Beekeeping Naturally with Adrian Iodice

Hi everyone,

Please join us this coming Tuesday April 19 for our first Apis event of the year. Apis is our local natural beekeeping group, established to encourage backyard beekeeping in the Hepburn Shire.

Please join us for a delicious organic dinner and a talk with Adrian Iodice from Beekeeping Naturally. Adrian believes that beekeeping is primarily about the health of the bees. And that changing the culture of beekeeping is about shifting people's mindsets from honey production towards a more holistic and harmonious approach that works with the bees for the health of the entire ecosystem.

Adrian lives on a farm in the southern NSW Bega valley with his wife and three children, where they are creating a bee sanctuary and education centre as a living model of natural beekeeping. He will be visiting Hepburn for a few days only, and we are so rapt he has agreed to come and give a talk while he's here in Djaara Country:

Tuesday April 19

6pm - 7.30pm

Melliodora, 16 Fourteenth Street Hepburn 

(Please park at the Hepburn Primary School and walk down) 

Entry is $5 for dinner and talk

No need to RSVP, just rock up.

April Apis: Backyard Beekeeping Group Meet-Up

Hi bee lovers and honey suckles.

Do you have a garden and now you're ready to keep bees to ensure pollination?

Do you love the idea of harvesting your own honey?

Have you heard about colony collapse and want to play your part to ensure the biodiversity and strength of European honey bees?

Please join us for a backyard beekeeping workshop with Ange Enbom and her daughter Millie:

This coming Sunday April 25 (ANZAC day) 

3pm - 5pm

6 Tierneys Lane Daylesford

$5 entry

Angela Enbom and Millie Enbom-Goad keep bees on their sixth-generation family farm. Photos: Edwina Williams

This is a community event and all are welcome to attend.

And we are back!!

Hello everyone!

We are so excited to be back and offering free workshops again, now that we can gather together in community.

First up for the year we have Culture Club's Community Pickling Day:

Once again we are thrilled to be partnering with Glenlyon's Adsum Farmhouse who are growing gherkins especially for the day. This year Edward and Fiona from Adsum are kindly opening their gates to host the event too. Fingers crossed the weather warms up so the gherkins ripen in time! Either way, the event will go ahead.

Due to restrictions places are absolutely limited. So please book your spot by emailing daylesfordcultureclub@gmail.com

Event details and a list of things to bring will be emailed to you when your booking is confirmed.

Hope you can join us!

* * * 

Daylesford Community Food Gardens Monthly Working Bee

You are cordially invited to join the community food gardeners at their next monthly working bee: Saturday February 13 from 10am - 12pm at the library garden.

Come and meet like-minded people, while we tend the soil and seeds together, growing free organic, liberated food for all to share.

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Wild Fennel: Hepburn Herbal Group

 

Wild Fennel is back and we can't wait!! Please join us for the first Wild Fennel of the year: Saturday February 20 from 9.30am - 12.30pm at the Daylesford skatepark community garden.

Please bring a rug to sit on, a thermos of your favourite herbal tea + cup and a burning herbal question to ask facilitator Rosie Cooper.

More info about the group here.

* * * 

Daylesford Repair Café

Please join us for the first Repair Café for the year on Sunday February 21 from 1pm - 4pm at Victoria Park Pavilion.

More details here.

Hope you can join us.

* * * 

Family and Kids Mountain Bike Rides

The Bike Space Daylesford is hosting its first family-friendly ride of the year on Tuesday February 2  from 4.30pm. Meet at 13 Camp Street (directly behind the Daylesford Neighbourhood Centre).

This is a family friendly hour ride around trails in Daylesford. Children under 10 must be accompanied by an adult.

This is a free regular Tuesday group during school term aimed at getting more parents and kids enjoying the benefits of mountain bike riding.

A huge thanks to Eric Red for running this group. Pls let Eric know if you're coming along. More info here.

 

* * *

Daylesford Swing Dancing Society

The Daylesford Swing Dancing Society is a recently-established community group for and by the people of Daylesford with the intention of learning to swing dance in a fun, free and inclusive environment. There are no memberships, or fees (except for perhaps a small donation for hall or venue hire). Whatever your skill level, age or gender, you are welcome to come and share the joy of dancing!

For info about when and where the group will meet, please see here.

* * *

Apis: Natural beekeeping group

Do you keep bees or want to keep bees? Do you want to know more about these wondrous creatures that pollinate our gardens and forests? Apis is a group of open-minded and open-hearted people open to learning and sharing knowledges around all things bees. Please put the afternoon of Sunday April 25 in your calendars for a gathering. More details to come. 

* * *

Land Share Central Victoria 

Did you know there is not a single property for long-term rent in Daylesford? How did we get here? How can we let this happen?

The Land Share Central Victoria FB group is a place to connect those who have access to land with those who would like access to land. Spare rooms, granny flats, tiny houses, bungalows. Rental agreements paid in cash or vegetables. Whatever you are seeking or offering, let's get together to share conversations about what housing equality and land justice means for all of us.

* * * 

Democratic Renewal in Hepburn Shire

Community Voice is a group of Hepburn Shire people who strive to help our community engage in ‘active democracy’. The group: 

• flags to the community upcoming council issues, e.g. around policy, planning, local laws
• collects information from the community about their current issues and barriers, then formally shares that information with the wider community and the shire's councillors
• promotes and trials active democracy methods within the shire, i.e. ways of ensuring public participation in council decision making.

Sign up for the blog via the above website link, and/or join over a 1000 locals on the Community Voice Facebook page to stay informed and add your voice.

