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Whelping Whippets

By Farm Gate StallNo Comments
Nala, Winston and Fawn’s soft grey brindle.

Beautiful aren’t they? The one thing you miss when you adopt a puppy into your home, is their first 8 weeks. You don’t get to see the birth, the newborn phase, see when their eyes first open, or when they first learn to walk. One of the sweetest things we watched, was when the pups first start playing with each other and trying to growl! It’s adorable, these soft little bundles trying to wrestle with each other!

As mentioned in another post, when we welcomed whippets into our home, we did so planning to breed them, in addition to having them as members of the family. We have bred sheep, chickens, ducks and guinea fowl and were keen to also learn about and experience breeding whippets. NOTE: we did this knowing that whippets are a more unusual breed to find in our state, and therefore were likely to be able to find loving homes for them. We also went into breeding whippets knowing that we can provide an ideal start to life for them…we have the space, can feed them quality food, there’s always plenty of family members home to help care for and train them etc. It’s not a great idea to breed dogs if you don’t have the time, patience and resources to do so.

Elma

Fawn has turned out to be a very maternal young lady. She had no trouble falling pregnant, an easy pregnancy and a straight forward birth, which I am thankful we were able to witness. She’s an incredibly affectionate girl, and welcomed our presence for the whelping. Her first litter consisted of four pups, in a variety of colours. Three females and one male. She hardly left their side, and wouldn’t let Winston near them!

I had found an excellent article about whelping whippets, which suggested that for these comfort hounds, an ideal whelping ‘box’ set-up, was to use a children’s frame pool, and line it with a blanket or towels. Whippets love their soft furnishings 🙂 What a fabulous idea! The size is right, the price is great, the height is excellent for containing pups until they are a few weeks old, and it’s plastic, so can be easily cleaned. I bought the pool, cut a massive king size blanket we had been handed down into two, and erected the set-up in the boys room.

As it turned out, Fawn loved the whelping box. She didn’t actually whelp in it…she normally sleeps in my daughter’s bed with her, and so that bedroom is her safe place I guess…she birthed in there, right on the girl’s jute rug. And there ended the use of that rug in our home!

But once the pups were on the ground and cleaned up, Fawn was very happy to move into the whelping box with them. There she stayed for the next three weeks. Around this time, the little monkeys learned how to jump the walls. So from there we moved to a gated pen. Around the three week mark, is when it’s best to start toilet training the pups. This was important for us, because whippets are a very indoor-sy breed of dog, so to make life that much easier on the families who would adopt our pups, we started toilet training at three weeks, using the Misty Method. Of course it made life easier on us too, because those puppies first 8 weeks were spent mostly inside our home! And yes, this worked. The families our puppies went to mentioned that toilet training the pups in their new homes was simple, because the groundwork had been laid.

The first litter at 9 days old, safely contained in a children’s frame-pool.

As there were only four pups, and all uniquely marked/coloured, we didn’t need to worry about ID bands or anything like that. But I have since found a brilliant business, WhelpingSupplies.com.au, which supplies ID bands and so many other useful whelping supplies, located on the Gold Coast. They also share free whelping charts for tracking puppies milestones, weight etc. This is very handy, especially if you have a larger litter and need to make sure all the pups are gaining enough weight.

Doggie Pile

With so many mouths to feed, a bitch who has whelped is at risk of calcium deficiency. For this reason, many people feed the new mum’s puppy food (which is higher in calcium) rather than adult dog food. We also find that organic eggs from our flock, raw beef bones, raw chicken necks and BARF from Pet Mince Direct, have been great. Our local Pet Mince Direct is managed by a very knowledgable woman (a dog breeder herself) who has given me a wealth of information on canine nutrition.

Summing it up, the first three weeks after the arrival of the pups, the dam does just about all the work. She cleans up her pups messes, feeds them, snuggles with them and it feels like all we’re doing is keeping the nutrition up to her, patting her and admiring her little bundles of joy. Their eyes open sometime around day 10-14. They start to crawl around their enclosure more. Then the dam steps back a little, starts to wean them, and we start toilet training, introducing solid food (at which point the dam isn’t so interested in cleaning up her pups messes!) and we start being able to play with them. We have six children, who all love animals, so our pups were spoiled for choice when it came to human companionship and playmates. It has been such a rewarding experience, and wonderful to be able to give our pups a great start to life that rewards both our family for being able to experience this, and the pup’s new families, who are blessed to take home a puppy who is well socialised, house-trained, healthy and emotionally balanced.

