Dec 132016
 

The 2016 Golden Seedling awards

Just my 2 cents:

  • Council of the year – Darebin (for the second year running): for their Homemade Food & Wine Festival, their Backyard Harvest Festival and their get togethers of relevant local organisations.
  • Library of the year – Watsonia: for their numerous free events and their community garden.
  • Newspaper of the year – The Weekly Review: for their regular featuring of local food individuals and organisations.
  • Community group of the year – Sustainable Macleod: for Macleod Organic Community Garden, their well-attended food swaps, their annual auction and their ability to get themselves into the local paper. Honorary mention – Permablitz Melbourne: so many events, all booked out, and all portrayed with such enthusiasm.
  • Newsletter contributor of the year – Helen Simpson (for the second year running): for her monthly articles on how to grow various veggies and, just recently, for starting her fabulous new series interviewing local home growers. Honorary mention – Mac McVeigh: for his weekly tips, usually witty and always informative.
  • Most popular recurring event link – Home Harvest Manningham: these were also the best attended events (more than 100 people at each event) and had the best free food!.
  • Most popular event link – Heide’s kitchen garden: a bit of a surprise; perhaps some of the newsletter readers work for Heide(?).
  • Most popular website link – the resources page (for the second year running), mainly due to its section on horse manure (also, for the second year running). Honorary mention – the dog gallery.
  • Most popular external link – The Common’s Facebook page: 21 great food articles.
  • Most popular newsletter image – food cubes as art.

Introducing David Murray

Whilst writing the words above, I started thinking what a pity it is that there have been no food articles on The Common’s Facebook page since August. So, I investigated and I found the author of the articles. His name is David Murray, he lives in Eltham and I have some great news for you.

First, David has kindly consented for all of his articles to be reproduced on our website. If you haven’t read them before, you’re in for a real treat. Start with the article about beans and work your way alphabetically through the list on the righthand sidebar. If you read one article a day, that will take you all the way thru to the new year!

Second, I had missed some of David’s earlier articles in the mess of pottage that is Facebook. Here are the links to four of those articles:

Third, David has agreed to write some articles specially for this newsletter in the new year(!!). He and I have begun to think about topics but, if you have any suggestions, email me.

Mac’s tip of the week

Although we have been a bit spoilt with rainfall and cooler temperatures, we are now officially in summer. Your plantings will soon require a greater focus on water needs and water conservation. In planning your watering requirements, make sure that you have mulched all your crops and note that:

  • Wilting is normal on hot days, it’s what your plants look like in the evening and morning that counts.
  • Morning watering is best.
  • Regular moisture levels is the key … to check, a finger in the soil is better than a stick.

“Until next time, remember: dirty hand are good hands.

Check out the following article that Mac wrote for the SGA website a few years ago: a busy person’s guide to watering systems for vegetable gardening.

Click here to view all of Mac’s tips.

Everything you wanted to know about watering but were afraid to ask

Related to Mac’s tip, Robin Gale-Baker, from Sustainable Macleod, has written an article about the art of watering. As Robin says in her introduction: “Imagine for a moment that you are parched with thirst. Would a teaspoon of water quench that thirst? Or a tablespoon? Or would you need at least a full glass? Chances are that it will be the latter and yet often we do not apply the same principle to plants – especially edible plants. Under-watering can be as detrimental as over-watering. A plant, like us, needs to be adequately hydrated to stay alive but also it needs to be hydrated so it can transport nutrients (particularly calcium) to the whole of its being, and to thrive sufficiently to produce the edible parts: leaves and stems, fruit and flowers, roots and seeds. Here are some tips on what to watch out for.” The detailed discussion then covers edible plants in both pots/punnets and in the ground. Read the full article.

The local shops selling local products (cont)

Following my little article in last week’s newsletter, someone wrote to me asking for the full list of the 170 shops organised by how many local food producers they sold the products of. Maybe he was trying to call my bluff?! Anyhow, you can now find the full list on our website, together with my original words (scroll down to the end).

