• About
  • Anacotilla: History & Hearsay
  • Junk: A Curated Collection
  • Resources
  • Species List
  • Yarnauwingga and beyond

Yarnauwi Farm

~ Fleurieu Peninsula, South Australia

Yarnauwi Farm

Category Archives: livestock

Deep Winter comes to the Fleurieu!

16 Tuesday Jul 2019

Posted by Joel in events, food, livestock, regeneration

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

agrarian, conference, deep winter, ecology, farm, farming, Fleurieu, Fleurieu Coast, food, gathering, livestock, permaculture, regenerative agriculture, soil, winter

Joel dusted off his design degree to contribute a logo to the gathering.

Each winter since 2015, aspiring and established small-scale and regenerative farmers and their supporters and allies have gathered somewhere in Australia as part of the Deep Winter Agrarian Gathering to share ideas and inspiration for their projects and enterprises. In June 2019, this convergence drifted westwards to be held in Willunga, South Australia, and we were delighted to participate.

150 aspiring and established regenerative farmers, growers and their friends gathered in Willunga, SA, for the Deep Winter Agrarian Gathering.

The tone for the convergence was set with a keynote from former CSIRO microbiologist and climate scientist Walter Jehne, who spoke on the role and responsibility of rebuilding soil carbon and water cycles through agriculture and land management. Through his inspiring presentation, Jehne drew on indigenous land management as described in the work of Bill Gammage and Bruce Pascoe to also establish a precedent for the capacity of Australian soils to hold significant amounts of carbon and water.

Walter Jehne, in full flight.

Continue reading →

Saltbush city limitless

14 Sunday Apr 2019

Posted by sophie in ecology, livestock, regeneration, trees

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

saltbush

At this time of year when it hasn’t rained properly for about 6 months and even the hardiest of our native trees and shrubs start to wilt, we say thank heavens for saltbush. This family of plants are the Australian climate change gardeners’ morale booster – the hotter and drier it gets the more they seem to leaf out, attract beneficial insects, tower in size over anything else and improve the conditions for other species.

The first species we have had success with, Old Man Saltbush (Atriplex nummularia), grows in inland areas of Australia. Its seeds were traditionally used as a food source for Aboriginal people, and the leaves are also edible and rich in protein, antioxidants, and minerals. It’s commonly used as a livestock grazing plant, which was one of the reasons we planted it, as a high-protein green fodder source at times of the year like this when there is not much else for stock to eat.

20190414_151004

Old Man Saltbush is extremely drought and salt tolerant and apparently lives for more than 100 years! It accumulates salt in its leaves as it extracts water from the soil so can help to reduce salinity. It is very deep rooted and can access moisture and nutrients out of reach of other plants, making those nutrients available to other surface plants via grazing. Its roots travel up to 5m deep and 10m wide to access nutrients and moisture, as well as having surface roots to collect light rain and bind soil. It also sequesters carbon in the soil.

It is fast growing so can provide shelter within a few years to other plants or stock, and works well grown as a hedge/windbreak. I am keen to grow it as a hedge border around a vegetable garden in future as it attracts beneficial insects as well as blocking wind. It seems to grow fine on our heavy clays, though I note it prefers the dryer ridge to the more low lying winter waterlogged areas. And it has such nice grey-blue shimmery leaves! And kangaroos don’t seem to touch it! So much to love. It really is a hero of the plant world.

20190414_151118

Woody trunk after 3 or 4 years growth

Another species we’ve been very grateful to be acquainted with is Creeping Saltbush (Atriplex semibaccata). We planted it on the disturbed slope next to our shed site as a way of stabilising the soil and avoiding erosion and it has thrived. It forms a dense low mat of up to 1.5m diameter, tolerates high levels of salinity and salt-laden winds, tolerates drought, has an edible berry, reduces soil temperature, and provides habitat for beneficial insects. On some of our hottest and driest summer days, it was green and covered in blue copper butterflies!

