Folk of all Trades in Adelaide, South Australia | Education

Folk of all Trades

Locality: Adelaide, South Australia

Phone: +61 423 172 386

Address: Kaurna land Adelaide, SA, Australia

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25.01.2022 Replacing plastic with wood! The plastic door shelf in our little bar fridge recently cracked, and despite trying to glue it back together we decided it would be better to replace the whole thing with timber. The same Tassie Oak timber parquetry that we used to make koji trays was also just the right width and thickness for this project, so Sam cut it to size and created these wedge shapes to accept the moulded plastic of the fridge door.... Rarely does a timber project that requires accuracy in measurement go smoothly (for Sam anyway!), so we were pretty stoked that it fit the first time. Careful measuring and a test fit before the components went together was key in making this a relatively quick fix. Now we are looking around wondering what other dodgy plastic components we can replace with beautiful timber... #shelf #diy #repair #woodworking #handtools #timber #wood #homestead #backtobasics #simpleliving #natural #diy #makeyourown #sustainability #greenliving #sustainableliving #simplelife #eco #voluntarysimplicity #homestead #plasticfree #waronwaste #zerowaste #retrosuburbia #permaculture #permacultureaustralia #adelaide #southaustralia #gosouthgolocal #folkofalltrades See more

25.01.2022 We love making our own festive gifts especially beeswax wraps and gift and produce bags. If you'd like to learn how to make them, we have a few spots left for our workshop this Wed 16 Dec, Walkerville, only $8. Grab your ticket at the link - https://tinyurl.com/EcoFestiveGift #beeswaxwrap #festivegift #diygift #naturalchristmas #ecochristmas #natural #craft #gift #decoration #christmasdecoration #naturalhome #ecochristmas #greenchristmas #backtobasics #simpleliving #natural #diy #makeyourown #sustainability #greenliving #sustainableliving #simplelife #greenchristmas #voluntarysimplicity #homestead #plasticfree #waronwaste #retrosuburbia #permaculture #adelaide #southaustralia #folkofalltrades

25.01.2022 We won because of you! Last night we were honoured to receive an Onkaparinga Business Award for Best Eco-Friendly / Sustainable Business It's because of your support, votes, and testimonials that we received this recognition, so thank you!... It was also really nice to hear about all the local businesses in our region, and reminded us even more how important it is to support your local community, whether that is where you spend your money or where you spend your time #Onkaparinga #GoSouthGoLocal #onbusinessawards #ONbusiness See more

24.01.2022 Preparing a new growing area

24.01.2022 Wine bottling! This year was our biggest grape harvest by far, thanks to local legends 'The Producers' in McLaren Vale that let us 'glean' their rows after the machine pick. Gleaning goes back thousands of years, when traditionally landowners and farmers would allow members of the community to collect whatever had been missed during the main harvest. With the help of some friends we picked around 250kg of grapes, giving us approximately 100 litres of finished wine.... In the past we've always just saved some cleanskins (wine bottles without labels) to bottle our 2 dozen wines, but this year we needed significantly more bottles! We really wanted to avoid buying new bottles, as one of the best parts of making your own is reducing all the associated waste that comes with large-scale production: Step 1 - Collect bottles Step 2 - Soak overnight in cold water (we used Dani's big copper dye pot) Step 3 - Remove labels. The best tool for this job is a paint scraper, and to remove the metal sleeves on the necks we used a narrow screwdriver to peel them off. Step 4 - Scrub off label residue and clean. Hot soapy water, a metal scourer and bottle brush make this a very easy job. Step 5 - Sterilise bottles. Sam has a product called StarSan that is used all the time in homebrewing, and is a greywater safe phosphoric based cleaner that does not need to be rinsed. Step 6 - Fill bottles with wine and cork. It turns out you can put corks into screw cap style bottles just fine. We soak the corks in steriliser to clean them but also because it helps them slide in easily. Step 7 - (optional) Ask a friend to paint portraits of your goats, make them into a label, and apply with homemade water-flour-vinegar glue - thanks @karrinott #wine #winemaking #shiraz #bottling #preserving #gleaning #handmade #madebyhand #backtobasics #simpleliving #natural #diy #makeyourown #sustainability #greenliving #sustainableliving #simplelife #eco #voluntarysimplicity #homestead #plasticfree #waronwaste #zerowaste #retrosuburbia #permaculture #permacultureaustralia #permaculturesouthaustralia #adelaide #southaustralia #folkofalltrades See more