Puppies are ready to be adopted at 8 weeks of age. Any earlier than this and they miss valuable social skills that their mother teaches them.

There is a wealth of information online about whippets, if you are keen to investigate whether this breed would be compatible with your family/lifestyle. We are so grateful to have our pair, they’re delightful.

There will be future litters, and if you are interested in keeping posted regarding Birdsong Whippets, drop me a line at racheal@birdsongmarketgarden.com.au

October 22, 2022
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Kin Kin Naturals Now in Stock!

By Farm Gate StallNo Comments

“What’s behind our products?
If we don’t trust an ingredient with our own children’s skin or our own backyard, then we don’t use it. After all, we’re a family not a big company. We’re just fortunate to know how to formulate leading edge cleaning products, based on previous work experience. If you have any questions or suggestions, we would love to hear from you.” Kin Kin Naturals

Find out more here.

“I’ve been using Kin Kin laundry and dishwashing liquids for about 3 years now. They are the first eco cleaning products that I’ve had constantly impressive results from. We don’t have town water on our property, so I needed products that are both able to cope with bore and rain water and are safe for the septic system. Kin Kin liquids have ticked all the boxes for us.” Racheal, Birdsong.

We will be stocking 2.5kg dishwasher powder, 5L dishwashing and laundry liquid, with 20L drums available for special order.
May 21, 2022
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Storing Your Preserves

By Farm Gate StallNo Comments

Pickles, ferments, relishes…how do you store them?

I’m getting asked about this semi-regularly, so thought it was time to make a post so you know how to safely store your bottled goods.

Ferments: (ie. sauerkraut, lacto-fermented pickles, lacto-fermented beets, beet kvass). These are created using the vegetable, and then a macrobiotic salt brine. The product is left to lacto-ferment at room temperature for about three days, and then moved to the fridge. Even if unopened, the ferments need to remain refrigerated.

Relishes/Chutneys: (ie. the caramelised onion and beet relish, or corn relish). These are made using vinegar and sugar, which together do create an unfavourable environment for bacteria to grow…but this doesn’t last forever, unless the product has been pressure canned. I do have an use a pressure canner for some preserves, but not these. I prefer to use less processing for higher nutrient retention. Your relishes/chutneys are shelf or room temperature stable for about 3 months, if unopened. Once opened, they need to be refrigerated. I keep them all in the cold room regardless, because the summer heat here is more of a risk than I want to take with leaving preserves out. If you are keeping them on the shelf, choose a place free from excess heat or sunlight.

Pickles: (ie the bread and butter pickles). Again, these pickles are based on vinegar and sugar, so do have some shelf stability, about 3 months, like the relishes. But the fridge is definitely preferable, and ours are always stored in the cold room. And of course, once they are opened, they definitely need to be refrigerated.

December 27, 2020
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Australian Grown

By Farm Gate StallNo Comments

In light of recent events and more people stopping to think about where some of their produce is really coming from, I want to give you a quick highlight of the Australian grown dry goods that we have on offer at Birdsong.

First up is the Certified Organic Sunflower Kernals.

Our rolled oats are also Certified organic and both grown and milled in Australia.

The macrobiotic sea salt, harvested from the Great Barrier Reef and the Great Australian Bight.

Our raw almonds are also Certified Organic and Australian grown.

And the sultanas are also grown right here in Australia 🙂

June 20, 2020
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Making the Most of your Seasonal Mixed Box

By Farm Gate StallOne Comment

$50 mixed boxes are becoming a popular choice at Birdsong, and from the farmer’s point of view, it’s a wonderful choice, because it allows us to sell what’s in season and in abundance…and to get people trying produce they might not be accustomed to purchasing. You also learn to eat seasonally.

For those of you who’ve tried our mixed boxes before, you’ll know you end up with quite a bit of food, particularly greens in winter, to create with. So how do you deal with it all with as little spoilage and waste as possible?

I know some of you already give some of your produce away when the box contains more than you can use, which is a great way to save spoilage.

