Spend your summer downtime catching up on these great reads from our holiday reading guide.
The holidays call for long lazy days, hopefully spent doing not that much at all. So it’s the perfect time to catch up on a few good books, some of our more popular articles, podcasts and videos, and even try your hand at a new recipe in your downtime.
Without further ado, we bring you our holiday reading guide!
Pip‘s Holiday Reading Guide
Blogs
Building an Earthship: An Inspiring Story of Rebuilding After Bushfires
Daryl Taylor shares his ambitious journey of building an earthship after fires destroyed his original property in Victoria’s Kinglake.
Daryl Taylor lost his home in the firestorm that destroyed most of Victoria’s Kinglake in February 2009.
Nine months after his home was destroyed, Daryl was able to move back to his property, living in a 1940s hardwood cottage he had salvaged from demolition.
He installed a new vegetable garden, re-established the orchard, brought home ducks and chooks, and began planting deciduous, fire-resistant plants.
7 Ways To Use Up Coffee Grounds
Calling all caffeine fiends… We bring you 7 easy things to do with used coffee grounds that aren’t compost.
If you’re addicted to caffeine, chances are you have heaps of spent coffee grounds. And even if you don’t, there are literally millions of tonnes being sent to landfill each year by cafes around the world.
But what can you do with coffee grinds except for chuck them in your compost? So many things! Here are seven easy things to do with used coffee grounds that aren’t compost (that said, compost is a great place for them!).
Do-Nothing Pest Management
Do you feel like you’re constantly battling pests in your garden for your fair share of the harvest? As strange as it may sound, a ‘do-nothing’ approach to pest management might just be what you are looking for.
The idea behind it do nothing pest management is about shifting from fighting these pests to instead observing and working with nature to create a cultivated ecology.
Diversity ensures natural checks and balances. The more complex your edible garden system becomes over the years, the less often and less intense your pest problems are.
Podcasts
Pip Podcast #9: David Holmgren on Retrosuburbia
This Pip Podcast is a cracker, featuring permaculture co-originator David Holmgren talking about his book ‘‘Retrosuburbia’, which was launched at the Sustainable Living Festival.
In the podcast, David chats to us about the book and his inspiring visions of the future. He also discusses the ‘Retrosuburbia’ website, developed to accompany the book and provide further inspiration to create a groundswell movement of retroburbanites.
Pip Podcast #21 Waste-Free Living with Lauren and Oberon Carter
In this podcast we speak with Lauren and Oberon Carter, authors of the fabulous book, ‘A Family Guide to Waste-Free Living’.
They share their story about how they came to living a waste-free life and we discuss the potential hurdles and obstacles many of us face when trying to live waste-free and how they get around them.
Lauren and Oberon live with their three daughters in Hobart on an average suburban block and live a waste-free life.
Pip Podcast #28: Damon Gameau
In this conversation with Damon Gameau, the actor, filmmaker and director of the film 2040 reveals his hopeful vision for the future.
A future in which humanity comes together to solve the crisis of climate change.
Damon Gameau is an eloquent and inspiring advocate in a world that so desperately needs change.
Videos
How to Make Sourdough Starter
Didn’t have time to give sourdough a crack in 2020? The holidays are a perfect time to cultivate your sourdough starter.
Use it to make sourdough bread, sourdough crackers, sourdough crumpets or sourdough pasta. And if you’re ready to dive right in to the world of sourdough then explore Issue 15 of Pip Magazine.
Apple Scrap Vinegar Recipe
Apple scrap vinegar is a wonderful thing that turns a few simple ingredients into something far greater than the sum of its parts.
Unlike apple cider vinegar, which is made of the high-value pure fermented juice from apples, apple scrap vinegar is made from little more than the waste from processing apples.
But don’t be put off by it’s “scrappy” name – it tastes remarkably similar to it’s more prestigious cider-derived cousin, and can be made in bucket loads when apple eating season is on!
How To Compost Food Scraps
Unsure which compost system is right for your needs? We talk you through five of the best ways to compost food scraps at home.
When it comes to composting your food waste, the first consideration to make is how much space you have. Are you lucky enough to be on acreage or are you in a small apartment? This will obviously impact which kind of compost system you are able to set up.
Recipes
Zesty Zucchini Cake Recipe
Do you have a glut of zucchinis from your veggie patch this time of year? This delicious, zesty zucchini cake is simple to make and healthy to boot!
This zucchini cake is many things: zesty, zingy, zippy… but most of all it uses up the zillions of zucchinis from your veggie patch at this time of year. It has a moist crumb, uses pantry-staple ingredients and is very easy to throw together at a pinch.
Easy Tomato Passata Recipe
Looking to preserve fresh tomatoes? Here’s our easy tomato passata recipe – using either a passata machine or a simple, low-tech, DIY version for those without a passata press.
It’s tomato season! Backyard tomato gluts are ubiquitous with this time of year.
The logical progression of glut is preserve – where we capture and store the energy of those tomatoes so we can enjoy them long after hot days and solanaceae season is but a distant memory.
5 Plant-Based Milk Recipes You Can Make at Home
You don’t need to be vegan to enjoy the varied flavours and benefits of plant-based milk.
These plant-based milk recipes you can make at home are all super easy to master.
People choose plant-based milks for a variety of reasons. But commercially produced non-dairy milks can come with their own ethical dilemmas.