23.01.2022 We do really love our veggies, which is why a lot of our space is dedicated to growing them. But outside of the neat market garden rows we love a sprawling and mixed polyculture of flowers, medicinal plants, and herbs. This patch is between two very small avocadoes, and is a tangled and ever-changing mix of English mint, sage, calendula, and snapdragons. Some of our other favourites include yarrow, comfrey, borage, lemon balm, chamomile and catmint. It's so love...ly to walk out and see the insects enjoying the flowers, and the birds enjoying the insects. This patch also provides lots of herbs for the kitchen and herbs for healing and tasty teas. What are your favourite herbs and flowers to grow? #growing #herbs #flowers #homegrown #herbgarden #polyculture #organic #organicgardening #homestead #backtobasics #simpleliving #natural #diy #makeyourown #sustainability #greenliving #sustainableliving #simplelife #eco #voluntarysimplicity #homestead #plasticfree #waronwaste #zerowaste #retrosuburbia #permaculture #permacultureaustralia #adelaide #southaustralia #folkofalltrades See more

21.01.2022 Growing chicken food Sprouted lentils (and lots of other sprouts) make excellent chicken food now there are less greens for them to find in their run. We soaked the lentils overnight in water, then spread them out on a seed raising tray with newspaper at the bottom and a fine sprinkling of potting soil. Once they got to about 5cm we started feeding them to the chooks. The chickens were cautious at first, but once they tasted the greens they tucked right in. This is a ...great use for those pulses that might have been sitting in the cupboard for a number of years, or if you've got access to unsorted lentils that still have stones and weed seeds mixed through. Our lentils came from Sam's cousins farm north of Adelaide, straight out of the field and into a bakery bucket. What other sprouted seeds have people tried feeding their chooks? #chicken #chickens #isabrown #flightoftheconchords #homegrown #backyardchicken #organic #organicgardening #backyardpoultry #backtobasics #simpleliving #natural #diy #makeyourown #sustainability #greenliving #sustainableliving #simplelife #eco #voluntarysimplicity #homestead #plasticfree #waronwaste #zerowaste #retrosuburbia #permaculture #permacultureaustralia #adelaide #southaustralia #folkofalltrades See more

18.01.2022 Spoon trade! This stunning eating spoon was made by Julian of Littlebear Sloyd in Narrm (Melbourne) Swapping spoons is quite a thing in the spoon carving world - a great way to learn how other people approach form and function. This ebonised eucalyptus is eye-wateringly thin in profile, yet still very strong.... Sam sent a Barnaby Carder inspired fig-shaped spoon that he carved in Lemon Scented Gum in return. Any other spoon carvers out there want to do a trade? #spoon #spooncarving #trade #woodworking #greenwoodworking #handtools #timber #wood #homestead #backtobasics #simpleliving #natural #diy #makeyourown #sustainability #greenliving #sustainableliving #simplelife #eco #voluntarysimplicity #homestead #plasticfree #waronwaste #zerowaste #retrosuburbia #permaculture #permacultureaustralia #adelaide #southaustralia #folkofalltrades See more

18.01.2022 Cucumbers are coming thick and fast with this stunning weather we've been having Our cucumbers always seem to do well in December, but heatwaves often kill them off by the New Year. Hopefully this La Niña year allows them to live a bit longer than usual. Right now though it is preserving time, as this is too many cucumbers to eat fresh and we don't know how long the good times will last. ... Our general recipe for pickling most things is around equal parts vinegar and water, a bit of salt and sugar, and maybe some mustard seeds and peppercorns. We heat the liquid until it is boiling, drop the cucumbers in either sliced or whole, and wait until the mixture comes back up to the boil. Then we pack them into pre-sterilised and warmed jars, and put the lid on quickly. This works 95% of the time, and the ones that don't work get put in the fridge and eaten first. Any fantastic pickle recipes out there that we are missing out on? #cucumber #pickle #pickling #preserving #growing #veggies #homegrown #vegetablegarden #organic #backtobasics #simpleliving #natural #diy #makeyourown #sustainability #greenliving #sustainableliving #simplelife #eco #voluntarysimplicity #homestead #plasticfree #waronwaste #zerowaste #retrosuburbia #permaculture #permacultureaustralia #adelaide #southaustralia #folkofalltrades See more

16.01.2022 Garlic harvest 2020! We pulled these beauties out of the ground on the weekend, after having stopped watering for 10 days so they could start to dry out. Our bulk producer was once again a beautiful long-storing purple variety we originally got from @thefoodforest and have planted for the past 3 years.... We were also impressed with the bulb size of a new variety we have trialled calledMelbourne Market Garden. The garlic is now hanging up under the carport where it doesn't get any sun, but has plenty of air movement for quick drying. This is key for long-term storage success, and given this warm weather should only take a couple of weeks. #garlic #garlicharvest #veggies #homegrown #vegetablegarden #organic #organicgardening #homestead #backtobasics #simpleliving #natural #diy #makeyourown #sustainability #greenliving #sustainableliving #simplelife #eco #voluntarysimplicity #homestead #plasticfree #waronwaste #zerowaste #retrosuburbia #permaculture #permacultureaustralia #adelaide #southaustralia #folkofalltrades See more

