Olive curing

This is a watch and learn workshop.
No bookings required - just rock up on the day.
This is a free event - everyone is welcome.
See you there!

Community dinner + women's panel

Please join us for an exciting community dinner. 

Delicious food to share + stimulating discussion. 

Hope you can make it. 

Bookings essential.

The Chikukwa Project

Our next film showing at the Savoia Thursday June 12th 7.30pm is

The Chikukwa Project

Where once the people of the Chikukwa villages in Zimbabwe suffered hunger, malnutrition and high rates of disease, this community has turned its fortunes around using permaculture farming techniques. Complementing these strategies for food security, they have built their community strength through locally controlled and initiated programs for permaculture training, conflict resolution, women’s empowerment, primary education and HIV management.

The Chikukwa Project - Trailer from Gillian Leahy on Vimeo.

Now they have a surplus of food and the people in these villages are healthy and proud of their achievements. Their degraded landscape has been turned into a lush paradise.
A brother and sister team travelled to Zimbabwe and made this film which shows why this project has been so successful.

Last year, John Seed and David Holmgren did a fundraiser for this remarkable project that has existed for the last 20 years. The villagers  wanted to replicate their programs in further villages with the help of Ulli & Eli Westermann and now this is happening.
HRN is fundraising for Permaculture Aid Yolanda in the Phillippines so your $5 donation will go towards the people trying to rebuild their lives post typhoon
Click to enlarge the report

Tempe Making Workshop

Our local tempe maker Edward Brand (you may have met him at the Dylesford market and sampled his wares) will teach us how to make some for ourselves, send us home with a fresh block and the ingredients to make several batches.....
We will have a light dinner with tempe and miso soup to sustain and nourish us. Do you want to join us?
Thursday, April 10th 6 to 9pm   $55   Maximum 8 people   venue tba

go here to book

hrn@internode.on.net

Art of Fermentation Workshop

        Yes I know,  many of you have been waiting impatiently for this event! Well, here it is..
                                           Hepburn Relocalisation Network presents

                                                      Thursday February 27th  

                                                                  at the 

                                                      Daylesford Town Hall

                                                  5pm - 9.30pm  Cost $220  

the Art of Fermentation:

Come and learn how simple it is to make your own kimchi, kefir, and other fermented delicacies. Learn about the healing qualities and nutritional importance of live-culture ferments, as well as their illustrious history and integral role in human cultural evolution. Empower yourself with simple techniques for fermenting these healthful foods in your home. Be part of the fermentation revival!

Sandor Ellix Katz is a fermentation revivalist. His book Wild Fermentation (2003) and the hundreds of fermentation workshops he has taught across North America and beyond, have helped to catalyse a broad revival of the fermentation arts. A self-taught experimentalist who lives in rural Tennessee, the New York Times calls him “one of the unlikely rock stars of the American food scene.” His latest book, The Art of Fermentation (2012), is indeed a precious resource. Sandor's reputation precedes him and his fermentation workshops are highly sought after. See more at www.wildfermentation.com.

And.... you can get a copy of his book from HRN

 Limited places      Bookings close Feb 20th

For bookings and a local's discount click here

Community Dinner

Did you know that the word "equinox" is derived from the Latin aequus (equal) and nox (night), because around the equinox, night and day are about equal length?

Image from here

Come and help celebrate the coming spring equinox with a community dinner.

Bring a plate to share of vegetarian home-grown, local or preserved food, and something to drink.

Hepburn Primary School (enter on 14th street).

Thursday September 26.

7pm for 7.30 start.

Please feel free to bring along music, a poem, a song, a short story or whatever you fancy to help celebrate the changing of the seasons.

Equinox is 6.44am on Sept 23rd, if anyone wants to know.

RSVP by Tues September 24, please.

Eat Your Ethics

Sausage-making workshop
This hands-on class involves cutting, mincing and stuffing a variety of sausages depending on the season: everything from bullboar and bratwurst to fennel, sage or garlic. You’ll never buy sausages of dubious ingredients again. Enjoy a lunch of your very own ethical sausages served with a seasonal salad plucked from the garden, and sourdough bread fresh from the oven.

© Photo courtesy of Kathryn Healey

Sausage-making workshop: Sunday 18 August 2013
Location: Jonai Farms, 129 Morgantis Road, Eganstown
Time: 10.30am – 3:00pm
Cost: $100 per person includes morning tea, farm tour, workshop and BBQ lunch
Bookings essential: 0422 429 362 or jonaifarms@gmail.com


Butchering demonstration
Tammi will demonstrate how to break down half a pig, teaching you where your favourite cuts come from and why we can’t all just eat bacon and ribs. We’ll give you tips on our favourite ways to cook some of them, and finish the day with a barbecue of Jonai Farms ethical pork served with a seasonal salad plucked from the garden, and sourdough bread fresh from the oven.

