Some date changes for Christmas and the New Year
Eltham Farmers’ Market will be on 20th December, not 27th December. There will not be an Eltham food swap during December.
The next Warrandyte Food Swap will be on 19th December, not 2nd January. This is to keep it on the same day as the Warrandyte market.
The January food swaps at Diamond Creek and Greensborough will not take place.
Cathy Romeo, winner of our random draw, has collected her prize!
You may remember that Cathy was the winner of our random draw in November and that her prize was to come to Eltham Farmers’ Market with a bag and fill it with produce of her choice. Well, Cathy came to the market on the 13th December, together with husband Chris. Here she is with some of her produce, all from local producers.
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| The Mushroom Shed | Spirli Strawberries | The Cherry Boys |
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| Australian Harvest / Bio Grape | Chef’s Fine Food | Full bag, at last |
Here is what Cathy said about the experience: “Thank you so very, very much for the prize and for the excellent newsletters, helping make a real difference to food quality and connecting people to local producers. Your wonderful contribution and vision has positive ramifications for social connections, education and economic benefit for small local producers.”
The comparative costs of fruit & veggies
How do you think that the costs of the food at Eltham Farmers’ Market compare with a) the local small shops and b) supermarkets? We have now completed our second quarterly survey (i.e. Spring). For the detailed results, click here. Whilst some of these results are a bit different from those in our previous Winter survey, one thing is crystal clear: for both veggies and for fruit, the supermarket is NOT cheaper than either the farmers’ market or the greengrocer.
For an overall summary of the two surveys combined, click here.
A byproduct of the two surveys is documentation of the seasonal availability of fruit and veggies at the market. Click here.
Guy’s newsletter awards for 2015
As this is the last newsletter of the year, plus I have now been the editor for nearly a year, I thought it would be a good time to announce a few awards. Just my 2 cents.
- Council of the year – Darebin: for their Backyard Harvest Festival (20 different events held during November).
- Library of the year – Diamond Valley: for their free monthly talks, their community garden and their hosting of a food swap.
- Newspaper of the year – Warrandyte Diary: for their local food-related articles in most editions.
- Contributor of the year – Helen Simpson: for her monthly articles on how to grow various veggies.
- Reader of the year – Lucinda Flynn: for submitting numerous items of news and for telling me what other newsletters I should subscribe to.
- Most popular event link – sourdough bread making workshop.
- Most popular website link – the resources page (mainly due to its section on horse manure!).
- Most popular external link – Ripe Near Me.
Darebin – some useful links
Whilst on the subject of Darebin (Council of the year – see above), here are some useful links:
- Darebin Food Harvest Network.
- Darebin Fruit Squad. The Fruit Squad has recently reached the 4 ton mark. They are always looking for new volunteers to help harvest fruit or householders with excess fruit on their trees. If interested, contact Martin O’Callaghan, the Urban Food Program Leader at DIVRS by phone (9480 8207) or email.
- Transition Darebin.
New events
Zip.
Summary of all upcoming events
The list of events has now almost completely wound down prior to Christmas.
Over the balance of the year
- Diamond Creek Christmas lunch: Friday, 25th December, midday onwards.