LFC News November 22 2023

Nov 222023
 

Thanks to the people who have contributed to this week’s newsletter: Angelo Eliades, Ann Stanley, Chris Chapple, Jaimie Sweetman, Jennie Ramage, Jude Waldron, Lee Hirsh, Lee Tozzi and Lisa Claiborne.

Self-seeding edible annuals (by Jaimie Sweetman)

[Jaimie is Head Gardener of the Edible Forest located on the Yarra Valley Estate in Dixons Creek. Tours of the Edible Forest, often led by Jaimie, take place on Fridays and Saturdays – read more and book your place on a future tour.]

In the Edible Forest, we have many self-seeding plants, each with its own purpose. They include:

  • Angelica (beneficial bugs, clay breaker and medicinal).
  • Calendula (medicinal).
  • Corn flowers (for tea).
  • Nigella (edible seeds).
  • Perennial sweet peas.
  • Violas (edible flowers).
  • Yam daisies (edible tubers).

Some we have only started with one plant and over the years this has multiplied to as many as we want.

None of these plants are hard to remove.

Also, letting plants self seed means the garden is always looking different. While it’s not for some as it creates a more wild aesthetic, it certainly makes gardening easier. And it’s a way to work with nature instead of against it.

Read about more of Jaimie’s unusual edible plants on our website.

Read the list edible flowers on our website.

Banyule’s Urban Food Strategy

In the past year Banyule Council, in conjunction with Sustain and community members, have been developing an Urban Food Strategy, which aims to be “a blueprint for creating, celebrating and enhancing Banyule’s food systems to ensure it is healthy, sustainable, equitable, inclusive and accessible.” The strategy was adopted unanimously by Banyule’s councillors on 25th September. Read the draft strategy and associated action plan.

The strategy is being launched tomorrow (Thursday, 23rd November) at 6-8pm at Bellfield Community Hub. The event is free. Learn about the aspirations and opportunities for Banyule’s urban food systems, hear Professor Michael Buxton discuss the importance of protecting our peri-urban areas, visit Bellfield Community Hub, and connect with others interested in Banyule’s urban food systems. Read more and book your place.

Yes, you did advise!

Last week, Rebecca Haschek asked what, if anything, she could plant in early December when she returns from holiday. Angelo Eliades and Jennie Ramage have sent in substantive replies.

Advice from Angelo Eliades

There’s a reason why there is a gardening calendar for every single month of the year, because different seeds can be sown and seedlings can be transplanted. Gardeners sometimes make the mistake in thinking that all their crops need to be planted in spring once the weather warms up, and that’s it!

Obviously, some seeds need to go in before December, and those won’t be possible for Rebecca to sow as seeds, but the seedlings that can be purchased are six weeks ahead, so it’s just like sowing the seeds in mid-October. For the veggie and herb seedlings that need to be planted before December, it will be too late, but there are others that can still be planted. It’s never too late to sow some kind of seeds or plant some kind crops in any month of the year, nature doesn’t stop in any month and neither should our gardening!

[Editor: from our planting guide, here are some of the veggies whose seeds you can plant in October and whose seedlings you can therefore plant in December: beans, beetroot, carrot, celery, chives, cucumber, gourd, jerusalem artichoke, lettuce, mizuna, mustard greens, okra, parsley, parsnip, potato, pumpkin, radish, rocket, rockmelon, silverbeet, spring onions, sweet potato, sweetcorn, watermelon and zucchini.]

Advice from Jennie Ramage

Often the hardest thing is to hold back planting summer crops until the soil has warmed. Planting in December will be a gift in this regard!

I have often put in a second planting of climbing bean seeds in late December. During a hot summer, which we are told is ahead of us, I would still be picking beans into April.

Buy tomato seedlings that look a bit stressed and that have flowers. If you can, buy them in single small pots rather than 6 in a punnet, so that their roots are not overly damaged when you plant them. Plant deeply into well dug soil, raise the soil up to the level of the first leaves, sprinkle with compost or worm castings, mulch with pea straw, sprinkle some cow manure on top. Water well. These plants have already been triggered to flower. Now with excellent growing conditions, the plants will be off and away and hopefully give you a good crop.

Zucchini (seeds) will still have time to crop. The soil will be warm and there won’t be cold weather that would set the plants back.

Basil (seedlings) will thrive, soil will be warm, plenty of growing time. Silverbeet, rocket, coriander seeds also. Make sure that you keep soil moist to germinate.

