Local food-related events
February 23, 24. Sale of exotic and edible plants. Contact: Stephen by 9pm Thur 21 February to register your interest, to obtain the address and for further details minalinka@optusnet.com.au
February 23, 24. Eltham Jazz, food and wine festival. See the Eltham Chamber of commerce site for event information.
Sunday 24 February, 11:00am – 4:00pm A Day in Tuscany,East Keilor Style!, Rose Creek Estate, East Keilor. Details.
Sunday 24 February 10am – 2.30pm. Visioning our sustainable neighbourhood Watsonia Library Meeting Room. Bring food for lunch to share. Come to a community forum that focuses on sustainability for our neighbourhood, organised by Transition Banyule and Monty Community Group. We will use visioning and innovative community processes to explore what we want as a larger community and how best to make this happen. In particular we can feed these ideas into Council’s community consultations for their new City Plan.
Wednesday February 27. 5pm – 8:30pm, Eltham High School. Bell Street Master plan. This will be the last forum before Council releases a draft masterplan for wider community comment. Read the Issues and Options paper here. One of the options includes food growing so it would be great to see as many local food supporters as possible at the meeting . Contact Anna.Maio@nillumbik.vic.gov.au or 9433 3371.
Saturday, March 2, from 9am. Passata making day, Eltham. Limited spaces. If you would like to attend call on 0419881961 or mauriceg903@gmail.com
Sunday March 3. Apple tasting day at Petty’s orchard. See details at end of this news.
Wednesday March 6. Food film night. 7:30 – 9 pm, Edendale, Eltham. All welcome. This is the first of 4 weekly film nights held during Harvest Month.
Design for life, 2010, 68 min. Annemarie and Graham Brookman travelled the world to look for a sustainable way for humans to live on the planet. They adopt the Permaculture design system and build an amazing organic home, farm and lifestyle in South Australia. They provide food for themselves, their WWOOFers and for customers at the Adelaide Showground Farmers Market. This beautiful and inspirational story is rich with interviews, philosophy and practical examples.
Sunday March 17. The Home Harvest Feast at Eltham community Centre. Available to home growers who register.
Other food activities/information
Joel & Daniel Salatin present: ‘Fields of Farmers – the Next (re) Generation‘ Feb 25 Bendigo $125.
HeenanDoherty & Polyface Farms Inc. are deeply concerned with the well-documented issues of farmer aging, poor terms of trade and declining numbers of young people taking on the wonderful opportunity that lies before them with an ever-increasing population to feeds and clothe, along with landscapes & communities that need stable & regenerative stewardship for generations to come.
The Local Harvest Challenge!
It’s one week where we take on the goal of intentionally reclaiming your food choices and decreasing the degrees of separation between us and our food. Find out resources near you, and put into practice the art of eating locally, supporting local and organic farmers and businesses, and discovering the face behind your food.Choose your challenge – your level of commitment (bite-sized, meal-sized, or feast sized) – and the activities and events you plan to participate in. Blog your experiences as you make changes both large and small. You can do the week at any time, however the annual Challenge week is officially the first week of April. You can participate with others close to you and blog your experiences. Register for the challenge week here.
Those of you closer to the eastern suburbs may wish to check on Swap Shuffle Share . They are offering similar information to Local Food Connect.
Those of you who have enjoyed the Petty’s Orchard Apple tasting days may be interested in the changed format this year. There will be a series of smaller tastings over a few months, bookings required. The dates are March 3, 17, 31 from 5 pm. April 14,28, May 12,26, June 9, 23, from 11am. Tour orchard, 12-15 apple varieties available for tasting. Numbers limited, cost $15. Prepaid bookings essential at www.heritagefruitssociety.org.au.