In Australia another winter is over. As they prepare for summer Sonya Wallace shares some tips for those of us preparing for winter.

[This blog post appears in the November Relocalize Newsletter. See all past newsletters here.]

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Heating your home during winter – how do you do it in a way that is sustainable and least harmful to the environment? I was faced with this dilemma a couple of years ago. Okay, I’ll admit upfront, I live on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland Australia. It never snows here, although we do get a night or two of frost each year. By many people’s standards, it’s not cold at all. But it’s all relative.

At home

Our homes in Queensland are built very much for our sub tropical climate and lose heat quickly – which isn’t good during winter when it is cold.  This winter we had a visitor from the UK staying here and she found it very cold so I did feel justified! We needed to stay warm in winter, but I didn’t want to contribute to carbon emissions, climate change and be reliant on declining supplies of fossil fuels – what to do?

I did like the idea of a wood fired heater, but thought that would be out of the question – that was until I read an article by David Holmgren in 2005. David Holmgren is the co-originator of permaculture together with Bill Mollison.

Permaculture is based on ethics and principles that if applied, provide efficiencies, energy savings, responsible resources management and care of the planet.

The article (which is available on an interactive e-book of David’s collected writings and presentations 1978-2006) was supported by research from the CSIRO (Australian Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation - impact and use of firewood in Australia – CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems 2000).

Here Holmgren discusses the most effective way to use firewood for heating in Australia. He highlighted that about half of all Australia’s firewood is harvested from private land by private individuals (in contrast to the misconception that old growth forests are being used). He admits that harvesting this timber can range from being very beneficial to very destructive but emphasises responsibility and common sense in the process.

He promotes instead that home owners firstly buy the most efficient heater they can – in Australia there are now emission ratings for heaters (Australian Standard 4013) and buying a heater that is appropriate to the size of the space it must heat (could you shut an area off to heat thereby reducing energy and increasing efficiency?) – don’t overheat yourself!

And you do have control over how you fuel your heater. Choose environmentally sustainable, gathered timber or consider growing your own woodlot, ensure all the wood is well seasoned and well dried, use it sparingly and burn it efficiently. But even before all of that, ensure you have insulation and heat escape spots covered (windows, gaps around doors etc).

Rugging yourself up or exercising to increase your own bloodflow is one of the simplest and most environmental sound things you can do.

Multi-functionality

When we came to choose our new wood heater we wanted to apply permaculture principles to the purchase. So it had to have multi-functionality. We decided on the Nectre Bakers’ Oven. Made in South Australia it is a robust, strong little (we only have a small house) heater.

It has an oven for baking roasts and vegetables and a cooktop for winter soups and stews. We could have added a water jacket for hot water but we already had a solar hot water system, so we didn’t need that particular feature.

So, now when the heater is on it’s serving many purposes. It heats our house (we move our bed into the main living area to take advantage of the valuable warmth), it cooks our food, makes great wood fired pizzas, roasts our home grown coffee beans and provides a lovely ambiance too.

Design

But probably the best thing you can do to heat your home is to have a home designed to capture and store heat.  A house facing the right way is the most fundamental thing – north in the southern hemisphere and south in the northern hemisphere, rather than a house facing the street.

The right sized eaves, ones that take into account your location’s sun angles from summer to winter solstice, the right sized windows that have heavy drapes for winter and pelmets, insulation in the roof, the walls and under the floor if you’re building off the ground.

A very clever idea that can be included in the building process is factoring in the use of thermal mass - creating a heat ‘bank’ within the home – a floor made of concrete or stone that is in full sun during the day in winter or a wall built specifically for the purpose in just the right place. As late afternoon comes around, closing windows and drawing the curtains ensures the heat stored in the floor (or the wall) is slowly released overnight adding to the ambient warmth inside the home.

Capturing heat, storing it effectively and minimising loss of heat are all key in keeping your home warm and comfortable. Be clever and innovative – use design principles and save money in the process.

What ever you choose ensure it is the most efficient, most effective, most environmentally sound choice you can make – then use it only when you absolutely need it!

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References;
David Holmgren Collected Writings & Presentations 1978-2006 available www.holmgren.com.au
Earth User’s Guide to Permaculture – Rosemary Morrow

Photos:
burge5000

Some of you may have been following the progress of our test tube experiment happening here on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland Australia.

We started our journey a couple of years ago now. I studied for my Permaculture Design Certificate in October 2006 and a fellow student on that course was Andi Hazelwood of Sustainabundy. Andi showed a powerpoint presentation on peak oil and talked about this relocalisation network.

I knew of peak oil - I'd seen the End of Suburbia when it was first released - and now here was a path to actioning change. So I started a relocalisation group - CASSC - Creating a Sustainable Sunshine Coast. From there I formed the Eudlo Relocalisation Group in my home town.

I also started working on developing a course on energy descent action planning for the community that would create the environment for ideas and solutions to come from them to put to council - much like the Kinsale energy descent action plan. I heard David Holmgren speak on regional sustainability in an energy descent future, I saw An Inconvenient Truth, and I heard local environmentalist Professor Ian Lowe talk about climate change, peak oil, population growth and the threat of economic collapse. This was in a very short period in 2006.

I worked closely with my permaculture teacher Janet Millington in getting something together and the Time for an Oil Change course was born. As was the Sunshine Coast Energy Action Centre - a shopfront for the community to drop in to see films, hear guest speakers and join discussion groups. All our actions were framed within our mantra "positive solutions to climate change and peak oil".

We completed the Time for an Oil Change course and work started on Australia's first Energy Descent Action Plan.

This was a new process for us and we made some mistakes along the way and learnt some valuable lessons. But now, the EDAP is back in our hands and we are finally getting the final draft ready to go to the graphic designer then the printer.

It's been a long, slow and at times difficult process. We feel the weight of responsibility of this being Australia's first EDAP and as far as I know, and I've checked with Rob Hopkins in the UK, only the second ever - clarifying that the second ever done by the community in the spirit of transition towns, relocalisation networks and the Kinsale EDAP of 2005.

I know some councils and local government have written documents on peak oil etc, but this is different - it's by the community, from the community and owned by the community. It can't be censored to remove inconvenient truths from it. It's there in its entirety and in good faith from those who contributed to it. We owe the students who were part of that course that respect.

We will soon be releasing it publicly. We'll send copies within our region, to the community, to groups we've worked with along the way, to local government and to our international linkages - the Post Carbon Institute, Richard Heinberg, David Holmgren, Rob Hopkins, Post Carbon Cities, and also to our state and federal governments.