When you bring your box home and start packing the goods away, one of the first things to consider is “what is going to need to be eaten within the next few days to avoid spoilage?” The answer to this can depend on your storage methods. For example, I don’t actually keep much produce in our fridge, we’re blessed to have the cold room and I take a walk out there before preparing meals and select from the storage tubs out there. So something like loose leaf greens…any greens really, last especially well when they’re kept in the cold room in our plastic storage tubs. But if I take a mesh bag of mesclun and put it in the produce drawer of my fridge, it’s only going to last about 2 days. Same with just about anything green and leafy. BUT, if I put a bunch of kale in a large beeswax wrap, or a glass storage container in that same drawer of the fridge, it will last much longer, as if it was in the cold room.

Some produce is going to have a very lengthy shelf life, like your root vegetables, so there’s no hurry to use them.

Sometimes you’ll get produce that can be preserved for later. Tomatoes can be canned, corn can be blanched and frozen, lemongrass can be frozen, cabbage can be fermented into kraut etc

Now, how do you incorporate more of this produce into your meals so nothing goes to waste…and it’s not just about waste, it’s also about maximising your vegetable intake!

Between salads, stocks, soups, one pot meals and preserving, you should have no problem creating with all your mixed box produce.

Salads: Often I start with a recipe as a base, but change it to suit what’s in season and what’s in the pantry. Maybe there’s a lovely dressing recipe you want to try and then you mix and match with your veg (and can toss in some roasted nuts, seeds…even fruit).

Stocks: Many of you make your own stock. We’re big fans of chicken stock made on organic chicken frames and home grown produce. Using vegetables in your stock along with the bones creates a synergistic effect where the nutrients from the veg and bones combine to give you a virtual liquid multi-mineral supplement. And you can use SO many different veg. Have a bunch of kale you won’t otherwise use? Put it in your stock pot. It will turn the broth a little green, but that’s not a problem.

Soups: Like with salads, I’ll often start with a base recipe and then vary it to suit what produce is available. Or, start with the broth and then start slicing and adding produce that I have surplus of. This is a great way to use surplus leafy greens, chilli and herbs. NOTE: Add herbs at the end of the cooking when making soup so they retain their flavour and nutrient density.

Soup can be frozen, and in this way you can be both preserving your produce and giving yourself a ready-made meal to have on hand when you’re strapped for time.

One pot meals: Maybe that name isn’t the best description of what I mean…but any meal where you are combining the bulk of the sustenance in one dish like- Stews, bolognase, pies, stir-fry, quiche etc.

Our family now expect that I’ll probably sneak chard into the bolognase, or shredded cabbage into the ‘zucchini’ quiche…or a bit of everything into the ‘meat’ pie. Actually, we hadn’t made meat pies in a long time, and then a month or so ago I made one using about 500g organic beef mince and a LOT of veg, drowned in homemade gravy (which is broth based and nutritious)…they LOVED it! There was leftover veg in gravy that couldn’t fit in the pie crust (made too much!) and the children sat at the bench with spoons devouring every last mouthful. I think that pie contained carrot, chard, onion, sweet potato and potato.

It’s usually a good idea to shred or finely chop vegetables that you are wanting to bulk up a one pot meal with.

Preserving: Ah, I love preserving/canning. It was so satisfying at the end of last summer to see a pantry shelf full of tomato preserves like paste, sauce, passata, crushed tomatoes, relish etc Now here we are at the 8th month of the year and this week will be the first time this year that I’ll have to buy tomato preserves again! But it’s not just tomatoes that can be preserved.

Right now it’s cabbage season and our $50 box buyers have probably had a few womboks come their way. Besides wombok salad, did you know you can preserve your wombok by making kimchi with it? One of our customers gave us some kimchi they made on wombok…it was absolutely delicious. Such a fresh flavour.

Sauerkraut is wonderful for using up surplus cabbage, and there’s plenty of classes and online tutorials around now. You can also incorporate other veg, like cauliflower, broccoli, herbs, carrot and more into kraut.

Beetroot can be made into beautiful relish, or kraut or a fermented beverage known as kvass.

Dehydrating can also play a part. Last summer we had loads of damaged capsicums, so I saved the good parts and dehydrated them, then grind them to powder and had homemade organic paprika 🙂 

August 25, 2018
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Beeswax Wraps and Cold Process Soap Making Workshop

By Farm Gate StallNo Comments

May at Simple Living Toowoomba…

This month SLT are offering two classes in one, DIY beeswax wraps with Suanne from Green Dandelion, and cold process soap making with me.

