Summary

Nov 302013
 

Join a vibrant food culture, growing and eating local

Covering all matters food across North East Melbourne

Whether you are a local food producer, want to eat local food, grow veggies in your garden or just want to meet like-minded folks, Local Food Connect is for you. Join now.

Eltham Farmers’ Market, a Local Food Connect initiative, is held every Sunday.

The purpose of this website and associated newsletter is twofold: to promote all aspects of local food around North East Melbourne and to make people around North East Melbourne feel part of a local food community.

The material is centred on 5 databases:

  1. Upcoming local food-related events: all the upcoming events of various types, around 200 per month.
  2. Local food producers: pages on each of around 130 producers, both farmers and makers.
  3. Local community gardens: pages on each of the 60 community gardens in the area
  4. Local food swaps: details of the 30 food swaps in the area.
  5. Local food justice organisations: including ‘food is free’ sites, free food distribution organisations and free community meals.

These databases are brought together into an overall Local Food Directory which contains pages for each of 300 or so local food organisations.

In addition, there are articles written by a variety of local people on:

LFC News May 1

May 012024
 

Thanks to the people who have contributed to this week’s newsletter: Carmen Lahiff-Jenkins, Chris Chapple, Nathacha Subero and Robin Gale-Baker.

Local Food Connect and Bundoora Secondary College partner to establish an Urban Agriculture Education Centre

Read the full press release by either clicking the image right or by downloading it as a pdf.

The planned Urban Agriculture Education Centre will be located on the school’s Bundoora campus. Local Food Connect will work with the school to ensure that the centre delivers learning experiences for students while also creating avenues for the broader community to engage with, and benefit from, the resource. The centre will promote and enable food production within urban environments. The aim is to create a vibrant community hub catering to diverse age groups and interests.

Bundoora Secondary College is dedicated to expanding its Urban Agriculture and Conservation program which engages middle years students in STEM and food/fibre careers education, and specifically focuses on increasing secondary student access to vocational education and training (VET). The college currently offers four VET certificates from the Agriculture & Environment Flexible Pathway to the North Melbourne VET cluster.

Significant investment into the college has been enabled by The Department of Education through the provision of a Secondary Schools Agriculture Fund grant. Additionally, Local Food Connect will contribute $250,000 towards the development of demonstration gardens and related essential infrastructure, leveraging $200,000 from the Victorian State Government’s Living Local grant program. This funding, originally earmarked for an urban farm in Eltham, will now be re-directed to bolster the Urban Agriculture Education Centre initiative.

This initiative is in line Banyule Council’s vision outlined in its Urban Food Strategy (2023-2027), which emphasises the promotion of local food sustainability and food security.

Sign up if you potentially wish to engage with the project.

Grow your own composting materials (by Robin Gale-Baker)

I (Robin) often hear gardeners bemoaning that, when the grass is green, they don’t have any brown or dry material for their compost heap and, when they have plenty of brown, there’s no green to be had. This is a common situation but one that can be overcome by growing and drying your own material.

During summer and into autumn, when the grass is dry and it seems that there’s nothing green available, there are plants that will be flourishing and can be a ready source of green material. These include perennials such as catmint with its abundant grey foliage and delicate stems of mauve flowers, pineapple sage with green foliage and red tracts of flowers, other salvias, lavenders, rosemary and herbaceous perennials, all of which will bounce back after a vigorous haircut and may look better for the rest of the season as a result.

Herbs such as comfrey, yarrow and tansy plus plants commonly considered weeds (including stinging nettle and dandelion) provide ‘green’ and are compost activators. These add potassium to the compost heap and potassium speeds up the breakdown of plant material. Comfrey in particular also adds significant trace elements. Comfrey has a very long root (over one metre when fully established) and brings up trace elements (minerals) from deep in the soil, deposits these in the leaves, and the trace elements are then released into the compost as the leaves decompose. All herbs will benefit the compost heap so check what you have and if straggly, clip for the compost.

A third option is the leaves from summer pruning of fruit and nut trees. To avoid fungal infection, apricots, sweet cherries and almonds should all be pruned in summer on a hot, dry day, after fruiting. Other stone fruits may also benefit from summer pruning. Figs can be pruned multiple times a year to increase cropping, as can mulberries. Strip the leaves from prunings and run them through the lawn mower to create as many edges on the leaves as possible so that they break down quickly.

