Mead - delicious drink and medicine

Divine drink and medicine

We always thought that making mead (an alcoholic drink from honey) was a complicated and long process. The opposite is true – it’s very easy and can be very fast.
The mead we have been making at home takes about 1 hour to prepare and is ready to drink in about 10 days. Here is the recipe of our homemade mead.

Mead Recipe:
1.5kg honey
4 litres water
a small piece of ginger (about 50g)
5g sachet of brewer's yeast (available from Woolworths or buy mead yeast from a brew shop)

Mead on tap

Boil honey, water and ginger for about half an hour to get flavours, then cool down to room temperature. Pour into a home brew fermenter, add yeast, stir well and let it ferment for about 5-10 days (till it stops bubbling). Bottle your brew into clean sterilised bottles and store them in your fridge. You can drink it after 10 days, however the older the mead is the better it gets. It is the same as wine and women, the older they get the better they get :-). Once, I forgot a bottle of mead for about half a year and I have never drunk anything so delicious and healthy in my life.

Practical note: If you do not have a fermenter you can use a large glass jar, just make a hole in the lid to put through a bended straw. Seal around the straw where it comes through the lid with BluTak, and it can bubble into a small glass jar filled with water – so gas can be released but nothing can get in.

If you have your own honey like we do, you will be the very first person to touch and taste mead – a drink of the gods.

Spurtopia progress

Landscaping taking shape

In the last half a year we have been very busy establishing our Spurtopia Homestead. It is ever so exciting especially when you do something you are absolutely passionate about - materializing our vision and creating a beautiful reality and future for our family.

It has taken a lot of planning, sketching and thinking to get it right and make it work. So far we have:

• Installed solar power on the roof (6kW system);
• Solar hot water system ($700);
• Self-watering planter boxes to quickly start growing our food;
• Established several garden beds;
• Planted 25 native trees;
• Landscaping – created a stone retaining wall and levelled a part of land close to the house, prepared a pad for a shed, built swales on contours (about 500 metres) for an orchard and food forest;
• Set up rainwater harvesting – 5000L (five IBC tanks) for a garden irrigation and we are in the process of installing 50Kl of rain water tanks for home use;
• Three free range chickens, 3 beehives as well as 2 worm farms are our day-to day companions;
• 8 large compost bays for preparation of nutrient rich soil;
• House face-lift such as decoration, renovation of a bathroom, laying tiles etc.

We have used a huge amount of materials to improve our unfertile and very poor soil:

Capsicons in Self-watering boxes

• 6 truck-loads of crusher dust and decomposed granite – minerals for garden and fruit trees;
• 2 truck-loads of wood chips, four truck-loads of soil;
• 70 cubic metres of horse manure;
• three ute loads of cow manure;
• and grass clippings and palm leaves from local garden maintenance guys.

As a result we already have an abundance of greens, tomatoes, zucchinis, eggplants, squashes, sweet corn, capsicums and rosellas. In our opinion these are very good results considering such a hot and dry summer (while writing these lines the thermometer shows 42°C in the shade!)

Our home production is in a full swing, making yoghurt, kefir, kombucha, sauerkraut, kimchi, sourdough bread, raw cakes, home brew beer, ginger beer, lemonade and absolutely delicious mead from our honey.

On a day to day basis we do natural parenting and home education of our two daughters which gives us a joy and meaning of life.

Vegi garden

Also establishing a local community in our neighbourhood is essential for us so we share our experience and produce which is starting some very nice relationships.

We already have a lot of people coming to see how we have been transforming our one acre property into a sustainable paradise. This year we are planning to have our place open to the public for visits, education, workshops and internship programs. We do what we are passionate about, we live our dream and in that way we’re creating our reality and shaping our future in which we want to live. 2017 will be another amazing year, full of joy, prosperity and happiness.


Your Spurtopians

The Spurtopia Cottage

We had to move out of our rented place in inner city Brisbane. Our very good friends who are like our “Australian parents”, offered us the opportunity to live temporarily with them on an acreage close to Jimboomba until we find a new home to buy.
So “the deal” is we can live in a shed for free in exchange for some help on their property. This, to us, sounds like a pretty good deal, doesn’t it? There are so many people who own a property with a lot of space but do not have the time or strength to look after it, while there are many people who are young, willing to work and have time in their hands. So combined together it is a win - win situation and everyone benefits.

