Silk Farm - Sustainable House Day
Event description
In 1993, we began with an acre of lawn in an arty village community close to the university city of Wollongong. We wanted to build a rich permaculture lifestyle. Our children were babies and it took six hours to mow the acre of Kikuyu. There were large tracts of woody weeds and we didn’t know how to catch a chicken, graft a seedling, manage snails or pickle a chilli.
We were the first in our bio-region to grow jackfruit, Peruvian custard apple, lychee, longan, sapodilla, jabuticaba and much, much more. We didn’t realise how many firsts we had achieved at the time. We were curious, adventurous and having fun. Since raising our sons on this site, we are proud that our eldest is now also a first. He has established an eco hair salon on our site.
We are just ordinary people having fun trying extra-ordinary things! After 25 years, the lawn has been replaced by an abundant food forest.
As the family grew, we renovated the home using recycled components, created an environmentally friendly office, and have become an active part of the community. Our site is most famous for its rare fruits, chicken mansion, and potted worm farms. We are also proud of our new rocket stove..