Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Thanks Rup! It should fully open up in a couple of days, and I'll get a photo of it in bloom as well!

That hop plant looks super healthy as do all your plants

Thanks Richard, yeah all the plants are looking pretty good. It will be interesting to see if the flowering plants keep the aphids at bay. F&F passed through today on his way to Geelong and mentioned that chives are another good deterant. Might have to put in a few chives in and around the strawbs as well.

Chives eh, well I have them in various spots but not near the strawbs. Easily moved in aquaponics though

Had an old bathtub laying around from about a year ago. Been meaning to turn it into a worm farm. Bloody heavy thing it is! Anyway. finally got around to doing it this week.

marigold just about in full bloom

Nice bloom.
I only have one of the plastic worm tubs, but have found that the big compost bin I put the spent grain from brewing in, is loaded with red rigglers, and fat ones
Been grabbing a handful every now and then and adding to the growbeds and wicking beds

BEES!!!!!

Mate of mine dropped over a beehive this morning! Put up a screen so the bees fly up and over and their flight path is well above head height. Once they establish, I will put on a couple more supers (boxes) and then start harvesting honey in autumn! The bees will do an awesome job of pollinating everything around the place. The apples are close to blooming and so are some of the tomatoes! Can;t wait!!!!

Great to see all these people expanding out into beekeeping.. Nice work Quachy..

Thanks EB. A bit daunting I must say, lots of work it seems that goes into it during peak season, but all part of the fun!

This is what I have posted on my blog. Thought I might post it here to as it pertains to some of what we do in AP as well:

Food. It is an amazing thing food. We can't live without it, yet we all take it for granted. It comes in so many different forms, fruit, veg and meat and all of the sub-categories of that. I sit hear typing this, while eating pasta my wife made from home laid eggs and organic flour, organic pasata, home grown herbs and home grown asparagus and drinking some homebrew. A vegetarian meal, but I ask you, did any animals die for me to be able to eat and drink this food and beer? Absolutely! Hundreds of insects, snials, slugs and worms died for me to be able to eat this food and drink this beer and so long as I eat, then animals no matter how small, will die.

My family and I are trying to live as a sustainable life as possible and that means growing our own food, growing fish, raising our own chickens for eggs and chickens for meat. Although I am yet to dispatch one of our own chickens, fish I have done plenty of times. Today however was a first. No no, not our own chook, but a friend of mine. We gave him three trout and I got one of his roosters. I have seen my father dispatch a chook before and it left me uneasy, but the interesting thing is that I have done ducks before woth no issue! Maybe it has to do with the twitching nerve thing...

Anyway after preparing the area, cleaning equipment, sharpening knives and heating up the water, the rooster's time on this planet was coming to an end. I got him ready and said a little sorry and thank-you to him and did the deed. I bled him instead of taking off his head and this is humane and nowhere near as unsettling. There was no spasmidoc twitching and thrashing and he looked peaceful as he went. There was one last jerk as the nerves kicked in momentarily but only lasted 2-3 seconds max. After this, the plucking and cleaning took place and I think I did a pretty good job of it.

The rooster is now in the fridge resting to allow the muscles to relax. I will leave it there for 24 hours and then freeze it. As it thaws, the mucsles will further relax, naturally tenderising the meat.

In my head I was constantly saying that if I could not do this, then I could not justify and bring myself to eat chicken again. If I eat meat, then I think it is nessesary that I at least see the process from start to finish but better yet, to do it myself. Until then, I cannot get a full appreciation for the food I eat and will continue unconsciously taking for granted all that I consume. And yes I will do the same for any animal I eat if possible. At the very least I will watch the process take place and hope that the animal lived a good life while alive and died peacefully. I owe it that at the minimum.

I know this is not one of my chickens. Better for me to be slightly removed from my first chicken kill, a bit easier on the emotions. Soon it will be my chicken's turn... a tough day that will be...

My father taught me not to be unappreciative for what I have. Understand and do as much as I can and then I will begin to fully appreciate life and living. He is a wise man.

Changed my flood and drain system tonight from flood and drain using bell siphons to flood and slow drain via weep hole and pump on a timer. Got the timer on 25mins on and 35mins off, with a shut down period from 11:25pm to 4am. The air pump kicks in from 10pm and shuts down at 6am. Just experimenting at the moment to see if there is any difference in fish health and or veg growth. Super happy with previous set-up, but thought I would give this a go. Uses less electricity doing it via timer, 2kw over 24hrs compared to 3.5kw over 24hrs the old way.

From memory, the general rule is tank turn over 1 every hour. Pumping for 25min will turn 3000lt in the fish tanks over at least once. The pump is a 8000lt/hr pump and at the head height it is just over 6500lt/hr.

Will be interesting to see what happens over teh next week or so with monitoring the fish and water readings.

Hey Quachy, just picked two nice big beetroot from my AP system and was wondering if you would like to share Hayley's beetroot preserve recipe?

Simon:

1kg beetroot washed
1-2 cups of sugar (according to taste - Hayley does 1)
4 cups white vinegar
1tsp ground cinnamon
1tsp ground allspice
10 cloves
12 black peppercorns
1 tsp salt

Cook beetroot in boiling water until tender, peel and slice or dice and then pack into sterilised jars.

Combine remaining ingredients in a large saucepan. Bring to boil and remove from heat. Cover and allow to stand for 20mins to allow vinegar to cool a little and flavours to infuse. Strain and pour over beetroot, making sure beetroot is well covered with liquid.

Seal immediately. Store in cool, dry and dark place for up to a year.

The beetroot can be consumed immediately, but I would wait a few days.

Recipe from:
A Year in a Bottle by Sally Wise ABC Books 2008.

Enjoy!

Pickled my beetroot from last year much the same way and it is good.

Will be interesting to hear your thoughts on the new flood and drain with timed pump system