If you haven’t heard about beeswax wraps, they’re an eco friendly alternative to glad wrap. Much better looking than glad wrap too! Suanne will even have kits available for sale on the day with the wax/resin mix so you can go home and make your own. Suanne is regularly at local farmer’s markets and the like selling not only her beautiful wraps, but also other ‘green’ solutions for you home.

And soap making, like I’ve said before, is so much easier than you think and can be made with ingredients from the supermarket. No need to order pricey unusual ingredients (unless you want to go down that path). Homemade soap is also very allergy friendly. I have yet to meet a person, no matter how bad the eczema, who reacts to basic homemade soap. I’ll have some soap available for sale on the day.

This class will take place on Saturday 26th May, 9:45am-Midday at 13-15 Blake St, Wilsonton, 4350. It’s going to be capped at about 30-35 participants.

Cost is $5 per adult (need cash as there’s no electronic payment facilities), which is amazing value. Soapmaking will be up first and we’ll start at 10am sharp, so please be on time! Suanne will then start her wraps demonstration at around 11am.

To RSVP, email Michele at simplelivingtoowoomba@gmail.com

May 7, 2018
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Seasonal Mixed Box – A Value Comparison

By Farm Gate StallOne Comment

We get both- customers who want specific produce each order, and customers who just want a box of whatever is fresh and seasonal.

One customer, upon taking home her first $50 mixed box, decided to list and weigh every item in her box and find out how the value compared to buying the same items organically at the supermarket. I was really excited by this, it’s one of those things I probably wouldn’t get around to doing at the moment, but am very interested to see the results of.

So I’ve just received the list this customer wrote, and will share it with you so you too can see how our seasonal mixed boxes compare with supermarket buying.

NOTE: Contents of seasonal mixed boxes change frequently, depending on what’s in season and how much of each item we have available.

This customer was not asked to do this, she just happens to be very thrifty and wanted to know for herself what kind of value she was getting.

It’s also worth noting when you buy a seasonal box, I ALWAYS put more than the dollar value you paid in there, ie if you buy a $50 box, I’ll put at least another $5-$10 worth of our produce in there.

Both Coles and Woolworths online were used for her comparisons, as neither supermarket stocked everything in her box from Birdsong. The comparisons are made with Organic produce (except for the eggplant and cucumber, which she could not find organically from supermarkets at the time).

 

Ok, here it is:

Item                                                Supermarket Price     Total

1050g Dutch Cream Potatoes    $4/kg                           $4.20

995g Sweet Potato                        $10/kg                        $9.95

630g Salad Onion                         $7/kg                          $4.45

670g Butternut Pumpkin            $4/kg                          $2.68

1560g Tomatoes                            $17.50/kg                  $27.30

856g Corn, Small Cobs                $14/kg                        $11.97

425g Squash                                  $9/kg                          $3.82

777g Capsicum                              $9/kg                          $6.99

420g Purple Beans                      $18/kg                         $7.56

1305g Zucchini                             $9/kg                           $11.75

954g Eggplant                              $8/kg (non organic) $7.63

1140g Lebanese Cucumber        $5/kg (non organic)  $5.95

700g Beetroot                               $9/kg                           $6.30

808g Carrots                                 $6/kg                           $4.85

30g Herbs                                                                            $3

12.3kg Produce (Equivalent $4.06/kg)      TOTAL: $118.11

 

Wow, I hadn’t realised the price difference would be so huge!

May 1, 2018
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Organic Dried Fruit/Nuts/Seeds/Flours

By Farm Gate Stall4 Comments

As many of you know, we supplement out produce range with some organic dried fruit, nuts, seeds, oils and sometimes flours.

Some of these items, like coconut sugar and pepitas have been selling out fast lately! We’re looking at ordering in more organic pantry items like these soon and we’re open to suggestions. What would you like to see in our web store?

It’s been a while since we’ve had dried fruit, so I’m considering giving organic figs a go. The wholesaler we deal with has a huge variety and if there’s something you’d like to be able to buy through us (and we keep the prices as reasonable as we can), then leave a comment or contact us and let us know your suggestions.

April 15, 2018
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Rain at Last!