We will form a taskforce to act as a steering committee to ensure the document will remain active, be resourced appropriately, and be reviewed regularly. The taskforce will also act as EDAP ambassadors and advocates, promoting the idea of collective action within their industry sectors.

Thanks for reading this far, and yes, the much awaited (in my world anyway) Sunshine Coast Energy Descent Action Plan will soon be released and then the real work will begin.

Regards,
Sonya
Transition Sunshine Coast

The Queensland Government (in Australia) have recently released a discussion paper on how we can move Toward Oil Resilience.

The entire document is available at http://www.epa.qld.gov.au/publications/p02620aa.pdf/Towards_Oil_Resilien...

I thought some of you may be interested in the 'What you can do' - section. It all fits very well with the Relocalisation Network and Transition Town models.

What you can do

It is up to all of us as Queenslanders to take steps to reduce our reliance on oil. There are many things we can do right now.

Here are some ways we can all prepare;

Familiarise yourself with the issues outlines in this paper [see link above for entire document]
Simply being aware of peak oil and oil vulnerability is the first important step to preparing and adjusting for future changes

Talk about this issues with friends, neighbours, employees and local community members.
If you are concerned about this issue, chances are other people around you are too.

Think about how you can make a difference
This may include simple action to reduce fuel consumption such as;
• Reducing private vehicle use (by not driving so much, car pooling, taking public transport, riding a bike etc)
• Support local initiatives and industry that reduce food and commodity kilometres (by buying local produce, using local services, growing some of your own food etc)
• Getting involved in local and regional planning processes (by contributing submissions through government consultation processes, contacting your local member etc)

Visit the EPA website for further information www.epa.qld.gov.au

[ENDS]

Also, please visit the Sunshine Coast Energy Action Centre website [www.seac.net.au] - we are mentioned in the 'further reading' section of this government document and our website has lots of articles, ideas and lessons we've learnt so far about moving from oil dependency to local resilience.

Meeting with David Holmgren

I was lucky enough to spend some time with David Holmgren this month discussing energy descent and future scenarios in the context of climate change and peak oil. How we approached it here via the regional model and how that is now unfolding in the community.

For those of you who do not know David, he is a co-originator of permaculture – together with Bill Mollison. In the ‘70’s David was a student of the University of Tasmania and he spent his time there working with Bill Mollison developing the permaculture concept as part of his environmental design degree.

David lives in Hepburn Springs in Victoria with his partner Su Dennett and their son Oliver.

My partner in energy descent action planning, Janet Millington and I travelled to meet with David to deliver our course curriculum (Time for an Oil Change – an energy descent planning course), the Energy Descent Action Plan (soon to be released into the community) and developments in relocalisation and transition movements. When we first decided to create the curriculum for the course early last year (2007) we committed to delivering the outcomes to David personally.

And the time spent with him was invaluable. His book Permaculture; Principles and Pathways Beyond Sustainability was the foundation text for our course and now his new website Future Scenarios will be an integral part of new courses we deliver in the community.

As a theorist and futurist David spends his time thinking, planning, discussing and contemplating how the energy issue may unfold taking into account economic, political, environmental and other influences – how it may affect us and what we can do to ensure we shore up our resilience so we not only survive but thrive.

Janet and I are on the other end of things – putting these ideas into place in the community and testing to see how they work. Making the ideas manifest in the community.

Being able to ‘close the loop’ of information – to report directly back to the source and discuss how it actually went was inspiring indeed.

We explored how we used the ethics and principles of permaculture as direction, checks and measures of sustainability and robustness of ideas that were raised in the course.

We looked at how we used his ideas to justify the action strategies in the Energy Descent Action Plan (EDAP).

We explained how the whole thing unfolded – from the PDC (Permaculture Design Course) I did with Janet in 2006 (with Andi Hazelwood of Sustainabundy) right through to being Australia’s first Transition Initiative and now finishing off Australia’s first community-driven EDAP.

Processing all the information he presented to us is another matter altogether (!) and I’ve been combating the flu since returning home to the relative warmth of the Sunshine Coast (it gets cold in Victoria!).

But I have no doubt that the ideas, information and seeds that were planted during our visit to Hepburn Springs will blossom in the future and significantly enhance our education courses and workshops for the next wave of energy descent actioners.

Our region wide powerdown project continues... and the importance of relocalisation groups....

It's certainly taking a lot longer than I would like to get our region into serious powerdown action. Our EDAP is still underway - but that is okay. I've heard of other groups planning on taking one year to do theirs, and we are still well within that timeframe.

The Energy Descent Action Plan will be our plan of strategies and what needs to be done. It's our list of wishes, hopes, demands, and requests.

It covers education programs, demonstration sites, celebratary events, incentives and disincentives, and much more. The relocalisation network and the Transition Initiatives Network will be the way we engage the community to get all those actions underway.

While that is happening on a regional level, I've been working hard on getting my local town - Eudlo on the Sunshine Coast, Queensland Australia - into energy descent planning. The main catalyst for this has been creating a relocalisation group. We are now about to celebrate our one year anniversary with a community picnic in the park.

Over the past year we've developed links with local like minded people and the broader community - it seems everyone pretty much wants the same thing - we're just coming at it from different angles. Of course, our group is feeling the urgency of energy descent and has a much bigger picture of how important this all is.

It's great to look back on our past year - we've started up Permablitz working bees and created gardens in people's backyards, and helped those of us who are well established get even further ahead.

We've made raised vegie beds, compost systems, chook yards, green manure crops... we've fed and mulched fruit trees, weeded, planted, propagated, and more importantly, talked, sung and ate some great shared meals. We've also laughed a lot!

We've started a seed saving group, a bulk buying group and our newest project is starting a full-on co-operative! This is something I'm particularly excited about!

We're also researched grain types and grain crop growing, milling and setting up some type of social network with the local town hall committee.

Doing this on the ground, being part of a relocalisation group, being part of making my community more resilent, planning for a future with less oil, actually taking positive action... it has all been so worth it!

We are also a Transition Region (part of the UK network through Rob Hopkins), and we are starting to get a lot of interest about this - I wonder if it's because Australian's have stronger links with the UK (through families etc) than the US. I've found most people who know about TRs have a relative or someone they know well in the UK...