When it comes to needing dry material in winter and spring, keep your late autumn prunings of the plants above plus add in any winter prunings. Spread these on a brick path or a screen (such as an old window or door screen) and allow them to dry out. You can add in winter vegetable foliage, such as spent broad beans or peas or even weeds that don’t have seed heads (though a true hot compost will destroy seeds). Pumpkin, zucchini and cucumber vines all make good dried material, especially if mown. Tomato plants, however, do not as, by the end of the season, they are usually infected with wind-borne spores and need to be consigned to the green bin.

Autumn leaves are another excellent source of brown material. Some will fall still green but others will be dead. You can spread green or coloured autumn leaves out to dry on screens but it is best to sandwich them between two screens to stop them blowing away. Dried ones can be used immediately but spread them in thin layers in the compost so that they do not compact.

Once you have sufficient material to build a one cubic metre compost heap, layer your material in one go but make sure you that water each dry layer as dry material will not break down without moisture. Top the heap with a layer of fresh mown grass, which will create immediate heat in the pile. Then step back and, in 6-8 weeks, your compost is likely to be ready for use.

Some top local wineries

The Real Review has announced its top 400 Australian wineries in 2024. 4 of these are in North East Melbourne, namely Levantine Hill in Coldstream, Mount Mary Vineyard in Coldstream, Oakridge Wines in Coldstream and Yering Station in Yering.

Mitcham Community Meal

Mitcham Community Meal provides a free community dinner every Sunday evening, where each meal is cooked by a different local community group. During April, the cooking teams were All Saints Mitcham Anglican Church, Antonio Park Primary School (see photo right), Thrive Community Church and Unihill Church Box Hill South. Look at some photos of these teams, plus those of previous teams.

Another article by Angelo

Carrots growing guide.

Read more of Angelo’s food-related articles.

Every newsletter needs a good picture

Trung Dong takes aerial street photos of the fruit merchants of Hanoi.

The Melbourne ‘Local Food Connections’ community radio show

On next Sunday’s show (5th May), Ann Stanley will interview Georgia Savage from The Community Grocer (deferred from last week). Listen on 3CR (855 AM), 10-10.30am, by tuning into either the station (855 AM) or its livestream.

Podcasts of all previous episodes are available on their website, the latest being the Murnong Mummas on Indigenous food connections (28th April).

What seeds to plant in May

Here is a list (see the planting guide for more detail):

Brassicas

Kale
Mizuna
Mustard greens
Pak choy

Cool season veggies

Broad beans
Coriander
Fennel
Garlic
Peas

Leafy greens

Lettuce
Rocket
Silverbeet
Spinach

Other

Carrot
Chickpea
Chives
Onion
Parsley
Radish

If you haven’t planted your cool season veggie seeds yet, plant them now. It’s now a bit late for planting broccoli, cabbage and cauliflower seeds (but it’s ok to plant seedlings).

Read Helen’s guides on growing garlic.

Read Robin’s guides on growing broad beans, garlic and peas.

Our articles over the last month

Here are some of the articles from our newsletters over the last month that you might have missed:

Which link was clicked most times in the last newsletter?

The most popular link in the last newsletter was Angelo’s article on how to deter rodents using chilli capsaicin-based repellent sprays.

The most popular event link in the last newsletter was the weekly pickle parties at Greenhills Neighbourhood House.

Word of the month – Tines

Tines, meaning the prongs on a fork.

Read about previous words of the month.

Proverb (or phrase) of the month

Half a loaf is better than none. Meaning: It is sometimes better to take what you are offered, even if it is less than what you wanted. Whilst the literal meaning of the phrase is obvious, the figurative meaning is about being pragmatic in certain situations rather than risk getting nothing. The phrase dates back to 16th Century Britain. Whilst many languages have very similar proverbs, some are more colourful than others; for example, compare the German wenig ist besser als gar nichts (‘little is better than nothing at all’) with the French faute de grives on mange des merles (‘when there are no blackbirds, we eat thrushes’).

Read about more food-related proverbs.

Gardening quote of the month

“The greatest fine art of the future will be the making of a comfortable living from a small piece of land.” by Abraham Lincoln.

Read more gardening quotes.

b33e661f-c100-4ebe-9ffa-847952e0da4e.jpgJoke (or pun) of the week

A piece of toast and a hard-boiled egg walked into a bar. The bartender says “Sorry but we don’t serve breakfast here.”

Read more food-related jokes on our website.