By Farm Gate StallNo Comments

Hi 🙂

As you may have noticed on the web store, the range of produce is dwindling! There’s lots of crops out there, but until yesterday, we’d had no rain this year. So though we irrigate and the crops are plodding along, they haven’t been able to thrive. Yesterdays storm brought 14mm. A nice start.

The lack of rain isn’t just affecting the crops, it also affects the animals. Our sheep have eaten out their cell, so I let them out into the house yard the other day, completely intending to put them back soon….but I forgot and they ate most of our upcoming lettuce crop. Oops.

And the ducks/chickens…the laying has cut right back! So many birds, so few eggs. But Cinnamon, one of our bantams who was laying, just hatched 5 little chicks, as pictured. So cute, but it’s ducks we’re wanting to breed, not more chooks! And bantams at that (Rick thinks their little eggs are a waste of time). The children are excited though, they love babies.

Rick’s had some contract work happening, so farm work is minimal. But that’s a good thing while we’re waiting on more rain. When the range picks up again, Rick is wanting to add another delivery slot to our week. He goes into town every Wednesday morning to deliver to a restaurant, and could do a few home deliveries right after that (in Toowoomba, after 9:30am Wednesdays). So keep an eye on the website, he plans to add the delivery option as an item that you add to your cart.

I also have a contact in Harristown who already runs a fruit co-op and is willing to be a pickup point for orders. So if you’re in that area and are interested, let me know.

Enjoy your week,

Racheal

 

January 29, 2018
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Our Experiences with Lavender Essential

By Farm Gate StallNo Comments
I’ve noticed a great deal of our customers are into alternative healing, and natural living…so I thought I’d share this with you 🙂
Lavender oil is one of the three oils that we’ve been using for a looong time. Not long after marrying Rick, he relayed to me the account of his mining mate who sustained a nasty hand injury that looked like it needed professional help at a hospital. The friend said, no, he had lavender essential oil, and to just watch how fast the gash healed. He said within 3 days it would be fine. So Rick did watch. And 3 days later, the wound was healing very nicely. No infection and no weeping etc. So we’d started buying lavender from the supermarket and keeping it on hand as we had more and more children, who naturally hurt themselves a lot.
My first chance at really putting lavender to the test was one afternoon when I had a particularly important phone call and the children had gone down to play at the pond. Before long, I’m hearing “MUM! MUM! There’s blood everywhere! Mum!” It was one of those calls that wasn’t easy to put down (a friend in a very emotional state), but when Charlotte was ushered inside, with blood literally pouring out of her finger, I had to tell the caller I had a serious injury to deal with! It turned out Micah had been ‘mowing the lawn’ near the pond with secatares, and Charlotte had stuck her finger right between the blades as he snipped. The result was that half of the tip of her finger was sliced through. I don’t like emergency rooms, and the fact that every time we’ve tried them we wait for hours to often find there’s not much they can do anyway. So I decided to try the lavender oil and bandages. Some bright spark gave us a first aid kit as a wedding gift (long time friend of Rick’s I think), so we had everything we needed. So that was it. I bandaged to stop the bleeding and when it had slowed down enough, dropped some lavender oil on the wound. Lavender speeds healing. I alternated treating the wound with tea tree oil too, as it is very effective at fighting infection. Thankfully it worked. He finger healed, and now, years later, there’s not even a scar. That’s impressive considering how much of her finger was sliced through!
A similar accident occurred about 2 years ago when our toddler went and played with tin sheeting (right before we were about to go out too). He deeply sliced the palm of his hand. I grabbed the lavender and tea tree again…and bandages of course. By now we knew butterfly closures were an item to keep in stock at our home! Two of the friends at the homeschool group we were attending that day were trained nurses, who suggested I take him to hospital for stitches. I drove home, praying about it…keen NOT to go to the hospital. I called Rick and he said to go with the oils. So we did. And once again, between lavender, tea tree and bandages, Jeremiah’s hand healed with no sign of scarring or infection.
Micah used to be our least hygienic child (Charlotte is in fierce competition with him for that title now!), and he contracted school sores. The first time it happened, we put him on antibiotics (the only time I’d ever done that with any of our children!). They left. But then they came back down the track, and this time I’d read that lavender and tea tree could combat school sores. So that’s what we did. I mixed the two oils in a spritzer bottle and sprayed his sores about twice a day. They left. And this time didn’t come back.
Flies really don’t like lavender. As most of you know, we keep sheep. We’ve had constant dog attacks on our flock, and one summer one of our best breeders was almost killed by a tear to the neck from one of the despised wild dogs. You could see inside her neck, it wasn’t pretty. But I hate to have an animal put down if there’s some chance it might recover. So we grabbed the lavender oil. Too much of it actually. You don’t ever need to use much, but we were hurrying to save her and Rick said “Pour it on!” I was too flustered to tell him that would be overkill, so just poured it on. The ewe dropped to the ground, shocked for a moment. But the lavender worked (we bandaged her neck also). It sped the healing, and repelled the flies, which are a threat to injured sheep, as they like to lay maggots in the wool of them. But she lived, never became fly blown and went on to have more twin lambs!
Lavender heals wounds, but what else?
Most of you have probably heard about it’s calming qualities. Especially on babies. When Archie had teething pain, I looked up in Modern Essentials what to try, and they said lavender oil across the jawbone. I did it, and it worked. Other times I’ve placed a drop of lavender on the back of the neck of distressed children, and found it calms them nicely.
One time we popped out the lavender in the park, when one of the children’s friends stepped on a bee and was stung. I put one drop on the bite site and she soon stopped crying and ran off with the others as though nothing had happened.
Lavender is also great for (brace yourself, it’s a long list!): calming agitation, allergies, anxiety, appetite loss, arrhythmia, atherosclerosis, bites/stings, blisters, boils, soothing breast pain, burns, cancer, chicken pox, club foot, concentration, convulsions, crying, cuts, dandruff, depression, diabetic sores, diaper rash, diuretic, dysmenorrhea, exhaustion, fever, gangrene, gas/flatulence, giardia, gnats, grief/sorrow, dry hair, hair loss, hay fever, hernia, herpes simplex, hyperactivity, impetigo, inflammation, insomnia, itching, jet lag, dry lips, mastitis, menopause, mental stress, mood swings, mosquito repellent, muscular paralysis, pain, parasympathetic nervous system stimulation, parkinson’s disease, phlebitis, physical stress, poison ivy/oak, post labour, postpartum depression, rashes, relaxation, rheumatoid arthritis, sedative, seizure, dry skin, skin ulcers, sleep, stress, stretch marks, sunburn, tachycardia, teeth grinding, teething pain, tension, thrush, ticks, leg ulcers, varicose ulcers, vertigo, withdrawal, worms, wounds, wrinkles.

