Organic Empire

Ok so I thought it’s about time I posted again. I thought I’d help inspire better nutrition, better health and a better life. So here today some morning tea inspiration for little hands.
Choose organic or grow your own
Conventional grapes have been found to contain 56 pesticide residues 🤢Guess how many you get when you grow them… NONE.
Grapes love to trellis so use a fence to anchor them. They are truly a set and forget plant once they are established anyway. When we prune ours I’ll show you how to do it.


PS do you want the recipe for these super simple blender muffins?

Making your own bread is one of the most important. It’s satisfying on so many levels- it means you can feed your family nourishing bread at a fraction of the cost to buy it. It’s a prebiotic, and even people of Fodmap diets can eat it. It’s essential!! That’s why it’s a core class that we teach at the food school. This is the last sourdough class for a couple of months, fei and I will be on holidays . There is only 3 tickets left so book now

The amazing uses for cardboard…. whenever I go anywhere to get groceries you will find me emptying boxes on the shelves so that I can use them rather than carrying my own bags like a schmuck and leaving them in my car 🙄. Then when we get home we use the cardboard boxes to suppress w**ds, to start a fire, to store stuff.. anything but waste them. Get on the cardboard train!!!


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There is one mantra I live by and that’s if you don’t know how to grow your own food you are a slave to the system. Add to that the insane cost of food!!!
Guyyyyyyssss I have a class that’s going to blow your mind and remedy the problem. It’s actually five classes- it’s the complete organic growing food masterclass. Teaching you to grow the most delicious organic food in every season. So that your family access to the best food all year round from your own garden.
It’s going to teach you everything from the ground up and the most insane part is when you sign up you get one class for FREE!!!

You can also pick and choose the classes , for example if you are only interested in fruit trees you can just sign up for that class.
Either way get onto this quick only 12 spaces available!!!

https://thefoodschool.com.au/product/grow-food-year-round-bundle-all-five-workshops-get-one-free/



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So this is what happened at Food School today. Magic peoples real magic. Isn’t the kitchen the most magical place… where you take 4-5 ingredients and use it in different ways transform into all of this!! I hope to never normalise this magic- to never not marvel at it. Anyway need more magic in your life you need to join us.


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Cantucci are the quintessential Italian biscuit and the most famous in the world. Served always with a coffee or Vin Santo. We are teaching you how to make this slow food this weekend.
First you make Arancini then you make cantucci. You eat them all! What a great gift for mum, actually it’s the gift that keeps giving. .we have just three tickets left. Link in stories


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How these corporations get away with using these compounds is incomprehensible… they are insidious found everywhere. So take control and get them out of your life.

https://thefoodschool.com.au/product/natural-skincare-workshop-28th-may/

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Do you know how much nutritious, medicinal food is growing every where and it doesn’t require you to cultivate it. Actually people try and destroy them and call them w**ds. I’ll tell it for those of you up the back it’s FREE FOOD!
Want to learn what’s edible, herbal and nutritious you need to come to our w**d walk… it’s April 30th 11am-1pm and it will literally change the way you grow.


**dwalk

Best best lunch everrrrr. My dear friend got me hooked on this…
Slow tasted tomatoes
Fresh basil
Burrata on Turkish bread 🤤
Please don’t end tomato season… pleaseeeeee🙏🏼


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The thing with foraging for food apart from having access to wild harvested, super nutrient foods, there is something sooo incredible about being able to walk the earth and eat from it like our ancestors did.
Food that can be cultivated on a commercial level… foods that grow naturally and abundantly with the seasons.
My dad went foraging Easter Sunday to bring home these slippery jacks. He peeled them and I cooked them in a tomato passata and tossed through some pasta. All the other ingredients in the meal were harvested from our garden… magic
Want to learn forage join us at our workshop linked in stories

SLOW FOOD

I’m not so much a baker of sweets… except for rituals-like hot cross buns.
I think it’s so cool to keep foods for certain days, a treat for such a short period of time and then you have to wait till that season again to enjoy them.
Whilst you can get them almost everywhere the day after Christmas… in our home they are only available for one day.. today.!!!

If you are wondering why they are a little yellow I used my grandmas apricot jam to glaze them instead of a sugar glaze.

Apples are one of the most highly sprayed crops, on average containing 47 pesticide residues 🤮.
What’s the solution… grow them. If you are in the valley, apples thrive here. This bucket was harvested from one tree this morning.
Sans poisons, residues just pure organic apple.
Do you want to learn how to grow you own apples?


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I found this little guy whilst I was shovelling the chickens the drain mulch this morning. I’m still suffering from guilt since we locked them up but and after seeing two eagles 🦅 circling yesterday I’m glad they are still alive.
Back to the frog, we have been seeing heaps lately- it’s a good sign. Frogs are the keepers of our ecosystem and the first to respond to any kind of environmental change, like pollution or climatic changes. They are referred to as the ‘canary of the coal mine’ and if they are disappearing it’s because we have trouble. So encourage frogs on your land, they like cool, moist places, thick leaf litter with rocks and logs to hide in, and a little puddle will be suffice.


