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the food forest
the food forest
Details
Commenced:
01/01/1983
Submitted:
06/07/2011
Last updated:
07/10/2015
Location:
PO Box 859, Gawler, South Australia, AU
Phone:
08 85226450
Website:
www.foodforest.bigpond.com
Climate zone:
Mediterranean





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Angelo Contessi Ben Hamley Desmond Ford Dominique Chanovre Elise Harris Gemma Hurst Gordon Williams Heiko Vermeulen Helmut Brandl Klifford J Fyshwick Landcraft Permaculture ...... Paul Boundy Marcello Bianchi Mark Brown Mark  Griffin marko anyfandakis Nikita Vout paul barker Paul Tan Salah Hammad Sonia Lancaster Thomas Rogers
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the food forest

Project Type

Urban, Rural, Commercial, Community, Demonstration, Educational

Project Summary

The Food Forest is one of the best developed and most productive permaculture demonstration farms in Australia. It shows species and systems suitable for the mediterranean climatic zone and teaches short courses about designing and managing them

Project Description

The Food Forest today is the result of the vision of owners Graham & Annemarie Brookman and functions as a remarkable 15 hectare Permaculture farm and learning centre. From its buzzing biodiversity come over 150 organically grown varieties of fruit and nuts, wheat and vegetables, free range eggs, honey, carob beans, Australian native foods and timber. The Food Forest sells produce at the Adelaide Showgrounds Farmers Market every fortnight.

The collections of tree crop varieties represent a unique genetic resource; willingly shared with others wishing to establish sustainable plantings.

When the property was purchased in 1983, it was not much more than a bare barley paddock. Only a few towering River Red Gums remained along the Gawler River from the time the Kaurna Aboriginal people camped in their shade and gathered food from the land.

 Today the place is more like a forest and endangered wildlife such as Brush Tailed Bettongs help the goose flock manage the forest floor. Together with thousands of species of insects, birds and other creatures they form the complex and bountiful ecosystem contained within a 1.5 km predator-proof fence.

The heritage-listed homestead was built within the first few years of white settlement of South Australia and much of the fascinating history of the farm can be traced through the stone troughs at which Clydesdale horses drank and implements that once made life easier for the farmers of the day.

You can also enjoy our loo-with-a-view, a unique composting toilet and reedbed system which transforms human by-products into reeds for mulching, rich compost for fertiliser and golden bamboo for furniture and structural work. You will see environmentally designed buildings which demonstrate passive and active solar technologies: the WWOOFers ‘Studio’ and its curved garden wall, the “Eco-Gazebo”, the drive-in coolroom, an extension to the over 160 year old homestead and a small gallery, all of which are built using strawbales.

A photovoltaic system of thin film amorphous panels provides electricity to the house and grid; the sun also provides water heating for both the house and the on-farm processing facility.

Check our website for upcoming course and open-day details

Updates

Courses Taught Here!
Project Badges
Urban Rural Commercial Community Demonstration Educational
Administrators
graham  brookman - Admin
Team Members

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