A real winter (for a change)

Anyone who lives in Perth would know that we've had a lovely wet winter, just like they used to be. I've even caught myself thinking that I wish we'd have a few dry days to do the washing! Here's a chart of the rainfall on our block in the last four years and a bit.

Our rainfall year goes from mid July since we installed the rainwater tank at that time of year. As you can see we've got off to a great start to the year after a poor June (end of year 4). The tank has been full enough to supply all our needs since May 5th, which means we may be 'off grid' for about 30 weeks this year (a record for us).

It feels good not to be taking water from the grid, since Perth's dams are still only at 36% capacity despite all this rain. Streamflow has dropped from 400GL a year pre-1975 to around 100GL a year these days, which means the dams simply don't fill up now. Two thirds of Perth's water are from what I'd call unsustainable sources (desal 23% and groundwater 46%), so to be using rainwater (a truly sustainable resource) is great for us and the general community.  

Here's hoping that it keeps raining and the dams overflow...

A cure for dandruff

I've had dandruff for pretty much all of my adult life. It totally sux. I rarely wear black clothes because of flakes on my shoulders and I hate people touching my hair - a scalp massage is out of the question. I've generally tried to control it by going thorough phases of different treatments. I usually have about seven types of shampoo in the shower ranging from organic hippy stuff to hard core chemical stuff. All of these purchased remedies would work for a few weeks to a few months then gradually become less and less effective, so I'd start the rotation again through my selection of useless, expensive, highly packaged shampoos. Grrr. 

Then a beautiful hippy friend suggested doing nothing. So I tried a phase of no shampoo but using a random selection of oils (essential oils in carrier oils). And I hit on a cure...but unfortunately I didn't write it down and could not work out from the smell what the heck I put in it! Grrr again! 

So, I did some dedicated research on dandruff which took all of a couple of hours online and in my op shop aromatherapy books. 

I found that dandruff is kind of a mystery and there are lots of causes, but the most common theory is that it is fungal. Gross. Anyway, it was a good starting point. I researched base oils and found that coconut oil is anti-fungal. Good. Then I researched my essential oil collection and found that several were anti-fungal: patchouli, tea tree, sandalwood and orange.

I mixed up a potion and volia! A cure! My secret recipe (that I meticulously recorded) is:

20 drops patchouli

5 drops sandalwood

in 60 ml coconut oil

I just put a dob of it in my palm and let it melt (if its solid) then massage it into my scalp a few hours before I have a shower and then rise it out. I'm a little nervous to use shampoo again so, so far I've not bothered with that. But with short hair I can get away with it.

The results have been pretty amazing, and its been a couple of months. My dandruff is not 100% clear but it is now only a few flakes here and there not a total, permanent snow storm! And now I have a medical excuse for getting around smelling like a hippy. Perfect.

Garden update

Well, it's been a while hasn't it? We've come out of our winter slumber and the garden is looking great. We've had such a wet end to winter (370mm since mid July) and the garden is loving it.

The fruit trees are looking good. Here are some pics:

The almond tree has a good crop. Hopefully the spraying I did will stop the shothole fungus problem we had last year. Need to net soon to stop the birds too.

We have so many bananas I can't even count them, at least 250 I'd say. They are quite small but will be yummy I'm sure. I've borrowed a friend's Vacola dehydrator to dry some since we won't be able to eat them all fresh.

The macadamia is looking its best ever. Fingers crossed we get some nuts this year.

The strawberry guavas are huge this year, this one is the size of a table tennis ball! We have just a few through the cooler months with the main crop in summer. If you live in Perth I would definitely recommend them to grow, kids love them. This year I've been adding liquid feed Greendex (by Bass). This is an additive for alkaline soils to correct the pH. Our plant is surrounded by limestone walls and the leaves were yellow with green veins last year. The Greendex has solved this and the plant looks much healthier.

We have lots of tiny apricots right now. I need to put fruit fly net on ASAP because apricots are like heroin to fruit flies and they can get them when they're small. 

This year I'm trying a new netting technique, which has a frame of rigid black pipe. At the apex is a nut and bolt to hold it together and at each corner is a peg going into the ground. All I need to do now is throw the net over and weigh down the bottom edges, if I get around to it I may even put a door in with velcro. The main issue with this tree is that it's a double graft. This sounded like a good idea when we bought it (fruit over a longer period, different varieties) but I now realise it will make it much harder to net. One side needs netting now and the other needs to be left open to pollinators since it hasn't even flowered yet. This means I need to net half the tree and then the whole tree in another month or so. What a pain in the bum, don't buy double grafted stone fruit trees is the moral of this story.