Lavender wholesales at $28 for 15ml and is one of the top 10 oils to have in your home. I keep some in stock for those who are local and don’t have their own account with doterra.
January 6, 2018
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A Higher Frequency

By Farm Gate Stall2 Comments

Hello,
Ever heard of Tainio? Bruce Tainio, of Tainio Technology invented and built a machine called the BT3 Frequency Monitoring System. He wanted to measure the bio-electrical frequencies of soil nutrients and essential oils.
If you can remember back to school science lessons, you would have been told about how everything vibrates. Every element in the periodic table has a specific vibratory frequency.
Humans have a frequency, but it can vary so much depending on what state your health is in. Through measuring these frequencies it was found that a healthy person should have a frequency measuring around 62-68MHz.
But what if it’s less? When your frequency drops to about 58MHz, cold symptoms can manifest.
Flu symptoms start at 57MHz.
Candida at 55MHz
Cancer can begin when the body drops below 42MHz.
The process of dying begins at 25MHz and drops to zero when you’re officially dead.

So how can you change your frequency? First of all, it should be noted that processed/canned food measures 0MHz. It has no life force, the heat treatment has killed it all. It can give you energy, but not life-force.
Fresh herbs measure 20-27MHz
Even dry herbs measure 12-22MHz
Holding a cup of coffee was found to lower a person’s frequency by 8MHz!! And drinking the coffee lowered it by 14MHz.
So eating food that’s fresh as opposed to long-life, will go a long way towards boosting your frequency.

But then there are essential oils too. Tainio tried giving his coffee experiment ‘guinea pig’ a whiff of some quality essential oils after drinking the coffee. The subjects frequency was fully restored within a minute. He tried the same experiment with the coffee again, but left the person to their own devices to see how long restoration of frequency after the coffee would take without the use of essential oils. 3 days it took.
(I told Rick about this, and he can’t bear the thought of giving up coffee, so dabbed himself with peppermint oil which measures at 78MHz, after drinking his coffee!)