Our intention is to prove the case and show it is possible to achieve, also that converting a shed into a liveable shed does not need to be expensive. The existing shed (6m x 6m) comprises of concrete floor, three windows, an entrance door and a roller door. It is connected to the electricity supply and a rainwater tank with a water outlet on a corner of the shed.
The majority of the materials we used for the conversion are reused, recycled, donated or unwanted items such as:

•  Kitchenette comprising of a bench, a sink, tap ware and cupboards is a “throw away” from a private hospital
• Large (2.1m x 2.4m) glazed sliding doors with a crim-safe screen and a kitchen oven from a kerbside collection
• Wall and roof insulation from the manufacturer off cuts (30cm wide off cut rolls 24m long) about 120 square metres.
• Camping compostable toilet and gas cooker are donated by our friends
• Brand new hand basin, tap ware and laminated floor as leftovers from a construction site
• Plywood wall boards and flyscreens are reused
• Shower cubical in exchange for a couple of jars of our honey
• Wooden stove in exchange for three bottles of our home brew mead
• Recycled garden and swimming pool hose
• Some minor materials used from the property

So all we had to buy were a few metres of pine studs, plaster board, reflective foil, a sliding door rail, a tiny instantaneous hot water heater and some screws.

First, we insulated the walls with 6cm of thermal insulation and lined with plywood. The kitchen was reassembled and cupboards used as an L - shaped partition to create the bathroom. There are pine studs, a ceiling grill was fitted with two layers of thermal insulations and a reflective foil then lined with plaster boards to create a flat insulated ceiling. The existing roller door was dismantled and replaced with sliding doors which provide a great view at greenery and connectivity with nature. Finally, the plumbing of the existing water supply outlet at the corner of the shed is connected to our shower, kitchen sink, washing machine and an instantaneous hot water heater via a recycled garden hose. Drainage of these outlets is done by reused swimming pool hose.

So now our “Cottage” is spacious open plan space with plenty of daylight, functional, fully liveable, and sustainable, using a minimum amount of rain water and electricity. We collect grey water to irrigate the garden and using the compostable toilet (without chemicals) to fertilize the soil before planting trees.

We look after the existing veggie garden comprising of two shade houses, which produce herbs, greens and veggies which we share with our friends who live here. The existing fruit trees bear a lot of fruit. Our compost heap, which we moved from the old place, became a productive food source with self-seeded tomatoes, thorny cucumbers and other volunteer plants. Lately we built three water efficient, self-watering bath tubs and styro-boxes to extend our growing space. We are also, looking after 7 chickens, of which 3 girls moved with us, laying an abundance of fresh eggs. We keep our bees in our friend’s place in Mitchelton as they are more productive in the city, just recently we harvested over 100kg of honey from two beehives.

The entire conversion of a workshop shed into a “cottage” was done within a couple of months while living there. It cost us less than $600. Our ongoing expense is less than $1 per day for electricity and internet access.

This is a prime example of sustainable existence, where we help each other. It costs nothing extra and there is no need to waste resources, money, time and effort to sustain a family while living a wholesome, frugal and fulfilling life.

Your Spurtopians

SpurTopia virtual tour on Google maps

Now you can take a virtual tour on Google maps and be inspired.

Thanks Google for capturing Spurtopia place.

SpurTopia virtual tour

A worm farm - The vitamin for your garden

A worm farm

Would you like to convert your fruit and vegetable scraps into rich soil and brilliant organic fertilizer (worm castings) for plants as well as being environmentally friendly? If so, start a worm farm. We have three and they produce surplus of it. Most people would go and buy a black plastic worm farm and worms from a shop but you do not need to do that. We used a styrofoam (broccoli box) with a handful of worms from our friend’s worm farm. We are not only recycling a box (from a local fruit and veggie shop) which would otherwise go to landfill but also it’s all free.

How to make and start a worm farm:
- Get a styrofoam box with a lid and make a hole (with a pencil) in a bottom corner for draining of worm juice and two opposite holes at the upper part of the box for ventilation.
- Place the box on a stand so you can harvest worm juice into a pot under the drain hole.
- To start the worm farm, we put well wetted organic material (shredded cardboard newspaper, leaves or coconut husk (coir) plus a few kitchen scraps and the worms into the box.

Worm farming tips:

Our three worm farms

- Worms do not have teeth so they cannot bite chunky food. They wait until their food is partially decomposed.To speed up the process put kitchen scraps into a food processor and make a mash or place them into a plastic bag in the freezer – as they defrost, they go slimy – it’s ready for the worms to eat.
- Do not over feed worms. Give them food approximately every one to two weeks when they have nearly finished their previous food. If there is too much food, a composting process starts generating heat which might overheat the worms.
- Regularly add shredded newspaper, cardboard or leaves to keep a balance of organic nutrition (kitchen scraps) and carbon (cardboard etc).

