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Yarnauwi Farm

~ Fleurieu Peninsula, South Australia

Yarnauwi Farm

Tag Archives: events

Yarnauwi (Virtual) Farm Tour 2020

09 Thursday Apr 2020

Posted by Joel in events, history, regeneration, trees, waterways

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Tags

ecology, erosion, events, farm, Fleurieu, Fleurieu Coast, permaculture, revegetation, soil, southwestern Fleurieu, tour, trees, water

There’s been so much growth and change at the farm over the last year that we really wanted to share with our team of volunteers and supporters. However, with everyone staying in their postcode this holiday weekend and farm tours suspended for the foreseeable future, we thought we’d put together a little video so you can still enjoy the big skies of the Fleurieu! Take care, and we hope to see you back under the trees soon!

Yarnauwi Treefest 2019

10 Monday Jun 2019

Posted by Joel in diy, ecology, regeneration, trees, waterways

≈ 8 Comments

Tags

design, ecology, erosion, events, farm, Fleurieu, Fleurieu Coast, nursery, permaculture, propagation, revegetation, seasons, soil, trees, water, waterways, winter

A serial tree-planter manages to synchronise his outfit with the colouring of Eucalyptus occidentalis.

A couple of days before this year’s tree planting, I rang our friend and regular tree-planter Jeremy, and told him that three out of four family members were sick with the flu and we were thinking of cancelling this year’s planting weekend. He didn’t accept that proposal, effectively telling us that tree planting would happen regardless of our involvement, that between his family and another they would take care of catering, rally the volunteers and get the trees in the ground.

It has always been an aspiration of ours that the farm might offer a place for people to be able to develop connection with the landscape through collaboration on land-based projects – “where people and the landscape can restore each other”. I hope that Jeremy’s response, and the support of our friends and community over the last seven years of tree-planting is an indication of this aspiration in development. In this spirit, this year we were also delighted to host regenerative side projects such as Steven Hoepfner’s seed ball regeneration experiment, and provide a waterway for Sue and David Speck’s sedges, and a forever home for Greg Wood’s trees.

Steven’s seed ball project: local provenance bundles of seed and nutrients distributed across revegetation zones to germinate when the conditions are right.

Continue reading →

Time and change: revegetation inspiration

10 Monday Jul 2017

Posted by Joel in ecology, regeneration, trees

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before and after, ecology, events, Fleurieu Coast, kangaroos, planning, revegetation, seasons, southwestern Fleurieu, trees, winter

Impatient as we are, we’ve become slightly obsessive about “before-and-after” photos in an effort to stay inspired about the possibilities for landscape transformation. About 15 minutes down the road from Yarnauwi, our friends David and Gillian have been gradually revegetating a former grazing property in the hills above Cape Jervis. Perhaps because of its steepness, the property has retained a good number of big old pink gums, together with the occasional ancient sheoak, offering the beginnings of a canopy for regeneration. Seven years ago we helped out with one of their first planting weekends, and I recently unearthed some photos taken at that time. With David, we recently walked around the property to admire the last seven years of growth.

View 1: 2010

View 1: 2017

David and Gillian have been philosophical about kangaroo grazing, with plants getting no more protection than korflute guards. Some plants have been repeatedly mowed down, reaching no higher than the tree guard after seven years, while others have finally stretched above mouth height and are now heading skywards. David notes that no plants were about adult should height for the first five years – something we can relate to at Yarnauwi. Continue reading →

A tour, a shed-warming and four years of change on the farm

03 Wednesday May 2017

Posted by Joel in building, events, planning

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

art, design, events, farm, fencing, Fleurieu Coast, map, permaculture, photography, picnics, revegetation, seasons, shed, soil, southwestern Fleurieu, tour, water

Guests take a tour of one of the revegetation areas, inspecting the growth of four years of planting. Photo by Jeff Catchlove.

On a balmy autumn afternoon, we celebrated the new shed with sixty of Yarnauwi Farm’s friends and supporters. Following a tour of the farm, we settled into a shared dinner and drinks by the campfire.

To mark the occasion we also produced a self-guided tour map of important developments and points of interest on the property, hard copies of which were gifted to our guests to be stuck on fridges and toilet doors.

Yarnauwi Farm Self-Guided Map. (Click for a printable A3 version).

The changes that have occurred at Yarnauwi over the last four-and-a-half-years have only been possible through the encouragement, support and labour of our community of friends, neighbours and family. We hope that this celebration went some way towards expressing how grateful we are.

Continue reading →

Lamb and mutton from Yarnauwi Farm

18 Sunday Sep 2016

Posted by Joel in food, livestock

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

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

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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!

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Hides available later in 2016

Waterway restoration at Yarnauwi

20 Wednesday Apr 2016

Posted by Joel in ecology, events, regeneration, waterways

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

ecology, erosion, events, farm, Fleurieu Coast, picnics, recycling, southwestern Fleurieu, waste, water, waterways

In April, we belatedly participated in Clean Up Australia Day, focussing our attentions on the final lode of rubbish in the gullies and constructing erosion control structures in areas of active erosion. Kitted out in dust-masks and gloves, our amazing team of volunteers completed in an hour what it would take us weeks to do alone, and by day’s end had removed six trailer-loads of steel, and about 20 sacks of rubbish, together with miscellaneous sun umbrellas, fitness treadmills and bmx frames. (See our Curated Junk page for similar treasures – undoubtedly there are more to come!)

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Continue reading →

A new branch of the family tree

24 Friday Apr 2015

Posted by Joel in events

≈ 8 Comments

Tags

events, farm, kangaroos, picnics, trees

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That’s Annika, asleep on Sophie’s lap.