20190217_114052

Creeping away

And it now seems to be coming up “by itself” (maybe with the help of ants moving fruit around) in a couple of other spots around our shed, not minding growing in gravel at all. This year we are planning to plant it on our gully walls in the hopes of stabilising those slopes, increasing habitat and creating a living mulch around other trees and shrubs.

 

20190317_123717

Colonising the shed site

Finally, we are always overjoyed to see Ruby Saltbush (Enchylaena tomentosa) popping up by itself in various paddocks around the farm with no help from us (via birds or sheep perhaps). Again the small red fruits are edible, again it is ridiculously hardy tolerating drought, salt, and sand.  Sheep love eating it, but unfortunately they leave nothing behind! And the green leaves are such a sight for sore eyes in this driest time of year.

20190414_093334

We feel we have only just started on our journey experimenting with saltbush, and look forward to encouraging this family of perennial plants to be our allies on the path to increasing productivity and biodiversity.

Uses for sheepskins: prototyping seats and bags

25 Wednesday Apr 2018

Posted by Joel in art & craft, diy, livestock

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

art, art and craft, craft, damara, design, dorper, furniture, leather, leathercraft, sheep, sheepskins

IMG_0433

Prototype Yarnauwi sheepskin tripod campstool and belt pouch, demonstrating their commitment to the late-summer Fleurieu colour palette.

As part of running meat sheep on Yarnauwi, we’ve always been committed to using as much of each beast as possible, including tanning their hides at a local tannery when the animals go to slaughter. While our farm-raised sheepskins are available for purchase online and through our occasional stall at the Second Valley Market, we’ve also been exploring options for how we can better utilise this tough and supple material.

IMG_0442

The tripod stool

Our first attempt is a take on a classic tripod campstool: a luxuriant Dorper lambskin seat on an Australian Oak tripod base (Eucalyptus obliqua, fittingly this grows on the hills just a short distance inland from Yarnauwi). It took a few goes to get the hardware right, we’ve now settled on high tensile steel fittings to withstand the most vigorous campfire sing-along.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Next in the works was a Damara hide belt pouch for threading onto one’s belt for outdoor adventuring, an extra pocket for farmy stuff (cable ties, a bit of wire and a pair of pliers, for example; or perhaps a hoof-trimmer and a lump of ram crayon) or even just to garner some cred at the local branch of the Society for Creative Anachronism.

We’re continuing to refine concepts, and learning oodles about leather craft and design in the process. We’d welcome any suggestions or feedback you might have! We hope to be able to release some for purchase via our Etsy site and through markets in the coming months.

 

Kangaroo grazing and revegetation: looking for a way forward

01 Monday Jan 2018

Posted by Joel in ecology, livestock, planning, regeneration, trees

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

books, ecology, farm, future, holistic management, kangaroos, planning, revegetation, trees

IMG_8035

Western Grey Kangaroos fight it out in one of our revegetation habitat zones

One of the most persistent challenges in our work to revegetate areas of the farm has been managing kangaroos. Despite its previous status as woodland, for decades the farm has been an enforced grassland as hay paddock and pasture, the preferred environment of Western Grey Kangaroos. While early accounts of the region describe the southwestern Fleurieu as “kangaroo country”, land clearing, the elimination of predators such as dingoes, reduced hunting pressure, and in our case, the provision of year-round green pick in the form of a nearby irrigated golf course has contributed to a steady increase of kangaroo numbers.

We’ve observed that the kangaroos follow a seasonal rhythm of converging on our property in numbers during the cooler, wetter months, before dispersing into smaller family groups as the weather warms and dries. During this time, they typically move into the neighbouring golf course, and because of the constant availability of fresh feed it is rare to see a female kangaroo without a joey. While most species of kangaroos typically prefer grass, the Western Grey is also noted as a browser of shrubs and seedlings. Continue reading →

Sheepskins now available!

