A New Year Message from Dr. Vandana Shiva for 2015

We Are All Seeds - A New Year Message from Dr. Vandana Shiva for 2015...



As 2015 has been declared the Year of Soil, let us recognize that in the seed and the soil we can find answers to every one of the crisis we are facing.

Backyard Farm garden update. Air Pruning, Compost & plans for the patch, 18th Dec 2014..

Time for a bit of an update on the veggie patch in our little Backyard Farm now that Summer has well & truly hit SE Queensland..  
Was working on a few clips but they unfortunately got lost when the hard drive crashed so I thought I'd give you a quick look at a few of them all in one clip.. 

Will have a follow up post on the wicking beds & how they fare during the high temperatures we had during Spring posted in the next day or so ;-)

If anyone in Australia is interested in purchasing the Root Pouches you can find a tab to our small store under our banner above..

Cheers all & have a great one.. 

A wander around our Backyard Farm..

Hi there folks :-)
Has been a while since posting an update here so thought I might cheat & post our latest walk around clip ;-)
Decided to show a little bit of everything we have on the go this time round to give people a better idea of how our Backyard farm is set up.. 

Hope you enjoy the tour folks..
Cheers..

Update on the Backyard Aquaponic system build 12th Aug 2014

Time for a bit of a look at where we're up to on the Aquaponic build.. This first clip was posted 20th July & covers a change in the plumbing that should make the system run a lot smoother..      

               

Since then not a lot of progress has been made on the build itself until last weekend, early this week when the filters & sump were fitted out then connected together..

               

I do like the slower pace of this build as it has given me time to consider other options..

Have also made a few clips on small parts of the build that might give folks a few helpful ideas..
The first is on using thin walled PVC pipe with Uniseals.. Due to the thin wall of the pipe it can be very difficult to use..

               


The second is just showing a few different ways to make up the drain fittings used in the base of tanks & filters..

               

Hope you like that quick round up of the system build & it gives folks a few ideas that may be helpful.. Should have enough time this weekend to glue it all together & give it a bit of a trial run if all goes well..

Cheers folks &  have a great one..

Coconut & Prawn Curry with home grown spice..

Have been teasing folks with pictures of our Coconut & Prawn/Shrimp Curry on Instagram & FaceBook so thought I would put a bit of a clip together as well ;-) While its great to be able to walk out the back & pick the spices fresh it can also be made with store bought ingredients as well.. 


Curry paste..

Chillies to taste (we use 2) + some for garnish if desired
Large thumb sized piece of ginger or about 2tsp of ginger paste
2 Large thumb sized  piece of galangal OR 3 heaped tsp powdered (not necessary but a favourite spice of mine)
2  Large thumbs of turmeric OR 3 heaped tsp of powdered
3 med cloves of garlic OR 2 heaped tsp garlic paste
¼ tsp salt
½ Tbsp oil

Chop spice into small pieces then pound all ingredients into a paste with a mortar & pestle OR you could cheat & use a food processor like me ;-)
A few tsp of water can be added if you are using powdered spice..

Coconut Prawn/Shrimp Curry..
Serves 2

oil for cooking
Curry paste from above or a good quality yellow curry paste..
¼ cup Shredded coconut 
1 med onion sliced into thinly
150-200g peeled prawn/shrimp  
10 water chestnuts, sliced or ½ small tin
½ med head of broccoli, cut into small florets & stem sliced thin
1 large handful of honey pod/sugar snap peas, sliced in half
½ capsicum/red pepper, sliced
200-250ml of coconut cream
salt

- Heat 2 Tbsp oil in Wok/large fry pan. 
- Fry curry paste for 1 minute then add shredded coconut, cook for another minute.
- Add onions & cook for 1 minute.
- Add in prawns & mix well with curry paste/onions. Some extra oil can go in if needed as well.
- When Prawns look ½ cooked add in veggies & mix well for 1 minute.
- Pour in coconut cream, mix through well then cover top of wok/fry pan & let curry simmer for 3 minutes to heat veggies through & finish off the prawns..
- Serve garnished with more chilli..
- ENJOY!!

Some optional extras to add would be a stalk of lemon grass added into the curry paste & a kaffir lime leaf added into the main dish with the onions

Hope you enjoy the dish as much as we do if you have a crack at it..
Cheers all :-)