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.