About Earthcare
EARTHCARE ENTERPRISES is a partnership based in Maleny and at 'Crystal Waters Eco-Village' in the Sunshine Coast Hinterland, south-east Queensland. We are involved in the exploration, research & development of new species of plants & animals with economic potential, as well as, Permaculture design, consultancy & education and biochar production.
Species we are currently propagating and developing include; Bamboos, Water plants - Chinese Waterchestnuts, varieties of Lotus & Arrowhead; Root crops - Taros, Tannias, Yams, Cassava, Arrowroot & Asian spices of the Ginger family ZINGIBERACEAE; miscellaneous fruits, herbs and spices. Many of these species, except for our most recent acquisitions, are sold as plants through the nursery and some are also supplied as fresh foods to restaurants & retailers, notably Mioga ginger & Moso Bamboo shoots.
Click this link for a copy of our Catalogue & Price List then save the PDF document to your hard drive or print (8 pages).
if you want to buy please see PURCHASING INFORMATION
About Hans Erken
Some history and background information on Hans' experience with bamboo & Permaculture
Hans completed a Permaculture Design certificate course in 1979 and was awarded a Diploma of Permaculture Design in 1984 for applied work in the fields of :- design consulting, site development, nursery work, education and community projects. In 1984 he led a team that convened and ran the 1st International Permaculture Conference at Pappinbarra, NSW. In 1992 he was awarded The Permaculture Community Service Award - awarded by the Permaculture Institute for "vision & work forming an essential & selfless contribution to the promotion of Permaculture locally & globally and toward the healing of the planet".
In 1985 he founded the Australian Bamboo Network and published its newsletter for 4 years. He maintains a large collection of useful species and has been researching their viability for Australian conditions through growing trials since the early ‘80s. He has held numerous workshops on bamboo cultivation and use.
He was the first in Australia to successfully produce & market tropical & temperate bamboo shoots & other Asian vegetables, principally PHYLLOSTACHYS heterocycla var. pubescens & BAMBUSA oldhamii, Lotus, Chinese Waterchestnuts & various ginger spices. The quality of his produce has gained him the clientele of a number of 1st class restaurants in Sydney, Melbourne & Noosa Heads.
He has run a wholesale/retail nursery of aquatics, bamboo, ginger family spices and other food plants for the last 30yrs. He has travelled Indonesia extensively in search of new species to import to Australia. He is a founding member of the “Bamboo Society of Australia” and was president for a number of years until retiring from the board in 2014. He attended the IVth International Bamboo Congress in Bali, 1994. & the Vth International Bamboo Congress in Costa Rica, 1998. He is also working as webmaster and coordinator of a global collective of bamboo enthusiasts & professionals to create a bamboo identification manual (BIM) on the world wide web, this project is currently on hold.
In September, ’99 at the invitation of the International Network of Bamboo & Rattan (INBAR) he took part in the International Workshop on the INBARIS Bamboo & Rattan, Species-Utilization Database held at the Kerala Forest Research Institute, Peechi, Kerala, India, followed by a week in Beijing, China at INBAR’s headquarters to work on the re-design of the website.
He has been the president of the Bamboo Society of Australia on and off since it began in 1998 until 2013 and otherwise serving on the board.
Since 2010 Hans has been researching production techniques and use of biochar, made mainly from bamboo waste, and has developed various cooking appliances including a number TULDs and a pizza oven as well as flame-capped kilns for higher volume production of char. We now have surplus to our farm and nursery needs and offer it for sale in quantities up to cubic meters.
Manager - Hans Erken