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.
16(!) community gardens around North East Melbourne recently received grants to improve their composting facilities. The monies were provided by Australian Ethical Super, who apparently want to reduce food waste in landfill, and administered by 3000acres. Morgan Koegel, from 3000acres, says “the funds were put towards everything from raw materials for new compost bays, through workshops for the public on composting, to demonstration worm farms to show people how they could bring their food scrap management home.” A worthy initiative made all the more worthy by the lack of self-spruiking!
Here is the list of the 16 community garden recipients: Brunswick Neighbourhood House; East Reservoir; Fawkner Food Bowls; Kevin Heinze GROW, Doncaster; Newton Street, Reservoir; North Carlton Railway Neighbourhood House; Northcote; Pentridge, Coburg; Reynard Street, Coburg; Rushall, Fitzroy North; SEEDs, Brunswick; Sunnyfields, Northcote; Thrive, Diamond Creek; West Brunswick; Whittlesea; and Your Community Health, Reservoir.
There is a new food swap at Collingwood Children’s Farm. 3rd Saturday of every month, 10.30-11.30am. So, the next swap is on Saturday. Welcome Jimena!
Imbue Distillery, from Eltham, and Kings of Kangaroo Ground, from Kangaroo Ground, will both be stallholders at the Eltham Design Market on Saturday, 27th July, 10am-3pm at the Eltham Conference and Reception Centre.
The most surprising aspect of the jabuticaba fruit tree is shown in the picture (and in this video published by Daleys Fruit Tree Nursery): the fruit grows directly on the main trunks. Jabuticabas are one of the most popular fruits in their native Brazil but you probably won’t have tasted them because they are highly perishable and can’t survive the journey to Australia. You can, however, grow them in Australia if you give them some frost protection and they are discussed by Louis Glowinski in this book The Complete Book of Fruit Growing in Australia.
They want to know what you would like from a wholefoods store – complete their survey.
Take Me Home, who have opened a shop in Coburg selling pasta and gnocchi, featured on the Delicious website.
Deb Graham, from North Warrandyte-based Blue Pear Pantry, featured in both last week’s Leader newspaper and this month’s Warrandyte Diary.
Sabine Timm makes cartoonish bread faces and other wheaty characters out of sandwich bread.
Ian Culbard has written in to suggest that people read this article in The Guardian about the ancient art of silvopasture – combining livestock with productive trees. Ok, so you now know what silvopasture is but how about dehesa?
Permablitz’s hero of the month is murnong (aka yam daisy). "The murnong has a flower shaped like a dandelion, and beneath its innocuous, grass-like leaves lies a delicious, sweet yam." Read the article.
Newsletter Angelo Eliades is churning out the articles at the moment. His latest is entitled Know and identify your chilli species.
In the last week I have received three of the nicest appreciations of the newsletter:
They join the other 240 people who have written to me at one time or another with their appreciations.
Marina’s article about how to make charcoal toothpaste.
Let’s get this party started … lettuce turnip the beet.
What: Every distillery has its secret mix of botanicals. Most gins contain juniper berry and citrus botanicals such as lemon and bitter orange peel, anise, angelica root and seed, orris root, liquorice root, cinnamon, cubeb, savoury, lime peel, grapefruit peel, dragon eye, saffron, baobab, frankincense, coriander, nutmeg and cassia bark. In this workshop, you will explore making ‘bath house gin’ with a mix of botanicals selected from the community garden, plus a few pantry staples.
Cost: $15.
Bookings: just turn up.
What: Tutor: Amanda Wright. Week 1: how to stop acid reflux, heartburn and indigestion in 3 simple steps. Week 2: 5 best ways to prevent depression, anxiety, brain fog, parkinson’s, dementia, fibromyalgia, crohn’s disease and diabetes. Week 3: the hidden link between prescription medications and the impact on gut health. Week 4: how to get better quality
sleep, have more energy & vitality and promote healthy ageing.
Cost: $97.
Bookings: by phone (9722 1944) or email (wpcc@bigpond.com.au).
What: In 2040, director Damon Gameau (That Sugar Film) embarks on journey to explore what the future could look like by the year 2040 if we simply embraced the best solutions already available to us to improve our planet and shifted them rapidly into the mainstream. Structured as a visual letter to his 4-year-old daughter, Damon blends traditional documentary with dramatised sequences and high-end visual effects to create a vision board of how these solutions could regenerate the world for future generations.
Cost: $23.
Bookings: their website.
What: See description above.
Cost: $22.
Bookings: their website.
What: See description above.
Cost: $25.
Bookings: their website.
What: Tutor: Holly from Holly’s Backyard Bees. Learn how to use beeswax to make your own food wraps and candles. Holly will teach you the skills to be able to make these items at home in any shape or size you like. You will take home a beeswax wrap and a beeswax candle.
Cost: $50.
Bookings: by phone (9722 1944) or email (wpcc@bigpond.com.au).
What: Tutor: Arzu Yilmaz. Mediterranean diet is one of the best as there is olive oil, garlic, lemon and lots of herbs. You will see how easy it is to make great dishes.
Cost: $59.
Bookings: by phone (9722 1944) or email (wpcc@bigpond.com.au).
What: Menu (vegan): butter chicken. Cook Indian by the creek came into existence with the idea of breaking the myth that Indian cooking is complex and difficult to nail. In each session, they will share their traditional recipes and go through the step by step cooking process. The classes are held in a private kitchen.
Cost: $45.
Bookings: by email (cookindianbythecreek@gmail.com)..
What: From preparation to presentation, let Chef James Cornwall, Head Chef at Iki-jime, share his take on Japan’s favourite seafood dishes including seared kingfish with dashi broth and spanner crab okonomiyaki. Plus, learn how to sharpen your knives using a whetstone with Mino Tsuchida.
Cost: $5.
Bookings: their website.
What: Menu: a few varieties of bhajis and chutney.
Cost: $60.
Bookings: by email (cookindianbythecreek@gmail.com)..
What: Menu: chicken saagwala / palak paneer.
Cost: $45.
Bookings: by email (cookindianbythecreek@gmail.com)..
What: Tutor: Arzu Yilmaz. For men only – who want to improve their knowledge in the kitchen or learn healthy dishes for their partners, as well as enjoy cooking in a short time. 4 dishes in 2 hours. BYO apron and 4 containers.
Cost: $59.
Bookings: by phone (9722 1944) or email (wpcc@bigpond.com.au).
What: Enjoy 3 tasting size courses cooked by chef Bek McMillan, from Gourmet Living, who will demonstrate step by step. All recipes are included. Menu: pumpkin and brie tart; harissa leg of lamb; and French toast bites.
Cost: $42.
Bookings: EventBrite.
What: Menu: chilli sesame chicken; smokey bourbon pork; and pineapple, coconut & rum tart.
Cost: $42.
Bookings: EventBrite.
What: Menu: chicken vindaloo.
Cost: $45.
Bookings: by email (cookindianbythecreek@gmail.com).
What: Menu: chilli sesame chicken; smokey bourbon pork; and pineapple, coconut & rum tart.
Cost: $42.
Bookings: EventBrite.
What: Menu: smoked chicken caesar; Mediterranean lamb salad; and strawberry ice cream tart.
Cost: $42.
Bookings: EventBrite.
What: Menu: smoked chicken caesar; Mediterranean lamb salad; and strawberry ice cream tart.
Cost: $42.
Bookings: EventBrite.