LFC News November 1 2023

Nov 022023
 

Thanks to the people who have contributed to this week’s newsletter: Angela Harridge, Ann Stanley, Megan Goodman, Rachel Bishop, Robin Gale-Baker, Sue Dyet and Vanessa Nitsos Chan.

Pruning established espaliered fruit trees (by Robin Gale-Baker)

[The photo is of an espaliered pear tree where Robin has pruned the left hand side but not the right hand side.]

With the arrival of a warm, wet Melbourne Spring, my espaliered fruit trees have gone gangbusters! The trees are putting on masses of new growth in all directions. However, most of this new growth actually needs to come off. Here are some tips to keep your espaliers healthy, in check and fruit bearing.

There are many espalier shapes, but here I will focus on the two most popular, namely a fan shape for citrus and horizontal shape for apples, pears and stone fruit. In both cases, your aim is to create a tree that is flat, uncluttered and full of fruiting spurs upon which the fruit will grow. Additionally, hard pruning will allow good air circulation which will prevent disease.

There are two main procedures: tying down new, sappy growth while it is flexible and pruning away outward and vertical growth.

With horizontal espaliers, begin by identifying which side branches you want to keep. If they have reached the end of the wire, prune the tip to prevent further growth. If you are starting on a new wire (that will be a higher wire) then select and tie down one side branch each side of the main trunk. Begin with this for two reasons: first, you are unlikely to accidentally cut this branch off and, second, if it snaps you can then remove it and select another to train along the wire. When tying, leave about 1cm between the branch and wire to prevent the wire growing into the branch or rubbing on the branch in windy weather.

With fan shape trees, choose which branches to expand the fan and tie these on to your frame, pruning any that have reached the maximum height or width of the frame at their tip.

You have now established the new frame and it is time to prune the foliage.

With both shapes, the foliage that protrudes forward needs to be removed or cut back to a fruiting spur. If it looks like a green, leafy, water shoot then prune this at the base, even if it is growing horizontally (water shoots generally grow vertically but on espaliers they go up and out). If there is wood at the base with fruiting spurs or buds, then shorten this for the moment and later you can thin the fruiting spur branches so that the branch isn’t too cluttered. At the end of the branch nearest the trunk, you will see two basal leaves on the wood; count three leaf groups above this and cut just above the third one. Shortened branches prevent growth hormone from going upward and re-direct it into these short stems to create fruiting spurs. Space fruiting spur branches at about 12cm intervals along the branch and remove any in between.

Once the outward branches have been pruned on a horizontal shape, start on the vertical growth on each side branch. Prune any water shoots to the base and shorten any woody branches as above. Prune away any growth beneath the side branches too. With a fan shape, thin out the branches, selecting the strongest and tie them to the frame. Of course, remove any diseased, crossed or broken branches.

With horizontal shapes, there will come a time each year when you need to prune the main trunk. By cutting the trunk just above the new wire, you force the buds just beneath the cut to develop and these become the new side branches. A vertical shoot will then develop into the main trunk and grow up to the next wire for the process to be repeated the following year.

Protect your espaliered fruit from birds and possums with netting. Because they are flat, espaliers are easy to net. Net can be hung over the top wire and draped down both sides even when an espalier is against a wall.

Espaliers require a lot of attention. In winter, prune for shape and in spring prune at least three times, a month apart, to reduce foliage and maximise fruit growth. It is surprising how quickly espaliers can get out of hand when there is plenty of rain and warmth, but attending to them is well worth the effort. They are very attractive, and will reward you with beautiful flowers, foliage and fruit.

A self-guided tour of urban agriculture in Yarra’s north

City of Yarra Council(?) have just published a self-guided tour of urban agriculture in Yarra’s north. It is a 3km walk from Rushall Community Garden in Fitzroy North to the Railway Garden in Princes Hill, with 8 points of interest in between.

You can now grow edible plants in Whittlesea’s nature strips

If you live in the Whittlesea municipality, you can now grow edible plants on your nature strip so long as they are in removable planter boxes.

I don’t know how many of our local councils allow this. I’m pretty sure that my one (Nillumbik) doesn’t.

Newsletter tip of the week – spent lettuces

From Sue Dyet: after you think a lettuce is finished for any reason, don’t pull it out but cut a stump about 5-10 cm long and then cut a cross in the middle/top of the stump about 1cm deep. Then wait for 4 smaller lettuces to appear from the rootstock. The photo right is of 4 mini lettuces about 2 months old that have grown from a single stem.

Thanks, Sue! It would be great if we had more tips from newsletter readers. Send us your tips by email.

