“Start where you are, use what you have and do what you can” is the motto of Kim Carter and Bernie Cook when it comes to their Numurkah forest of foraging.
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They try not to rely on supermarkets, but instead on their own produce of fruit and vegetables, and with their garden as diverse as it is plentiful, it’s not hard to see why.
The looping garden features an assortment of edible plants, with citrus trees, pumpkins, berries, nuts and just about any other food you can think of, all protected by Australian silky terrier Grover.
One word to describe the couple? Knowledgeable.
“Bernie and I both grew up in families where there was always sort of food growing in the garden, so it's always just sort of been a pretty normal part of life for us,” Ms Carter said.
“But then, three years ago, we did a permaculture design course and that totally changed the way we approached growing foods.
“The permaculture is sort of what got us thinking about how that all works together as one big system, so now we’ve got food in here all the time, all throughout the year, it sort of fluctuates between 70 and 120 types of food plants.”
Ms Carter gestures to one garden bed in particular, which once was dry clay soil, but now known as a “food forest area” adorned with rhubarb, asparagus and nut trees, along with a boisterous sunflower, an admitted “volunteer plant” that grew without planting or warning.
Ms Carter and Mr Cook are versed in collecting seeds for new growths in the coming years, and are big fans of trying new things by chopping and changing up the garden.
Each bed has the addition of perennials in order to entice critters, and they also work as companion plants to deter plant diseases.
“It’s also really good to let things flower, because you get so many pollinators coming in — native bees, all the insects and things,” Ms Carter said.
“We're really interested in providing environment for native bees.”
While Ms Carter works as a teacher and Mr Cook as a nurse, they are also accredited beekeepers, managing over 30 hives across different properties and running workshops for others interested in beekeeping.
Together they have built their own business, The Art of Bee-ing, dedicated to mentoring and educating others about bees and the special role they have in the ecosystem, as well as using old wax to create lip balms and wraps.
While beekeeping is now a huge part of their lives, for Mr Cook bees have always been a constant, having taken charge of his own hive at just 11 years old following his father’s footsteps as a beekeeper, and also quite the gardener.
“My father used to have a yard that you could step outside at any time of the year and make a full breakfast from foraging,” he said with a laugh.
Mr Cook and Ms Carter have taken the sustainable lifestyle in their stride, with a fully organic oasis only two steps from their house, set to provide for themselves and an abundance for family, friends and the community.
The trick is that nothing is wasted. Produce that has gone bad will become composted. Composting becomes natural fertiliser for the garden, and the cycle continues.
Additionally the duo keeps all paper items that enter the house to have a mulching day once a month, beneficial not only to the earth, but to the eight chooks who get to scratch away at the recyclables and have them used as compost down the track.
“The permaculture course we did a few years ago, we’re now an example property so the trainer brings the cohort here as part of it and they spend the day here,” Ms Carter said.
“We teach them how to make wicking beds and they help, we talk about composting and how to set up a hot composting system.
“We just do a whole tour and go through different things that we've done that work for us.”
When it comes to the wonderland of fresh goods, Ms Carter said it all came from trial and error and using what you’ve got on hand, or can get your hands on.
“A lot of it is experimenting, we make a lot of mistakes and it doesn't matter, you’ve just got to keep going,” she said.
“None of it’s been expensive to do, it’s all been everything we already had or have collected along the way.
“I think it's just really important to be able to have your own food source.“
Follow the_art_of_beeing on Instagram for more, or visit www.theartofbee-ing.com.au
Shepparton News journalist