Vicki’s eucalypt has found a good home

Veni, vidi, cepi. Cf. the 30th November newsletter.

Was Montmorency the first ever Australian food swap?

I was at one of the newer food swaps the other day and they mentioned that they had been inspired by a visit many years ago to the Montmorency Food Swap. The Monty Food Swap started in 2009 but I happen to know that the Greenborough food swap started a bit earlier. So, the question actually is: was Montmorency the second ever Australian food swap? Anyhow, the organiser of the swap, Katherine Barling, has written in: “Now in our 7th year, our local gathering for home growers and aspiring home growers continues to inspire and connect and nurture our green thumbs. In the warmer months, it is held in the Were Street Park. It is held on the second Sunday in January (first Sunday every other month). Our next food swap will be on Sunday, 8th January, from 10.30am to 11.30am. Bring your excess – which could be silverbeet, lettuce, rhubarb, citrus, herbs, preserves or seedlings. Swap for something else and enjoy a friendly chat with other locals. Bring your visitors, children or dogs too. It’s right next to the shops and you can even have a coffee in a ceramic cup (and take the cup back afterwards). All welcome. Enquiries to Katherine 0439 652680.

Who says milk bars are dead?

Are milk bars an inevitable (and unfortunate) casualty of ‘progress’? Not according to these two brothers.

If you ever have any bees that need rescuing …

Frankie Spranger, from Hurstbridge-based Bee Rescue, has sent in a picture of one of his latest rescues.

Dugald Noyes, Head Gardener at Heide Museum of Modern Art

Dugald has been interviewed by Sustainable Gardening Australia. Read the interview.

Are you vegetarian?

If so, Dana Thomson suggests that you might be interested in Sustainable Table’s vegetarian Christmas lunch menu.

New events

zip.

Summary of upcoming events

Until end January

That’s a lot of chocolate!

Click here for the complete calendar of upcoming events. Click here for help in how to view the calendar selectively (e.g. search for events in a given suburb).

Dec 072016
 

Want to buy some cherries and support Eltham High School drama group?

You will need to be quick – the deadline for ordering is 4pm on 9th December. They are selling premium cherries as a fundraiser for the Eltham High School drama group. All money raised will help them attend and perform at the Adelaide Fringe festival in 2017. Cost: 1kg box – $25; 2kg box – $45. Order by emailing Kim. She will then email you details for payment. Pick up of cherries will be at either Eltham High on Thursday, 15th December (3-5pm) or Going Green Solutions in Hurstbridge on Friday, 16th December.

Everything you want to know about urban agriculture but are afraid to ask

You might be aware that a major, two-day urban agriculture forum took place in November in Richmond. Well, Dana Thomson, our new Roving Reporter and healthAbility’s new Health Promotion Officer, was there and has written up some extensive notes. Thanks, Dana! As she says in her introduction: “Urban agriculture may include: vegetable and fruit growing; livestock raising (especially poultry); beekeeping, aquaculture, hydroponics and aquaponics; and value-adding (e.g. making preserves). It can take place on a variety of sites, such as: private gardens; land managed by private institutions / businesses, including rooftops and vertical gardens; privately-owned land, including vacant lots awaiting development; land owned by public / public-private utilities, such as VicTrack; publicly-owned land, including nature strips / verges, and street planter boxes; and schools, childcare centres, aged care facilities, universities, hospitals and other similar institutions.” The notes then cover: lessons learned about urban agriculture; how urban agriculture can potentially reduce poverty, food insecurity and malnutrition; learning from australian aboriginal agricultural practices; Melbourne’s food bowl at risk; accessing land for agriculture; role of local government and noting the food governance taskforce; the role of social enterprise in urban agriculture; and social and therapeutic horticulture.

If you prefer watching to reading, you can view a video of Costa Georgiadis’ take on the forum.

