds.

Packing and labelling

Seed packets in their display box ... filling in the gaps to be ready for the market.

If you're planning your spring and summer vegetable plantings (or fruit, herbs or companion plants), perhaps consider including some locally saved, open-pollinated and heirloom varieties in your garden?  What's more, you'll be able to save the seed for future seasons and maybe also put some back into the seed bank for others to share.

For more information about Seed Savers Albury Wodonga send an email to seedsaversalburywodonga@gmail.com.

Joel Salatin visit

More than a week after Joel Salatin's workshop at the National Environment Centre, thoughts about his talk and the myriad of ideas it continues to generate keep popping into my head! Don't take that the wrong way - it's wonderful. Although I'd read, heard and watched quite a lot of Joel's material in the past, it was a treat to hear from him in person, with the opportunity to ask questions and clarify. 

Joel Salatin - passionate and inspiring ... seen here demonstrating the chicken waltz :)

For those who missed it, you may like to check out a local blogger's post about the event here. If you haven't visited The Good Life Down Under blog before, it is fantastic - so do take a look around the whole lot while you're there.

The folks at Milkwood Permaculture and RegenAG put together an extensive list of links and further reading as well as reports on Joel's visit to Jamberoo - see here.

With thanks again to those at the National Environment Centre and North East Catchment Management Authority who discovered an opportunity in Joel's Australian tour schedule and pulled this event together very quickly yet efficiently, just weeks before it happened.

Some of the 150 attendees at the session

Permi8 at Anna's

It took three attempts, but July's Permi8 gathering saw the group finally make it to Anna and Mark's new place.

They have moved from a surburban block with an older home, to which they made some impressive sustainability improvements, to six acres backing on to a reserve with a larger, more recently built home. Yet it's surprisingly just three or so kilometres from the CBD of Albury as the crow flies. 

Anna was itching to have the collective permi8 'brains trust' check their place out and provide any ideas as to how they might proceed with what could be an enormous project. Or series of projects!

Despite the wintery weather (it was July afterall), we had a lovely time wandering around and checking it all out. Their land includes a small orchard, cleared and grazed areas as well as some less impacted and remnant vegetation nearest the reserve. Anna told us what they'd been thinking so far and asked for other people's opinions and ideas. The resulting conversations reminded me (again!) how lucky we are to share in the knowledge, interests and experience of such a wonderful group of people. 

We looked at the established orchard and Anna's new fruit tree plantings and discussed pruning, training, collar rot and fruit flies. I suspect that the day we don't discuss fruit flies at a permi8 gathering is the day no one turns up! They are a real challenge around here. 

As I admitted that yet again the time for preventing peach leaf curl had come and gone at our place, Julie kindly came up with a way for me to remember. I should think that whenever I am struggling with the nocturnal lifestyle that my Tour de France viewing creates each July, I should take it as a reminder that's also the time to be active in preventing peach leaf curl. Extremely good suggestion ...  let's see if I stick to it next year!

Some members identified some seedling eucalypts, grevilleas and native grasses in the farther paddock, while the kids were entertained playing with sticks, the dogs and by the dam. Oh, and wishing they were allowed to climb into the abandoned tree house, which admittedly did look like it would collapse under the weight of even children, but was rather tantalising, even to some of the 'big kids'.

Yes, those dots are people! Pretty impressive spot, huh?

Taking turns to make suggestions, answer questions and share observations

Anna was keen to workshop ideas about Dexter cattle, possibly sheep and/or chooks as part of the mix as well as ways to encourage further native revegetation. 

We moved on to admire their recently built raised, wicking vegetable beds. Having had a good squiz, and acknowledging the weather really wasn't all that great, we continued the conversations inside over a cuppa and the usual, but always impressive, homemade delights everyone had brought along.

Thanks to Anna, Mark and their girls for having us visit, finally. We look forward to seeing (and perhaps contributing to) all your plans as they develop.

Joel Salatin coming to Albury

You might have seen him in the movie "Fresh". You may have read about him and his 'Polyface Farm' in Michael Pollan's book The Omnivore's Dilemma. Or perhaps you noted his tour last year with RegenAG (which included a presentation that aired on ABC's  Big Ideas). In their words:

"Joel Salatin of PolyFace Farms is a world-leading example of how a small family farm can become an extremely diverse and profitable Local Food producer, and how the benefits of Local Food Systems can create resilience, stability and abundance for both local farmers and the wider community."

