Growing up in Poland countryside, Margaret played and worked in her parents food garden. Her Mum would cook everything from scratch and preserve seasonal produce. Without realising it Margaret actually has been practising permaculture since she was little with her Mum. Now she runs her popular workshops at Moss House teaching people skills for natural living. Costa Georgiadis visited Margaret’s bountiful and productive garden and documented what she makes using her own produce. You can watch the clip here at Gardening Australia.

Margaret’s garden sits on a large steep block filled with various fruit trees, herbs, edible greens, chooks, rabbits, bees and worms. One of the herbs that stood out to me was the beautiful broad leaves comfrey. “Comfrey is a very important plant both in the garden (a perennial green manure and nutrient accumulator), grass barrier, great fodder for chickens, compost activator, attracts pollinators and is a medicinal herb!”

For her portrait she chose to sit next to the stinging nettle. Then we got to talk about what a precious plant this is. Did you know dried nettle leaves contains 40% protein!

In this week’s post, Margaret shares her beloved fermented Jerusalem artichoke recipe. Each year her garden yields about 6-8kg of these delicious creamy bulbs, however they don’t store well in the fridge. So one day she decided to ferment them and has never looked back. Jerusalem artichoke (also known as sunchoke, topinambur) is a type of sunflower tuber with edible rhizomes. The plant is also known as “fartichoke” because when cooked or baked it can cause flatulence in many people! However, fermenting bacteria digest inulin, the compound which causes gases and the end product is crunchy, buttery, slightly acidic and can be flavoured with added aromatic roots and spices. Hope you will get the opportunity to try out this ferment recipe one day.