A final tip: put pea straw into a large bucket filled with water, then place the dripping wet mulch around your seedlings. The drier summer soil will get a soaking, the soil will stay protected from the hot sun, and the plants will thrive.

Some feedback on last week’s articles

From Lee Tozzi re the Coburg Community Garden Festival

The upcoming Coburg Community Garden Festival is being supported by the My Smart Garden program (of which Merri-bek is one of 10 council partners).

My Smart Garden was the City Winner in the Education Category of the 2023 Keep Australia Beautiful Victoria Sustainability awards.

The EPA Waste prevention and reduction award that Green my Plate won was also from the 2023 Keep Australia Beautiful Victoria Sustainability awards, not Merri-Bek Council.

[And I (Guy) note that a young lady from Epping, called Tanya Sharma, was the City Winner in the Young Legend Category for her actions to combat cigarette butt litter.]

From Ann Stanley re the Rs of waste management

“I loved your ‘re’ list and re-lated linguistic re-search. In high schools, we often say the three ‘rs’ in teaching are Relationship, Relationship, Relationship, because ‘if you can’t reach ’em, you can’t teach ’em ‘.

Thanks for making the effort to write in Ann and Lee!

The Railway Garden in Princes Hill

[Editor: A number of local community gardens were established during the Covid years and I have gradually been adding them to our Local Food Directory. This is one such.]

The Railway Garden is at North Carlton Railway Neighbourhood House, 20 Solly Avenue, Princes Hill. It is open to the public and comprises 10 large garden beds, 6 wicking beds, a citrus bed, a fruit tree area and an indigenous plants bed. Read their technical manual.

The vision is of a collectively managed, open and inclusive garden and community meeting place where people gather to connect with one another, either through gardening activities or simply for the pleasure of being there. They strive to ensure a positive impact on the environment, for example, no pesticides, use organic gardening methods, recycle waste and nutrients where possible (eg through composting) and save seeds. Read their operational manual.

To discuss any aspect of the community garden, contact North Carlton Railway Neighbourhood House by phone (9380 6654) or email. Also, see their website.

There are gardening groups on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday mornings. If you would potentially like to get involved in the garden, fill out an enrolment form and they will get in touch with you.

See more pictures of their garden on their page on our website.

Thanks for all the information, Lisa Claiborne!

We now have pages for 6 community gardens in City of Yarra and for a total of 61 community gardens around North East Melbourne as a whole.

‘The Secret Garden’ in Collingwood

6 years ago, a 5-year lease was granted for the purpose of “beautification, weed management and operation of a community garden” at the northern end of Ballarat Street, Collingwood. This community garden is now under threat of closure. Read this ABC News article about why it is under threat of closure and why some locals are resisting such closure. Read, and potentially sign, the petition to save the Secret Garden.

Some news from Community Grocer

The Community Grocer is “a not-for-profit social enterprise that runs fresh produce markets and programs to increase social, economic and physical access to fresh food.” In particular, they sell fruit and veggies at Fitzroy on Tuesday mornings and at Carlton on Friday mornings.

Their pickup hubs

If you want to buy their fruit and veggies but can’t make it to their markets, you can order online and pick up the order in the afternoon following the market. Place an order and pick up from Rose St Pantry in Fitzroy on a Tuesday afternoon. Place an order and pick up from Kathleen Syme Library and Community Centre in Carlton on a Friday afternoon.

Grocer gift cards

Their Grocer gift cards are vouchers which you purchase and then donate to community members experiencing food insecurity.

Want to organise a once-off food swap in Armadale next year?

The ABC Community Garden in Armadale is planning to run a sustainability festival next year on 6th April. Among other things, they would like to include a food swap, but would need help from someone to run it smoothly. Is there anyone who would potentially be interested in spending a few hours on the day hosting a food swap? If so, email me and I’ll put you in contact with them.

The Victorian container deposit scheme (CDS) scheme

As you hopefully know, Victoria’s container deposit scheme (CDS) scheme has now commenced and you can now exchange eligible drink containers for 10 cents. Per the State Government’s CDS website, “Most aluminium, glass, plastic and liquid paperboard (carton) drink containers between 150mL and 3 litres are eligible. You can keep the lids on, we recycle them too.” The exceptions are: plain milk containers of all sizes, cordial or syrup containers, wine & spirit bottles, large beverage pouches and some large (1 litre or greater) containers including juice.