We recently welcomed new daughter Annika into the world, and she had her first tour of the property at less than 2 weeks old. Despite the barrage of new sensations, big skies and brisk breezes, she snoozed for the duration! We greatly value the knowledge, experience, wonder and curiosity that can be cultivated through a relationship with a particular place, and we’re delighted that we’ll be able to nurture this with Annika at the farm.

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Annika, appropriately bundled and enjoying feeling windswept. 

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Meanwhile, the kangaroos are family-minded at the moment too, with up to 90 individuals converging back on the block for their annual jamboree.

Year of the Sheep: Introducing Pecorino

15 Sunday Feb 2015

Posted by Joel in livestock

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

alpacas, events, farm, livestock, photography, sheep, southwestern Fleurieu, summer

IMG_5770

Despite his noble bearing, thus far Pecorino has demonstrated a rather sheepish personality.

With the Year of the Sheep just around the corner on the Chinese calendar, it’s fitting that we’re celebrating the arrival of Pecorino. Pecorino is a Dorper-Damara cross ram, adopted from our friends Stefan and Amanda from their property at Inman Valley. Although our Wiltshire Horn-Dorper lambs have been pretty unfazed by the blinding summer heat, their Wiltshire Horn mothers have not fared so well. Enter Pecorino and his robust African desert-survival genetics and fat-tailed energy-storing mystique. Continue reading →

The Farm Year in Review: 2014

18 Thursday Dec 2014

Posted by Joel in events, livestock, planning, regeneration

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

design, ecology, events, farm, fencing, food, hiking, livestock, permaculture, planning, propagation, revegetation, seasons, sheep, southwestern Fleurieu, summer, tractor, water, winter, zones

2014 was a year where the dry season came early and stayed late. It seemed as if the rain barely had a chance to soften the ground and throw up some soursobs before our clay soils began to crack again and the pasture browned off. Despite this, after two years observing the rhythms of this patch of ground, I feel like we’re becoming more resilient and optimistic: where previously we despaired at every lost seedling, now we celebrate every survivor.

shingleback

Summer: a shingleback lizard soaks up some sunshine.

In the spirit of permaculture, this year also marks a transition from our observational period towards beginning to implement infrastructure for a sustainable farming enterprise. With fencing and water infrastructure for livestock, our appreciation of the need for water only deepens, and despite its challenges, we’ve learnt to stop worrying and love winter.

Continue reading →

Help get Village Greens growing!

24 Monday Nov 2014

Posted by Joel in events, food

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Tags

design, events, farm, Fleurieu, logo, market garden, permaculture, seeds, soil, vegetables, Village Greens

Logo_Horizontal_1440

I’ve recently been working with Village Greens, a dream-team of young growers and permaculturalists, developing their logo and crowd-funding video. They’re establishing a sustainable, human-scale market garden in Aldinga, on the southern rim of Adelaide, and the northern expanse of the Fleurieu Peninsula. One of the ring leaders, Nat Wiseman, is a great friend of our farm, and has hauled junk or scythed thistles on more than one occasion!

The Village Greens team have negotiated access to an acre of land in the Aldinga Arts EcoVillage, and with their wealth of experience and enthusiasm are poised to transform it into a thriving market garden. Their crowd-funding campaign has kicked off and they’re currently seeking support to meet one-off infrastructure costs so they can get growing. Check out how you can support them here. Continue reading →

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From where we'd rather be...actually there's nowhere we'd rather be! Big thumbs up for the kids' new hammock under the old gums. So glad to finally be here at last! Happy 2023 all 🌿
First fig of the season. A monster Black Genoa, organically grown in our little windswept orchard.
As proof of the recent confusing weather patterns, these Amanita mushrooms came up a few days ago! We've never seen mushrooms here in November, they're usually all finished by August, and we've never seen this species or anything like it here before! Amanitas are mycorrhizal (they form a partnership with a tree/plant to help feed and nourish it in exchange for sugars) and these ones were growing only 1m or so from a Eucalypt we planted about 7 years ago which has always grown really well. I just wonder if this species has been there all along, waiting for perfect conditions of 45mm in one day in Nov to be able to fruit! And now it can reproduce and spread to other parts of the farm. It makes me wonder what else is out there ready to take advantage of crazy climactic conditions!
As long time admirers of @thegreenhorns we're thrilled that Joel's comic about weeds will be published in Vol. VI of "The New Farmer's Almanac". It all releases this January and pre-orders are available now through @chelseagreenbooks
Frog spawn! 🐸 We've never seen this before at Yarnauwi but with the best rains in years our dam is filling up, the air is full of the calls of the Spotted Grass Frog and the Common Froglet, and we seem to be providing enough grassy water habitat for these eggs to be laid with enough shelter for them to grow into the little black tadpoles you can see inside! Lying next to the dam listening to frog calls definitely takes us to our happy place and makes it all so very worthwhile 💚
2022 marks a decade since we started working to regenerate Yarnauwi. To celebrate Joel's been working on a little comic to acknowledge all the amazing folks in our community near and far who have supported us and this place over the last 10 years. Here's a sample, but the whole thing is on our blog - follow the link in our bio!
Thanks to everyone who came joined us on our farm tour as part of @historyfestival and @heritagefleurieucoastfestival - we really appreciate your interest and enthusiasm!
We're honoured to have this story pop up on @abcnews_au sharing some of the work we've been doing to regenerate our patch. Our deepest thanks to all the friends, neighbours and family who have helped transform the property over the last decade!
It's been a good year in our little orchard, with plenty of ripe figs for us - and others! Here's one we found, positioned just like this on top of a fence post. I'm looking for a raven with fig juice running down its chin.

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