Dinner and film night: Design For Life - Permaculture - The Food Forest Story, Thursday 11 November

Our next film night will be Thursday 11 November, 8pm at Conti, with a 'sustainable eating out' dinner beforehand at 7pm, for just $15. Please book for dinner on 5348 3636 or email us. The film of the day will be Design For Life - Permaculture - The Food Forest Story, just arrived from the aforementioned Food Forest in South Australia. (Due to recent arrival, replacing the previously advertised Oiling of America, apologies for late changes.)

Join us for this documentary about Annemarie and Graham Brookman's journey on their way to creating The Food Forest, "one of the World's iconic permaculture properties and one of Australia's most awarded organic farms."

Some photos of our last Conti dinner to inspire you to join us as well...

Chatting before dinner, a great chance to make new friends and build our community

Alexis explains the amazing feast he has prepared for us from local and wild foods

And look at the spread!

Serving up - yum!

See you on your bike at Critical Mass! 5pm Friday 29 October at the Daylesford Primary School zebra crossing. (That's tomorrow!) :-)

Future planning for your diary and in your garden

We're having another food survey meeting this coming Monday 25/10. Anyone interested in helping with the project, contact us for details.

Other dates for your calendar...

Reminders:
- Hepburn Hollow community fire prep working bee, 10am-1pm, this Sunday 24 October: Come along and enjoy the company of neighbours and friends while we work together to clear up and reduce fire hazard. Learn some great methods you can apply elsewhere too while you're at it (like your place!). Bring a picnic or something to share at the end if you have time to stick around.
- Critical Mass, 5pm, Friday 29 October: Meet at the zebra crossing outside Daylesford Primary School.

Just to note for now, to be confirmed, details to follow:
- 11/11 Dinner at Conti and film: The Oiling of America (about edible oil, not peak oil)
- 9/12 Final HRN event for 2010: Community dinner

Also we're getting ready already (!) for next year with some workshops and networking in the works... So keep these things in mind when you're in your garden in the coming months:
- Preserving workshops: How to preserve your excess produce so you can eat your yummy fruit and veg between seasons. Keep in mind to keep any produce you don't eat or give away to preserve together with friends, learn ways to preserve and share the work at the same time!
- Seed saving and sharing group: Check out your plants as they grow and keep some aside to save the seeds. Take note of how they fare in different conditions, any special flavours or helpful traits to treasure for the next season and share around. And you can even start now if you have anything currently going to seed! Check out some general info about Seed Savers networks here. Let us know if you have any great ideas. Stay tuned for more information...

Also, if you need any clothes altered or mended, the Hepburn Post Office has an alteration and mending service. Useful local service to know about!

Reminder: CSA working bee; Bushfire prep working bee; Critical Mass bike riding fun!

So many enjoyable community outdoor activities coming up in this glorious Spring time weather.

A reminder about the CSA (Community Support Agriculture) working bee at Rod May's farm, May's Road, Blampied, this Sunday 17th October, 10am-1pm. Bring gloves and some food to share afterwards if you can stick around. See the photo sent out a couple of weeks ago from a previous working bee here. Contact Su on 5348 3636 or email for more info and car pooling. Click on the Vegie box tab of the blog site for more info about CSA and vegie boxes.

Another fun community working bee coming up is the bushfire clear up the following Sunday, 24th October, 10am-1pm at the Hepburn Hollow, end of Fifteenth Street. Come and help clear up some crown land in Hepburn, to help make our community a safer place during bushfire seasons. Wear good work shoes, bring gloves and your favourite tools. We'll have the HRN rake hoes to use as well. Don't forget the rake hoes are available for loan if you are working on clearing up your place or surrounding areas with your neighbours. See a photo of a previous Hepburn Hollow working bee here. Contact Maureen for more info on 5348 2592 or email.

And lastly, Daylesford's second Critical Mass will be held on the last Friday of this month - 29th October. Meet at the Daylesford Primary School zebra crossing at 5pm for a ride through the main street of Daylesford, to raise awareness of bikes on the road and enjoy riding together! See some photos of the first Critical Mass in Daylesford here or here. Join the facebook group if you're a facebook person.

Here's Meg, who inspired a big group of us to jump on our bikes last month! Yay Meg! :-)

Film night: Bullshit; Edible Wild Plants tour; CSA working bee

Our next film night will be Thursday 14 October at the Savoia. Film at 7:30, dinner available from 6pm, call the Savoia on 5348 2314 for dinner bookings, you know the drill. :-)

We're showing the film Bullshit, a documentary about:

Vandana Shiva, Indian environmental activist and nuclear physicist, who was awarded the Right Livelihood Award in 1993. It's a film on globalisation and patenting, on genetic engineering, bio-piracy, indigenous knowledge.

See the poster for more details (click the link). It should be a very interesting film!

News from others is that Alexis is leading another Wild Edible Plants tour, next Monday 11th October from 11am to 1pm, followed by an organic lunch, which is included in the $25 cost. Contact 0409 955 897 by Sunday for bookings.

There will be a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) working bee at Rod May's farm in Blampied on Sunday 17th October from 10am to 1pm. Email us for more information. Come and help kick off vegie box season!