LFC News September 14 2022

Sep 142022
 

Thanks to the people who have contributed to this week’s newsletter: Ann Stanley, Bertrand Richardot, Bil Brosch, Georgia Tracy, Nick Rose, Rebecca Haschek and Renaee Churches.

November is Urban Agriculture Month

Sustain have designated this November as Urban Agriculture Month comprising “events celebrating and raising awareness of Australia’s urban agricultural movement.”

Sustain’s executive director, Nick Rose, is asking newsletter readers to participate. His suggestions for you to consider include:

  • Open your garden to visitors.
  • Run a workshop.
  • Organise a tour of your local community gardens.
  • Organise a bike or walking tour of urban farms in your area.
  • Get a team together, sketch out a half day program and invite people to participate.

Register your event.

Visit their event calendar.

In conversation with our intrepid interviewer, Ann Stanley, Nick said that, through Sustain, he is pushing for more edible cities and towns in which local councils remove roadblocks to unlocking vacant land, where there are food gardens on verges and in every new development, and where there are community gardens in every suburb.

Sustain describes itself as a ‘think and do’ network, specialising in designing and building sustainable and healthy food systems. Their latest report is about the results of their 2020 Pandemic Gardening Survey.

A new local food producer – Holy Nuts

Holy Nuts, who are based in Thomastown, make nut butters, nut spreads and dukkah. The nut butters and nut spreads are made from 100% Australian ingredients, with no preservatives or emulsifiers. They are made slowly in a stone grinder until they are totally smooth. The range encompasses almond, hazelnut, macadamia and pecan. Everything is gluten, corn, soy and dairy free, and there are also vegan and keto options. At markets, they also sell vegan and low sugar brownies, sugar free cupcakes, refined sugar free & vegan bliss balls, and vegan hot chocolate & turmeric latte made from the nut butter. Read their page in our Local Food Directory

You can buy their products online or at any of Eltham Farmers’ Market, Warrandyte Riverside Market or Yarra Valley Farmers’ Market.

Welcome Bertrand!

Citrus Australia’s – Citrus Watch Early Detector Network

Citrus Australia is an industry body representing the nation’s commercial citrus growers. One of their initiatives is CitrusWatch, which “aims to ensure that the Australian citrus industry is better equipped to minimise the entry and spread of high priority pests, such as Asian citrus psyllid.“. Part of CitrusWatch is the Citrus Watch Early Detector Network, where volunteers put out sticky traps in Autumn and Spring to help with citrus biosecurity surveillance. Sign up here. Once you sign up, a CitrusWatch Coordinator will get in touch with you and will send you the trapping kit. Thanks for the heads up, Rebecca Haschek!

Newsletter reader website of the week – TreeProject

Bil Brosch has written in to tell us about TreeProject, of which he is a member.

TreeProject is a Victorian not-for-profit organisation that gets urban and rural communities working together to put trees back on the land. Volunteer growers grow Australian natives species specific to Victoria using growing materials supplied by TreeProject (One growing supply consists of 7 polystyrene boxes of potting mix, slow release fertiliser, seeds, gravel and 336 forestry tubes). Once the seeds have become established seedlings, they are handed over to landholders (Landcare groups and private land holders) to plant out in aide of rejuvenating land and eco systems.

They organise many planting days.

See the TreeProject website.

Read their newsletters.

Look at their seed database.

Do you have, or are connected to, a website that might be of interest to some of our readership? If so, send me an email and I will include you in a future newsletter.

Every newsletter needs a good picture

Apparently the photo right is of a fruit turkey.

Which link was clicked most times in the last newsletter?

The most popular link in the last newsletter was the video interview of Buttons Mira from The Mushroomery.

Word of the month – Crapulence

‘Crapulence’, meaning becoming sick because of gluttony (i.e. you have eaten or drunk too much).

Read about previous words of the month.

Proverb (or phrase) of the month

Old chestnut. Meaning: a joke or story that has become tedious or boring through repetition.. Note that the word old is simply an intensifier and that the original phrase was simply chestnut. The phrase dates back to the early 19th Century, with the first recorded usage being in a play where a character keeps repeating the same stories, one of them about a cork tree, and is interrupted each time by another character who says: “A chesnut, Captain, a chesnut… Captain, this is the twenty-seventh time I have heard you relate this story, and you invariably said, a chesnut, till now.”

Read about more food-related proverbs.

Gardening quote of the month

“When God blesses the harvest, there is enough for the thief as well as the gardener.” A Polish proverb.

Read more gardening quotes.

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

If my body is a temple then eating pancakes is a form of prayer.

Read more jokes.

 

Regular activities over the coming week

Farmers’ markets
Food swaps
Community gardens

Upcoming face-to-face events – community garden open days

Creeds Farm open day; Saturday, 17th September, 11am-3pm; free; Epping.

There will be a whole variety of activities, including: a talk on seasonal gardening; a talk on raising seedlings; creating seedling pots from newspaper; and talking with the community gardening group. Click here to read about the garden.

Rushall Community Garden open day; Saturday, 8th October, midday-3pm; free; Fitzroy North.

See community gardening in action and pick up some homegrown goodies. The activities will include: seedling and fresh garden produce for sale; baked good, homemade jams and preserves; a workshop on gardening is small spaces; gardeners working their plots and sharing tips; and a BBQ, homemade lemon cordial, coffee and tea. Click here to read about the garden.