Farewell to Miranda Sharp

Many of you will know that Miranda Sharp stepped down from her role of CEO of Melbourne Farmers’ Markets earlier this year, with Anne Duncan replacing her. Melbourne Farmers Market made the formal announcement in their latest newsletter.

Something for you to watch

As part of her Behind the garden gate series, Chloe Thomson recently visited Inge Kofoed Hansen’s garden in Diamond Creek. Watch the resulting video.

There are now a total of 15 videos on our website about local, edible home gardens.

Mitcham Community Meal

Mitcham Community Meal provides a free community dinner every Sunday evening, where each meal is cooked by a different local community group. During October, the cooking teams were Belmore Road Church of Chris, Blackburn Lions, Diane & crew (see photo right), Lifegate Church and MP Aiv Puglielli & staff. Look at some photos of these teams, plus those of previous teams.

Meg’s garden this month (by Megan Goodman)

As I write this, I am sheltering under the veranda and watching the hailstones gather in little piles over the decking. The cold snap has set back my spring planting even further but it has been great for the end of the brassicas by preventing them running to seed. I have lovely florets of broccoli and cauliflower to add to my vegetable pie (see recipe below). This is a great recipe for vegetables that need using. Any mix can be used. It is also adaptable as you can leave out the cheese or bacon or even the cream (use extra eggs).

Vegetable pie

500g diced and lightly steamed vegetables from the garden (so that they are only just soft)
2 potatoes, lightly steamed
1 small leek, finely sliced
olive oil
3 rashers bacon, trimmed
5 eggs
200ml cream
100g grated cheese
salt and pepper
puff pastry sheets x 2

Pre-heat oven to 200degC. Fry the leek in a little olive oil until soft. Cool.

Grease a pie dish/tin. Line with the puff pastry and blind bake with pie weight until it just starts to puff (about 15 minutes).

Cool and add all the vegetables and leek.

Mix together the eggs, cream, cheese salt and pepper and pour over the vegetables.

Lay the bacon rashers across the top and top with pastry sheet.

Bake for a further 30-40 minutes until the pastry is golden.

Read more of Megan’s recipes on our website.

The swift parrot is 2023 Australian bird of the year

Read the announcement in the Guardian, which includes the top ten.

Our articles over the last month

Here are some of the articles from our newsletters over the last month that you might have missed:

Which link was clicked most times in the last newsletter?

The most popular link in the last newsletter was Local Food Connect’s final bulletin about Fabbro Fields..

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

The bartender said, “Why do you have a sandwich taped to your head?”
The man said, “My family always wears a sandwich hat on Wednesdays.”
The bartender said, “It’s Tuesday.”
The man hung his head in shame and said, “Gosh, I must look pretty silly right now, then.”

Read more food-related jokes.

 

Regular activities over the coming week

Farmers’ and other food markets
Food swaps
Community gardens

Upcoming face-to-face events – not cooking

Gin and cheese sensory soiree; Thursday, 2nd November, 6-8pm; $49 ($25 per hour); Abbotsford.

Taste 4 gins paired with 4 French-style cheeses. Learn about the making processes and flavour notes from Daylesford Spirit and Long Paddock Cheese experts. After the tasting, try each gin in cocktails. Cheese boards will also be on offer.

Alphington garden site tour; Sunday, 12th November, 10-11am; free; Alphington.

Kim will introduce you to the DIVRS garden and will talk about what has (and has not!) worked on the site and in her home garden. The focus will be on gardening on a budget and they will be collating everyone’s tips and tricks for accessing ‘free’ garden resources around Darebin. DIVRS will also have a stall at the market where they will be selling tomato seedlings. All funds raised will be used to buy new gardening equipment and materials. DIVRS grow food for community in 4 spaces around Darebin. Last year, their team of around 20 volunteers grew around 1,200kg of vegetables (mostly leafy greens) for people experiencing food insecurity in Darebin.

Eltham Wine Show; Sunday, 19th November, 10.30am-2.30pm; $20; Bulleen.

Australia’s largest amateur wine show. Hundreds of wines will be available for tasting – red, white, sparkling and fortified grape wines. Also, meads, ciders, country wines, kombuchas and liqueurs. Wine awards and presentations.

Community compost gathering; Saturday, 25th November, 2-5pm; free; Fitzroy.

Meet some of the local leaders in community composting, including Dave Goodman (Kensington Town House Compost Hub), Jo Buckle (Gore Street Community Compost), Michael Mobbs (Sustainable Chippendale Street Compost), Kath Jones (Finbar Neighbourhood House), Alex Fearnside (Urban Coup Co-Housing Community), Avi Tan (North Melbourne Pump House Compost Hub), Xuan Wang (City Compost Network) and Clytie Binder (Churchill Fellow on Community Composting). At 3pm, there will be a biochar demonstration by Kath Jones. At 4pm, Xuan Wang will discuss the benefits and barriers of community composting in Australia.

