As you all know, we have a farm in New South Wales. More correctly I suppose a piece of dirt at this stage! We have been planning, and would like to share some of those plans with you now. The picture below is a preliminary plan, based on what we have discussed so far.
By way of explanation I should now add the bits I didn't on the drawing...North is to the top as you look at this drawing, and the dark green paddocks are for orcharding. The bore that supplies water to the whole farm concept runs down the eastern side of the block, and at the southeastern corner is both the water junction and a remote weather station.
Our plan - We only have 25 acres, so have to be smart in how we use the land. It is extremely fertile, but will still need management to sustain what we want it to. Hence we are planning to fence into several small paddocks (between one and two acres) so that we can intensively graze and then rest paddocks. This will also give us the opportunity to plant small crops, shut up paddocks for hay, or plant paddocks in wildflowers and herbs to provide a change in feeding options for our livestock.
Going from west to east - The purpose of the woodlot is fourfold. It will provide an extended shelterbelt to the west, which is where the majority of the bad weather comes from. In this instance, bad weather is the wind, so hot and dry in Summer, and cold and wet in winter. The shelterbelt will help to maintain more even temperatures on the balance of the land, and minimise evaporation and erosion due to wind. The second purpose is to provide firewood for the wood fired oven. Our primary business will be a woodfired sourdough bakery. We will coppice both exotic and native timbers to give us a mix of aromatic and high energy timbers for fuel. Thirdly is as a shelter and food source. We will be able to put pigs in there (in the future) to root around and farrow. They might even find the first truffles, but I want to try and beat them to it! As a shelter, we will also endeavour to grow morel mushrooms if we can (a) create the right conditions, and (b) source the spawn. Finally, for pleasure. One day I would like to have a go at 'green' woodworking. I fancy setting up a 'bodger's' shelter in the wood, and turning out a chair or two... Might be a pipe dream, in which case the trees will just be there to admire and respect as they stand sentinel over our piece of land!
The Hedgerow that runs West to East through the centre of the block will be about two metres wide and again will be multi-purpose. We intend to contain plants within it that might not be suited elsewhere, but that we nevertheless want to be able to forage from (the illusion of 'wild' or found food!). It will create a wildlife corridor and habitat of sorts, and it would be nice to be able to have pheasant on the menu every now and then! It will also provide and additional food source for stock, with plants such as Tagasaste. We can include a lot of flowering plants in this area to entice bees so they can do their thing.
The natural swimming pool will be a future addition. They are a fairly simple concept and can be very economical to create. We don't need a (conventional) swimming pool as you only really swim for a brief period each year. If we are going to keep a few ducks, they will want something to get wet in, and if constructed properly, natural swimming pools are very much self cleaning.
Going from west to east - The purpose of the woodlot is fourfold. It will provide an extended shelterbelt to the west, which is where the majority of the bad weather comes from. In this instance, bad weather is the wind, so hot and dry in Summer, and cold and wet in winter. The shelterbelt will help to maintain more even temperatures on the balance of the land, and minimise evaporation and erosion due to wind. The second purpose is to provide firewood for the wood fired oven. Our primary business will be a woodfired sourdough bakery. We will coppice both exotic and native timbers to give us a mix of aromatic and high energy timbers for fuel. Thirdly is as a shelter and food source. We will be able to put pigs in there (in the future) to root around and farrow. They might even find the first truffles, but I want to try and beat them to it! As a shelter, we will also endeavour to grow morel mushrooms if we can (a) create the right conditions, and (b) source the spawn. Finally, for pleasure. One day I would like to have a go at 'green' woodworking. I fancy setting up a 'bodger's' shelter in the wood, and turning out a chair or two... Might be a pipe dream, in which case the trees will just be there to admire and respect as they stand sentinel over our piece of land!
The Hedgerow that runs West to East through the centre of the block will be about two metres wide and again will be multi-purpose. We intend to contain plants within it that might not be suited elsewhere, but that we nevertheless want to be able to forage from (the illusion of 'wild' or found food!). It will create a wildlife corridor and habitat of sorts, and it would be nice to be able to have pheasant on the menu every now and then! It will also provide and additional food source for stock, with plants such as Tagasaste. We can include a lot of flowering plants in this area to entice bees so they can do their thing.
The natural swimming pool will be a future addition. They are a fairly simple concept and can be very economical to create. We don't need a (conventional) swimming pool as you only really swim for a brief period each year. If we are going to keep a few ducks, they will want something to get wet in, and if constructed properly, natural swimming pools are very much self cleaning.
There a two key features. The area for the plants (shallow) needs to be 50% of the total surface area. The sides of the pool need to be set at a shallow gradient, and there needs to be gravel on the bottom to aid the cleaning process. The brown square indicates the bathing deck... It is a fascinating concept, and if you google 'natural swimming pools', you will see a huge amount of information from new construction to retro-fits of older pools.
The orchard paddocks will be planted with all manner of fruits and nuts. A non-exhaustive list will include the following: pecan, walnut, chestnut, stone pine, citrus, apple, pear, damson, greengage, plum, peach, cherry, nectarine, apricot, feijoa, pomegranate, and persimmon. Our endeavour is to plant early and late fruiting varieties so we can eat in season, and not have to do much by way of preserving. Our apples will be many varieties so we can use them for eating, cooking and cidering! As well as providing fruit for us, our intent is that the windfall provide supplementary feed for animals. In addition to the trees, we will plant companion herbs to aid in the prevention of infestation and disease. Another weapon in our arsenal will be our poultry flock. We will keep chickens, ducks, turkeys and guineafowl here. The chickens will provide a guard against insects and I am told that guineafowl can be a match for foxes. The poultry shelters will be moveable, and will go where they are needed.
The paddocks are built around a central transfer paddock to aid in rotating and handling stock. Water troughs will all be close to the transfer paddock to minimise setup, and the orchard paddocks will be irrigated. They will not be closely planted, and our intent is to graze those paddocks also when the trees are established.
The shed (yet to be constructed) will provide storage for hay and any crops we need to keep for fodder such as pumpkins. We would also use this space for drying garlic and onions. We will milk our goats here, and then transport the milk back to the kitchen.
So - the agricultural endeavours to take place here? We don't have a complete picture yet, but in addition to the poultry we will keep a few sheep, goats, cows and pigs. We want to make our own cheese and cured meats, and generally have a lot of fun. If we can grow truffles, morels, and make a world class goat's cheese that people want to buy then we will be even happier. If our prosciutto is good enough, then I doubt we will share with anybody other than friends and family!
When we first drew this farm plan, the name for the farm and bakery fell out for Jane. At this stage, we have decided to call our future venture "Rising Sun", and our prospective branding will look a little like this:
The next job will be to design the house....