As I travel (the bane of peak oil presenters I know!) being able to actually demonstrate how a group can work on the ground at grassroots level has been absolutely invaluable. I'm walking the walk and talking the talk.

People are surprised how easy it is and they find what we are doing in Eudlo very inspiring.

If you are considering starting a group, thinking about taking things a little further in your area - I urge you to give it a go. It may not be the exact right time, but it soon will be.

Well done to the relocalisation teams around the world and thanks,
Sonya

Well, it's one month today since the local council election and the amalgamation of three councils into one.

The EDAP is still being written, but in reality, we it wouldn't have been appropriate to deliver it to the old council and we need to give the new council a little breathing space before we deliver it to them.

Janet and I had a meeting with State Government this week, which was really encouraging. We have a relatively new Minister for a new portfolio called Climate Change, Sustainability and Innovation and he had already commissioned a report on oil vulnerability in our state prior to his appointment as Minister.

It was through his office that we had the meeting and discussed all the things we been setting up here on the Coast.

It all looks very promising, media interview requests are rolling in via the website as are other contacts in universities, councils and community groups around Australia.

Our next step is to meet with the new Mayor, discuss what we have done and plan to do. Keep in contact with State Govt, finish the EDAP and start developing a Transition Team Troika Network to start to really get this out in the community and around the region.

This week is very busy for me - I have meeting to plan the layout of a mock "Transition Town" at our World Environment Day celebrations in May, then on Thursday night Janet and I are presenting at a film screening of The Power of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil which includes special guest Roberto Perez, then on Friday I'm helping Janet all day with a huge school garden seminar she has organised with 45 schools attending (teachers, principals, groundspeople and parents) to discuss how permaculture and all its uses can be incorporated into school curriculums.

On Saturday we have an all day expo on sustainability. Guest speakers include Roberto Perez, Geoff Lawton and locals Bob Cameron (sustainable business owner) and Frances Michael (Green Harvest business owner).

I'll be doing a presentation on Transition Towns and what the community can do about climate change and peak oil. Andi Hazelwood will be there talking Relocalisation and I'll also be doing a compost demonstration.

Busy times and momentum is definately building... exciting times and lots to do!

Sonya

Second meeting with one of the mayoral candidates went very well. The election date is the next key timeline point for the region.

Once the new Mayor is elected and he (there are only two candidates, both male) is in place and the councillors up and running it will be time to kick start the real powerdown work in the region.

The document is still under construction, but we do have the March 15 election date and we can't do anything before that, so we have a little lee way in time at the moment.

Staff within council have been presenting peak oil seminars and an introduction to the EDAP in-house and it is being very well received.

It will be a huge undertaking to actually get this document ratified, endorsed, and the implementation process started, but I'm hoping there will also be opportunities for employment in there too. Doing this voluntarily is okay, but not sustainable - for me at least.

Lots of behind the scenes work going on in the lead up to the March 15 date; meetings, letters, writing, ideas exchanges, last minute additions to the EDAP etc etc. Also one of the students from course has devised a survey to test all candidates knowledge of and committment to both peak oil and climate change solutions. Looking forward to seeing the results.

We have one chance with this... if we do it well, we open the door for many others to follow behind us. If we stuff it up, we've made things a whole lot harder for the next EDAP.

The document will be peer reviewed to ensure credibility and strength. We need it to be bullet proof and most of resilient (just like we need all our communities to be too.)

I'll let you know who wins the election and what it means to our EDAP!

Well, the meeting with the Mayor went very well and I now have a follow up meeting on Feb 18 to discuss in more depth what SEAC has been doing, our role in energy descent action planning action, the model of community action to deliver and implement and EDAP and our milestones so far.

Today was our first open day for the year at SEAC and from now on we'll be open every Saturday morning between 9am and noon at 41 Farrell Street Yandina with events posted on www.seac.net.au

SEAC is a hub that sits within the region and supports local action groups on the ground. It seems to be a model that is workable. It's great to have the opportunity to put these ideas and theory in practice and see them working in real life and being meaningful and of use to people.

This week I met with Eric from CERES in Victoria - they have a 10 acre community garden/centre that is so successful. Their website is www.ceres.org.au - very inspiring to see such good work happening in the community.

Also met with a group planning a regional event for when Roberto Perez from Cuba is here - a public screening of The Power of Community and a talk by Roberto.

Visited the Caloundra Community Climate Change Response Group and they have a lot of great ideas for this year, and SEAC is able to support them with a few ideas and resources. They even came up with a mini energy descent action plan on the night - great stuff!

Today was really inspiring too, here in Queensland we are in middle of our rainy season, so we're having torrential rain almost every day, yet 20 people turned up for a compost & worm farming workshop and to watch the Cuba DVD. They were actually queued at the door when I arrived (probably trying to find shelter)!

From this morning's session I've been invited to speak to a couple of local groups (not groups to do with peak oil or climate change - just community groups in general) about these issues.

The awareness is on the way up - of that I'm convinced.

Tomorrow morning I have our regular Eudlo Relocalisation Group meeting and the next day I'll be part of the initial meeting about an overall Eudlo Concept Plan to put to council.

It's all a lot of work and time at the moment, but I'm keen to see how successful community group models and structure can a) actually work and b) meet the needs of the community (rather than dictate them).

This week there was also a presentation delivered to the council on peak oil and local solutions to peak oil which was very well received and has generated positive feedback.

Just waiting now for the council election to see who is Mayor and we can begin poweringdown this region... yippee

PS - the EDAP is a regional project and therefore will survive the amalgamation process regardless of who gets in.

Visit the Sunshine Coast regional powerdown blog at http://www.relocalize.net/groups/cassc there you'll find regular updates on how our attempt at regional powerdown is progressing....

This week I've been invited to meet with the local Mayor to discuss the work I'm doing with the Sunshine Coast Energy Action Centre, and the Sunshine Coast Energy Descent Action Plan, which is currently being drafted.

It's an interesting process bringing an EDAP to life and working on how it can be delivered and become a useful, usable document and not end up in the bottom of some filing cabinet somewhere.

Just to explain in a bit more detail exactly where we are at currently and how we got here...

About this time last year - after completing a Permaculture Design Course (which Andi Hazelwood was also part of) in October 2006 - I started seriously thinking about how I could start to really do something major in regard to both climate change and peak oil in my community.

David Holmgren (David is the co-originator of permaculture along with Bill Mollison) had been on the Sunshine a few months earlier and spoke of 'Regional Sustainability in an Energy Descent Future' and notes from that talk gave me ideas. He also mentioned the Kinsale Energy Descent Action Plan....