- RegenAG website

Now the National Environment Centre at Thurgoona and the North East Catchment Management Authority (NECMA) have teamed up to host Joel Salatin in Albury for a one-day workshop on Monday August 8th.

 

Tickets are $38.50 per person for the all-day event, including lunch. 

 

Word is the tickets are selling like hotcakes. More details and the booking form can be found here.

Bees on film

The lovely Allison Jess was intrigued and probably somewhat bemused by the idea of creating bee forage maps. So she dropped in to have a chat about them and get a piece of the action.

The resulting video can be seen on the ABC Goulburn Murray website and the audio will also air on radio this week.

Granya glory

Thought you might enjoy this postcard-like picture from Lake Hume. The trees on the opposite hillside were nearly clearer in the reflection on the lake, than looking at the hill itself!

Over the Queen's birthday long weekend (yes, over a month ago) we took a drive to Granya. A friend of my sister had inherited some beekeeping gear he didn't have a use for. We collected it, with a view to sharing it with others if we can use it, or finding another use (or at least recycling it) if it is beyond that. 

On the way home we were pulled over by a boy in blue (we presume he was a Tallangatta-based cop) who was just checking we had a legitimate reason for carting gear around the countryside on a long weekend. Good to see neighbourhood watch in action! He threw in a licence check and asked Build-It Bloke to blow into the bag ... both of which were no drama, of course!

Hail!

The Border Mail reported that hail 'lashed' East Albury this week, and a commenter on their website thought their language was a bit strong. But perhaps the hail was very localised?

Build-It Bloke was working less than a kilometre from our place and said they got hardly any. While the hailstones were only small (about pea-sized perhaps?), the Little House on the Hill copped a fair dose and it did make a racket as it hit the roof and paving. It was quite intense, albeit for just five minutes. The gutters were overfilled seemingly at once, creating an effect like white curtains had been hung from all the eves and verandahs.

Here's how things looked shortly afterwards.

Bee forage map

“Will you put it inside the hive and ask the bees to attend a daily briefing?” was my sister’s amused response when I mentioned I was working on a bee forage map. Actually, the idea is that I learn from the bees. They’re very efficient at what they do. I’d like to lend them a hand if I can, and a bee forage map is one tool to assist me to do that.

The idea of a bee forage map is to see what’s within the range of a particular hive or site. I’d read about them online, but when Tim Malfroy discussed them at the natural beekeeping course, I added it to my ‘to do real soon’ list. Honey bees will most commonly fly one to two kilometres from their hive to forage, but can range as far as five kilometres, depending on the quality and quantity of forage on offer.

To kick off my map, I visited http://bees.morkland.org/coverage/. This site offers a handy tool that draws five concentric circles, to indicate one to five kilometres, from any location you nominate.

Let’s say you plan to keep bees on the roof of the Albury library museum. Below is how the map would look. It’s overlayed on a google map, so on the site you can zoom, view the satellite image and move around within it. 

Source: Google map generated by http://bees.morkland.org/coverage/

From here, and still working at about that 5km radius scale, I roughly marked on my map where I thought the potential forage areas may be. Remnant and planted native vegetation, parks, reserves and gardens (this is an urban area) are all in the mix. As Rob Fenton reminded me, things that might be barriers or threats to the bees can also be added. My reading hasn’t yet got into detail about how bees respond to freeways or airports, but has included some of the problems that some practices may have (like spraying of orchards and locust control). I noted these on my map as well.

Here’s what our practice site’s map might look like with these details added (click on the map for a larger view). 

From there I decided to ‘zoom in’ to create a more detailed picture of the 1km zone surrounding my hive. First, I used a satellite map. The google one is good, but for Albury the nearmap.com ones are even more detailed. I like that you can view different satellite images over time and the resolution means you can use it to label individual trees (should you so desire!).

For example, Noreuil Park, Albury, looks like this on nearmap (click the picture to go to larger version on their site):

I’m using the satellite map to help me identify plants in the area. Of course that can’t all be done while sitting at a computer screen, so I’ve been out in the neighbourhood to ground check what’s there. For now I’m focussing on species at our place and public land, but clearly in an urban area other people’s backyards may contain some valuable forage species too.  

I’m having a great time collecting this information. It helps me pay attention to what’s there and it’s a great excuse to work on my plant identification skills, not to mention just spend some time in the neighbourhood. I take the camera with me, and when I’m unsure of a plant I take pictures of the leaves, bark, buds, flowers and whole plant, to help me research it when I return. (Or ask my plant-smart friends!). 