Poultry and extreme heat; Sunday, 26th November, 10.15am-1.15pm; $64 ($21 per hour); Doreen.

Sarah Hunter will discuss how extreme heat can impact poultry and the techniques available to actually reduce temperatures through garden and free range design, as well as the short term practices that can be adopted to rapidly reduce heat impacts on chickens in an emergency situation. The concepts to be discussed include: how heat affects chickens; design techniques for poultry cooling; preparing your space for summer; and ‘instant’ techniques to cool your chickens during a heatwave. The workshop will also look at an establishing new orchard space on the farm where they are putting in place methods for heat mitigation.

Gardening and planting workshop; Sunday, 26th November, 11am-1pm; free; Brunswick.

Prepare a garden bed for planting, learn to arrange and plant seedlings, and learn about the seasonal planting calendar. Presenter: Melissa Houselander. Organised by Brunswick Neighbourhood House.

Worm farm – set your worms up for success; Sunday, 26th November, 1.45-3.15pm; free; Reservoir.

Learn all things worm farm with Corinne from Easy Peasy Gardens. Organised by Friends of Regent Community Garden. Click here to read about the garden.

The Veggie Empire urban farm tour; on Tuesday, 28th November, 10-11.30am and again on Sunday, 3rd December, 11am-midday; $11; St Helena.

The Veggie Empire, a farming duo (Scott and Josh) living with disability, will be hosting a guided tour of their urban farm. Together they have created a social enterprise that includes a market garden, food plant nursery, revegetation project and worm farming operation. As well as a guided walk around the farm, the tour will include a talk on how they’ve got to where they have and an explanation of the model they have used to get there. Following the tour, catering will be provided. Seedlings and produce will be available for purchase.

Introduction to beekeeping (2 sessions); Saturday, 2nd December, 9.30am-4.30pm and Saturday, 9th December, 10am-12.30pm; $225 ($24 per hour); St Helena.

This program is highly interactive and includes a live hive opening as well as other hands-on skill building exercises. The background instruction includes equipment selection and bee biology in addition to details of the Apiary and Biosecurity Codes of Practice. Included in the course fee are a comprehensive handbook and a copy of the textbook The Australian Beekeeping Manual, 2nd Ed. (which retails at $60). Organised by The Beekeepers Club.

St John’s Christmas gingerbread house making event; Friday, 8th December, 7.30-9.30pm; $40 ($20 per hour); Diamond Creek.

Create a gingerbread House – complete with an abundance of lollies, gingerbread people and snow. Tickets are for two people, sharing one gingerbread house. Then partake in a light supper with tea and coffee, followed by a short Christmas talk from a guest speaker. Organised by St John’s Anglican Church.

In November
In December
Regular events

Upcoming face-to-face events – cooking

Let’s masak-masak; Saturday, 4th November, 2.30-6pm; $15; Box Hill.

Want to learn how to cook authentic Peranakan dishes? Aunty Anita Wee will show you how to cook ayam pongteh (chicken stew) and Nyonya Allison Pereira will then to show you how to make telur cincalok (egg with fermented shrimp) and sambal belachan (chilli with shrimp paste). Please take something to share for afternoon tea, when you will taste the food that you learnt to make.

Cosmo cupcake soiree; Saturday, 18th November, 5-7pm; $75 ($38 per hour); Ivanhoe.

You will learn: the basics of buttercream; colouring buttercream; filling a piping bag; and piping techniques with three different piping tips. You will decorate 6 vanilla bean cupcakes in a Christmas themed style. Enjoy a complimentary cocktail by Imbue featuring their gin.

Kombucha, jun, water kefir, wild mead and beet kvass; Friday, 1st December, 6.30-8.30pm; $180 ($90 per hour); Fitzroy North.

Make four easy summer drinks. You will go home with 3 large jars full to be nurtured and ferment at home in your own kitchen of mead, beet kvass, kombucha and water kefir with the SCOBY – and a bottle of second fermenting water kefir that will be ready the next day.

Christmas cooking gift ideas; Friday, 8th December, 1.30-3pm; free; Greensborough.

Learn how to make some Christmas treats with Marie from Rie’s Kitchen.

Vegan chocolate making; Thursday, 14th December, 6.30-8pm; $80 ($53 per hour); Collingwood.

Start by unraveling the story of cocoa butter. Then delve into the intricacies of chocolate making, from melting and mixing the perfect blend of ingredients to mastering the art of setting. Presenter: Tina Gelberidis.

In November
In December
Regular classes

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