I contacted my PDC teacher Janet Millington and mentioned how I'd love to do a course that took David Holmgren's text and applied hisprinciples in a sociological context across the region to prepare for peak oil.

A way of reorganising the region using those principles - a rather big project indeed! Like swaling a whole bio region rather than just your own property...

I'd also read Richard Heinberg's books and Powerdown in particular caught my attention - I could see how it would have worked so well for Heinberg and Holmgren to tour together speaking on these issues. Permaculture provides an excellent framework from which to start planning. If you can understand the principles of permaculture, you can see how powering down a region is possible.

But at that time, there was no such course in Australia, so Janet suggested I write an outline and with her expertise as a permaculture educator and school teacher by trade, we could develop it into a 'real' course that has objectives, outcome and structure.

So I did. And the Time for an Oil Change course was born...

Pretty early on it became apparent that we would need some type of centre from which to run education courses and to raise community awareness about peak oil and all its implications. We needed to make people aware of the issues and provide more in depth info to those who already 'get it'.

We identified the local community gardens headquarters which weren't being used on weekends and we decided to turn that into the Sunshine Coast Energy Action Centre and we open up every Saturday morning between 9am and noon and run free events, guest speakers, DVD screenings, workshops etc (all listed at www.seac.net.au)

The centre and the course kicked off and we had 22 people turn up to do the course. Students included architects, town planners, teachers, environmental activists and students, nurses, and concerned residents who wanted to powerdown their own homes and families.

The outcome of the course was to produce an Energy Descent Action Plan for the region.

In the meantime I'd been very busy meeting with local government and had gained the Mayor's support for the project, I'd met with the local university and gained their support and access to lecturers who could present climate change and sustainability presentations at the Centre... it was all starting to come together.

So now here we are six months after we first opened the doors at the centre and ran the first course and we have...
a website with high traffic flow
Australia's first ever energy descent action planning course written and delivered
Australia's first energy descent action plan nearing completion
recognition as Australia's first Transition Town
regular visitors to both the centre and the website
requests coming in thick and fast for interviews
we are part of a university study into sustainability innovators on the Coast
and now, in the context of an upcoming local government election, a meeting with the Mayor to discuss future strategies.

I am also working hard to develop ideas from this that will provide me with an income - I'm doing all this off my savings at the moment and that just isn't sustainable... but things are coming together and it's looking good.

Taking on a lead role in poweringdown a region is a big step, but it is also achievable. It was the blend of my background in state government and my understanding of how governments work, plus Janet's skills in education, curriculum writing and her community links that has got us this far.

What the future holds - who knows - but I'm planning to apply for a scholarship that will allow me to visit the UK and the US later this year to see first hand what's happening, I'm working on a Masters degree in communications and eventually a PhD in this area and looking at gaining an income from this work which hopefully sets a precedence for employment and funding in this field, rather than relying so heavily on volunteerism and government grants.

As for relocalisation - my [very] little town of Eudlo has a great relocalisation group we do working bees, seed saving, bulk buying... - we've been invited by the local town committee to be part of a visioning process or what we all want to achieve in the future and relocalisation is playing a big part in that.

This along with growing most of our own food, retrofitting our home to be more independant of mains supplies and self learning are all part of our lifeboat building in support of regional powerdown - I'm still running workshops in composting, worm farming, and other lifeboat skills for those who want to learn and prepare.

I'll keep this blog going on what we are doing, the challenges we face, the opportunties that arise and the lessons learnt from our process and hopefully it will encourage and benefit others in their regional powerdown plans.

Cheers,
Sonya

Peak Everything has arrived - well the book is here! I'm busy reading that and will post a review soon.

The momentum (pressure) is really starting to build with phone calls and emails starting to pick up - 2008 us going to be a big year I think. We here on the Sunshine Coast and Australia are on the cusp of some real action, but the potential workload is overwhelming, particularly as it falls mostly to me.

The most important thing I'm focussing on now is how to build sustainability into this process - how to avoid burnout and gather quality support around me. It's tough, but it will be worth it.

Luckily I've got some good people helping me nut this out, and I once we get the best model we can, I plan to let others know what we found works best.

It's frustrating having to spend time on 'internal processes' when there is so much practical work to be done.

I'll be a guest presenter at the Future Ready Expo and Conference at Kawana in April and will address the twin pressures of fossil fuel dependancy... and how we can respond.

Cheers,
Sonya

We're still officially on a break from the weekly opening of the Sunshine Coast Energy Action Centre, but I've been working away on a few ideas for ways to seriously get our region (and others in Australia) into Powerdown. It's taking a lot of planning and discussion, but it all seems to be falling into place.

The EDAP still needs a lot of work - a lot has been done, but it is so very important to get this, the first, perfect. A lot is riding on it.

Roberto Perez, from The Power of Community dvd, will be in Australia and on the Sunshine Coast in April so that will generate a lot of peak oil interest I'm sure. With that and the launch of our EDAP, hopefully we'll see peak oil in the mainstream media, here at least.

I think I finally have a copy of Peak Everything in the mail to me, took three tries with three different companies, but I have received an email saying it's been sent.

While SEAC has been closed we've still received media attention with a front page story in a local newspaper and emails are still rolling in from people who would like to be involved in what we are doing. The media coverage has been good, I've also done a radio interview in the past week, all those years working in corporate communications are finally paying off it seems.

The Eudlo Relocalisation Group is ticking along with regular meetings every month and an eager group of people wanting to work on peak oil and climate change solutions.

Will post again soon, with some updates on what's happening with our regional powerdown project.

Cheers,
Sonya

After months of hard work and community consultation - more than 150,000 hits on our website, numerous email of support and hundreds of visitors dropping in to our community education centre we, the Sunshine Coast Energy Action Centre (www.seac.net.au), are taking a break over Christmas and New Years and we've closed down the until February 2008.

But we won't be sitting around twidling our thumbs as there is plenty behind the scenes work to keep us out of trouble.

Firstly, we have an EDAP to complete to draft form. Once this is done, it will go back to all the participants who contributed to it, to ensure their views are expressed correctly and that it is representative of what went on during the Time for an Oil Change Course (This is a unique Australian first course we've written and delivered - resulting in this Australia's first ever Energy Descent Action Plan.)