The grape vine is shooting now to provide us with summer shade and some fruit to boot.

The boy in the bubble (mango) is going well. The greenhouse effect has buffered it from the wind and cold of winter, so it should be ready for a big surge when it warms up (I'll replace the plastic with shade cloth for summer).

The veges are growing well too. The broad beans are nearly ready to eat. Old bike inner tubes are the best way to support broad beans.

After a slow start the leeks are looking good too.

Last but not least the most exciting development. About six months ago I planted three groups of Quandong seeds. I thought they had rotted away because it had been so long since planting but now I have two beautiful little seedlings in the front garden.

 Here is the first to come up, it's about 2cm tall at two months.

And here is one that just popped up, you can actually see the seed on the soil surface if you look closely. I am so chuffed because it's very hard to buy seedlings and also hard to propagate. They are native parasitic plants which attach themselves to other plants to get nutrients (much like the related Sandalwood), so I have host plants nearby. I can't wait to get our first crop in five years or so, Quandongs make the best jam in the world, ever!

Rain water harvesting year 4

It's been four years since we installed our 14,000L rain water tank, so here's the annual wrap. It was another dry year in WA, with 571mm on our block. Perth's average is supposed to be around 750mm, but the new reality is much lower. Here is the rainfall in the last four years, recorded by me on a daily basis. You can see we have a very seasonal pattern, with most rainfall in the cooler months (April to October). The average for the last four years is 634mm and we've only reached 750mm once.

Despite this we harvested and used a record 81,241L of rainwater this year, which represents 30% of our total use. This is pretty good going I think for a 14,000L tank. It means we've got through almost six tanks worth in the year. The key to this is the fact that everything is plumbed in to the tank (house and garden), so we minimise our losses to overflow by using rainwater whenever it's available. The water switch switches back to mains water when the tank is empty and switches back when it fills up.

This chart shows weekly rainfall (scale on the right axis) and our daily consumption (left axis) split into the proportions of tank and mains water (green and red). It shows the long dry period through summer when there is little rainwater available and when our consumption rises to keep our fruit and veg going in the intense summer heat. We go about 6 months of the year using predominantly rainwater.

The next chart shows how the tank level fluctuates with rainfall and usage patterns. The level stays high in winter with good rainfall and low usage, but as soon as rainfall drops and we turn on the retic the level drops sharply.

The last chart below shows our daily consumption of both rainwater and mains water for the last four years. You may think that for a sustainable minded family we use too much water (734L a day this year). I know it sounds like a lot but it's actually lower than the Perth average. In our defense we use little in the house (about 200L a day) and lots on the garden. Perth has extremely hot, dry summers and this means it takes lots of water to keep the garden going. We have 20 fruit and nut trees, lots of veges and a small lawn on our 700 sq.m block. Also, we've cut our water usage despite adding more retic to more plants recently.

Next year we hope to use a lot less too. We have just bought a new front loading washing mashine to replace our old top loader. It uses 62L per wash as opposed to about 180L, so we could save 25,000L here. And our new grey water system should save us lots, especially on the lawn. Another big saving here and we could use 50,000L less next year. I'm predicting water use of 600L a day next year. Watch this space...

A very virtuous meal (and plastic free to boot!)

My sister and her family thrive in a slightly crazy house. Kids, dogs, knitting, books, cellos, and cats licking the breakfast dishes...and yet it all works beautifully and when you walk in to their house you just feel good, comfy and loved - we love it at there house! This school holidays we decided to add pasta making to the mix. It was great fun, 100% plastic free and totally virtuous (apart from the flour coming from Italy).

I'll let the photos tell the story:

 The girls made the mixture of flour and eggs - the eggs were from our girls.

Quin thought it looked like messy fun so joined in pretty quickly.

 This bit was great fun! We made some spaghetti and some ravioli. 

Mixing up the mixture for the ravioli - this consisted of plastic free ricotta, herbs from Hilton Harvest Community Garden and home grown pumpkin.

 The finished, slightly oversized, ravioli! 

 And the spaghetti out to dry on the cloths airer - don't let the dog in!

 The finished product with a drizzle of Hilton Harvest olive oil.

 Delish! And it only took us five hours to make!