Admittedly, identifying and mapping every plant within one kilometre is a pretty big job (let alone my plans to map to 5km). It will be an ongoing project. And, to make it more manageable, I’m focussing initially on plants the bees are actually visiting.  Yep, the bees are showing me what to take notice of. After all, it’s the species they visit I am trying to track. Besides, plant identification without a flower is usually harder than with it! As the bees’ focus changes through the seasons, so will mine!

Read on for more about bee forage.

Bee forage record keeping

Having started my bee forage map, I’m now entering the various plants I’ve identified into a spreadsheet, so I can record when they flower and how interested the bees are in them. Lucky for me, I’ve been recording the flowering habits of plants at our place for a few years. But just because something flowers does not mean it is of interest to the bees. So I’ve created a subset of my flowering data specific to bee-attractiveness and am trying to record how ‘keen’ the bees are for the flowers, and noting when they are seen to be collecting nectar and/or pollen from them.

I’m also drawing on the research of others. For example, the Flowering ecology of honey producing flora in SE Australia report (free to download as a PDF from here) includes data gathered from commercial beekeepers across south-eastern Australia as to which species flower when (and how frequently – many native plants do not flower every year), whether the bees use them for nectar or pollen, and the perceived quality of each of them. That’s a handy resource for me, and also something to compare my own, locally-specific data with as I gather it!

Why am I using a spreadsheet? It’s just my tool of choice. You could record this information any number of other ways. I like the flexibility spreadsheets offer in terms of manipulating data, drawing charts and the like. Besides, it seems I’m developing a reputation for being a spreadsheet junkie, so I may as well live up to it, right?!

The table above (click on it for larger view) is a simplification of what I’m doing. The blue shading represents the weeks the plant is in bloom. This could come from observations of when the plants have flowered, or projections using books, the internet, plant tags or seed packets, for when they are expected to flower. Of course, I have more than ten plants. But hopefully you can see this is a wonderful visual tool to help identify when there might be fewer plants flowering. I’m further color coding mine (of course!), to allow me to see not just what is flowering, but when the flowers are offering pollen and/or nectar. If I keep at it, I’ll also be able to compare the data across years and with my other records like how well my fruit and vegetables were pollinated or how much honey the bees produced.

How can bee forage maps and data be used in beekeeping?

They can help to identify potential lean (or boom!) times for the bees. For example, if they are dependent on a few species at a particular time of year, I might try to increase my own plantings to help ‘fill’ that gap. Similarly, I might try to provide some insurance, in the form of alternate forage sources, against particular challenges like drought or years with lower nectar flows.

For beekeepers who move their hives, mapping bee forage can help schedule their moves and choose locations that take advantage of the best forage.

I can’t provide all the forage a colony of bees require within our property, nor could I confine the bees to that property even if I wanted to. The bees’ ability to roam is part of the attraction of beekeeping in an urban area. By increasing my knowledge of which species offer which types of forage and when, hopefully I’ll have a picture that gives me early warning of forage shortages and the ability to plant to help overcome those threats. 

And it’s not just about honey bees ...

While I’ve called this a bee forage mapping exercise, of course I’m actually collecting data that can be used for a range of purposes. In the process of regularly observing which flowers are attracting honey bees (and whether they are gathering pollen or nectar from them), I’m also building up a resource that notes which other pollinators are visiting flowers, what they are doing while there, whether the species seem to interact.

I also hope to apply the knowledge I gain to encourage other species. The flowering pattern records may help me plant to better provide for native pollinators, beneficial insects and birds, as well as honey bees.

While my approach will sound like a lot of effort to some, even drawing a simple sketch map and thinking a little about bee (and other pollinator) forage patterns, as well as the plants and their locations can be a valuable tool for your garden, biodiversity and the pollinators.

Seed Savers' harvest challenge

Seed Savers Albury Wodonga have risen to the challenge set by a Melbourne Permaculture group. They are encouraging gardeners to keep track of their harvest for a year. The idea is to see what a range of gardens produce. It's not about growing the most, but more about encouraging the record keeping and learning from each other.

Rumor has it some quite keen record keepers and productive gardeners have already taken up the challenge. But even those who rent, have a few pots on the verandah or have never previously recorded their harvest are being encouraged to join in. The extent to which you record your harvests is entirely up to you. See their flyer for full details (right or click here for a larger version).

Congratulations are also in order with Seed Savers Albury Wodonga recently taking out the Murray CMA's 2011 Millewa Award in the Urban Landcare Group category.