The local shops selling local products

In the words below, I am using ‘local’ to mean ‘in North East Melbourne’.

I am aware of 170 shops in North East Melbourne that sell at least one food product that was grown or made in North East Melbourne. That is a lot of shops.

But, of the 170, 130 appear to sell products from only one local food producer (with the other 40 selling products from multiple local food producers). And only 7 sell products from 5 or more local food producers.

Three important points arise:

  1. There are lots of local outlets for local food (e.g. the 170 shops).
  2. Hardly any of the local food producers are in more than a tiny fraction of these shops.
  3. Most of the shops selling local food only sell a small amount.

To illustrate the scale of the opportunity: Bolton Street Deli & Liquor, Eltham stocks products from 21 local food producers. If all 170 shops did the same, that would be 3,600 (170 * 21) ‘offerings’. This is more than 10 times the current number of ‘offerings’ (280).

In passing, of the 6 shops selling products from 5 or more local food producers, 5 are in the Local Food Directory (the 7th declined, for unspecified reasons). They are:

One less source of free sawdust

Stuart Rodda has written in to say that Charles Sandford Woodturning has temporarily suspended its offer of free bags of sawdust. The local resources page has been updated to reflect this.

Olive herb

Mala Plymin has written in to tell us about a herb that she has recently discovered that “tastes amazing“. The olive herb apparently has a pickled olive flavour. Mala buys hers at the Pepper Tree Place Nursery in Coburg and you can also buy the plants from Green Harvest.

Rats or foxes?

foxI happened to mention to Chris Kent the other day that, once again, I was getting ready to fight with the rats for ownership over my rockmelons. He asked if I was sure that it was rats and said that, in his case, it was foxes. Furthermore, he has photographic proof (see picture)!

From Googling, it appears that foxes, like dogs, are actually omnivorous rather than carnivorous and, indeed, according to Wikipedia “fruit can amount to 100% of their diet in autumn“.

Mac’s tip of the week

Admit your broad beans have come to their end … time to remove them and plant leafy crops like basil and lettuce to make use of the nitrogen that they have supplied. How much self-seeded parsley do you need? [Ed: I think this is what is known as a rhetorical question.] Time to cut back / rip out and use that space. Until next time, remember: dirty hand are good hands.

Click here to view all of Mac’s tips.

Are you eating genetically modified food?

As Heather Eliott said on Facebook, Choice has just published a straightforward summary of the genetically modified products currently available, or in development, in Australia.

Eltham Farmers’ Market, quesadilla and leftovers

In partnership with local chefs, healthAbility has been running a series of quarterly cooking demonstrations at Eltham Farmers’ Market to show how easy it is to plan and prepare quick and simple healthy meals which can be made at home using fresh, seasonal produce. At 10.45am at the 11th December market, Duang Tengtrirat, from Real Food Catering, will be demonstrating how to make quesadilla. Read Duang’s quesadilla recipe.

A major ingredient of the quesadilla recipe is ‘leftover veggies’. As some of you will know, leftover veggies is something that Duang has been thinking a lot about lately. Here are her four top tips:

  1. As soon as you put food into a container to store in the fridge, stick a note ‘EAT ME FIRST’ to it. Then use this first either as a re-heat or re-purpose.
  2. When preparing to put leftovers away, make it easy to use them again. For example, remove cooked chicken from the bone so it’s ready to use.
  3. When ready to use leftovers, think of its ‘re-purpose’ use. How can you breathe new life into something from yesterday or the day before?
  4. Look around to see what you have in your pantry that can work as ‘supporting casts.’ For example, in your pantry: rice, pasta, wrap; or, in the fridge: cheese, sauces dressings.

