This article takes a peek into the wisdom of yesteryear from a well-intentioned but rather condescending little book called “Help for the poor: practical help and practical hints for everyone”, the profits from the sale of which were “devoted [...]

It’s easy to see the beginnings of the modern cherry pitter in this patent, filed in 1901 by Jesse Crandall of Brooklyn, New York, for a combined cherry pitter and fork. Read the article in Summer - Week 11

We love being part of the sustainable food movement, which covers everything from people taking an interest in where their food comes from, to permaculture and self-sufficiency. It’s with great interest then that we read this interview with Mr [...]

This article from the Weekly Times Farmers Handbook in 1940 looks at one of the tricks orchardists used to use to combat frost Read the article in Winter - Week 6

Apples have been grown for hundreds, if not thousands of years, and have long been valued as a source of nutrition and vitamins in winter. These days we can eat apples all year due to storage in coolstores using modern technology...but how wer [...]

We would never normally recommend moving a mature fruit tree as the risk of damage and the introduction of disease is so great that there is a good chance they will die, not to mention the huge logistical exercise involved in moving a mature t [...]

Following on from a separate article about using grey water to water your fruit trees (see Spring - Week 8), in this article, we check out the type of cleaning products Nanna would have used before modern cleaning products were invented. All t [...]

Wind can wreck a garden. Wind and wind-driven rain rank with water runoff among the major causes of soil erosion in Australia. Tree belts are needed to shade stock and to break the winds which dry out the land. An important factor contributing [...]