May 312013
 

Local food-related events

Purchase frozen local Blackberries and Blueberries
for $13.50 a kilo grown in Kinglake. The berries are spray free and are fantastic preserved, as a topping for pancakes and ice cream, great for jam making, sauces, fruit pies, muffins etc. This is a fundraiser to help 2 brothers go to Malaysia for an Eltham High School Study Trip this September/ October. Send an email to their mum, Cathrine on c.king67@bigpond.com or text 0488384844. Include your order quantity, name and contact details please. Payment is cash on delivery.

Expressions of interest (EOIs) for the Home Harvest Working Group for Harvest Month and the Home Harvest Feast 2014.
Committee members will : contribute to the planning and delivery of Harvest Month and the Home Harvest Feast 2014; attend monthly meetings from July – March, meetings are held during business hours, normally Wednesday’s 2.30pm-4pm (first meeting set for 3 July at Edendale); assist with the set up and delivery on the weekend of the Home Harvest Feast; contribute to the development of a communications plan and the promotion of Harvest Month and the Home Harvest Feast; contribute to the monthly Grower’s newsletter; correspond with the committee members via email in-between meetings. Around 8 – 12 working group members are needed. If interested please submit your EOI to Kirsty Merritt at Kirsty.Merritt@nillumbik.vic.gov.au including your name, organisation representing (if relevant), contact email and phone number and the reason why you would like to be on the committee including any skills and experience you can contribute.

Book-a-chook

At the Diamond Valley Library last week, Fleur from Book-a-chook gave an informed and interesting talk on keeping chooks. If you are interested in renting or buying chickens, check out this website.

Other food activities/information

To celebrate International Compost week early in May, local online group Sustainable Table wrote a couple of informative articles on composting. See here.

Youth Food Movement

Pulling a homegrown carrot from a curbside veggie patch, exploring an off-the-grid eco-property, preserving kilos upon kilos of late-harvest tomatoes – the Youth Food Movement is all about getting punters’ hands dirty in a bid to create thought-provoking interactions with food. Read more here.

May 242013
 

Local food-related events

STOP PRESS! 4-5PM this afternoon, Friday. Montmorency South Primary School are launching their Stephanie Alexander program. Congratulations and best wishes with the program.

Kinglake Farmers’ Market is on this Saturday May 25, 9am -2pm.

Edendale Foodswap is looking for another coordinator. If you want more information, please contact Michele at michele14burton@gmail.com

Compost Mates …

is a community program which retrieves food waste and coffee grounds from local cafes, restaurants  and greengrocers and compost s the organic matter in home or community gardens. City of Yarra, have had the program going for a while. Michelle Martin, Nillumbik Council’s Waste Project Officer, is interested to hear from local cafe owners and households who would commit to both being compost mates and would be willing to take the material to compost on their own properties.

Drawing in Edible Gardens, Banyule

As well as providing food for the table, our productive gardens can be seen as a source of creative inspiration and nourishment.  For this pilot project, we hope to give a small group of enthusiastic people the opportunity to meet on a regular basis in food-growing gardens around Banyule.  An experienced artist will lead the group and provide guidance in the use of simple art materials and encouragement to connect with and respond to the productive garden through drawing.  All levels of drawing experience welcome. The first session will be held on Saturday, 25th May from 2.00-4.30 pm at a private garden in Ivanhoe. Contact info@transitionbanyule.org.au for more details

Other food activities/information

March against Monsanto is a March for Life and Freedom – 25th May 2013, 2pm, State Library of Victoria.

Sustainable Gardening Australia invites you to join an informal gathering where participants will engage in discussion regarding: “What are the possibilities when modern communities grow more of their own food?”, Monday June 17th 2013 from 7:00-9:00 pm, Function Room, The Courthouse Hotel, 615 Sydney Rd, Brunswick

Biodynamics

Read here about a recent meal in the city made from biodynamically grown food. The article also includes a link to the Pop-up Patch in Federation Square, where you can rent a vegie box for a year.

May 152013
 

Local food-related events

Macleod Vegie swap runs from 11am to 12 noon this Saturday. Immediately after, Julie French will present a workshop on Permaculture in Home Gardens. This talk will provide a brief overview of the principles of permaculture and will give examples of how these can be practically utilised in a home garden.

Continue reading »

May 092013
 

Local food-related events

Nillumbik Council are calling for people to join the Hurstbridge Farmer’s Market Reference group. It could be Council staff, stall holders, interested members of the community, local traders, tourism representatives. Is anyone interested in joining this group?

Has anyone been to Iggy’s Restaurant at Loyola College, Watsonia. It is run by the VET and VCAL students and according to the local paper uses fresh local produce. Good on them.

Continue reading »

May 032013
 

Local food-related events

Article in  Heidelberg Leader on trial verge gardening in Banyule. www.heraldsun.com.au/leader/north/banyule-council-to-trial-residents-cultivating-food-plants-along-nature-strips/story-fnglenug-1226631423266

11th May, 2-3.30pm, Food forest tour of Ivanhoe Community Garden, gold coin donation. At the rear of 10 Tate Street, Ivanhoe.  Access is via driveway between 10 and 12. RSVP Sharon, Ivanhoe.foodgarden@gmail.com

Other food activities/information

An Autumn and Winter edible and medicinal wildfoods workshop will be running on the 9th of June in Thornbury. For more information contact Taj Scicluna thepermapixie@gmail.com, 0450375528.

Five varieties of Australian perry pear found to be at risk of loss to horticulture have been added to the Slow Food Foundation for Biodiversity’s international Ark of Taste. The perry varieties listed include the Yellow Huffcap, Moorcroft, Gin, Red Longdon and Green Horse. The Australian Ark of Taste was established in July 2003. It aims to protect and preserve quality, small-scale production of culturally significant foods that are threatened with extinction, including critically endangered breeds of animals and heirloom varieties of fruits and vegetables. Other Australian products in the Ark are Tasmanian Leatherwood honey, bull-boar sausages unique to Victoria, Kangaroo Island Ligurian bee honey from South Australia, Wessex Saddleback pig, Dairy Shorthorn and the Bunya, an indigenous nut native to Queensland.

European Union countries favour a ban on three pesticides linked to killing bees, which are vital to the continent’s agricultural industry. The insecticides – imidacloprid and clothianidin produced by German Bayer, and thiamethoxam, made by Switzerland’s Syngenta – are used to treat seeds, and are applied to soil or sprayed on bee-attractive plants and cereals. However, the insecticides have been blamed for a sharp decline in global bee populations.

Fair Trade Fortnight (4-19 May) is your chance to celebrate all things Fairtrade.