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So apparently quite a few of you missed out on salami making… we have another date. It’s June 18th.. Phil our butcher is going to teach you how to make authentic Italian salami. Get in quickly this class sold fast!!!

https://thefoodschool.com.au/product/making-salami-with-francesco-workshop-june-18th/

Who wants to make delicious sourdough pizza and foccacia? Who wants to eat it?
If you like to eat pizza and foccacia you need to join us for this cook up.
It’s best if you have baked sourdough before. Come hungry !!

https://thefoodschool.com.au/product/sourdough-pizza-and-foccacia/

Oh lord, guys need to go and do a cold dip with these legends Yarra Valley Breath & Cold Connection. 7am Fridays at Badger Creek Weir

It's that time of year again, Badger Weir Picnic Area Coranderrk creek dips 7am!!
Every Friday, everyone welcome!😊

Look don’t want to freak y’all out but WE ARE MAKING ITALIAN DONUTS… sorry didn’t mean to scream. We are also making cannoli and amaretti.
It’s all happening on 21st May. Book now to avoid tears

Soooo this is the new space!!! It’s !!! And it’s gorgeous- you need to come and check it out
I haven’t forgotten about fresh organics -it’s on my to do list


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How to create a Food School in just under a month. 😂 not sure why I committed to something so crazy but here we are and it looks like it’s going to be perfect, ready and beautiful for our first workshop Saturday. We are making sourdough with . The sourdough classes are booked out till May so if you want to join us book now to avoid disappointment- but more to be able to make delicious sourdough and hang out with other legends. What an experience!!!

This is what our supermarket looks haul looks like.. our supermarket being our backyard… for the most part anyway. Self sufficiency is the dream but we work at a goal of 80% so that there is still joy and living that way doesn’t become completely consuming.
These tomatoes will become chutney and pasta sauce, probably some salads too.
The cucumbers will be salad and some pickles- although we still have so many pickles from last year left. So probably just cut up with a little salt and the nashi pears will become our new snack of choice ( or force)


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CURING ONIONS

Yesterday we harvested so many onions, so now we must dry out the outer skin… referred to as curing. You need to cure the onions in order to store them for extended periods of time. So our onions are curing.

Imagine if you could go to garden and collect medicinal flowers and herbs, bring them in and create your own healing balms, tinctures and vinegars as well as a natural deodorant. If the prospect of this is something that lights you up then you must join us on the 12th March. In this intensive workshop you will learn from the co-author of ‘Power of Plants’ Miranda Mueller how to make your own medicine cabinet.
Want to come along? Book now

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Ever wanted to learn how to preserve your fruit, make jams, chutneys, pickles?
I think food preservation has to be one of the most useful skills. It means your family eats in Winter without relying on a processing plant.
Once you get the confidence with canning it becomes a cinch. So get confident!!!
Join us for our canning 101 workshop. It’s on 18th March and it will teach you everything you need to know. https://thefoodschool.com.au/product/preserving-with-maria-2/


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KEEPING CHICKENS

If there was one pet I suggest you befriend it’s a chicken.
Not only is it a symbiotic relationship, one in which you exchange food and shelter for food- best bartering, but you also get to bond with these intelligent creatures.
And they are intelligent, there are at least 30 different words/ sounds that humans have so far been able to decipher.
What’s more keeping chickens means that have reduced food waste or none, fresh eggs daily, less reliance on the system. Would you be interested in us hosting a chicken masterclass?


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I’ve always lived by the mantra that if you don’t know how to grow food, harvest food, you are a slave to the system. You must exchange money in order to survive.
What if you could have these skills? We want you to have these skills. Your great grandparents had them- that’s how they survived.
Want to learn to thrive- be able to do your own meats?
Join us at our sausage making class, Frank is going to teach you the time honoured skill of making sausages. It is a craft! April 2nd 10am-1pm. Lunch is included. Link is in the bio

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Market day next Friday party people. 11-2. There will be heaps of groceries are ridiculously cheap prices and fresh organics available too!!! Can’t wait to see you then xx
FRIDAY FEB 17th 11-2pm xx

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With the cost living literally increasing everyday i want to encourage you to start growing something.
🌱Plant the seeds now ( not all of them, seasonal specific ones 🤣)
🍃Come and join us at our w**d walks so we can show you the bounty of nutrient dense foods that grow without your intervention
🍅 Come and learn to grow food with us, so no matter what is happening in the outside world, your family is nourished.
🍑Then join us for a preserving class so that you can have food all through the seasons.
The way out of the systems is education- having the skills to do what needs to be done. The skills our grandparents had. Link is in bio or below to join us
www.thefoodschool.com.au


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About last night, I made this pasta Al Norma, it’s eggplant in the sauce. And I thought I’d share my hack for this sauce, I need to preface it with I’m usually against adding any sugar in the sauce- this one is my exception I think it balances the bitterness of the eggplant perfectly. You just need a tsp.
Thank me later xx

Ok so our passata workshop sold out in a blink. So we have scheduled another one for all of you that missed it. It’s on. A long weekend the 11th March 10-1pm. Lunch is included. Can’t wait to see your faces there 💋

This is my “why”. The last few years of rising fuel costs, interest rate rises and food shortages and inflating prices is why we have created The Food School. So that no matter what, you can care for yourself and your family. So that you have the skills and confidence to grow, forage, ferment, preserve, bake, cook and thrive! This is the new world we are ushering in, the one that our ancestor’s passed down for millennia with the conveniences of our modern world. We would love to see you in our classes or you can play along from home. I can’t wait either way-thanks for being here ❤️