New events

Become a junior chocolatier

What: In a 45 minute ‘parent-free zone’, children aged 6–12 years can learn from their chocolatiers how to make their very own chocolate creations. Includes personalised badge, chef’s hat and apron, graduation certificate plus take home three chocolate creations to enjoy.
When: Tuesday, 10th January; Wednesday, 11th January; Tuesday, 17th January; Wednesday, 18th January; and Tuesday, 24th January. In each case, 6 45 minute sessions a day at 9am, 10am, 11am, midday, 1.30pm and 2.30pm.
Where: Yarra Valley Chocolaterie, Yarra Glen.
Cost: $40.
Enquiries: Yarra Valley Chocolaterie by phone (9730 2777) or email.
Bookings: Yarra Valley Chocolaterie website.
Further information: LFC calendar entry.

Beekeeping workshop

What: What you will learn: bee behaviour; the various major items that make up a bee hive and how to construct them; and the major tasks in hive management. What you will get: a wooden beehive frame that will have beeswax foundation inserted as part of the workshop; and a $5 discount on the book Bee AgSkills (normally $27.50, $22.50 with discount). There will be live bees and honeycomb to look at in a secure exhibition cabinet and a discussion of bee behaviour and hive management. The major items that make up a hive and their construction will be discussed. The equipment a beekeeper needs to work bees will also be reviewed. The major topics discussed will be: establishing a hive; understanding the tasks to be carried out in Spring; how to go about robbing and extracting honey; and swarm control. Participants will be limited to 8 to maintain an informal interactive format.
When: Saturday, 21st January, 9-11am.
Where: Bee Sustainable, Brunswick East.
Cost: $65.
Enquiries: Bee Sustainable by phone (9939 7301) or email.
Bookings / Further information: WeTeachMe.

Victorian cider & pork festival

What: Set amongst the trees at the Rochford Wines estate, this two-day festival showcases the best ciders from Victoria and around the country and the tastiest pork dishes from Melbourne’s leading chefs. Make the most of live entertainment, cider tastings, cider and pork master classes. At least 15 local, boutique cider producers will be in attendance, including: St Ronan’s Cider, Napoleone Cider, Punt Road Cider, Batlow Cider Co, Square Keg Cider, Hills Cider, Custard & Co, Daylesford Cider Co, Flying Brick, Sidekick Cider, and Young Henrys. The beer producers will include: Stone & Wood , Colonial Brewing Co, Hargreaves Hill Brewing and Punt Road Brewing Co. Masterclasses held over both days of the festival will enable visitors to make the most of the cider tastings and learn about varying ranges of ciders. Event-goers will have to opportunity to attend a Q&A session with leading cider makers and witness a range of cooking demos by leading Melbourne chefs, including: Jess Pryles, Ben O’Donghue and Robert Murphy.
When: Monday, 23rd January and Tuesday, 24th January, both 11am-7pm.
Where: Rochford Wines, Coldstream.
Cost: $40 (includes 1 schooner of cider or beer).
Enquiries: festival organisers by email.
Further information: LFC calendar entry.

Preserving know how: making bottled fruit, jams, pickles and relishes

What: Learn how to preserve fruit and veggies safely, using a variety of techniques. These techniques can be used on most fruit and veggies so that you learn to make your own preserves, with no artificial additives and nasty numbers. No preserving background is assumed as you go through the science of how to prevent food spoilage using the preserving methods of bottling, jam-making, pickling and making relishes. Dehydrating is also demonstrated. You will discuss the jars and lids to use, safe storage and use. The workshop is fully hands-on, where you are involved from the processes from start to finish. What you will get: recipes all of the preserves made; small (new) jars of the 4 preserves made on the day; and tastings of other preserves made by My Green Garden.
When: Tuesday, 31st January, 10am-1.15pm.
Where: Donvale.
Cost: $70.
Enquiries: Maria Ciavarella by phone (0424 083057) or email.
Bookings / Further information: WeTeachMe.

Summary of upcoming events

Over the rest of December

Click here for the complete calendar of upcoming events. Click here for help in how to view the calendar selectively (e.g. search for events in a given suburb).