This is relatively recent technology and not all oils have been tested. But quality, properly distilled oils from healthy plants have some amazing frequencies. For example:
Rose 320MHz
Helichrysum 181MHz
Lavender 118 MHz
Melissa (lemon balm) 102MHz
Juniper 98MHz
Peppermint 78MHz
Basil 52MHz

And you can benefit from their frequency just by inhaling them!
“One of the most important healing modalities of the oils is their ability to lift our bodily frequencies to levels where disease cannot exist” David Stewart Ph.D.

Food for thought…

PS All the above oils mentioned are available through doTerra and can either be ordered through me (I also keep a bunch of them in stock at wholesale prices), or I can set you up with your own wholesale account (no minimum buy required). Just ask if you’re interested.

Just remember that no oil or supplement is a substitute for a wholesome balanced diet. If you want to improve your health, look at your diet and habits first.

Shalom, Racheal

January 3, 2018
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Birdsong Tidings

By Farm Gate StallOne Comment

Hello, hope you all had a lovely Christmas. It was very peaceful here, so good to have a break!

It’s been full-on, with summer crops needing frequent harvesting. I was thinking this arvo, what happened to those morning hours when I used to get extra jobs done? Now the time is spent harvesting and cleaning equipment. But we live seasonally here, so that’s to be expected. I’ve started reading Grow, Hunt, Cook by a guy from NSW. Forgotten his name! But I can totally relate to what he says about living seasonally, and how it means working your but off for three seasons and then taking it easier in the winter…though he lives in a much colder part of the country than us…we can grow year round here…so winter is still a work season. Just not quite as busy as summer.

As many of you know, we have ducks for eggs, and last week we had a beautiful bunch of ducklings arrive. We had a hen incubate the eggs for us…2 hens actually. Lightning, the hen who started incubating, was kicked off the nest by Lavender, my hard-core-broody hen. She’d just hatched some chicks about 2 weeks prior, but obviously was still in the mood to sit, because she kicked Lightning off the nest and took over. That was all good and well until after the ducklings hatched. Our son excitedly told us three ducklings had hatched. We went to have a look, and a fourth was hatching! But by the time I got back out there to check on the progress, a duckling was dead! Bleeding from the back of the skull, and totally lifeless. It was heartbreaking when we’ve waited to long to hatch our own ducklings.

But I didn’t know it was Lavender who was responsible, so I left the other ducklings there while we waited for the next one to hatch. Then on the next check up, another duckling was killed. Same lethal wound to the back of the skull. Then I realised Lavender was the murderer! She has 6 week old chicks that still sleep beside her, and obviously she looked at these new babies and realised they’re no chickens…and started killing them. I felt awful for not getting the ducklings out of there sooner, but I had no idea she’d do that. We’d sold fertile eggs to a guy who had a hen incubate them, and it all went well for him, so I presumed it would be the same for us. Not so. Anyway, there was a 5th egg starting the crack, so I put it under another broody hen who’s far gentler. But she rejected it in the middle of the night, so it went cold and died. 🙁

The good news is that we rescued the two remaining ducklings, who are doing really well. They’re friendly little ones, and love to have someone nearby to play ‘replacement mother.’ They’ll cheep like crazy when they’re lonely, and all we have to do is put them on someone’s lap, or next to the children while they play, and the babies will be happy. So cute.

We’re open again from tomorrow (Wednesday 27th December). As I mentioned to a few people, if we took the week off, we’d have to throw out so produce! The garden is producing heavily right now. Tomatoes especially. I’ve been canning whenever possible (though I’m down to my last few vacola jars now!).

It’s a great time of year to look back at all that you have to be thankful for…

December 26, 2017
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A Delicious Bunch- Book Review

By Farm Gate Stall4 Comments

A Delicious Bunch, by Linda Brennan

Growing and Cooking with Edible Flowers

We’d been asked once before if we were going to grow edible flowers…but trying to get all the vegetables going was enough work without adding another job to the list.