There are refund locations in many suburbs but they are not necessarily where you might expect. For example, the location in my suburb (Eltham) is the milk bar on Pitt Street.

As an alternative to keeping the refunds, you can nominate a community group to automatically receive your refunds. You do this on the VISY website or the corresponding phone app (CDS Vic North). Create an account, then click the ‘donations’ button, then choose your ‘donation partner’. The donation partners are grouped into categories and, from a quick look through the list, I identified the following food-related organisations: Feed One Feed All (category: Disaster Relief), OzHarvest (Human Services), Richmond Churches Food Centre (Human Services), The Community Grocer (Community Development) and Whittlesea Community Garden (Community Development).

The Melbourne ‘Local Food Connections’ community radio show

On this upcoming Sunday’s episode, Ann Stanley will chat with Lucinda Flyn about her permaculture garden in Hurstbridge.

Listen on 3CR (855 AM) on Sunday morning, 10-10.30am, by tuning into either the station (855 AM) or its livestream.

Podcasts of previous episodes are available on their website. These are now proper podcasts, including titles and descriptions.

Which link was clicked most times in the last newsletter?

The most popular link in the last newsletter was Ann’s article about Murundaka.

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

A balanced diet is essential. Try a pastry in each hand. (submitted by Lee Hirsh)

Read more food-related jokes.

 

Regular activities over the coming week

Farmers’ and other food markets

You may have previously bought some of Island Home’s rather interesting Sri Lankan curry meals at Eltham Farmers’ Market. Well, they have now also started making ready-to-eat pan rolls. I bought their chickpea, potato and coconut one a few weeks ago and it was rather yum. Their standard schedule is the 2nd and 4th Sundays so hopefully they will be at this upcoming Sunday’s market and you can try one then.

Food swaps
Community gardens

As you can see, there are lots of open days on this upcoming Sunday, 26th November.

Upcoming face-to-face events – not cooking

How to make beeswax food wraps; Saturday, 25th November, 10-11.30am; $60 ($40 per hour); Collingwood.

You will learn how to mix, apply, bake and care for your beeswax wraps. All materials will be provided and you will take home however many wraps you make in the session (most people average about six).

Crop planning and rotation (2 sessions); Saturday, 2nd December, 10am-2pm and Sunday, 3rd December, 10am-3pm; $359 ($40 per hour); Bundoora.

In the first session, you will discuss how the opportunities and limitations of a site combine to inform crop placement and rotation. You will also learn how to grow for a defined market. The second session will be a field trip where you find out about a methodology for crop planning and how this is used at this specific site. You will also discuss weed management and fertility practices, particularly when flipping beds/shifting from one crop to another, and how this impacts rotation plans (which crops should follow or never follow). Presenter: Keren Tsaushu from Five Tales Farm in Piedmont. Organised by Farmer Incubator.

Vegetable garden planner workshop; Saturday, 2nd December, 2.30-4pm; $47 ($24 per hour); Bundoora.

You will get tips on: which vegetables to select to grow at a backyard-scale; how to best plant seeds and appropriately space out vegetables; companion planting; and best practice when it comes to the rotation of different families of vegetables. Presenter: Keren Tsaushu from Five Tales Farm. Organised by Farmer Incubator.

Resin art with ink – cheese platter (2 sessions); Monday, 4th December, 7-9pm and Tuesday, 5th December, 7-8pm; $95 ($32 per hour); Mount Evelyn.

Create a one of kind cheese platter in a relaxed and laid back environment. Local artist Stephanie Anne, from Sullcher Creative Design, will demonstrate the fine art of resin and ink. Learn how to manipulate and blend ink within the resin medium. No experience necessary. All resources included. Organised by Mt Evelyn Community House.

In November
In December
Regular events

Upcoming face-to-face events – cooking

Hamed Allahyari – salamati; Wednesday, 6th December, 6.30-8pm; free; Fitzroy North.

Hamed Allahyari’s book, is called Salamati: Hamed’s Persian kitchen: recipes and stories from Iran to the other side of the world. Hamid will discuss his book and also make dadani dip.

Gingerbread making with Mumma Sweden; Thursday, 7th December, 6.30-8.30pm; $70 ($35 per hour); Collingwood.

You will make, and take home, a batch of freshly baked gingerbread delights, be they star-shaped cookies, gingerbread figures or something else. Presenter: Mumma Sweden.

In November
In December
Regular classes

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