It is due to be delivered to local government (who are going through a mammoth amalgamation process bringing three relatively large councils into one mega-council - yes I know this is exactly the WRONG thing to be doing at this time - but we have to work with what we've got!!).

Also over the break we will be on the hunt for a robust data projector to really kick off our outreach program (POWER - Peak Oil Workshops Everywhere in the Region) in the community and we can start talking to groups who perhaps have not heard of peak oil. We can buy one thanks to a generous donation from the public.

We are also brainstorming serious ideas of how to get what we've done so far (and thankfully enjoyed success with) out to a much broader audience, much quicker and with much more impact. This will take some planning but we think we are onto something BIG!

POWERINGDOWN the region (in our case via an EDAP) is a key strategy for a better post carbon future and we are receiving positive feedback from around Australia and across the Tasman in New Zealand. People want this information and they want true action.

Thank goodness for the international resource bank out there - this relocalisation network, the post carbon institute, transition towns in the UK and community solutions in the US.

I'm also writing to our new Federal Government leader (who was born and bred right here on the Sunshine Coast) asking for support for community leadership in the face of climate change and peak oil.

Next year we will also focus on more lifeboat building in the community - getting small action groups happening and communicating with each other, lots of reskilling opportunities, and of course my own local projects with the Eudlo Relocalisation Group and my own back yard of organic vegie gardens.

Personally we are also getting a solar hot water system connected (part of a community bulk buy SEAC organised) and we will also install a grid connected PV system.

Well, better go, I've got a meeting tomorrow with a group from Northern NSW and Brisbane who want to establish a food production bio-region, community supported agriculture and other food solution systems.

Hopefully Father Christmas will bring me PEAK EVERYTHING - WHICH BY THE WAY, HASN'T REACHED AUSTRALIAN BOOK SHOPS YET!!!!! Hint Hint.

Welcome to my regional powerdown blog. Thought I'd take a change in direction away from the organic gardening blog as now days my husband does most of the food production (and lifeboat building) and I'm focussing much more on regional activities, energy descent action planning and poweringdown.

As you've probably already guessed I read a lot of Richard Heinberg's work and this is for a very good reason. He is offering solutions and I like to offer solutions to. I think when you walk into a situation you have to have a positive solution up your sleeve, whinging and moaning about what's wrong is easy. Taking a step toward solving the problem takes a lot more courage and its a lot more fun. People want to be around you when you offer solutions. Inspiring others is key to success in relocalisation and any other form of climate change mitigation action or peak oil preparation.

I'm also one for a good quote - apparently Winston Churchill once said, "Any fool can see what's wrong, but can you see what's right." The power of positive thinking, the power of intent, like attracting like, the principle of favourability...

It's a lot easy to work for something than fight against something.

We've been busy ferreting away here on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland Australia. We've set up a community education centre, an energy descent action planning course (for the region), and we have written Australia's first Energy Descent Action Plan. We are also offering people the chance to build their own lifeboats with skills in food growing and preservation, seed saving, alternative energies etc etc. Take a look at our website www.seac.net.au to see the whole picture.

We are also part of the Transition Town Network.

I also run two relocalisation groups in my (very) local area - again building those lifeboats, poweringdown and most importantly working toward the preservationist model - rather than the survivialist one.

For those of you who haven't read Powerdown or David Holmgren's book Permaculture; Pathways and Principles Beyond Sustainability, I'll endevour to expand of their ideas over future blogs.

It's strange that it seems the well known phrase, think global act local, is actually turning into act global - as in get on the internet and tap into what others are doing - to start thinking about your local situation.

Cheers,
Sonya

Spring has sprung and the garden is taking on a life of its own.

Most of the winter vegies have either been eaten (by us) or are going to flower. I can't bring myself to remove the little flowers off the broccoli as the honey bees just love it.

With all the talk about decline in bee numbers how could I take away anything they like? So the flowers stay.

A couple of the chooks have gone broody with the warm weather, which is annoying and they need to be chucked out of the house morning and night to make sure they move around, eat something and drink something.

This is a the time of the year when our garden really takes off. Here in Queensland we have our wet season in summer and the combination of high rainfall and warm humid weather = plants going mad!

Time to turn our attention to planting out our food for summer. The corn's in, we have the last of the potatoes just coming on (lots of potato salad - see recipe below), lots of eggs of course, the last of the lettuce is going to seed and its time to get the next lot in. Tomatoes are touch and go this year, seems to be a bad year all around - they are scarce and expensive in the shops which is a good indicator that we're not the only ones having tomatoe problems this year.

I want to focus on understanding and aligning with our climate more. The weather gets so warm and humid growing the usual summer salad things is tough. Last year I did a Permacook workshop and we cooked with cassava, tahitian spinach, sweet potatoes, bananas and a load of other things that grow well here in summer.

I had a bit of a food epiphany at the course - we just need to change our food attitude in summer. Instead of working against nature and trying to grow the 'usual' European type foods not suited to our climate, we need to turn our diet to more of a Fijian type one and celebrate all the foods that love the tropics.

European diet in winter - tropical diet in summer.

I'll let you know how it goes - I only have to change decades of food conditioning!

POTATO SALAD RECIPE*
Cut up potatoes and boil until tender
combine; a couple of tablespoons of sour cream, a teaspoon or two of both dijon and seeded mustards and some red wines vinegar. Mix all these together and pour over the potatoes when they are cooled a little.
Top with chopped chives and enjoy served at room temperature.
I also add boiled eggs to the salad as we are still in Peak Egg!
*From Stephanie Alexander's The Cooks Companion.

Spring is here and so is Peak Egg!

After a massive rain event heralded the end of winter (in which we received more than 300mm in a few days, and many areas on the Sunshine Coast were flooded and suffered significant damage) the air now has a definite feel of spring to it.

It’s warmer, the plants are livelier and the chooks are on the lay – big time!

I think we are approaching Peak Egg. Almost 100 per cent capacity and we have more eggs than we know what to do with.

We have Pekin and Australorp bantam hens and Standard Australorps too. Almost all are producing yummy orange yoked beauties every day.

It’s warmer now so we haven’t had the fire on for the last week or so which is a shame as we are still harvesting beautiful big Sebago potatoes from the garden and they are delicious baked in the wood fired oven and lathered in butter and cheese - yum.

And the frogs have come to life with the warmer weather too.

The first night we spent here, we were kept awake with the symphony of frog calls coming from the garden – it was very noisy and we considered using ear plugs to get to sleep.

