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Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Film night #49: Ecuador

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Here's the trailer:
(If you're reading this in your inbox, you may need to click through to the blog to watch.)

Sunday, March 17, 2013

Media

Permaculture: A Rhymer's Manual, the 12-track album from Formidable Vegetable Sound System brings simple concepts of sustainability into the spotlight through mnemonics, memes and music. The album is being launched on April 6 at CERES in Melbourne.


Meanwhile, up here in the hills, HRN is busy working with the band's frontman, Charlie Mgee (Permaculture Ukulele) to organise a gig for kids of all ages in Daylesford. We're very excited! Watch this space for more details.

Here's one of Charlie's songs, There's No Such Thing as Waste, based on Permaculture's 6th principle, Produce no Waste:


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Helena Norberg-Hodge (The Economics of Happiness) is one of the pioneers of the localisation movement and has been working for over thirty years promoting the renewal of local communities, economies and cultures. Manish Jain (Schooling the World) works to actively resist and dismantle what he describes as the global industrial education system and to regenerate local wisdom traditions by encouraging the teaching of local ways of knowing in India. Helena and Manish are speakers at this year's Economics of Happiness conference in Byron Bay and were interviewed on Thursday by Phillip Adams. You can hear the interview here - it's well worth a listen.

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Another podcast that's well worth a listen is Has our obsession with food gone too far? We live in a time where even the blandest offerings can be labelled 'gourmet', what and where we eat is front and centre in popular culture, while those who feed us have attained an almost revered status. But despite being better informed about the food we eat, its ingredients and nutritional value, our food choices are often questionable and health outcomes are trending downwards. So has our obsession with food gone too far? Or not far enough ?

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And for those who missed Dave Jacke's Daylesford talk on edible forest gardening, here is an excerpt:



Sunday, March 10, 2013

Films, Fermentation & the Feminine

The Transition Film Festival has just had a spate of sell-out screenings in Melbourne and is now coming to Castlemaine as a part of the Castlemaine Fringe Festival.


ANOTHER WORLD IS HAPPENING is an important collection of short documentaries about the Australian and international transition toward a sustainable global society, curated by the Transitions Film Festival. Featuring stories about community energy projects such as Hepburn Wind, the Beyond Zero Emissions vision of a Zero Carbon Australia, sustainable economics, the global renewable revolution and more.

These inspiring, positive stories will prove that another world is not just possible, it is happening all around us. 

The films will be shown on Friday the 22nd of March at the Theater Royal starting at 7pm. Have a look at the trailer:


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We are going to do a much awaited miso making workshop with Rick Tanaka on either April 4th (Thursday) or April 6th (Saturday) at Melliodora. The cost will be $25, and $15 for 1kg of koji starter (sourced from the Blue Mountains) that you will need for your batch. There are 8 places available for this workshop. Please email us to indicate your interest and preferred day.  More info soon.

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Su accepting her honour
Congratulations to HRN's very own Su Dennett, who on Thursday was added to the Hepburn Shire International Women's Day Honour Roll.

As those who know her personally can testify, Su is a tireless worker towards a fairer and safer community in our shire. Su is a stalwart when it comes to social justice, especially concerning the rights of women and enabling better opportunities for local women and their families to access healthy food.

Su is a fierce campaigner for environmental justice and is considered both a local and global pioneer of the permaculture movement. Su's life has been dedicated to how we can better work to achieve harmony with the land and with each other. Su's work in networking local families to local farm produce has enabled many local families to eat best practice agricultural food at affordable prices. This has helped grow the burgeoning community food system, a system that recognises food miles as an enormous contributor to climate change, and Su has worked closely with community gardeners to further expand a local and just food economy.

Su has been an active member of the council's sustainability group, and worked with council and fellow community participants to establish the shire's Energy Descent Action Plan, a first of its kind in Australia. In all Su does she brings love and empathy and good humour to the task. She performs in our community as an exemplary elder and someone who sets an example of strength and integrity in all her activities, both personal and public.

Well done Su!

Monday, March 4, 2013

Dave Jacke: Edible Forest Gardens

Dave Jacke, author of Edible Forest Gardens, is coming to Daylesford and you are invited to come and hear him speak:

Wednesday March 13
Senior Citizens Room (behind Town Hall)
7pm for a 7.30pm start. 
Cost is $10 per person
Bookings essential: 
hrn@internode.on.net or 5348 3636

Dave Jacke is a permaculture pioneer who has taken the Forest Garden concept beyond it tropical origins showing it can be adapted to temperate climates.

This talk is a unique opportunity for local permaculture practitioners and anyone interested in ecological solutions to hear Dave Jacke speak while he is in Central Victoria.

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This coming Thursday, March 7 at 5pm, please come along to the Town Hall for the annual International Women's Day Honour Roll celebration that pays tribute to women in the Shire whose contribution, courage and example have led to significant social change for women. Local food activist Su Dennett has been nominated so come on down to show your support for Su. All community members are welcome to attend this free event.

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This coming Saturday is the monthly working bee at the Albert Street community garden (next to the library), as well as the Harvest Swapmeet. 10am – 12pm. Bring along your excess bounty to swap as well as your gardening tools for the bee and some seeds/seedlings to plant. Some suggestions are garlic, coriander, broad beans, pak choy, tatsoi, turnip, lettuce, carrot and peas.