Worms - hard workers

- You can add occasionally a bit of diatomaceous earth or fine sand or to help the worms’ digestive system.
- To harvest worm juice (plant fertilizer) water the worm farm with about 5 litres of water once or twice a fortnight or as needed.
- Worms like a dark and moist environment so put a hessian (potato) bag over them. After a while the hessian will also decompose.
- The number of worms depends on the amount of food available. When food is plentiful worms will reproduce rapidly, with little food, numbers will drop.
- Keep your worm farm in a shaded spot so the sun does not overheat it in summer.
- We found a styrofoam box worm farm works better than a black plastic one as styrofoam insulates; keeps worms warm in winter and cool in summer times.

Worm Juice - gold garden fertilizer

- Sometimes maggots appear in a worm farm. There is nothing wrong with that. They help with converting organic materials into rich soil.
- If a lot of worms are on the inside of the lid, it’s a sign of overfeeding or their environment has become acidic. Stop feeding them for a week or so and sprinkle a bit of dolomite on the top.
- If you want to harvest rich soil from a worm farm always take it from the bottom where there’s the most manure. To find any worms which are left in the soil, put it in a pile in the daylight /sun. Worms do not like light and will move towards the centre of the pile. A bit at a time, remove the outside layer of the soil pile. You will be left with mostly worms in the last bit of soil which can go back into the worm farm.
- Food which worms like: fruit and veggie scraps, tea bags and coffee grounds (they absolutely love them) cow, horse, sheep manures, mushroom compost etc. Avoid garlic, onions and citrus peels, meat and bread.
- The bigger the variety of foods you put into your worm farm, the richer the fertilizer and soil you get out of it!
- Worm farm worms are different from those in the ground. They are very efficient at converting their food into worm casting and they would not survive in the ground.

Hope this information helps to start a worm farm. Check our Easy to make worm farm video. We also run hands-on Worm Farming workshops, so you can make your very own worm farm. For more details and dates check our Events and Workshops.

Happy Worm Farming

SpurTopia - A Small Kingdom of Happiness

SpurTopians

My family and I have been living in a rental property in Brisbane for over five years. We have adopted a sustainable lifestyle becoming less reliant on the system and more self-sufficient.
We created a “farm” that produces vegies, fruit, honey and eggs in abundance. Most of our fruit and vegies come from our garden. Excess is shared and swapped within a functional community of neighbours.

We grow organically over 100 different types of vegetables, 25 herbs and 25 fruit trees utilizing every available space (yard space, block walls, fences, staircase) of a typical urban block.
We continuously improve effectiveness with our new ideas and inventions e.g. vegetable pyramid, self-watering/fertilizing planter boxes, worm farm planter pots, gravity fed irrigation, chicken feeders, maggot tin grower - all made from recycled materials.
Our “farm” is productive, efficient and visually pleasing. It includes:

• Chickens, honeybees, worm farms 
• Rain and grey water harvesting, home-made solar hot water system
• Preparing organic rich soil and fertilizers, seedlings, seed saving, multi-purpose bamboo pyramid
• A bath tub with fish and water vegetables
• A cob and solar oven
• Use of locally available resources
• Sprouting, fermenting, preserving, cooking from garden produce

The low maintenance urban “farm” (under 1hour a day) provides us with fresh organic food, fun, physical and mental exercise and a connection with nature. Gardening is extremely rewarding making life simpler, cheaper, healthier and more sustainable – it is another dimension to life.

We set an example of what can be achieved in a rental property, passionately sharing our experience, knowledge, ideas and inventions with the general public via TV, radio, newspapers, public events and workshops .

We have created the notion of “SpurTopia”, a small kingdom where we are living a fulfilling and happy life.