The most common frog we have is a small green tree frog, tiny little emerald green frogs everywhere in the garden, some even make it inside nestled among lettuce leaves.

The native birds have up the activity too. We have King Parrots starting to prepare for their next generation – they usually nest in the top food forest each spring and completely demolish the plum tree.

Whip birds have made this garden their home too. The other day I saw a Pacific Baza, a really unusual looking bird of prey near the house. Rail birds are well established here with several little colonies across our two acres. Purple Swamp Hens are trashing the lined dam and keep trying to sink my fake crocodile head I have floating in there.

The Noisy Miners are kept busy trying to keep all the other birds out of the garden, but they are also good alerts for when there is a snake about. I saw one of our regular pythons stick its head out for the first time after hibernation just before the rain fall, haven’t seen it since though!

We are eating most of our meals from the garden this time of year and have been for quite a while now. Broccoli, cabbage, cauli, zucchini, silverbeet, kale, lettuces, potatoes… and of course eggs and coffee.

We just buy bread, butter, tea… those types of things. It’s always a shock when we have to go back to the shops after this peak season and to see all the prices of fresh food! Unbelievable!

Compost, compost, compost… that is the mantra of organic gardeners around the world and we have heaps this year. After the local Garden Show we went along and brought home all the demonstration materials and stacks of straw which all went into massive compost piles.

The humus from these will be used in the vegie patches and around fruit and nut trees for their spring boost. It’s also time to be mineralising the soil too.

If you would like to find out more about peak oil, climate change and energy descent action planning, visit www.seac.net.au and go to the 'links' page.

There is also an excellent flash presentation on the site on the 'issues' page.

1. Recycle (everything)
2. Refuse (plastic bags, excessive packaging, poor quality food)
3. Re-use (everything many times until its worn out, get creative)
4. Rethink (what you know, learn new skills for the future)
5. Repair (as much as you can, don’t just throw things away)
6. Reconnect (with nature and where your food comes from)
7. Reduce (your consumption)
8. Reclaim & rehabilitate (damaged areas)
9. Regulate (yourself, your consumption)
10. Request (use your consumer power to make changes)
11. Review (your energy use, your attitude and your progress)
12. Re-skill (learn ‘lost’ survival skills)
13. Make a conscious effort to use less natural resources - THEY ARE FINITE and will run out
14. Understand that fossil fuels are used to produce almost everything we use – and how that needs to change because of climate change and how it will change with energy descent. *Read David Holmgren's Permaculture; Principles & Pathways Beyond Sustainability
15. Buy local – food, products, services – everything you use has transportation costs attached to it
16. Only eat locally grown organic food
17. Eat in season food (it tastes so much better)
18. Eat less red meat
19. Turn electrical appliances and lights off when not needed
20. Water your garden late in the afternoon after the sun is off your plants and water only when needed
21. Establish composting and worm farming systems to help absorb carbon from the atmosphere and reduce the huge amounts of valuable materials going to landfill and producing toxic methane gas that harms are atmosphere 23 times faster than carbon does.
22. Organic matter holds 90 percent of its own weight in water – add organic matter to your soil to turn it into a water-holding ‘dam’ that needs less watering
23. Buy fair trade products
24. When making a decision, apply permaculture principles of - care for the earth, care for all species and fair share
25. ’Check in at the check out’ - ask yourself what is a real need and what is a 'want'.
26. Question where things come from and what goes into making them before you make your purchase – use your consumer power
27. Use grey water in the garden on fruit trees
28. Mulch your garden – never, ever leave soil exposed to the sun, wind, rain and evaporation
29. Use compost, worm castings and green manure crops as fertilisers for your soil – don’t buy commercially manufactured, petro-chemical based ones from the nursery
30. Become informed, aware and educated
31. Collect the renewable resources we currently have more effectively (water, sun, wind)
32. Plan for a future where weather events are more intense (eg heavier rain events but fewer of them), turn down the heat in your garden with trees, trees and more trees.
33. Re-skill in areas for the future (food preservation, manual skills - repairing things)
34. Plan for when oil and all the things in the world that are produced using oil are more expensive and harder to get
35. Switch to the green power option on your electricity bill
36. Switch to solar, hydro or wind energy
37. Install a composting toilet (don't use between 4 and 12 litres of quality drinking water to flush away 250ml of urine)...
38. Or install a system that uses grey water in the toilet cistern
39. Re-use every resource you have multiple times
40. Use public transport, pedal power, walk or car pool
41. Buy a smaller, more fuel efficient car
42. Turn the thermostat on your heater (or air conditioner if you have one) up or down one degree (this will give you a 10 per cent improvement in energy consumption)
43. Take fewer air flights
44. Offset your carbon emissions
45. Install energy efficient light globes, taps and shower heads
46. Take shorter showers
47. Don't wash your car - just keep the windows clean so you don't crash!
48. Use water frugally and respect each and every drop
49. Buy energy efficient appliances – check their star rating
50. Buy clothes that don’t need ironing – one of my favourites!
51. Grow your own food using organic methods – the best and easiest thing you can do
52. Resist any attempt to restrict the use of household water to grow food!
53. Understand that agriculture uses 70 per cent of all Australia’s water
54. Growing food at home uses one fifth of the water used in commercial growing and the amount of fuel used to get food from the farm to your table is greatly reduced
55. If you can't grow your own, tap into Community Supported Agriculture programs
56. Support local industries
57. Develop local networks and buy organic food in bulk
58. Create shade in your garden and around your home - turn down the heat
59. Establish major earthworks (swales etc) now while we have the fossil fuels to run the machinery
60. Sign petitions that call for real solutions and local action to work toward a better future
61. Attend rallies and show your support for immediate and urgent action
62. Meet with local pollies and ask what they are doing - put pressure on them to act – one hand written letter equals 100 votes to them
63. Join local groups - relocalisation, permaculture, community gardens, organic growing, etc network, network, network – learn, learn, learn
64. Support community groups who are working toward a sustainable future - the answer to these global problems will not come from the politicians who caused them in the first place.
65. Support your local community gardens – volunteer or become a financial member, attend meetings, contribute your knowledge, time and skills
66. Attend film nights and learn what is happening around the world
67. Do a Permaculture Design Course!
68. Support businesses that are behaving ethically
69. Invest your money ethically
70. Visit the Australian Conservation Foundation and the David Suzuki Foundation websites and see what is being done (and thanks to both those sites for some of these solutions)
71. Get involved in tree planting - native species in the right location
72. Read Tim Flannery's book The Weather Makers
73. Read Affluenza by Clive Hamilton
74. Audit resources coming into your home and resources (waste) going out
75. If you work - donate money to worthy causes that support community based solutions to these problems
76. If you have time - volunteer your energy and skills to causes that support community based solutions to these problems
77. Use less disposal products and more reusable ones
78. Buy the best quality hand tools you can afford
79. Join your local environmental group and attend talks, seminars, workshops
80. Use whatever skills you have from your working life or hobbies to spread the word (writing, photography, computer skills)
81. Knock on your neighbour's door and take them some produce from your garden
82. Teach - if you have skills others need, teach them.
83. Spend less - every dollar has greenhouse gases attached to it
84. Stop using chemical cleaners - make your own at home from bicarb, vinegar, washing soda, etc
85. Install a water tank or two.
86. Save as much petrol as you can by walking or planning your trips more efficiently
87. Teach your children to appreciate the natural world
88. Teach your children life skills for a more sustainable future
89. Support permaculture gardens and permaculture curriculum in local schools
90. Offset your fuel emissions
91. Add lots and lots of organic matter to your soil – it draws carbon from the atmosphere and returns it to the soil
92. Garden and kitchen waste sent to landfill produces methane – 23 times more potent to the atmosphere than carbon is – don’t put plant waste in your rubbish bin – compost it
93. Learn more about the ‘food miles’ your food has attached to it – demand supermarkets show food miles on their fresh produce – you’d be horrified to know how many kilometres your food has done.
94. Design you home so you don’t need air conditioning
95. Buy furniture made from sustainable timbers or recycle old furniture
96. Buy from butchers who supply organic or bio-dynamic meat
97. Buy clothes made from sustainable fibres – such as hemp or bamboo
98. Take advantage of community banks that offer discounted loans for ‘green building’
99. Use garden safe laundry detergent and re-use your laundry grey water on the garden
100. Read magazines such as Earth Garden, Grass Roots and Warm Earth –
101. celebrate nanna technology! not nano technology

