147 years and the Daylesford Agricultural Show is still going strong. This year, Show Society President Don Harvey is trying to bring a different perspective to the Show and is encouraging permies and new back to the landers to participate.
Daylesford Culture Club's Meg Ulman will have a table set up of various bubbly ferments with demonstrations happening throughout the day: 10am sauerkraut making, 11am summer vegetable pickling and 1pm wild-fermented sodas.
Edible and Medicinal Weeds foragerand community gardener Patrick Jones will have a table displaying all the useful weeds he finds as he walks from his home in South West Daylesford to the showgrounds.
Daylesford XR will be performing their Sing for the Climate FLASH MOB song that they performed over the #nuptothecup weekend. They are meeting at 12.15pm at the Pavilion, at Victoria Park. Please wear bright colours and bring Climate Action signs eg Our House is on Fire or Watch and ACT. This is a non-disruptive, non-violent event. You can find the song is here and the lyrics here. Bring your friends!
Wild Fermented Sodas - November Culture Club Wrap Up
Thank you Jan and Helen for coming along to teach us how to make Water Kefir. For those of you who'd like to make it, here are Jan and Helen's instructions.
Thank you Mara Ripani for sharing your booch vinegar with us and for taking these photos that so beautifully capture the sharing of the day:
Just a reminder that the final Culture Club for the year is on Saturday December 7. Bring a jar of something fermented or preserved, take home a jar of something fermented or preserved. No need to RSVP just come along on the day in your Highland Gathering kilt.
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Wild Fennel
Thank you Rosie Cooper for gifting your experience and gentle wisdom to us each month. We love your Wild Fennel sessions so much and look fwd to each one with much excitement.
And thank you dear Brenna Quinlan for gifting us your illustrations of each session:
At the December Wild Fennel we will be celebrating the summer solstice, and making St Johns Wort balm. Please join us for this free workshop:
Saturday December 21
9.30am - 12.30pm
Senior Citizen's Hall (rear Daylesford Town Hall)
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HRN on NYE
Please come and join us as we see out this year and welcome the next. HRN will be joining the Daylesford Community Food Gardeners and Daylesford Repair Café in the Daylesford NYE parade. The theme for the float is Repair Café. Think work overalls, hammers, screwdrivers, frankenbikes, sewing machines, LED lights and tool boxes.
We are meeting on Tuesday December 31 at 6pm outside the MS op shop on Duke Street.
Can we fix it? YES WE CAN!
To end with, here is a photo by Peter Tyndall from the1982/83 Daylesford New Years Eve Parade - Save The Franklin campaign:
LET THE RIVERS FLOW
Daylesford Embroidered Banners (Margaret Leunig and our broad community)
November Wild Fennel
Hello! The details for the next Wild Fennel gathering are:
Saturday 16th of November
9.30am - 12.30pm
Senior Citizens Kitchen, Daylesford Town Hall
Delight your senses with the beauty of roses and other astringent plants of the Rosacea family (think hawthorn, peach, blackberry, etc.)
You might like to bring...
- all of your roses!
- a notebook
- herbs, seedlings, seeds or homemade remedies, etc you would like to share or trade
- stories to share
This is a free gathering and everyone is welcome to attend
Hi everyone! I am looking for someone to help with sending out Wild Fennel emails and creating event details in a more timely manner than I can. It's a small job, but will help a whole lot. Please be in touch with me if this is something you're interested in.
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Final Culture Club for the year
You are formally invited to join the Daylesford Culture Clubbers for their end of wonderful year gathering. Bring a jar of something fermented or preserved, take home a jar of something fermented or preserved.
Brenna Quinlan, you've done it again! Thank you so much for taking notes at the October Culture Club and allowing us to broadcast them so this knowledge can be shared far and wide:
Australia has lots of wild pollinator insects that are often overlooked. European honey bees get a lot of attention because they are a social species, they are easy to identify and spot and their hives are easy to domesticate and manage.
However, many native insects also contribute to pollination in crops and gardens all around the country. We still need to do a lot of research to identify all our pollinator insect species, understand their ecology and how they are affected by human activities. So far, we know that Australia has around 2,000 native bee species, all of which are important pollinators. We also know there are a couple of thousand butterfly, wasp, fly, moth, beetle, thrips and ant species, some of which are documented pollinators. Unfortunately, we don’t have a lot of information on the ecology of many of these insects, what flowers they pollinate, or where they are found.
The Wild Pollinator Count gives you an opportunity to contribute to wild pollinator insect conservation in Australia. We invite you to count wild pollinators in your local environment and help us build a database on wild pollinator activity.
Hepburn Seed Savers: out in the world, down in the soil
Have you visited our local seed library at the Daylesford Library yet?
Enthusiastic library staff member Sarah Hines took these photos:
Seed library co-ordinator Brenna Fletcher has done such a beautiful job!! If you are keen to get involved in this exciting vital project, please get in touch with Brenna.
