Ecofilms 2011 – What Are We Working On?
Animal Forage, Animal Housing, Animal Processing, Aquaculture, Bird Life, Breeds, Courses/Workshops, DVDs/Books, Developments, Fish, Food Forests, Food Plants - Annual, Food Plants - Perennial, Land, Livestock, Plant Systems, Presentations/Demonstrations, Urban Projects, Village Development — by Ecofilms January 2, 2011
We’re planning a number of exciting new titles to be released in 2011.
Urban Permaculture DVD
One of the complaints we often get from people living in the city is that we focus a little heavily on Permaculture titles that require a large scale farm to get the most benefit from practicing Permaculture.
So we are happy to announce that in 2011 we will be working on the Urban Permaculture DVD with Geoff Lawton.
Actually, we really started shooting a lot of footage already that we were going to include in the Permaculture Soils DVD that we completed, but for various logistic reasons we found the segments would work best in a video that focuses in detail on adopting Permaculture techniques in small scale domestic environments instead.
From courtyards to backyards to places where you thought you could never do anything with, we want to make this DVD a Permaculture techniques DVD where people can be inspired by what is really possible.
Here’s an example of the kind of thing we mean. It’s a sneak preview of Geoff Lawton visiting a beautiful Mandala garden in an urban permaculture garden. It shows permaculture can be aesthetically pleasing to the eye with a richness of patterns as well as a productive food source:
Comments (8)
Permacooking – Milk, Tongue, Eel and Pizza Night
Animal Forage, Animal Processing, Consumerism, Demonstration Sites, Education Centres, Health & Disease, Livestock, Medicinal Plants, Recipes — by Marcelo Severo August 13, 2010
More Meat
I promised last week that I would tell you about the cows here at Zaytuna and I’m going to do just that. I’d like for the vegetarians out there (who will find most of this menu unpalatable) to still be interested in reading about these cows because it’s not just about the beef that ended up on our plates….

Zaytuna cow
Photo © Craig Mackintosh
PermaCooking – Meat, Marmalade and My Execution Meal
Animal Processing, Processing & Food Preservation, Recipes — by Marcelo Severo August 4, 2010

The Meat Situation
The meat situation is this – we’ve got a good part of a cow in the freezer, a couple of lambs coming along, and lots of birds that need processing. For the vegetarians out there, I offer you potato gnocci later on for dinner (without the beef ragu of course) and cumquat marmalade on sourdough toast for morning tea. For now though, let me indulge the more carnivorous of you with….
Comments (6)PermaCooking – Your Goose is Cooked
Animal Processing, Bird Life, Demonstration Sites, Education Centres, Livestock, Processing & Food Preservation, Recipes — by Marcelo Severo July 29, 2010

One of several Zaytuna Farm geese
All photographs © Craig Mackintosh except where credited otherwise
We killed a goose at Zaytuna Farm the other day and by my count we served out 60+ student meals from it, plus two day’s worth of wonderful breakfasts for the staff. Not a bad effort I thought. Pretty good use of a bird. Here’s what we did….
Comments (2)Permacooking
Animal Processing, Food Forests, Food Plants - Annual, Food Plants - Perennial, Health & Disease, Medicinal Plants, Processing & Food Preservation, Recipes — by Marcelo Severo July 27, 2010

The farmer and the cook with Ethiopian Cabbage
First Week
I’ve just finished my first week working as the farm cook for the Permaculture Research Institute at Zaytuna Farm and already it’s been an amazing experience. To be able to cook at this wonderful and dynamic farm is a delight for all the gastronomical senses. If fresh, seasonal, local, delicious and nutritious ingredients are what good food is all about then consider this….
Comments (3)Home Cheese-Making DVD Hits the Road!
Animal Processing, DVDs/Books, Fermenting, Livestock, News, Processing & Food Preservation — by Ecofilms July 8, 2010
Okay, it’s taken a while and we were expecting to release this title last year. We even had a few people ask for it for last year’s Christmas, but the truth is we took too long to finish it. So now it’s here, ready to go! Elisabeth Fekonia’s Home Cheesemaking and All Things Dairy DVD has finally been released!
Comments (13)Sad Truth About Sow Stalls
Animal Housing, Animal Processing, Consumerism, Livestock, Society — by Doron Francis June 17, 2010
by Doron Francis, CERES Food Connect

Sow Stalls, legal in Australia
Recently I was chatting to a bunch of seemingly well informed people about Food Inc the movie. One of the comments made was that the film was about industrial agricultural in the USA, so wasn’t ‘relevant’ to Australians. It’s interesting to see how very little we actually know about where our food comes from, how it’s produced and how we are willing to believe that it ‘couldn’t happen here’. The truth is often obscured because it’s ugly and bad for business.
Comments (2)Life at Zaytuna – Meet Red
Animal Processing, Demonstration Sites, Education Centres, Livestock, Society, Waste Systems & Recycling — by Lindsay Dailey February 24, 2010
Editor’s Preamble: People are increasingly disgusted with the cruelty, disease and pollution associated with factory farms. Events like the recent Swine Flu pandemic, which appears to have originated with the world’s largest hog producer, Smithfield Foods, are helping us to see the error of our corporate ways. Large scale of any activity almost always compromises ecological and ethical principles, and the factory farming of sentient beings is a tragic example of this. The post below, from a recent Wwoofer to Zaytuna Farm (PRI’s home base), decribes a far healthier and more compassionate approach for those who choose to eat meat, and one where there is no waste – as all ‘by products’ are utilised by other elements of the system. It should also be noted that PRI is sensitive to individual food choices of students on courses run at PRI’s Zaytuna Farm, and thus are catered for accordingly.
Thanks to Lindsay Dailey for the submission!
This is Red:

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