Hi,

Please blog your comments on the relocalisation of Eudlo, or any other topic such as peak oil, climate change, energy descent, permaculture... whatever you would like.

I have an organic gardening blog on the ERG sister site CASSC, perhaps you might like to start your own personal blog here and share your experiences in preparing for energy descent.

Cheers,
Sonya

I just love this time of year... I was tending to the chooks this morning; letting them out of their nighthouses, feeding them, tidying their beds, picking greens and grubs for them and topping up their water with molasses... and I was just struck by the beauty in the garden.

Everything is so green and lush, the air is crisp and the sun is bright. What a wonderful time of the year here.

Last night's dinner of minestrone soup contained a lot of goodies from the garden and tonight's dinner will too. We are currently harvesting broccoli, zucchini, cabbage, spinach, kale, and lots of salad greens. Still eating pumpking from the garden too, plus the usual herbs and goodies. The tomatoes are tempting us with their tiny yellow flowers - a promise of things to come.

Our lovely crop of potatoes are almost ready, but not quite, we have to resist bandicooting (harvesting) them just yet...

The coffee trees are on the go too, we are harvesting the berries and continuing the process of preparing them for roasting.

We made a huge compost from the materials left over from the organic and permaculture section at the Queensland Home Garden Expo, so we're looking forward to spreading that around the garden in Spring.

Our new wood fire heater/oven/cooktop is proving to be great - we have moved our bed into the main house so we can enjoy the warmth overnight and really make the most of it.

Speaking of wood fires, we were invited to a BBQ lunch at a Cooloolabin campsite the other day - an informal get togethers for locals but we scored an invitation anyway - and I really enjoyed standing round the campfire, eating, drinking and chatting with people - a wonderful atmosphere and reminicent of a time past when people took time to talk, were unhurried, and enjoyed community. The Australian bush must be in my dna, I feel so comfortable there...

First meeting of the Eudlo Relocalisation Groups is this Sunday in the park opposite the General Store in town from 11am - looking forward to that to see how we can begin making changes in our small community to prepare for the future - and maybe return to the past a little too.

Cheers,
Sonya

Well, for the first time in ten years, we've had a frost in Eudlo. Only one poor potato plant was affected, but still, that one more than we've had for a while.

Luckily we were able to hose off the frost before the sun hit it and it seems that the regular seaweed fertilising has made our plants more resistant to frost?

Not so lucky were the local community gardens - plants were badly affected with lots of burning and damage.

On a more positive note it seems we are mastering the art of potato farming with our first meal of home grown tatties a true success.

Tonight we had a meal of potatoes, broccoli, zuchinni and cabbage from the garden - vegies roasted in the Nectre Baker's oven and the greens steamed on the oven cooktop.

Egg production is in the decline - which raises the question "have we reached peak egg?".

We've moved our bedroom into the main house so we can take advantage of the heating from the oven. It's amazing hot little space you really need to live in...

Where to buy stock

Seeds, seedlings, trees… where can you get good quality, preferably organic, non-hybrid, non-GM, open pollinated, pure starter stock for your garden?

Well, one of the best places is from someone you know! Being part of the permaculture network on the Sunshine Coast is a great place to start with seeds, cuttings and excess plants regularly sold, swapped and even given away. Join your local groups and start sharing! But otherwise try these businesses.

Seeds
Green Harvest is a permaculture based online mail order business operating out of Maleny. They offer seeds, tools, books, root stock, pest management and lots and lots of great information on their website.
www.greenharvest.com.au. Their catalogue is a wealth of information and inspiration.
Eden Seeds – another online mail order business with a specific organic line known as Select Organic www.edenseeds.com.au or selectorganic.com.au
Various shops
Forest Glen Natural Food Store, Maleny Co-op, Yandina Feed Barn all stock organic seed ranges.

Seedlings
Yandina Feed Barn and Billaboodah at Cooroy both supply organically certified seedlings – excellent quality – from Rambalara, who also sell seedlings direct at the Caboolture Markets.

Trees
Daley’s Fruit Tree Nursery in NSW offer an online ordering system for fruit, nut, native, forest and ornamental trees and they deliver to the Sunshine Coast. While not organic, they do offer a good range of unusual and hard to find sub tropical and tropical species. www.daleysfruit.com.au
Forbidden Fruit Nursery – also from NSW, Forbidden Fruit offer an excellent range of food trees and also deliver to the Sunshine Coast. They attend the Queensland Home Garden Expo every year. Phone 02 6684 3688.