Beekeeping - How we started

A honey bee on basil flower

We started beekeeping a couple years ago. At that time we had no idea what keeping bees was about. Loving honey and wanting pollination for our garden was a driving force. We read a book (The Bee Book – beekeeping in Australia, by P. Warhurst) and visited a local beekeeping club to find out more. We also asked all of our neighbors if they were happy for us to have bees in our back yard. When we had gained sufficient initial knowledge and ‘yes’ from our neighbours, we looked at local council requirements (up to two beehives in a suburban backyard) and registration requirements of the DPI. (annual fee of about $15, which was not a problem at all) We got a nucleus hive (four frames of honey bees with a queen for $70) from a local beekeeper at a beekeeping club. That autumn day we brought bees into our backyard gave us great joy and excitement. After a few days of familiarization with their new environment, we transferred the frames from the nucleus box into the bottom beehive box. The bees established themselves well over winter time and were at full strength in spring time when we added an extra box for storing honey (super). These two boxes are separated with a queen excluder (a wired frame) which keeps the queen in the bottom box while allowing bees to get through to the upper boxes to store honey. It has been great fun watching them flying out and bringing back different coloured pollen on their legs. Watching young bees hovering in front of the hive learning to fly and recognizing the area, is on schedule daily at about 2pm (you can set a watch by them).

Nucleus (4 frames of bees and a young queen) 

Managing the hive is not difficult. We got second hand equipment from friendly beekeepers so the only things we bought were the nucleus hive, veil and gloves. It cost us around $100 to start. In spring they became very busy with making honey. We added an extra two boxes (supers) for storing honey on top of the bottom (brood) box. In fact from spring till late summer we harvested honey six times and managed to get an unbelievable 160kg of honey from one hive. To extract honey we borrowed extraction equipment for free from our beekeeping club of which we have become members or through our beekeeper friends. It was incredibly joyous to extract and taste our first batch of honey. The honey is real raw honey, incredibly tasty, thick and delicious as it comes from huge variety of flowers in suburbia. Once you try "proper" raw honey you would not buy honey from a shop.

Tips:

• Honey from a shop has most likely been thermally treated to make the honey flow during processing and this also kills all the good enzymes. It is also treated to stop crystallization which is a natural reaction of honey to cold, and has additives put into it.
• When using honey to sweeten tea or coffee put it into a cup just before you drink it. That way, it is not super-hot and does not burn live enzymes in the honey.
• Using second hand equipment, making your boxes and frames and borrowing extraction equipment will keep the initial cost of beekeeping to approx $100-$200. (Compared to about $1500 for a full band new set up.)  

Bees are establishing in a brood box

Bees provide us with:
Pollination for our back yard garden and also the entire neighbourhood.
Honey as a replacement for sugar.
Pollen - a great source of protein, minerals and trace elements. It is five times more concentrated protein than beef.
Propolis which is great as a disinfectant and for tooth and gum issues.
Wax for candles and polishing paint.


A bee hive is the most efficient system in the garden. Bees are so hard working and such well organized creatures – if only human beings could be like that.



Did you know that the queen can lay up to 2000 eggs a day which is more than her body weight. When bees collectively decide that the old queen is no good any more, they will make a new one. One bee will produce in its life which is around 6 weeks, about one teaspoon of honey. You can harvest up to 500g of pollen from one hive a day. Without bees we would not have over 90 % of our commercial crops – our entire food supply depends on bee pollination.

Links:
- Find your local beekeepers club http://www.honeybee.com.au/beeinfo/assn.html
- DPI Backyard Beekeeping info http://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0017/117413/Backyard-beekeeping.pdf
- DPI Queensland hive registration
http://www.daff.qld.gov.au/animal-industries/bees/beekeeping-essentials/hive-registration
- Bee Friendly: A planting guide for European honeybees and Australian native pollinators https://rirdc.infoservices.com.au/items/12-014
- AusBeekeeping Guide 2015 https://www.dropbox.com/s/0lgdqc52m03onnq/AusBeekeepingGuide-2015.pdf?dl=0

- Queen of the sun - A fascinating documentary about bees
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=frYkQfdQH-w

Mosquito net and rubber gloves - simple protection

Brood frame

Bottom brood box and a super box

Brood box and two Supers

Protection suit, gloves and smoker

Frame with wax foundation

Honeycomb

Honey harvest

Sharing is Caring - Do you Care?

Sharing is caring

 We care and that is a reason why we are sharing. We share with passion which is infectious so people are awakening and sharing the passion with others. Altogether we will make a difference.

Once more and more people start to care, the world will become a more enjoyable place to live in. And it will be.

Many thanks to Nancy and Andrew Kent from The Inspiration Garden for being a part of the Open Garden day where we shared our sustainable ideas and inventions.

We also shared our beekeeping experience in the "How to start Beekeeping" workshop with over 30 keen people at SpurTopia's place. They came to learn how to start keeping  honey bees in a backyard from scratch. This shows how much people care as without bees and their pollination we would not have over 2/3 of the food we eat.  So .... Be Free with Bees.

