Milkwood: Real skills for down-to-earth living

by Kirsten Bradley, Nick Ritar

The skills that we learn bind our lives together. Do you want to know how to grow your own food? Or how to keep bees? How to forage for edible seaweed along the shoreline, or wild greens down by the stream? Maybe you're curious about growing mushrooms or how to grow the perfect tomato. You're invited to make these skills your own. Designed to be read with a pot of tea by your elbow and a notebook beside you, Milkwood is all you need to start living a more home-grown life. From DIY projects to wild fermented recipes, the in-depth knowledge and hands-on instruction contained in these pages will have your whole family fascinated and inspired to get growing, keeping, cooking and making. Milkwood is the name of Kirsten Bradley and Nick Ritar's first farm as well as their school where anyone can learn skills for down-to-earth living. Kirsten, Nick and a team of educators offer courses on topics contained in this book as well as permaculture design, natural building and much more. Kirsten and Nick live on a small regenerative farm near Daylesford, Australia, where many things from the sprouted grain they feed their chickens to ingredients that make up dinner is homegrown.

Genres: Nonfiction, Gardening, Sustainability, Australia, Cookbooks, Reference

304 pages, Paperback

Published January 15, 2019

Reviews

[Jess · Rating 5 out of 5]

This a really beautiful book. It would be especially helpful for visual people who are looking to learn more about one of the topics discussed. The photographs and illustrations are lovely and plentiful.

[Rosemary · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book comes highly recommended by a Who’s Who of regenerative agriculture including David Holmgren, Costa Georgiadis and Joel Salatin. Unlike Salatin I wouldn’t call it “the ultimate self-reliance manual” as it explores just five specialised topics, and doesn’t try to cover everything. Within that framework it is a beautiful book and very informative, even to experienced home growers.

[Adrian Lupescu · Rating 5 out of 5]

My favourite garden book so far. They don't talk about many things, just Tomatoes, Mushrooms, Beekeeping, Seaweed and Wild Food. And when they talk about it, they tell you everything! How to prep the soil, how to sprout the plant, how to care for the plant, how to propagate it and of course how to cook it and how to preserve it.

I find this book to be a treasure chest full of valuable info!

[Danielle Renaud · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very informative on very specific topics. Who knew there was so much to know about growing tomatoes. Thoroughly enjoyed the section on foraging as well as the list of books to try out for more info on each of the five sections (tomatoes, mushroom growing, beekeeping, seaweed, and foraging). The photography is stunning.

[Aden · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best books I own.
Combines many of my favourite things; from growing mushrooms to bee-keeping.
Basic, step by step guides to becoming more self-sustainable.
Fully illustrated and just a beautiful book to own.

Bought a signed copy.
Super impressed!

[Peta · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautiful book with some great information, would love more!

[Christina Baehr · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent. A pleasure to read and learn from. I hope other permaculture teachers take a leaf from their book.

[Amy Lynne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love. Just love!!

[Jade · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was going to give this four stars, because one of the chapters is about growing tomatoes (yawn - like every other book in this genre - please! Give us something new!), but the rest of the chapters give such great information that I had to give five.

That said, imagine if the whole book was full of interesting, useful information like the other chapters. Alas.

[Alexa · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book - so much so that I read it twice (and now I’m even bothering to write a quick review). I especially loved the section on Seaweed. It’s a fantastic guide, going into just enough depth and with such helpful advice. The accompanying photographs are also gorgeous. Highly recommend!

[Amanda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant resource to help guide anyone on the path towards a ‘hand made, home-made life.’

[Lisa Vaxmonsky · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, I just wish it wasn’t limited to only 5 categories!

[Elizabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

Beautiful book. Very informative but only covers a few topics.

[Emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

Covers a range of topics - tomatoes (gardening), mushrooms, beekeeping, seaweed & wild food (foraging). Great book, but just keep the range in mind and whether you can take all those topics home with you.