16.01.2022 The first garden berries are coming! This is Youngberry, which came from a school kitchen garden where Dani used to teach. There is a thornless and thorned variety, and we have both growing to see if there is a productivity difference. At this stage they seem pretty equal, though we gave the prime spot to the thornless one :) Youngberry tastes like a mixture of raspberry and blackberry, but is more drought tolerant and fruits very early in the season.... Check out the structure we've got supporting them - it's steel reinforcing rods hammered into the ground, and then reinforcing mesh welded to the rods at two heights to control the sprawl and keep the berries up off the ground. The reason we made this kind of structure is that we've got termites around the place so didn't want to sink timber posts into the ground. It's working really well so far. #berry #youngberry #fruit #trellis #growing #homegrown #organic #organicgardening #homestead #backtobasics #simpleliving #natural #diy #makeyourown #sustainability #greenliving #sustainableliving #simplelife #eco #voluntarysimplicity #homestead #plasticfree #waronwaste #zerowaste #retrosuburbia #permaculture #permacultureaustralia #adelaide #southaustralia #folkofalltrades See more

15.01.2022 Thinning stonefruit

14.01.2022 Chocolatey Acacia spoons A branch had snapped by the side of the road as we drove to the Southern Flinders Ranges a few weeks back, and inside was this beautiful two-tone wood that is quite characteristic of many Acacias. These and other serving spoons went off to @sagehouse_aus where we hope they will cook and serve many delicious meals... #spoon #spooncarving #woodworking #greenwoodworking #handtools #timber #wood #homestead #backtobasics #simpleliving #natural #diy #makeyourown #sustainability #greenliving #sustainableliving #simplelife #eco #voluntarysimplicity #homestead #plasticfree #waronwaste #zerowaste #retrosuburbia #permaculture #permacultureaustralia #adelaide #southaustralia #gosouthgolocal #folkofalltrades See more

14.01.2022 A very special festive market We live in the Aldinga Arts Eco Village on Kaurna Country around 45 minutes south of Adelaide. It's a lovely spot, and we feel very lucky to be part of such a close-knit and thoughtful community. One recent example of the community coming together was a Twilight Trail market held out the front of people's houses, where people could sell their art, craft, food and anything else they had to offer. It wasn't advertised externally, because COVID..., but lots of villagers turned up and supported our wonderful makers and creatives. We sold our wooden spoons, and it was by far the most successful market we've ever had. Hopefully we can invite all you lovely people in our online community next year! Photo credit for pic 2 and 3 @ninapullen :) #spoon #spooncarving #greenwoodworking #handmade #madebyhand #craft #gosouthgolocal #fleurieu #ecovillage #backtobasics #simpleliving #natural #diy #makeyourown #sustainability #greenliving #sustainableliving #simplelife #eco #voluntarysimplicity #homestead #plasticfree #waronwaste #zerowaste #retrosuburbia #permaculture #permacultureaustralia #adelaide #southaustralia #folkofalltrades See more

13.01.2022 Now the weather is warming up we are loving drinking water kefir again. It doesn't ferment nearly so well over winter for us, which is not so bad because we don't feel like drinking it as much. Now is a great time for putting mulberries and loquats into kefir as the first fruits of the season. Mulberry might just be our new favourite :) #kefir #waterkefir #fermentation #wildfermentation #health #guthealth #probiotic #homestead #backtobasics #simpleliving #natural #diy #makeyourown #sustainability #greenliving #sustainableliving #simplelife #eco #voluntarysimplicity #homestead #plasticfree #waronwaste #zerowaste #retrosuburbia #permaculture #permacultureaustralia #adelaide #southaustralia #gosouthgolocal #folkofalltrades