As we want to share more and an increasing number of people are eager to learn, we have decided to run  more workshops on specific topics at our place.

SpurTopians with Nancy and Andrew from The Inspiration Garden

Bees, bees, bees, what would we be without you?

State of the art technology - Maggot grower tin

Maggot grower tin

Chickens need a great deal of protein to produce nutritious eggs. Where does this protein comes from? A small proportion from grains and the biggest amount from insects, bugs and worms which chickens find in the garden. But how about providing chooks with a constant supply of protein? We came up with a solution - growing maggots from meat scraps, in a tin. Basically, find a tin  (we used a 4litre olive oil  tin) and punch holes all around including the bottom with a screwdriver. Partially cut the top off the lid to make the tin operable. We put meat scraps from the kitchen and local butcher into the tin. Flies get in and lay eggs and in a couple of days, the meat scraps are full of maggots. As they crawl around, they, every now and again drop and fall through the holes into the chook run and the chooks feast on them. This process will last for a few weeks. When meat scraps are exhausted and maggots eaten by the chooks, empty the tin and start again. We do this every few weeks, providing chickens with a continuous supply of protein - maggots. More importantly, we are reducing meat scrap waste which would otherwise go to landfill. This state of the art technology maggot tin grower, is free, so effective and works amazingly well.

Maggots dropping from tin are a treat for chooks

Bones for growing maggots

Chicken Grain Feeder from recycled material

Chicken Grain feeder

A common problem with feeding chickens is the mess they make throwing grain around which is not only wasteful but also attracts mice and rats. We addressed all these issues with our home made chicken grain feeder from recycled materials - a plastic bucket and  piece of PVC pipe - The feeder will store several kilos of grain which lasts for a few weeks.

How to make a "cheap-skate" Grain Feeder:

Cut a 150mm diameter PVC pipe to fit the full length of the bucket. Then cut a 2 cm slot  at the bottom of the pipe,  half way around the pipe. This will create a hole (slot) when the pipe sits on the bottom of the bucket and grain can flow from the pipe (grain storage) into the bucket. Cut two "windows" (holes) 5x10cm into the bucket about 5cm above the bottom for chooks to stick their heads in. The holes need to be just large enough for a chicken's head to get in, so when pecking grain, the grain will not get thrown out.

We don't have any wasted grain on the ground around the feeder and do not have any rat or mouse issues as there is no food to attract them. It works so well for us, it's the reason we share the chicken feeder with you. If we can make it for free you can make it for free.

Silo within the bucket

Inside view

Our chooks drink champagne – Home made waterer

Home made waterer for chickens

We made a waterer for our girls (chickens) from recycled materials - a champagne bottle and a piece of PVC pipe with bottom cap. The bottle holds water and automatically releases it when the water level gets below  the neck of the bottle. A small feeding window will keep water clean.
How to make it?
Cut  the pipe to length (approx. 25 cm) and this will hold the bottle neck about 2 cm above the bottom of the pipe. (see photo) A 2 cm water level will be constantly held in the waterer. Then cut a small window 5x10 cm for chooks to stick their heads in to drink. The window must be above the water level otherwise all water contents will spill out. That’s all. 

You do not need to buy a waterer, just recycle a bottle and a piece of pipe and it does the same job if not better.

2in1 - Worm farm as a planter pot

2in1 - Worm farm as a planter pot

A worm farm produces worm juice and beautiful rich soil  which is used for growing plants even in pots. So why not combine these two things together.
We made a worm farm as a planter pot.  Use a 10 litre bucket with lid, make 6 holes about 20 mm diameter and 7 cm above the  bottom. Establishing worms in the bucket - use a bit of soaked coir and three handfuls of  soil with worms from an established worm farm. Plant various seedlings and cuttings of Brazilian spinach, strawberries, mushroom plant, any herbs, lettuce or greens of your choice.
Worms love eating fruit and vegie scraps from the kitchen but avoid meal and meat leftovers as they will go mouldy. They love tea bags and coffee grounds. Adding shredded newspaper and cardboard provides carbon. The worms produce liquid which plants drink so you rarely need to water. The "worm farm plant pot" should be kept in the shade close to your kitchen or even hung out of a window, so you can pick greens for your meal and dispose of fruit and vegie scraps.

A hanging worm farm

Plants growing in a worm farm bucket