26 Saturday Nov 2016

Posted by Joel in art & craft, livestock

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

craft, farm, Fleurieu Coast, harvest, hides, livestock, sheep, sheepskins, shop, skins, southwestern Fleurieu, textiles

img_8703

In an effort to utilise the whole beast, in addition to mutton and lamb meat, we also offer hides from the sheep selected for slaughter at Yarnauwi. The animals are bred, raised, grazed and slaughtered on South Australia’s Fleurieu Peninsula, and the hides are tanned on the Fleurieu south coast at Tony Scott’s Southern Tanners, Port Elliot.

img_8688

To our great excitement, the hides have now arrived, replete with all the eccentricities and quirks of our mixed breed flock. This year the Damara breeding is becoming ever more evident with plenty of soft browns and textures that range from silky long pile to short, curly and ever-so-soft.

img_8680

Our last hide sale saw the skins being employed intact in home decorating, as well as transformed in assorted craft projects (see Local and Bespoke’s car seat covers from our Wiltshire Horn hides here).

Check out this year’s offerings at our Sheepskins for Sale page, and get in touch at yarnauwi[at]gmail.com if you’re keen!

img_8700

The Wet Season 2016

06 Sunday Nov 2016

Posted by Joel in ecology, livestock, trees, waterways

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

ecology, erosion, farm, Fleurieu Coast, history, livestock, permaculture, photography, revegetation, seasons, sheep, soil, southwestern Fleurieu, trees, water, waterways, winter

The first big storm saw the dam fill and rivers broaden to ten times their normal size for an afternoon. A neighbour’s creek crossing dissolved in the flow, the rock and rubble broadcast along the river bottom. The second big storm saw our rainwater tank, still awaiting a shed to fill it, lifted vertically from its nest of stardroppers, vaulting a tractor and four or five fences before being swept off in the swollen waters of the Anacotilla River, carried across two properties and wedged under a red gum. The third storm came with days of warnings, threats of winds over 120km/h and rainfall to rival all of the previous deluges. It left all of South Australia without electricity, the farm a sucking, gurgling swamp, and me walking home through a darkened, scrambling city.

img_8290

Mist in the valleys

It’s been a demanding few months on the farm. The persistent moisture has made the ground unworkable, most of the farm inaccessible except on foot and the weather generally hostile to both our motivation and ability to do anything useful. The vast quantities of rain we’ve received however, have meant that moisture has permeated deep into the subsoil, so we console ourselves with the hope that as the weather warms, our tree plantings (including those from earlier this winter) will rocket skywards. Continue reading →

Lamb and mutton from Yarnauwi Farm

18 Sunday Sep 2016

Posted by Joel in food, livestock

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

events, farm, Fleurieu Coast, food, livestock, permaculture, sheep, southwestern Fleurieu

IMG_7202

After a year or two building up our experimental flock of climate-resilient sheep, it’s time for another meat harvest. This October, we’ll be offering cuts from a selection of one-year-old lamb and hogget, together with some mouth-watering mutton. (For those of you who need convincing on the delights of mutton, look no further than Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall who describes mutton as the beef of the sheep world, or fellow foodie Sophie Grigson who gushes that mutton is “beautifully tender, firm-grained, and with a rich but not aggressive flavour,” offering, in comparison to lamb, “more depth of flavour, a more complex rounded taste, more ‘umami’, if you like.”)

All of our sheep are born, raised, grazed, and slaughtered on the Fleurieu Peninsula, and this year will be butchered by the team at Normanville Meat and Seafood. Each cut ordered will be vacuum-packed and delivered in refrigerated luxury to your door at the end of October (assuming you live in Adelaide or surrounds).

In an effort to utilise as much of the beast as possible, once again, we’ll also be enlisting Tony Scott of Southern Tanners, Port Elliot, to tan their delicately mottled hides. These hides will be available later in the year for all your home decor or artisanal urges. Stay tuned.