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A very different kind of world
Can you imagine a world where you can't forage for mushrooms or wild fruit on public land? Where you are not allowed to scrounge at the tip for materials? Can you imagine having to ask council for permission when you want to throw a birthday party at the pub? Or plant a tree on your nature strip?
After ten years, Hepburn Shire Council is making changes to some of its local laws about what can and can't be done on public land and in public places. While the laws are not too dissimilar to the ones made ten years ago, the new laws are more controlling and more suburban in flavour, and are completely at odds with the recent Climate Emergency declaration and the acceptance of the award winning Z-Net Plan, a 10-year masterplan for the Hepburn Shire to reach 100% renewable
electricity supply, zero-net energy and zero-net emissions by 2029.
Please have a read of the new proposed laws. If, like so many of us, you are outraged by the proposed laws, you have until 5pm on Friday December 13 to send a submission to Hepburn Shire Council to let them know.
Co-operation - a way of living for ourselves & the planet
Following on from the hearty community conversation in May on Co-operatives as alternative economic structures, Localising Leanganook is hosting a workshop to continue the discussions and drill more deeply into new and emerging cooperatives in central Victoria, cooperatives that are responding to both community and ecological needs.
What: An experiential workshop on Co-operatives: principles, benefits and challenges. Contribute towards three fledgling ventures.
When: Saturday November 30th 2019, 10am to 4pm
Where: Daylesford, Yandoit and Castlemaine
The November 30th workshop will visit three emerging co-operative ventures in central Victoria:
First, Goathand Co-operative – a community owned and managed shepherding co-operative that combines goat browsing and grazing with manual handtool work as a powerful method to reduce dominant weed species and fuel loads in the steep gullies and common land around Daylesford and Hepburn.
Second, a common land/farm co-operative on 50 acres of fertile land in Yandoit, where workloads, risks, learnings and experiences are shared, and where regenerative food growing practices are coupled with wildlife corridors. In the developmental stage, this co-op enables access to land for those locked out due to prohibitive costs.
Third, a manufacturing cooperative in/around Castlemaine. In the initial exploration phase, this co-op will support local people, respond to current and future bio-regional needs, provide meaningful and local livelihoods, and produce goods in an ecologically regenerative way. Potential manufacturing initiatives include: soy milk, re-creating animal milk processing (a variation on the old butter factories), materials required for ecological living, and biochar.
Practicalities: The workshop will start in Daylesford (the forest at the end of Tierneys Lane- the way will be sign posted) with the Goathand Cooperative. Then we will move to Yandoit Farming Co-op (Steeles Rd, Yandoit) and finally to the Ray Bradfield room in Castlemaine to brain storm manufacturing possibilities. Please wear comfortable shoes as there’ll be some walking involved.
Who: Dave Kerin from Earth Worker will share his extensive knowledge and experience with co-operatives, both theory and practice. Vasko Drogriski, along with the other members of the Goathand Cooperative, will share their story including benefits and challenges. Michael and Lisa Jackson, from Yandoit Farm, along with Nikki Marshall will share beginning work and imaginings for the Yandoit farm commons/co-op. Localising Leanganook and interested central Victorians will share their thoughts about potential manufacturing co-ops for the area/bioregion.
Transport: Two 12 seater community buses are available to transport workshop attendees between Castlemaine, Daylesford and Yandoit, and car sharing is encouraged. Contributions to bus costs are requested.
Lunch and refreshments: BYO lunch and keep cup/water bottle. We will be eating lunch at Yandoit farm. A simple morning and afternoon tea will be provided.
This is a free workshop and everybody is welcome to attend.
Registrations are essential! For catering and transport. Please register via email to to assist with transport (bus and car pooling) and catering. For further information contact Nikki Marshall on 0432 232 073.
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A community newspaper for Daylesford
A public meeting on Thursday 14 November at 7pm at the Daylesford Neighbourhood Centre.
The proposed Community News does not aim to compete with existing publications – the Advocate, Lost or the Local, or the Daylesford Grapevine – but rather, aims to share information about community happenings, regular gatherings, one off events, sporting results, information about local organisations and activities, and local services available in Daylesford and Hepburn Springs – information that contributes to the fabric of the community, and which is currently not always readily available.
The public meeting will consider the responses from the community to the Proposal, and if supported, will establish a community association to establish and run the Community News.
Cr Kate Redwood would like to hear your views and suggestions. Please email Kate with your comments and ideas. All written correspondence sent to Kate will be reported to the public meeting on 14 November. You are most welcome to attend the meeting and have your say.
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Sing for the climate
Thank you Jen Bray and the Daylesford XR crew for encouraging us to raise our voices collectively as we sing for life.
(If you are reading this in your inbox, the vid won't show up, but you can see it here.)