Then last holidays at the conference, I was chatting with an organic edible flower farmer from the Brisbane region. She thought we should grow them too. “It’s so easy” she assured me. Hmmm…

The idea still wasn’t that appealing, until recently when for my birthday, my sister gave me A Delicious Bunch, by Linda Brennan. Linda gives some basic info on how and why to grow organic edible flowers (with gorgeous photography!)…and then the bulk of the book is dedicated to showcasing some of her favourite edible flowers, how to grow them, and a recipe to try. I’ll also add that many of the recipes are plant based and gluten free. And they look worth making…you know how sometimes you get these books and think ‘who would actually make that?’ This is different, the recipes look amazing and worth trying.

After reading the book, I was sold on the idea. Rick and I discussed where we would plant this flower garden, and settled on the front corner of our property. This will also serve as an easy way to find our place if you’re coming to pick up veg for the first time “just look for the riot of colour!” So that plot is being solarised right now (non-toxic way of killing the grass before preparing the soil).

Just remember, if you’re wanting to try some edible flowers, make sure they were grown organically. Roses are a great example…from your own garden where you hopefully haven’t used any toxic sprays, then yes you can eat them. But don’t go nibbling on roses from a florist/shop. They have been treated with various nasties to repel the pests, and are not safe to eat.

One of the edible flower plants mentioned is the elderberry, which we happen to have growing prolifically around our water tank. Linda’s recipe for elder flowers is Elderflower Fizz, a fermented beverage, which we have brewing as I type. By the way, I counted 12 elderberry suckers this morning that our original 3 elderberry trees have sent out. So for people wanting to buy an elderberry plant, I’ll hopefully be potting those up within the next week.

If all goes well with this flower plot, then organic edible flowers will make a nice addition to our produce for sale.

November 14, 2017
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Save $ on Aesthetically Challenged Produce

By Farm Gate StallNo Comments

One thing that’s easy to forget when you see the massive fruit and veg displays at the supermarket, is the truckloads of produce that didn’t make the grade and had to be chucked.

At Birdsong, we get some produce that isn’t as pretty or perfect as we’d like too. But we don’t let it go to waste. Some goes to the chooks, ducks and sheep. Some gets mown back into garden beds to boost the organic matter in there. Some goes in the compost pile.

But sometimes we get produce that’s too good to just throw to the animals or the compost, but not quite good enough to sell with the regular produce.

For example, if you get to pick 2 garlic bulbs for $3, you’re going to go for the biggest ones you can find. But not all the garlic bulbs are big. Some are runts, and get left behind.

And when picking a cabbage, you’d naturally go for the most perfect one you can find. But after this rain, a good deal of our cabbages split. They taste the same, but look different. So they’re harder to find homes for too.

That’s what we have this week. Tubs of split sugar loaf cabbages, and about 3kg of small purple garlic bulbs.

So they’re both available at excellent prices. Small garlic bulbs are $22kg (you need to buy at least 1kg) and if you’re looking for them on the website, click on the garlic image and the price variations are in there.

And split cabbages are $2.50ea. This is an excellent way to buy organic cabbage for fermenting…or coleslaw. They weigh 500-900g each on average. And if they’re a bit smaller then I just give you an extra one for the same price.

To find the split sugar loaf cabbage on the website, just clock on the sugar loaf cabbage image, and look for ‘split cabbage’ in the price variations.

October 29, 2017
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Birdsong at the PCYC markets

By Farm Gate StallNo Comments

There it is…our first market stall!

It was lovely to meet people who’d been following us online, or had heard of us through the Toowoomba food coop…or who were just happy to see some organic produce at the PCYC markets and stopped by to say so.

A lot of people asked if we’d be back next week. At this stage market stalls will be occasional for us. Though it went pretty well, it’s a huge time commitment, and just about a whole day is lost. Then there’s getting babysitting for the bulk of our children, losing half of our only day off (Saturday) preparing for the markets…I think we’d have to restructure our week and cut back on farm gate hours to be able to regularly attend markets!

The market atmosphere was lovely, and we were blessed to have our stall right near the lady who sells heirloom seedlings (so interesting to talk to!) and Henricka, who sells the best organic sourdough I’ve ever tried, plus her beautiful ferments. Henricka came over to us periodically to let us know how we could ferment our produce. I had no idea cos lettuce was fermentable! And she also gave us a try of her delicious radish ferment.

The next market we’d like to try will be the Sunday Cabarlah markets (on the 29th of this month).

October 9, 2017
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