If you’d like to put in an order, drop us an email at yarnauwi[at]gmail.com, and we’ll send you all the details!

IMG_5994

Hides available later in 2016

The 2016 Drop

21 Sunday Aug 2016

Posted by Joel in livestock, planning

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

farm, Fleurieu Coast, food, livestock, seasons, sheep, southwestern Fleurieu, winter

IMG_8377

Triplets wait patiently for their mother’s attention again.

The 2016 lambing season has begun at Yarnauwi, with seven lambs dropping so far. One set of triplets, two lots of twins (with three survivors) and our first, puppy-like Damara lamb.

IMG_8382

Damara x Dorper lambs. You may have noticed we also have soursobs.

It’s also our first season experimenting with Manchego the Damara ram. Our initial flock were Wiltshire horns, a British breed that we found were more selective than we would’ve liked in their grazing habits, and sensitive to the exposure of our blistering summers. A few of their lambs were part Dorper, and in the culture of the flock, they’ve mimicked the habits of the Wiltshire Horn matriarchs.  Continue reading →

Exploring the Fleurieu’s climate future

20 Saturday Feb 2016

Posted by Joel in ecology, livestock, planning, regeneration, reviews, waterways

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

books, climate change, design, ecology, farm, future, livestock, permaculture, planning, southwestern Fleurieu, water

Handbook
2PercentSolutions

We’ve recently read a couple of books that have served as a catalyst to revisit what a future climate scenario might be like for the Fleurieu Peninsula, and how we can ensure the greatest resilience for our patch of ground. The books are two practical volumes on climate change, the first The Handbook: Surviving and Living with Climate Change, by Jane Rawson and James Whitmore, is a tour of practical household and community strategies for adapting to climate change in Australia. The second, Two Percent Solutions for the Planet: 50 low-cost, low-tech, nature-based practices for combatting hunger, drought and climate change, is a farming and land restoration-focussed collection of case studies collected by Quivira Coalition co-founder, Courtney White. For readers that may’ve grown weary of the political inertia around climate change, not to mention the vast scale of the problem, the practical, household-, community- or farm-scale focus of both books offers a practical way of re-engaging with the climate challenge. Two Percent Solutions serves as an optimistic companion read to the sometimes gloomy vibe of The Handbook, with its strategies offering scope for both climate mitigation and adaptation. Continue reading →

The Yarnauwi Farm Annual Report 2015

13 Wednesday Jan 2016

Posted by Joel in diy, events, livestock, planning, regeneration, trees

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

annual report, design, ecology, farm, livestock, permaculture, planning, revegetation, seasons, sheep, soil, southwestern Fleurieu, trees

You can view a printable version of this Annual Report here.

IMG_5895

We’re now three years into the Yarnauwi project. With all of our major water and fencing infrastructure in place, 2015 was a year of consolidating and refining our planting and grazing systems, and continuing to restore habitat while also developing income streams. Once again, we thank you for your support this year, whether that’s been planting trees, purchasing meat, hauling junk, offering advice or just being generally encouraging! We feel enormously privileged to have such a supportive community of family, friends and neighbours contributing to the restoration and development of this patch of ground. Continue reading →

← Older posts

Yarnauwi on Etsy

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 210 other followers

Yarnauwi on Instagram

No Instagram images were found.

What We’re Writing About

alpacas annual report art art and craft bees before and after birds books building cheese climate change craft damara design downloads ecology embroidery erosion etsy events farm fencing fire Fleurieu Fleurieu Coast food future hack hiking history illustration insects kangaroos leather leathercraft linoprint livestock logo nursery permaculture photography picnics planning plants Plastic-free July printing propagation rain recipes recycling regeneration regenerative agriculture reuse revegetation sea seasons seeds shed sheep sheepskins shop soil southwestern Fleurieu stiles summer textiles tour tractor trees ute waste water waterways winter zones

Meta

  • Register
  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.com

Blog at WordPress.com.

Cancel