Nice things that happened way back last Sunday included the discovery of the Woden Farmers Market. Being a bit of a traditionalist, I have continued to trek out to the original Farmers Market held at the Showground. This is a whole 18km away. BUT, I can happily say that the newer, smaller Woden Farmers Market is bustling with a small but excellent selection of my favorite growers.
This is such a wonderful development - it means that growers can come to Canberra over the weekend for the 8:00am – 11:00am market on the northside then travel 25km for the Queanbeyan Farmers Market from 1:00pm – 4:00pm, and then turn up for the Sunday morning market at Woden from 9.00am – 12:00am. Very effective use of food miles says I!
What this means for the duck herder is a sleep in and less travel!. LOVE IT!
I love that ONC is large enough to support a thriving bunch of local small growers and farmers.
Here is a little shot of my stash. The organically grown PRINCE EDWARD potatoes are my absolute favorite, and the organic beetroot was sensational. As you can see, I have stocked up on loads of organic free range lamb and organic free range no breeding pen pork mince – yum yum. And the chocolates, well, proceeds from these go directly towards building wells for villages in Africa. How could I refuse? The hydroponic tomatoes are a nutritionally bereft indulgence for Mr Duck Herder.
Other exciting news includes the arrival of my new 1000 liter water tanks. Here is one here, all ready to be hooked up to the overflow of my existing rainwater tanks. This one will be used to fill up the duckpond. They were really cheap – less than $200 each, although Paul the Chaffman and I almost killed ourselves trying to navigate them up through the wilderness to the duckyard. You can see where I had to dismantle the fence to get it into position. I somewhat prematurely made a base for the tank out of an old pallet, not realizing that it has one attached, so this morning when the FROST clears, I will get out and remove the wooden pallet and have the tank just sitting on the grownd.
Speaking of FROST, here is a picture of this morning’s! I bet this makes you miss ONC Sherdie! .
Paul the Chaffman was amazed at the fecundity of our garden, ooohing and aaahing about it looking like a rainforest – quite a feat for drought and frost ravaged ONC me thinks. SoI took this picture to see what other folks think – and I reckon that even with no water, it is amazing what a duck poo powered garden can look like!
Oh, and here is Mr Duck Herder. I will quickly put this up to see if he reads my blog – I am sure he will demand I remove it if he does. But what a cutie – I love him, and I wanted the doubters who know about his slothful ways as a professional athlete to observe that SOMETIMES he does dress up and go to work – even if it is for just an hour or two….
And finally, a small achievement during the Lacuna Sabbath was the pruning of the kiwi vines. What would we do without baling twine?? This will be their fourth spring in the ground, so I am hoping for that first bumper crop - fingers crossed. Total number of kiwi fruit produced to date = 1 (and that was 3 years ago)
And super finally, here is a stupid fluffy chicken photo for Sherd.
seeya!
8 comments:
Ooooh so did you get the chocolates from the Woden markets too? I'm planning on going tomorrow - I just hope it won't be so cold 'cause I'll have to tow two littlies with me!
We also got our 1000L tank. Pretty cool and very compact huh!
ooops hit enter too quickly.
I love your garden too! Ours is pretty dead and I'm trying to convince my husband that we should just plant lots of natives and leave it at that.
Well done!!
I am loving your blog.
Hi Eilleen
Yes - chockies were at markets too - so happy hunter gathering this morning! How exciting - a fellow hippyblogger from ONC! I found your lovely blog through Rhonda's, and must admit I have been lurking quite a bit, but now I will say hi! I was curious -where is your block of land?
We love our garden too - I struggle between wanting space for fruit trees and veggies, and having a whild jungle. Having the community garden plot helps, but it would be lovely to have everything close to home one day.
thanks for visiting!
Our block is in between Queanbeyan and Bungendore. :) I showed my husband your garden pics and he was very impressed.
Fluffy chickens yay!
The rest, yeah, organic local blah blah I SUPPOSE.
But yay fluffballs with feet!
Eilleen, I know the area well! Are you building there already?
Sherdie my love, hee hee, that would be fluffballs with fluffy feet!!!!
PS, Nefley is clucky again and I am trying to find some fluffy eggs for her to sit on. will keep you posted granma!
That tank. I have one the same. Price about the same. Was going to use it to mix up my organic teas. But then I had a chat with a bloke and he said test it. I filled it with water and then had some of the water tested.
Turns out its previous use was not too bad and, with plenty of flushing it should be OK. I have been using it on my fire fighting unit and for my home made fertigation arrangement and things seem ok.
But if yours isn't new it could be worth taking some care with the water coming out for a while or getting it tested.
Thanks for sage advise Mangoman! The tanks are second hand, but the felow I bought them from assures me they originally had detergent in them, and have since been washed out thoroughly, but I think I will give them another few swills just the same, and also wont be using them for drinking water.......
I suspect they will be "tested" on the ducks!
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