What's more, group's secretary Lou Bull was interviewed about seed saving on ABC Goulburn Murray radio. If you missed it, the interview and accompanying pictures are available on the ABC website.

Permi8 at Lou & Emmo's

All the citrus and olives we wanted - that was the bounty gifted upon the Permi8 people who came along to Lou and Emmo's this week. We were at their place to see the mature permaculture orchard of Annalies and Jan (Lou and Emmo's parents/in-laws). And how impressive it was.

We wandered down and discussed the history of the design, plantings and the wonderful resource it provides. This season has been particularly good and we bagged up lots of lemons, oranges, mandarins and grapefruit. Then on the to the olives, where we picked buckets of black and green olives in a range of varieties. There was discussion of various olive preserving methods by the adults, while the children compared their tree-climbing skills. The billy cart (another Emmo masterpiece), which had proven highly entertaining for the kids on the way down, served as a handy way to transport the bags and buckets of spoils back to the house.

As is so often the case with Permi8 gatherings, we were treated to a fantastic spread of food and beverages on our return. Homemade venison sausages, Emmo's home brew, spinach and feta tarlets, home grown fruit and chocolate torte and pumpkin scones, to name but a few. 

June delights in North East Victoria

I recently joined the Australian Plants Society and the Victorian quarterly weekend program, hosted by the Wangaratta group, was my first foray into their activities.

In a nutshell, the weekend saw APS members from across Victoria converge on Wangaratta and surrounds. As the event's name suggested, we were indeed treated to the many delights on offer across seven gardens brimming with Australian plants of seemingly all types over the two days (June 4th and 5th). As well as private gardens, we also visited Goulburn Ovens TAFE's campus, took a stroll into the Warby Ranges National Park and drove through the Killawarra Forest.

While Australian plants were obviously the focus, it was wonderful to note the diversity of plants, garden designs and approaches between and within the gardens. Apart from the plants, it was also a privilege to spend time in the company of people who are so well-versed in Australian plants. The garden owners told us about their gardens, and as we explored, fellow visitors were also willing to help novices (like me) understand more about what we were looking at and clarify those scientific names that very rarely manage to stick in my brain.

Another bonus was that Mary Anderson's garden was one of those featured. Mary has opened her rammed earth home to the public in the past, but I had missed it. Her three year old garden benefits from a rendered straw bale wall that creates a microclimate as well as a visual break between the garden and house and the surrounding landscape.  

I admit I got a little distracted from the plants by the gorgeous paths made from reclaimed materials and other features made from cast-off items.

Check out the gate - if I didn't know better, I'd say Build-It Bloke had a hand in that. What a ripper! 

You can read more about Mary's place (including an array of fantastic sustainability features she has incorporated) here. Also keep an eye on the Sustainable House Day website for listings of homes opening this September. Mary's will open again as part of that event, along with other homes in the Wang area. I'd certainly recommend going to see it for yourself.

As for the APS, I can't wait for more of their offerings. And there's a wealth of information on the APS website, including years of newsletters, all available electronically. What's more there are plant guides, garden design tips and extensive plant photo gallery. I might learn a few more of those scientific names yet!

Permi8 at Julie's

Another autumn, another delightful brunch on the balcony at Julie's with the Permi8 crew! This is our third visit to Julie's in as many years, and Talgarno looked quite different to the previous years. (Something about the water that fell out of the sky?!).

We had a tour of Julie's garden, including the various improvements she has made to her vegetable beds. She's built several styles of raised beds, they range in size and materials used, which made for an interesting discussion comparing the pros and cons of each. The latest efforts are wicking beds, which Julie hopes will see her vegetable harvest increase during long, hot summers. Not that she's had a chance to compare their performance. Ever since she finished them, there's been enough rain to keep even the non-wicking beds producing strongly. Perhaps by our next visit she'll have an update for us.

A few of us also took up Lea's offer to make an unscheduled visit to her place. Has she been keeping that a secret from us all?? We were all in awe of her 20 year old mudbrick home (which they built). It features lots of reclaimed and re-used materials, looks great and inside it is light, yet warm and earthy, for want of better words. It was very cosy despite the wintery weather. There are productive and habitat gardens around the house and the rest of the property is bushland, adjoining the state park. The view, down the picturesque valley to the (currently full!) Lake Hume, makes me wonder why Lea ever comes into town at all. I think I could happily sit there and look at it for a very, very long time!