 

Regular activities over the coming week

Farmers’ and other food markets
Food swaps
Community gardens
Free community meals

Span Community House in Thornbury has re-started its monthly community lunches. 12.30-2.30pm on the 2nd Wednesday of each month. It is a two course home-cooked meal shared with other friendly community members. Go along for company, conversation and support. RSVP for catering and dietary requirements to Span Community House by phone (9480 1364) or email (info@spanhouse.org). The next lunch will be on 8th May. They will be visited by the Growing Community Resilience to Current and Future Risk Through Research and Conversations (CEDRR) team from Melbourne University, who are running a survey about emergencies.

Our website currently lists 9 regular, free community lunches and 10 dinners. If any of these are no longer running, or if you know of any others that are not currently listed, email us.

Upcoming face-to-face events – not cooking

Urban food gardening group (9 sessions); on Thursdays from 2nd May, 12.30-4.30pm; $45 ($1 per hour); Coburg.

This is a continuing program so people can join any time. Learn the foundations of growing plants by working in a fun and relaxed environment.

IPA masterclass; Thursday, 9th May, 7-8pm; $10; Brunswick East.

Learn the ins and outs of IPA from Mark Schipano, including how it has evolved over time and the 5 styles of IPA.

A glimpse into permaculture; Saturday, 11th May, 11-11.45am; $43 ($43 per hour); Coburg.

Liz Morrigan will provide an introduction to permaculture. This will be run in parallel to the monthly food swap. Organised by Reynard Street Neighbourhood House.

Urban excursion – Sustainable Macleod Community Garden; Wednesday, 22nd May, 1-2pm; free; Macleod.

Take a tour of Sustainable Macleod Community Garden space with Paul, who will show you around the organic gardens, discuss winter crop planting and sustainability. After the tour, enjoy a light afternoon tea (cake, dips and biscuits) with Sarah from Greenhills Neighbourhood House. Organised by Greenhills Neighbourhood House.

The seeds of Vandana Shiva (film); Thursday, 23rdth May, 6-7.30pm; free; Coburg.

“Gandhian environmentalist and food justice activist Dr Vandana Shiva takes on powerful corporations that pollute and degrade the environment.” “When you control seed, you control life on earth.” (Dr. Vandana Shiva) Organised by Reynard Street Neighbourhood House.

Veg Permaculture Design Certificate Course; various sessions starting 1st July and ending 1st September; $2,400 ($20 per hour); Preston.

There will be one week in Preston (1st-7th July) followed by four fortnightly weekends elsewhere. The course will be led by Adam Grubb and Kat Lavers, with participation by Joel Meadows, David Holmgren and Su Dennet. Organised by Very Edible Gardens.

Winter fruit tree pruning and maintenance; Wednesday, 3rd July, 7-9pm; free; Doncaster.

Karen Sutherland, from Edible Eden Design, will talk about maintaining and pruning your fruit trees during winter. The presentation will start at 7pm but there will be sandwiches and a food swap at 6.45pm.

In May
In June
Regular events

Upcoming face-to-face events – cooking

Cook Indian by the creek; Friday, 31st May, 6.15-7.45pm; $60 ($40 per hour); Diamond Creek.

Menu: palak chicken (chicken cooked in spinach sauce) / veg option palak paneer. Roll your own paranthas (wholemeal flatbread).

Indian cooking – Punjabi (2 sessions); on Wednesdays, 12th and 19th June, both 6.30-8.30pm; $99 ($50 per hour); Hurstbridge

Learn how to cook a healthy North West Indian vegetarian meal from scratch using authentic ingredients. At the end of the session, eat what you have made or take it home. Tutor: Taariq Hassan. Organised by Living & Learning Nillumbik.

Japanese fermentation; Wednesday, 19th June, 6.30-9pm; $120 ($48 per hour); Collingwood.

You will learn how to make miso, starting with the preparation of the soybeans and ending with the shaping of your miso. You will also make tsukemono pickles from fresh vegetables. You will take home some miso, which will then mature into robust flavours over time. Presenter: The Fermented Mumma.

Gnocchi making class; Saturday, 29th June, 10am-1pm; $140 ($47 per hour); Thomastown.

What you will learn: how to make fluffy potato gnocchi with a four cheese sauce; and how to make easy ricotta gnocchi with a cavolo nero pesto. What you will get: Italian style lunch and drinks; and a That’s Amore apron to take home. Host: Pia Gava. Organised by That’s Amore Cheese.

In May
In June
Regular classes