Your local salami champion
On Sunday 18 October, a team led by LFC News subscriber Barbara Marshall was named the 2015 Melbourne Salami Festa overall winner for its unique duck and pork salami. “There was a lot of debate among the judges, but this one won because it was an unusual combination with a simple flavour, that was perfectly cured and packed” said festa director, Carlo Mazzarella. Congratulations Barbara!
In passing, the Eltham Wine Show on Sunday, 15th November, 10.30am-12.30pm, is likely to include a demonstration of how to make salami by Home Make It.
Helen writes about basil
Another month and we’re lucky enough to have another article from Helen, of the Mushroom Shed! This time, she is writing about how to grow basil. As she says in her introduction: “One of the most popular summer herbs is basil – well known for its wonderful flavouring properties and aroma. It is the key ingredient in pesto and also mixes well with tomato based dishes. It originally came from India, where it was a sacred plant, with Holy or Tulsi Basil being highly revered and thus planted around temples and homes. There are many types of basil, including various hybrids. Most are annual, with a few being perennial.” She then goes on to discuss the different varieties, perennial basil, growing from seed, aspect, harvesting and storage. Read the full article.
Helen tells us that she will be bringing around 10 different varieties of basil to Eltham Farmers’ Market on 8th November. So, if you have ever wanted to grow, taste or eat a variety other than sweet basil, now is your chance.
Home delivery of fruit & veggie boxes
There are at least 11 local organisations who home deliver fruit and veggie boxes around North East Melbourne:
- Anges Fresh Fruit & Veg (Kinglake).
- From The Earth Fruitnveg (Ringwood North).
- Go Fresh Fruit Shop (Mooroolbark).
- Greenline Organic / Victoria Organic Delivery (Thomastown).
- Johnny F’s Fruit & Veggies (Alphington).
- Kew Organics (Kew).
- Lime Fresh Produce (Heidelberg).
- Micky Booth Fruit and Vegetable Home Delivery (Ringwood).
- Organic Angels (Box Hill).
- Organic Empire (Mt Evelyn).
- Organic Origins (Warrandyte South).
Each organisation has its own delivery areas. Someone suggested that it would be useful to provide a tool which allows people to type in their postcode or suburb and then be told who will deliver to them. A bit of googling plus a touch of programming and voilà – see the new section on home delivery of fruit and veggie boxes on the website.
If you know of any other organisations that should be included, please email us. Ditto any corrections, comments or suggestions.
Hurstbridge Food Swap
As you may remember from a previous newsletter, the Hurstbridge Food Swap has been on hold for the last few months. The issue is that, whilst Arja (Toivanen) would like to continue with it, she doesn’t want to do so on her own. Is there anyone out there that would be willing to have a go at running the food swap with Arja? If so, please email her.
For the time being at least, consider that the Hurstbridge food swap is now permanently on hold.
Some of the other food swaps (Eltham, Diamond Creek, Greenborough and Warrandyte) are also in need of people to help out. For those of you who go to any of these food swaps: if you could offer to help out a few times a year on the admin side, that would really be appreciated. Email us and we’ll put in contact with the right person.
(The picture on the right is of a new A-frame that has recently been acquired to advertise the Greensborough swap. A similar sign has also been acquired for Warrandyte.)
Watercress soup + peach and tomato gazpacho
Some of you might remember our very successful campaign to popularise watermelon skin pickle. Well, incredibly, there are still two recipes on our website that nobody (apart from me) has ever read. Correct this situation immediately by clicking on one or both of the following:
- Watercress soup (it is actually more interesting than it sounds).
- Peach and tomato gazpacho (a real surprise, particularly given that its author is arguably the best cook in the whole of Nillumbik).
Identifying plant deficiencies
A useful graphic and article from the Grow Real Food website.
Another useful table and short article (pdf) on the same subject.
New events
Zip.
Summary of all upcoming events
Over the next week
- Tomatoes, tomatoes, tomatoes (and basil): Thursday, 29th October, 11am-midday.
- Lalor Community Garden plants sale and open day: Saturday, 31st October, 10am-2pm.
- Growing and using Asian greens: Tuesday, 3rd November, 7.15-9.15pm.
Over the next month
- Growing herbs indoors: Thursday, 5th November, 11am-midday.
- Warrandyte Community Garden open day: Sunday, 8th November, 10am-1pm.
- Beekeeping – a taster: Sunday, 8th November, 2-4pm.
- Growing vegetables in your garden: Monday, 9th November, 10.30am-12.30pm.
- Maintaining beneficial insects in the garden: Thursday, 12th November, 11am-midday.
- Eltham Wine Show: Sunday, 15th November, 10.30am-12.30pm.
- The art of food forest gardening: Tuesday, 17th November, 11.30am-12.30pm.
- Backyard beekeeping: Saturday, 21st November, 9.30-11.30am.
- Minh’s Vietnamese garden: Saturday, 21st November, midday-1pm.
- Antony’s Greek garden: Saturday, 21st November, 1.30-2.30pm.
- George and Marika’s mini market garden: Saturday, 21st November, 3-4pm.
- Harry’s micro orchard garden: Sunday, 22nd November, 10-11am.
- Citrus and apple tree aerial layering and grafting workshop: Sunday, 22nd November, 11.30am-12.30pm.
- Steve and George’s mini suburban farm: Sunday, 22nd November, 1-2pm.
- Fruit tree selection and care: Sunday, 22nd November, 2.30-3.30pm.
- Fotios and Effy’s Mediterranean garden: Sunday, 22nd November, 4-5pm.
- Kim’s recycled renters garden: Monday, 23rd November, 6-7pm.
- Angelo’s fertile food forest: Tuesday, 24th November, 6-7pm.
- Wicking bed workshop: Wednesday, 25th November, 6-7pm.
- Backyard chooks for beginners: Friday, 27th November, 10.30am-12.30pm.
- Robbie’s aquaponics garden: Saturday, 28th November, 10-11am.
- Introduction to aquaponics workshop: Saturday, 28th November, 11.30am-12.30pm.
- Edible and medicinal plant identification and use: Saturday, 28th November, 1-2pm.
- Soil matters: Saturday, 28th November, 2-4.30pm.
- Kat’s small scale urban farm: Saturday, 28th November, 2.30-3.30pm.
- Small space veggie patch design workshop: Saturday, 28th November, 4-5pm.
- Permaculture garden – food forests: Sunday, 29th November, 10-11am.
- Permaculture garden – enhancing biodiversity: Sunday, 29th November, 11.30am-12.30pm.
- Permaculture garden – design: Sunday, 29th November, 1-2pm.
- Sharing homegrown food: Sunday, 29th November, 2.30-4.30pm.