Pentridge Community Garden open day; Sunday, 9th October, 1.30-4.30pm; free; Coburg.

There will be: garden tours; a produce swap; sales of manure and straw; and flower and veggie seedlings for sale. Click here to read about the garden.

Upcoming face-to-face events – not cooking

Pam’s garden tour; Saturday, 17th September, 10am-midday; $10; Diamond Creek.

Walk through the garden and talk about some of the permaculture principles incorporated in the design with a focus on what has had to change due to the arrival of the Queensland fruit fly. End the tour with a cuppa and chat. Bring a share plate if you like. Organised by NERP.

Growing shade; Saturday, 24th September, 10.30am-12.30pm; $10; Macleod.

Get ready for summer by growing shade where it’s needed. Use composting paths, ground covers and potted plants in areas that are concreted or paved. Learn about choko vines and take a plant home if you wish. Share a cuppa and snacks after the workshop. Feel free to bring a small plate to share. Organised by NERP.

Espresso grinding and extraction science with Samo Smrke; Saturday, 1st October, 11am-1pm; $30 ($15 per hour); Brunswick.

Samo Smrke is a research scientist at the Coffee Excellence Center of the Zurich University of Applied Sciences. He will present the basic science behind grinding and extraction, understanding the important terminology: PSD, fines, bimodal, TDS, yield, etc. He will cover: the relation of grinding particle size distribution to your espresso extraction; the role of fines and how they govern the espresso extraction; understanding the roast profile and how it impacts the dial-in of espresso; and how to get a grip on the moving target of a fresh coffee on the dial-in for espresso.

Native bee hotels; Wednesday, 5th October, 10.30am-midday; free; Reservoir.

Learn about native bees and how you can help support biodiversity, as well as make your own bee hotel. Presenter: Katrina Forstner from Buzz & Dig.

Kids gardening classes (4 sessions); 4 consecutive Wednesdays from 5th October, each 4-5.30pm; $60 ($10 per hour); Forest Hill.

These workshops are for children aged 5-10. Week 1: Planting seeds to pot up in week four. Seeds will be leafy greens, tomatoes and summer herbs. Learn about companion planting and healthy soil. Week 2: Propagating from fruit and vegetable scraps. Week 3: Observing birds and bird friendly gardens. Week 4: Making bee hotels and re-potting seedlings from seeds grown in week one.

Shedfest – Yarra Valley Wine Festival; Saturday, 8th October and Sunday, 9th October, both 11am-5pm; $30; various around Yarra Ranges.

Wineries in the Yarra Valley will open their sheds to house two days of food, wine, live music and entertainment. There will be plenty of food on offer and moderately priced at all the wineries during the course of the day. 14 wineries are participating. Organised by Smaller Wineries Yarra Valley.

Kevin Heinze GROW Spring Fair (Coburg); Saturday, 15th October, 9am-3pm; gold coin; Coburg.

There will be: plants; fruit trees; vegetable seedlings; a great variety of heirloom tomatoes; homemade cakes & preserves; coffee cart; BBQ; live band; site tours and information for new families.

Kevin Heinze GROW Spring Fair (Doncaster); Saturday, 15th October, 9am-3pm; gold coin; Doncaster.

There will be: plants; fruit trees; vegetable seedlings; a great variety of heirloom tomatoes; homemade cakes & preserves; coffee cart; BBQ; live band; site tours and information for new families.

Yarra Valley Spring Plant Fair & Garden Expo; Saturday, 5th November and Sunday, 6th November, both 10am-5pm; $14; Wandin.

The plant fair will feature a wide variety of plants showing off late spring and early summer flowers and foliage. Top growers from the Yarra Valley and beyond will display and talk about their plants. The guest speakers will include Angus Stewart, Jane Edmanson, Karen Sutherland, Paul Kirkpatrick, Penny Woodward, Phillip Vaughan and Vasili Kanidiadis.

In September
In October
Regular events

Upcoming face-to-face events – cooking

All things sauerkraut; Friday, 4th November, 6.30-8.30pm; $85 ($43 per hour); Fitzroy North.

An evening of all things sauerkraut – you will take home a jar with fermenting sauerkraut and all the accoutrements you need to make more.

Cup cake bouquet workshop; Friday, 4th November, 6.30-8.30pm; $70 ($35 per hour); Park Orchards.

Decorate cupcakes using buttercream icing and then arrange into a bouquet. Topics to be covered will include: how to make Italian buttercream frosting; different butter cream frosting; how to add different colour frosting in a piping bag; how to pipe six different types of flowers; how to pipe leaves; how to do two tone colour effects; and how to make a bouquet to hold the six cupcakes. Organised by Park Orchards Community House.

Gnocchi making class; Saturday, 5th November, 10am-1pm; $125 ($42 per hour) including lunch; 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.

Raw food fundamentals; Sunday, 6th November, 10am-3pm; $115 ($23 per hour); CERES.

Presenter: Daniele Carcangiu. In the workshop, you will: make savoury dishes; make sweet treats; eat a raw food lunch; and take home some sweet treats, recipes and notes. You will learn about raw food fundamentals and the dehydration process.

In September
In October
Regular classes

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