We are still enjoying looking back over the past 50 years of our history here at Warrah Society. Pictured above is one of our Farm cows from 1979! Cows with horns like this are a common site on biodynamic properties like Warrah Farm at Harris Road in Dural. Everyone probably knows that cows play an important role in providing nutrient rich manure as they graze the fallow paddocks. But their horns are also extremely important in the biodynamic approach to organic farming. They are used in the preparation of Horn Manure (500). This preparation is produced during the winter months to use in spring as a fertilising spray. Fresh biodynamic cow manure is pushed into old cow horns and buried in rich topsoil for 4-6 months over the winter. Come spring, the horns are dug up and this beautifully fermented, nutrient dense compost is collected and used to enhance and rejuvenate the soil.
As far as the rest of the Farm goes, moving into colder times is great for our citrus trees. We have had a couple of light frosts which have really sweetened our navels, and our pink grapefruit are pretty close to harvest too. Now is also the time for picking our leeks just in time for getting cosy on wintery soup days.
We continue to plant salad greens, rocket, radish, pak choi throughout the winter in fortnightly cycles. The growth is much slower but because they have a short cycle from planting to harvest, we still keep them ticking over so there are always fresh greens in our Farm Shop.
We are harvesting regularly throughout the week to supply the Farm Shop and our co-ops with fresh produce. We are currently harvesting salad mix, silverbeet, parsley, coriander, black kale, curly kale, rocket, radish, beetroot, leeks, oranges, grapefruit, lemons, strawberries and lettuce.
This is undoubtedly the season of the brassica family – broccoli, Romanesco, cauliflower, cabbage, pak choi and kale. The beautiful Farm Shop display of bright green Romanesco and even green, yellow and purple cauliflowers have been a delight for customers.