Planting the Choko

Another garden update: the Choko. We let one sprout recently and now have planted it. This is what it looked like before we planted it - amazing how much it grew. Freaky actually.

We took out this old passionfruit that in three years has never given us a fruit (we have to be ruthless in the burbs - not much space and all).

And in it goes. It will get morning sun and lots of grey water so fingers crossed we will have heaps of wonderfully ugly chokos that we give to all those choko haters to try. By the way I saw them for sale in our local fruit and veg shop for $1.50! They must be delicious!

Home brew's best

I love beer (wine pales in comparison on most fronts for me). Being from England and growing up with a real ale drinker and home brewer (my dad) I know a good beer from a bad one too, so home brewing has been a natural  thing for me to take up.

The pros are many:

It's cheaper
It tastes better than the 'industrial' rubbish most brewers make
It's more sustainable (lower air miles, packaging, lower energy and water use)

The cons:

It takes a bit of time (2-3 hours the way I do it)

Here's how I do it. My method is a hybrid of the basic method and a full mash. I buy craft brew kits from my local home brew shop TWOC Brewing Supplies. My favourite kits are Paddy McKenna stout, Sierra Nevada pale ale, Ruthless Rye IPA, Czech This Out pilsener and Wee Stephan lager. I also buy a basic beer concentrate, usually Deliverance. This mix gives a good quality beer without the time it takes to do a full mash. The brew kits are made up of grains, sugar and hops in separate bags. First thing on brew day is to rehydrate the dry yeast. I do this by adding about 200ml of water to a pint glass, heating it in the microwave for about 20 seconds, dissolving half a teaspoon of sugar and adding the yeast. I cover this and leave it to activate. When you come to add the yeast to your wort it will be really cranking, the brew will start fermenting sooner and you'll be less likely to kill the yeast if your wort is on the hot side.

Next step is to bring the grain to the boil in a large stock pot, turn it off and sparge the grain bag (poor boiling water over the bag in a colander). Then you add the sugar and boil for another 10 minutes, then you add the hops and boil for another 1-5 minutes. You leave the wort for an hour or so to cool down in a basin of cold water, changing the water every now and again.

Sterilise your keg and other implements next. Then add the beer concentrate to your brewing keg and dissolve it in boiling water. When the first wort is cool enough add it to your keg, straining through a sieve. Fill the keg with water up to about 22L, preferably filling from a height to oxygenate the wort. If the wort is below 30C you can now pitch the yeast.

The brew will take 5-10 days to finish the primary fermentation. I usually leave it two weeks and then bottle it. This is where having a few good gadgets comes in handy. A bottle tree is a must to drain the bottles; a bottler to get the beer from the keg into bottles; a sugar measure; a bench capper to cap the bottles and of course some bottles! You can buy them at brew shops but I think a better way is to buy beer in suitable bottles, drink it and then reuse the bottles. In Australia Cooper's king browns are good and I love Little Creatures pint bottles too. Look out for non screw on types, since screw on caps don't seal as well. Last but not least you'll need some sterilising powder. Remember, the three most important things in home brewing are hygiene, hygiene and hygiene! If you've ever had a brew go sour then you'll know what I mean, all that hard work goes down the drain...

To bottle the brew clean your bottles, triple rinse with water and leave to drain. Then add the priming sugar and bottle up. Try to avoid moving the keg too much before you bottle or you'll stir up the sediment. Then cap the bottles and leave in a warm place for a week for secondary fermentation (to carbonate the beer). Leave the bottles for another 3 weeks to condition and then get stuck in.

A note on timing. In WA I don't brew in summer, it's just too hot and too hard to keep the brew at the right temp. It's much easier to warm a brew up than cool it down. I have a heater belt but I don't use it these days. What I do is brew stouts and ales in autumn and spring, checking the forecast for mild temps (these brew best between 20-25C). I brew pilseners and lagers in winter using special yeasts which brew at lower temps (Saflager W34/70), between 9-22C. This way I'm not using energy to keep the brew warm. It works out well too because I drink mostly ale and stout in winter and pilsener and lager in summer.

I know what you're thinking, it sounds like a lot of work. It's really not and you can always do it the quick and easy way (just add beer concentrate, water and yeast to your keg). It is worth the time and once you're set up it's pretty cheap to do. Have a look out for brew kegs on the verge too, so many people do one brew and give up! Give it a go though, you won't regret it.