11.01.2022 Exploring Australian First Nations wood crafts We've learnt from Kaurna and Ngarrindjeri people that the end of winter is a traditional time to cut bark from trees. Around here Karra (River Red Gum) is often used, as it is thick and separates from the wood easily without compromising the health of the tree. There are stunning examples of shields, canoes, and bowls that were cut from trees before invasion that are still visible on Country, as well as recent work by cra...ftspeople and artists; @jamesptylor does some beautifulwork you can check out on insta, and we are lucky enough to have a Kaurna shield by our front door that was carved by artist Corey Turner. Being an avid woodcarver, Sam was interested to try making a small bowl using these local techniques. It isn't our knowledge to share how exactly to do this, but let us know if you are interested in attending a workshop and we can work with the Kaurna community to organise something for next winter. #kaurna#handmade #craft #woodworking #greenwoodworking #handtools #timber #wood #homestead #backtobasics #simpleliving #natural #diy #makeyourown #sustainability #greenliving #sustainableliving #simplelife #eco #voluntarysimplicity #homestead #plasticfree #waronwaste #zerowaste #retrosuburbia #permaculture #permacultureaustralia #adelaide #southaustralia #folkofalltrades See more

10.01.2022 Demonstration wicking bed We built this little wicking bed as a way to show all the layers and materials for one of our workshops. Despite having used wicking beds for nearly 10 years, we were amazed to see the wicking actually taking place - moisture being drawn up through the soil even though the water level had dropped. Making a wicking bed this small is not something we'd recommend for growing veg - even though it's tiny it still weighs about 15kg, and is too small ...to grow anything except lettuce, herbs, and spring onions. Nevertheless we thought you might be interested to see how one is put together. We drilled a hole in the waterproof layer (in this case a sturdy plastic crate, which also forms the frame of the wicking bed) where we wanted the overflow to be, and attached a rainwater tank flange to form a good seal. We then filled the base with scoria to act as a water reservoir, and covered this with non-woven geotextile so the soil doesn't fall down. Next came our potting media, to which we added perlite and vermiculite for water holding and aeration. Finally some lettuce seedlings and seed, as well as a strip of hessian for aesthetics and to protect the plastic from degrading in the sun. Have you got a wicking bed? They can be a great way to grow food if you have contaminated soil or mobility issues that don't allow you to garden in the soil. They are far superior to raised beds, but growing in the ground is still our favourite for scale, interaction with soil life, and minimal use of non-renewable resources. #wickingbed #raisedbed #savingwater #gardening #growing #veggies #homegrown #vegetablegarden #organic #organicgardening #veggiegarden#backtobasics #simpleliving #diy #makeyourown #sustainability #greenliving #sustainableliving #simplelife #eco #voluntarysimplicity #homestead #retrosuburbia #permaculture #permacultureaustralia #adelaide #southaustralia #folkofalltrades See more

08.01.2022 Avoiding supermarkets One of the things we love most about growing our own food is the ability to avoid leaving the house for our basic needs. This also saves a surprising amount of time, which we can spend gardening :) This is also a double-edged sword though, as we don't visit the farmers market very much anymore. If you're not growing your own or enough to cover your needs, then farmers markets, CSA's and box schemes are our favourite ways to get local, organical...ly produced food. A few legends growing in our neck of the woods are Village Greens of Willunga Creek Cockatoo Creek Farm and Heirloom Harvest - check them out online or Willunga Farmers Market #growing #veggies #homegrown #vegetablegarden #organic #organicgardening #veggiegarden #gosouthgolocal #fleurieu #backtobasics #simpleliving #natural #diy #makeyourown #sustainability #greenliving #sustainableliving #simplelife #eco #voluntarysimplicity #homestead #plasticfree #waronwaste #zerowaste #retrosuburbia #permaculture #permacultureaustralia #adelaide #southaustralia #folkofalltrades See more

04.01.2022 Dani shows the steps for making a few eco gifts; beeswax wraps, gift bags, and a sugar scrub. All items are made from natural materials and are compostable at the end of their useful lives. This online workshop was supported by the City of Onkaparinga with Onkaparinga Libraries

04.01.2022 Green roof on our shipping container! We've wanted to build a green roof ever since we saw them in Norway and Sweden back in 2012 (third picture). It can be a difficult and expensive addition to a residential house, so we decided to install one on our repurposed shipping container, which we use as a workshop. The roof structure was built in Autumn 2019, planted that winter, and has now filled in pretty nicely with beautiful local native grasses and groundcovers. Over tim...e we should see greenery cascade over the fascia and the roof structure itself disappear. Birds are already nesting under the eaves and butterflies and insects frequent the rooftop garden. If you'd like to know more about how it was constructed, the materials we used, plant species, and costs please let us know and we will do a more detailed post soon. #greenroof #livingroof #rooftopgarden #growing #nature #biodiversity #habitat #revegetation #architecture #greenarchitecture #design #homestead #backtobasics #simpleliving #natural #diy #makeyourown #sustainability #greenliving #sustainableliving #simplelife #eco #voluntarysimplicity #homestead #retrosuburbia #permaculture #permacultureaustralia #adelaide #southaustralia #folkofalltrades See more