 

  

For those Permi8 people who missed out on this treat, fear not. Lea suggested we might have a gathering at her place later in the year. Let's lock that in soon - you won't want to miss it!  

Leaving honey for the bees

Our hive inspection in late autumn revealed two fairly full supers (boxes) and a top super with little in it at all. For those honey affectionardos waiting to sample our bees' efforts, I'm afraid you'll have to wait until at least next season.

While there was quite a lot of capped honey in the lower boxes, to raid those could mean there's not enough left for the bees to get through winter.

Put yourself in the bees' shoes, so to speak. It's a pretty big challenge for bees to keep warm over winter. As with everything else they do, they achieve this by working together and sharing 'jobs' that ensure the survival of the colony. They form a tight huddle (cluster), move their wing muscles to keep warm and take turns at the outside of the huddle, which is the coldest place to be. Bees that aren't actively 'heating' provide insulation for those that are. Impressively, the bees maintain their brood temperature at about 35 degrees celcius, not just here (where we get a few frosts and what we think are chilly days) but even in locations that see snow, sometimes for months. They don't forage if it's too cold, so all their energy needs have to be able to be met from within the hive. Hence, their stores of honey and pollen.

So we removed the top box and left the bees with their honey stores. As the weather cooled and the foraging decreased, we also reduced the entrance, which helps keep the warmth in and the cold out.

On mild autumn days we've still seen plenty of action around the hive entrance. But when the temperatures are low, or it's raining, the bees stay inside and work at keeping warm.

Local Open Gardens April 2-3

This weekend of Open Gardens is going to be a real treat with heaps on offer at both Wodonga West Primary School’s Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden, and the private garden of Jacky Cronin – the school’s kitchen specialist.

Together these two gardens illustrate how sustainability can work at both a community and an individual level - and be fun for all ages.

As well as the two fantastic gardens, there will also be lots of supporting activities all weekend.

Wodonga West Primary School garden
A Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Foundation school since 2009, the kitchen gardens now feed 300 students fortnightly and incorporate garden beds, an orchard, outdoor learning area, water tanks and composting facilities. A community wood-fired pizza oven and parterre garden allow wider community involvement.  

• Scarecrow competition, entries by the students
• Photo board display of students describing their favourite things in the garden
• Garden-inspired art by the students
• No-dig garden demonstrations
• Check out the school’s kitchen
• Garden produce stall with vegies/plants grown by the students, plus preserves and dried herbs made in the kitchen
• Preserve sampling
• Raffle of a picnic basket filled with garden produce and preserves

Jacky’s garden
A happy integration of flourishing vegetables in decorative flower beds, ensuring something to see all year round in an attractive garden catering for the whole family. Herbs and dedicated vegetable areas including heirloom varieties. Salvia collection. Chooks and water tank.  

• Fruit fly information, organic prevention demonstrations and advice
• Seed cleaning demonstrations and seed saving information by Seed Savers Albury Wodonga
• Seeds and plants for sale
• Info on growing potatoes in no-dig beds
• History of the garden
• Inspiration from Jacky about the seasonal changes in her ‘a year in my garden’ notes

There will be information sheets available for each garden and you can talk to those involved. Students will help visitors tour the school garden and be available to answer questions.

When:       Sat 2^nd and Sun 3^rd of April, 10am to 4:30pm each day
Where:      Lawrence St, Wodonga and Bownds St, Lavington (directional signs will be out nearby)
Cost:         $8 for entry to both gardens, under 18s free – proceeds support local community groups

Autumn solar cooking

I admit I hadn't been to the Farmer's Market for a while, but when Saturday dawned in glorious sunshine, it was time to remedy that. As well as enjoying the obligatory market breakfast roll and cuppa, and chatting to the various people you run into there, we picked up some great veg from the lovely folks of Willowbank farm in South Albury. 

Once home, I put the solar cooker and baking dish out to 'pre-heat' and grabbed some supplementary veg from our garden.

The cooker was a toasty 110 degrees celcius inside in less than an hour. By then I had chopped up Willowbank carrots (which were enormous, to say the least) and butternut pumpkin, along with our own potatoes, garlic and beetroot. I added a bit of olive oil and a few herbs and tossed the lot together.

Into the oven went the pot of veg. I adjusted it a couple of times to maximise sun exposure and three hours later we had wonderful solar roasted veg!

Yup, it's that simple. For the record, the ambient temperature was around 25 degrees during cooking. More importantly, it was a cloudless blue sky and the cooker tracked the sun as it moved across the sky. This is perfect solar-cooking weather.