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Dates for your calendar

Tuesday February 2 - Family and Kids Mountain Bike Ride
Saturday Feb 6 - Community Pickling Day
Saturday Feb 13 - Daylesford Community Food Gardens Working bee
Saturday February 20 - Wild Fennel
Sunday February 21 - Daylesford Repair Café
Sunday April 25 - Apis: Natural beekeeping group

'Oh, hi everyone,' said autumn.

Apis meet up this Friday

Do you love bees, honey and pollination? Do you have a hive but would like to know more? Have you always wanted to keep bees but don't know where to start?

Then you might like to come along to Apis: natural beekeeping group - Hepburn Shire's first free workshop:

Intro to good beekeeping 

Friday March 13

6pm - 9pm

6 Tierneys Lane Daylesford (near the Mill Market)

Please bring a potluck dish to share for dinner, your own cup, crockery and cutlery. 

No single use packaging please.

The workshop will be facilitated by the wondrous Angela Enbom from Enbom Honeys. Ange is passionate about healthy living and caring for the environment and has discovered that keeping bees fits perfectly with this ethos. Ange believes that all good beekeepers are natural bee-keepers, working with nature & the bees, caring primarily for the bees & their wellbeing & genuinely valuing the honey, the beeswax & the propolis.

If you are a member of the Hepburn Wholefoods Collective, you have most likely bought and tasted Ange's honey - deeeelish!

Pic of Ange via @BallaratFood

No need to RSVP, just come along - but if you are on FB and you feel like it you can RSVP here.

* * *

Let's grow food together shall we?

So you have a million rolls of loo paper and now you don't know what to do with all your spare time?

Gardening collectively is not just good for soul and soil but it also helps strengthen community resilience and wellbeing by ensuring chemical-free, nutrient dense food is available for everyone.

The Daylesford Community Food Gardeners are having their monthly working bee this Saturday from 10am - 12pm at the garden beside the library. If you can please bring hand tools, bales of straw and seedlings. Not sure what's good to plant at this time of year? Don't forget the excellent Sow What When guide the gardeners created for this specific climate zone.

This is a free event and everyone is welcome to attend.

* * *

Saving seeds

The Hepburn Seed Savers are gathering at the Glenyon Hall this Sunday March 15 from 2pm to help our local seed bank grow and thrive. There will be cake and tea and seed lovers and seed saving tips.

Ripe tomatoes 🍅!! Now’s the time to save your seeds.

Just spoon the seeds from a ripe or over-ripe tomato with some jelly and a bit of water into a jar and leave to ferment for a few days, then take the foam off the top and wash and dry the seeds. If you collected some from the seed library you can place the dry seeds back into the same packet (or jar or paper bag) and pop them in the donation box at the Daylesford book library. If you have others they would be very happily received at our beautiful living seed bank.

If you need help saving seeds please email Seedy Brenna - she is always happy to help and have a yarn about seeds. Or you can bring some tomatoes (and any other seed saving questions) on Sunday - where Brenna will be doing a how to.

* * *

Mending busted things

The Daylesford Repair Café is on this Sunday March 15 at the pavilion at Victoria Park in Daylesford.

Volunteer helpers and fixers will be onsite, ready to help mend your items from 1pm till 4pm. There will be tea, coffee and cake available too. Gold coin donation for repairs and refreshments.

Repair stations on the day include:

• Knife and tool sharpening 
• General repairs
• Sewing 
• Electrical 
• Bike
• Small Engines and Fire Fighting Pumps

Image from here

If you or someone you know would like to help out, please email daylesfordrepaircafe@gmail.com


See you on Sunday! FB event here.

* * *

Wild Fennel: change of date

Did you know that most of the pharmaceuticals the world consumes are made in China? But what happens when global supply chains are severed? What does community resilience look like when supermarket and chemist shelves are stocked? And what does it look like when they are empty? How do we care for ourselves and each other in the face of pandemics and crises?

At the March Wild Fennel gathering, herbalist Rosie Cooper will discuss personal and community immunity and how we can remain healthy and vital as we head into cold and flu season.

Sunday March 22

9.30am - 12.30pm

Senior Citizen's Hall (rear Daylesford Town Hall)

You might like to bring:
- 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.

Wild Fennel FB group is here.

* * *

Growing Wild

* * *

Earth Fever: comedy from the brink of catastrophe

Tickets here.

Introducing Apis: natural beekeeping group

Introducing Apis, the newest member of the HRN family - a free informal community group whose aim is to encourage people to learn more about European honey bees and how to care for them.

Natural beekeeping is a bee-first approach that prioritises the health of bees, allowing them to build natural honey comb. The result is happy, immune-robust bees and delicious raw honey that is harvested only when sufficient honey is available.

Rather than focussing on taking from the bees, natural beekeeping is equally about giving back, where bees are given the freedom to:

• construct natural comb,
• determine their own cell size, population mix, colony size, 
• rear their own queens and drones, and
• swarm

Are you as excited about this as we are?! To kick things off Apis is hosting a potluck dinner and short film night where we will decide where and how often we will meet, and what natural beekeeping methods we'd like to focus on.

The details of the dinner are:

Friday February 7

6.30pm – 9pm

6 Tierneys Lane, Daylesford

No need to RSVP, just come along

BYO dish to share for dinner (with as many local ingredients as possible) plus a plate & cutlery. Please note this is a waste free event so no single use plastic please.

You do not need to have any prior bee-keeping experience or knowledge. If you are thinking about keeping bees, or are simply fascinated by these magical, mythical creatures please come along.

Hope you can bee there!