Home heating – permie style

It’s getting cold (okay no sniggers from you southerners!) – and it’s time to dig out the winter woolies, but there are only so many jumpers, socks, long johns, thermals and beanies you can pile on before your movement and blood supply becomes restricted and you need to seriously look at how to heat your home.

Permaculturists face a real dilemma. How do we ethically and sustainably heat our homes and stop from freezing during winter?

After some research, I was surprised and delighted to find that wood burning heating is one of the best forms of home heating.

Surprised because I thought the smoke and pollution would rule it out and delighted because I have to admit I do love a warm cozy fire.

On David Holmgren’s wonderful CD of Collected Writings & Presentations 1978-2006 (article thirty nine) I found; Firewood: Sustainable and Appropriate Energy Source.

He wrote the article in response to a feature in the Renew magazine issue 88, which rated firewood as the least environmental heating option.

Here are David Holmgren’s comments; half the firewood in Australia is harvested by private individuals from their own private land. He quotes a CSIRO document from the Forestry and Forest Products for Australian Greenhouse Office from October 2003 titled the Life Cycle Assessment of Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Domestic Woodheat saying that; wood heating has lower greenhouse gas emissions than any other fuel heating.

Even poorly managed woodlands supplying wood heaters (60% efficient) up to 400 kms distance, have a net greenhouse gas production of one third that of natural gas and one tenth that of electricity.

Holmgren teaches in his Permaculture Design Courses that wood is the most sustainable and environmentally sound form of heating but states that we also need; behavioural change, conservation strategies and passive solar design.

He goes on to say that; heating only requires low quality energies such as passive solar gain or firewood and he recommends that electricity is reserved for lighting, communications and electric motors.

The article also addresses air pollution by stating that in cities the problem needs to be proactively approached using consumer education and better designed wood burning stoves.

So we are now the proud owners of a small, efficient, very permaculture wood stove. It meets our needs of multiple functionality as it is a heater, a baker’s oven, a cooktop and even has room for a water jacket for home water heating.

With ethical management through using quality wood that is well seasoned and used sparingly, still rugging up and using the stove and cooktop to cook our evening meals our little South Australian made Nectre stove is a welcome and warm addition to our little permaculture home in Eudlo.

Plants from the Yandina Gardens

A look at the plants growing in our wonderful community gardens at Yandina…

This month – the Acerola Cherry
AKA; Barbados Cherry, West Indian Cherry, Tree of Life or native cherry.
Family name; Malpighia glabra

A small, slow growing shrub, the Caribbean native Acerola Cherry is a very beautiful tree, with glossy green leaves and small tasty cherries. Ours is usually covered in lichen giving it a cold climate look.

Frost hardy and drought resistant it will grow to a height of about six metres and is a tough and versatile plant growing in most soil types, although, like most plants, it prefers moist soil and a good mulch covering and beware the root knot nematodes in bad or sandy soil as they will affect the tree.

Regular watering to get your tree established should be all it needs. They can be grown in a pot if you have limited space and it should fruit after about four years. Pink/purple flowers herald the start of the fruiting and these can be used as garnish and it is said that the pink flowering variety produces the better tasting cherry.

Now the best part – their fruit… bright red, sweet, juicy and very high in Vitamin C and A. In the 1940’s large commercial plantings of Acerola Cherries were established for processing to make Vitamin C tablets, but sadly they have been replaced with the synthetic tablets we now have.

Fruit can be eaten straight from the tree (ours never make it inside!), but if you have a glut of them they can be made into wine, juice, sherbets, jellies, jams, and syrups.

Acerola also has the unique ability to retain its Vitamin C during the heating, cooking, and preserving processes and even when frozen.

It can be made into a hedge and is an excellent pioneer species. It does need a prune to stop it growing into a gangly mess. The bark contains 20-25 percent tannin making it suitable for tanning and the wood is hard and heavy and needs to be totally dried before burning.

With its high Vitamin C content it makes an excellent gargle for a sore throat and it is beneficial for coughs, colds, diarrhoea and liver complaints.

Do you know which tree in the garden is the Acerola Cherry?

Where to buy fruit trees – visit www.daleysfruit.com.au or Forbidden Fruits at the Queensland Home Garden Expo July 6-8, Nambour Showgrounds.

Information sourced from: Tropical Food Gardens; Leonie Norrington, How Can I Use Herbs in my Daily Life?; Isabell Shipard, and Permaculture Plants; Jeff Nugent & Julia Boniface.

Worm farms are an integral part of many permaculture gardens. The castings they provide us with are unique in their structure and qualities. The worms gut is an amazing, unique place. Solid castings are added directly to the soil when planting out seedlings and liquid worm castings are used as a foliar spray to build plant health and vitality.

What type of worms to use?
The earthworms that appear naturally in your garden beds are not the ones you want in your worm farm. Earthworms are ‘agricultural’ worms a mix of native and introduced species – they mature slowly, they don’t like to be too crowded, they are slow to reproduce and only have one baby per capsule.

The worms in this worm farm are ‘commercial’ worms – reds, blues, tigers and African Night Crawlers, purchased from a reputable worm breeder. These worms eat a lot, they reproduce quickly and often and have 6-8 babies per capsule. These are the ones you want working for you, these will pump out castings by the bucket full.

Care of your worm farm
Worm farms need to be well shaded and protected from strong winds, they need to be kept cool in summer, they need to be well drained (keep the tap open if you have a plastic cell farm at home), they must be predator proof or you will lose all your valuable livestock, they also need regular maintenance. Worm farms must be kept moist, but not wet, well-fed, well-drained and well-stocked. They also need to be somewhere quiet and peaceful so they won’t be disturbed as they make valuable fertiliser for your garden.

Worm food
What do worms eat?
Worms eat microbes – they move soil (with microbes in it) through their gut as they move around the soil. When you feed your worm farm you need to…
a) cut the worm food up very small to increase the surface area so more microbes can get started on decomposing the food
b) ‘bacterialise’ the food by pouring over liquid worm castings, diluted molasses, diluted kelp or a herb tea to activate the microbial activity on the food and get your worms digestive juices flowing. You can put pretty much anything from the garden or from your kitchen scrap bucket in the worm farm – although they don’t like garlic, onions or citrus too much. Be careful with manures – worms love them, but if the manure is from an animal that has been recently wormed, you could wipe out your whole farm overnight.