About Elisabeth
Elisabeth is an Accredited Permaculture Teacher and her mission statement is:
Helping people to learn how to grow and produce their own food.
After a decade of learning the skills of self reliance in growing and producing our own food, I felt that it was imperative to pass my skills on to others so that they too might do the same.
It has been an exciting journey of discovering the lost art of home cheese making, sourdough bread and making wine made from surplus fruit. I learnt that fermenting your food such as in sourdough and cheese making has many health advantages and its also about reviving forgotten skills from the past.
I don’t have a country bone in my body as I was born and raised in Amsterdam, migrated with my family to Australia in 1964 and settled in the suburbs in Brisbane. At twenty one I left the suburbs for the country life and haven’t looked back since. After moving to Samford, a village just north west of Brisbane, I had found my niche. I learned how to spin and knit wool, I made my own shoes and clothes and learned how to make bread and soap and started some vegetable and herb gardens and generally enjoyed myself. Eventually after moving from Samford I discovered the Sunshine Coast and have lived in Conondale, Kin Kin and now at Black Mountain west of Cooroy.
Global crisis or not, it doesn’t matter, I wouldn’t live anywhere else but in the country. I love the life of growing and producing our own food. The following workshops and the organic gardening course are a result of all the things I have learnt over the years, and they help teach people to grow and produce their own food.
It might seem daunting at first, but it’s up to you to decide what you can do in regards of producing your own food, because if I can do it, anyone can. I’m only too happy to share my knowledge and experiences to help you on the road to your own food security. I’m sure you’ll never look back when you do.
Five one day workshops and an organic gardening course;
- Cheese making workshop
- Sourdough/ Sauerkraut/ Kimchi and Fruit Wine Workshop
- Tropical Vegetable Growing and Cooking Workshop
- Miso and Tempeh Making Workshop
- Seed Savers Workshop
- A Certificate One in Horticulture using Permaculture principles
I am based at the Maroochy Community Permaculture Gardens at Yandina on the Sunshine Coast where the organic gardening course is being taught every week. Workshops are held at various locations around South East Queensland.
Our Permaculture Farm at Black Mountain
Frank bought six acres at Black Mountain on the Sunshine Coast in 1992. In 1994 I joined Frank and together with my son Jay we built up the property. It’s a very steep block of land as it’s on the side of Black Mountain and it was totally inaccessible. Today the entire block is terraced and there is a solid concrete home built on it with many gardens, fruit trees and livestock. Having built up the property and house by ourselves has certainly given us a sense of achievement but it’s also been a round of never ending work.
We were determined to become largely food self sufficient using Permaculture principles, before commencing to build the house as we weren’t sure how the global situation would be. Fifteen years ago we felt we might be at risk of a downturn such as we are experiencing now and food security was to be our top priority. After many years of hard work we have a very comfortable house and have food growing all around us. The change we were anticipating had arrived in 2007 when climate change was officially recognized. With peak oil, global recession and who knows what else is around the corner, we feel that we are doing everything we can to buffer ourselves against the effects of such a global shift.
Frank and I live on six acres of rich volcanic soil on the side of Black Mountain. We built our own house and it is still a work in progress. We have been practicing Permaculture principles in growing gardens and utilizing our livestock for over fifteen years and this has resulted in building up systems that serve many functions. We have pigs and chooks that help us to grow their own food by taking advantage of their habits of clearing the ground of weeds. In a system of pens and runs, they are allowed to clear the ground whilst other runs are closed to them. The closed runs are growing sunflowers or any other grain that can supplement their diet, at very little cost to us. We also have access to a lot of manure especially from the goats and the cows. Their manure is shoveled into bath tubs and turned into worm farms. The resulting worm castings are then used for potting mixes and the gardens and for planting trees.
Permaculture has offered us many great ideas of farming efficiently with minimal human labour. We are enjoying being mostly food self reliant and we are saving ourselves a lot of money whilst enjoying fresh organic produce. We have many gardens all in a state of flux and there is always something to eat whatever the time of year. In fact we never tire of starting a new garden and have found it to be something of an addiction. We have gardens that range from a food forest, to a winter garden, to a tropical grain and vegetable garden, to a chook pen garden, the pig runs, container box gardens and a balcony garden that we are now in the process of building. We also like to use our tropical vegetables as edible landscape gardens and find that we simply don’t have any room for ornamentals! When do we have enough gardens? Never it seems, as we aim to feed more than just ourselves. Our livestock greatly benefits from the gardens as well as other people in time of need.
I’m very fortunate to have a concrete housing for the cow bale. Calves are locked up in there at night to separate them from their mum so I have some milk from them in the mornings, and there is also room for milking a cow in the bale without too much chaos. The goats also have their own housing and this is situated next to the cow bale. It’s a great collection point for manure and this is where the worm farms are sited. The gardens are not far from there so that the worm castings are easily wheel barrowed from there. 