Inside the cooker, the temperature averaged between 105 and 110 degrees during cooking. And if the truth be known, the veg were probably ready sooner than the three hours they had in there. Because food doesn't burn in the solar cooker, you can afford to forget about it to some degree. So I got a bit carried away with the gardening but it didn't matter.

The cooker is made from two cardboard boxes (one inside the other) with scrunched up newspaper insulation, aluminium foil, an oven bag 'window' and wire supports the top reflector. I was going to link to a previous post with more detail, but have just realised it was in a permi8 update pre-blog, so perhaps more on that another time!

Solar cooker cooking; shed construction in the background

Critter watch

A few factors seem to have conspired to bring various critters into focus at our place of late.
Note that critters is an endearing term as far as we're concerned.

First, Build-It Bloke was the very happy recipient of a digital microscope from Kris Kringle at Christmas. Although it is fairly basic, the world that its 50-400x lenses capture (with web cam for recording the moment!) is well beyond what we can see with the naked eye. Nothing is safe from scrutiny around here. Dead lice, flies, spiders and locusts have all been given the once over. Likewise human hair, dust and mould, to name but a few more. There's no depth of field to the pictures, so they tend to look more impressive in real time than captured as a still. I assure you critter identification has never been this much fun before, nor as educational!

Second, the seemingly tropical weather this summer saw far more bugs in the garden than usual. Interestingly, for the most part the number of "bad bugs" has been pretty much matched by the number of "good bugs", though there are a few exceptions. Our bug management plan goes something along the lines of us (folk) being willing to share with them (the various critters), provided the plant is not being seriously harmed by the attack. We try not to use any treatment that's more harmful than the critter that we're 'treating'. That means we do a fair bit of "wait and see"-ing. We often use manual control (i.e. squishing things like pear/cherry slug, various bugs and caterpillars) because it avoids unintended effects on other critters or plants. Of course, this option is quite viable on our less-than-a-fifth-of-an-acre, but would be out of the question on larger properties and commercial crops. We also try to encourage natural predators of the pests. That is, we welcome the 'good' bugs ... but this year with all the newbies I'm not always sure who is who!

So far we've largely avoided the dreaded fruit fly this season (they got our nectarines, but unlike at our neighbours', they haven't got into anything else of ours yet). But it's not exactly plain sailing. We've got oodles of green vegetable bugs instead. They've had a royal feast on the tomatoes, so the fruit fly exclusion bags have become green vegetable bug exclusion bags. 

Green vegetable bug nymphs are black with colored dots (you can see the one on the left is starting to mature - it's bottom half is typical). They become all green as adults (right).

An orb spider that has caught a beeThe orb spiders have been spectacular. I'm not keen on walking into their webs unexpectedly, but it is impressive how many there are this year and the intricacy of the webs they weave. One of the largest at our place caught and ate three bees within an hour ... though I'd personally prefer if it stuck to eating mozzies. I find the webs quite fascinating, some are essentially 2D while others are 3D. So too the way they wrap their prey and then hang it all in a line - presumably adding to their series of snack-packs ready for eating?Or perhaps they are showing off their catch to impress? Or is it just neat-web etiquette [netiquette!]? 

We've also had a few hawk moth visits. They are quite large (5-8cm body) with a proboscis nearly twice its body length. When not in use, it curls it up in a spiral next to its mouth. They seem to come out at dusk, so catching them on film (sorry, memory card!) isn't easy. That's my excuse for the less-than-perfect focus in these pics, anyway.

"It's ok, I've brought my own straw!"

And a neighbour kindly brought over this spider wasp (Cryptocheilus bicolor, perhaps?). He was keen to ID it after being stung saving it from his dogs. Apparently female wasps in this family will paralyse spiders as big as huntsmen, drag them to their nest, then lay their eggs and the spider becomes the wasp larvae's first food source. Wow! 

I've noticed a few of these in the garden and will continue to leave them alone! It was pretty though and quite large, I think the body was at least 3.5cm long. There's an overview and more pics of spider wasps on this webpage (Australian Museum), as well as plenty of others, if you would like to know more.

Oh, and while we're on the subject of critters, I have to mention a recent TED talk. It's by an entertaining Dutchman, Marcel Dicke, discussing "Why not eat insects?". It runs for just under 17 minutes. Take a look if it appeals (or disgusts!). There sure is a lot of protein in our garden at present, when you look at it through his eyes.