Philosophy – Page 2 – Gallifrey Forest Farm

Sustainable Living

2016/09/01 Danielle 0

This week I spent two full days on a process workshop, learning about the ‘product owner’ role in an agile software development or business process. That might not sound like it has much to do with farming or sustainability, but you’d be surprised. I’m not going to bore anyone by describing the agile process, but it’s basically about efficiency, about doing more with less and getting results quickly. And if you think about it, often when we talk about sustainability, we’re really talking about efficiency. We absolutely want to protect and maintain the ecological systems that support us, […]

June 26: belated weekend update

2016/06/27 Danielle 0

It was a busy weekend (although a good one!) so I’m a day late with this post. Saturday we attended the Less is More festival and I presented on keeping bees, then we had a mid-winter gathering at my mum’s place and caught up with friends and family there – and ate far too much delicious lamb tagine and roasted sweet potato. Sunday we headed out to the swan valley for breakfast at the Margaret River Chocolate Factory (which does a very nice breakfast), and then a day at the Swan Valley Cuddly Animal Farm. So many animals. Including Damara lambs, […]

June 21: the longest night of the year

2016/06/21 Danielle 0

It’s officially midwinter. Seasonally, my European ancestors would be celebrating the turning of the year now – Christmas and New Years, the rebirth of the sun-god from the snow and the darkness. There would be feasts, animals which couldn’t be kept and fed through the rest of winter and the spring would be slaughtered and eaten, along with pickles and beer and wine, and the cold-stored fruit and winter vegetables form the cellars. I’ve already held one midwinter celebration, and I’m attending another this weekend. But in the meantime in between, I think a little feasting is in order. […]

June 19: contentment

2016/06/19 Danielle 0

Today’s tasks are the lazy-Sunday-after-a-party sort of tasks. Cleaning up, tidying up, putting away the air mattresses and extra blankets (several people stayed over rather than driving home late last night). I made pancakes for breakfast for all of us, and was rewarded with gratitude and affection and endless cups of tea being made for me. Now I’m sitting in the afternoon sun, eating toasted cheese for lunch and watching the clouds blow in with (hopefully) some rain. Life’s pretty good. I’ve always thought that being happy is something you do, not something that happens to you. It’s […]

June 15: staple crops

2016/06/15 Danielle 0

A staple crop is one that provides the majority of a population’s diet, generally providing primarily starch and/or protein. Our current primary staple crops worldwide are corn (maize), wheat, and rice. There are also other staple crops or potential staple crops (crops with the capacity to provide the majority of a population’s diet) grown – barley, rye, oats, teff, sorghum (milo), millet, soybeans and other legumes (beans, chickpeas, lentils, ..), quinoa, amaranth, potatoes, sweet potatoes, yams, oca, cassava, arrowroot, plantains and sago (derived from the pith of the sago palm). There are probably others, but those are some of the more common ones. Do […]