It is great to meet and talk with LFC readers for the first time…thanks to Bree, Cara and Chris at last week’s Greensborough Swap.
Local food-related events
The Great Big Swap Day
To celebrate the Sustainable Living Festival, Sustainable Macleod is organising a day of swapping and green auctioning activities on Saturday Feb 15. It is a great opportunity to meet like-minded people and share/swap some of your excess! More details in the calendar.
Seed-saving film night
Last week I missed adding the date of this event! It is in the Harvest Month calendar, but I should have written Tuesday March 11! If you plan to come along please let us know as we will have some supper to share.
Local open gardens this weekend
Refer to LFC News, January 23.
Sustainability at home
Gavin Webber has converted his small home block in Melton to a food farm! He makes his own cheese and has one or two blogs (e.g. greeningofgavin.com). He is giving a talk on “Sustainable Living in the Suburbs” at Ivanhoe Library Tuesday 18 Feb 7pm. Go along and see how much you can do on a small block with not much time (Gavin works four days a week).
Murundaka Open Day
Saturday 22 February, 10:00am – 4:00pm at Murundaka Cohousing Community, 42 Bamfield Road, Heidelberg Heights. Murundaka is an urban co-housing community with 20 households, a big communal garden, chooks, compost bays and more. Come along to the Open Day on February 22 and learn about ‘cohousing’, a unique form of development that seeks to recreate the advantages of the traditional village in a modern context. Social life centres around ‘common meals’, and this all-day tour features a vegetarian meal with fresh produce from the garden. Tickets are $50 ($40 concession) and you can book online at www.murundaka.eventbrite.com.au.
Creeds Farm, Epping North
You are invited to a free workshop on composting and worm farming at our community garden.Workshop presenter Wendy Mather will be there to demonstrate how to get the most out of composting and worm farms. The event is kindly sponsored by Sustainability Outreach Whittlesea. The workshop is 9.30am – 11am, Sunday February 23. There will be then enough time for a regular working bee and food swap afterwards. As the summer vegetables are coming along, we can put the tomatoes and basil to good use and have pizzas for lunch afterwards. Please bring a pizza tray if you have one and any toppings / pizza bases you would like.
Member comment
An LFC member recently wrote: “I’d like more food discussions… including a place where we can discuss our local food projects … the myriad of them in development … from a preserving workshop, to cheese making, to sour dough etc, to watching a film and getting inspired, to reporting on the food forums we sometimes get to and the latest on the australian food sovereignty alliance etc”. What do you think?
New Eltham cafe/restaurant: The Common
The Common is a new cafe on the corner of Pryor Street and the Town Square. They are providing only organic food and wine and would like to source produce as locally as possible. Why not check it out?
Other food activities/information
Aquaponics job
CERES is looking for a super-motivated and entrepreneurial urban farmer. The project: you are given an established commercial aquaponics system. You, as an independent grower, run the farm helping CERES document its productive potential. They support you with training, mentorship and a guaranteed market for produce. This is an immediate start and would suit someone who lives near CERES. Phone: (03) 8673 6288.
Food 4 Thought – exploring meaningful livelihoods in urban agriculture
Australian City Farms & Community Garden Network’s 6th national community garden gathering – 21-23 March 2014, Tasmania.
Degraves Street recycling facility
The City of Melbourne is working with businesses in Degraves Street to implement a shared recycling program, which aims to divert plastics, paper, cardboard, aluminum, glass and organic waste from commercial bins.
The waste materials are collected from the businesses and processed on site at the Degraves Street Recycling Facility in Ross House, which hosts a food waste dehydrator, a cardboard baler and co-mingled recycling bins. Find out more in this video. Wouldn’t something similar be great to see in some of our suburban shopping areas?
Little Yarra Market
This Saturday is Little Yarra Market, an outdoor cafe style market with quality, craft and recycled stalls, organic produce, buskers, coffee, chai, pastries & cakes, wood fired pizza and biodynamic sausages. This and every 3rd Saturday of the month 9am-2pm, 205 Little Yarra Rd, Yarra Junction.
Harvest Month