Butchering Demonstration: Sunday 15 September 2013
Location: Jonai Farms, 129 Morgantis Road, Eganstown
Time: 10.30am – 2.30pm
Cost: $85 per person includes morning tea, farm tour, butchering demo and BBQ lunch
Bookings essential: 0422 429 362 or jonaifarms@gmail.com

* * *

Here are some great pics from the Tread Lightly Permaculture miso making workshop in Ballarat, featuring HRN's miso master, Rick Tanaka. TLP run some really fantastic courses, which you can see here. [PDF]

Photo: Jayne Newgreen

Photo: Jayne Newgreen

Photo: Jayne Newgreen

Photo: Jayne Newgreen

Photo: Jayne Newgreen

Photo: Jayne Newgreen

Photo: Jayne Newgreen

More Miso & More Movies

We are hosting our third miso making workshop on Sunday 21st July from 10am - 1pm at Melliodora. There are nine places. The cost is $45 which includes all ingredients plus miso soup and salad afterwards.

Our trusty miso master, Rick Tanaka is currently in the Blue Mountains with the only organic miso maker in Australia so that we can have more workshops.

The koji (starter) must be fresh for the best results and it will be ready next week.

This is the last miso making workshop for a while so be quick and book now.

* * *

We haven't had a film for a while but if you are quick you can catch the Unplugged Film Festival online. There are so many to choose from. A few of the films we have screened at HRN film nights so if you missed one you particularly wanted to see, it may be there.

Be warned though that many of the films focus on the problem rather than the solution so don't watch too many of those!! We are the solution when we are stimulated and motivated, not depressed and impotent.

Winter Solstice

Some snaps from Friday night's festivities. Thank you to Zalan and Alexis for the delicious spread, to Michel, Linda and friends for the candles and beautiful ritual, to Anthony for the haunting tunes, to Patrick for the poetry, to all of us for the company and conversation and to everybody who helped in the kitchen cleaning up. What a great way to usher in the start of longer days.

Courses For Courses

Click for bigger

* * *

Learn to Prune Fruit Trees

Olives, berries & vines, theory, demonstration & practical experience.
Wear sturdy shoes and all weather gear.
Bring secateurs and lunch.

Saturday 15th June 10am - 3pm $20
Tutor: Gael Shannon
Contact the Daylesford Neighbourhood Centre for bookings on 5348 3569

* * * 

Click for bigger

No Junk, Thanks

Here is a list of the companies that oppose the labeling of GMO ingredients in their products. Please stop supporting these companies!! If you don’t, it means you actively support the polluting of the planet with Genetically Modified Organisms.

* * *

The lovely Greg Holland, our Hepburn postie, suggests we all sticker our letter boxes with "No junk mail." Many of us have done this already (or something similar) but for those who haven't yet, Greg is willing to stencil it on your letterbox as his contribution to reducing advertising material and waste. If you live in Hepburn and are interested, please feel free to contact Greg. Alternatively, there is a sticker available from HRN for $1.

Food, Glorious Food

With the coming winter months, wholesome warm foods are usually on the menu. If you are cooking on gas or electricity, try soaking your legumes or whole grains overnight in abundant water and bring to the boil the next morning.

Once boiled, wrap the pot in a blanket then place in a polystyrene box (not nice but in existence so good to re-use) or an Esky and leave to slow cook until lunchtime when you may want to finish cooking for that meal or leave until the evening meal when it may be perfectly cooked. You will cut your energy use in the process.

Slow cooking makes for a beautiful taste, lovely texture and more vibrant food. Broken grains especially, oxidise over time and hence food value degrades. Make your fermented foods (kimchee, sauerkraut etc) now to serve with these hot pots during the colder months. Delish!

* * *

The miso making workshop has been postponed for one week until Saturday May 18th. There are still a couple of places available. Please email us to book your spot.

* * *

APPLES!

Kate and Bren at Daylesford Organics are selling boxes of mixed variety cooking/juicing apples.

$20 per 12kg box

19 Foxs Lane Muskvale Mon-Fri 10am - 4pm.

Ph: 0411 040 412 for more info.

Second Miso Making Workshop

Saturday May 11th postponed until the 18th at 10am at Melliodora.

Cost is $30/person + cost of ingredients (koji $17, salt and soy beans tbc).

Miso soup to be served at the end of the workshop.

Bookings essential: hrn@internode.net.au.

Maximum of 9 people, so best be quick.

Miso Making

Thank you to everyone who attended the miso making workshop today. And an especially big thank you to tutor Rick Tanaka for showing us how to make a short maturation miso.

 

It was a great afternoon where we learnt about the history of miso, traditional processes to make it, various types of miso, maturation times and the by product, tamari. A fantastic workshop. Thank you Rick!

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:

* * *

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.

* * *

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 ?

* * *

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

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.

* * *

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.

* * *

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.

Sharing Food

 

Our first community dinner for the year is at Conti on Thursday February 7th at 7.30pm. 

$15/person.

Please book by email or phone (5348 3636) by Tuesday 8pm.

Come one come all!

Find it, fix it

One of our community gardeners has spent the last several weeks mapping all the free public food in our local commons.

Please feel free to download this gorgeous map and circulate it. And if on your wanderings you come across some plants that are not listed on the map, email your update here for the next version.

* * *

Got a pair of jeans that have worn out in the knees? Does your favourite dress need the hem taken up?

Mark at Threadneedle Craft (next to Liquorland next to Coles) does an excellent job of repairing clothes. They are open 7 days from 10am - 5pm.

And just in case you have forgotten why:

Gorgeously Goat

All Things Goat Festival
Sunday 4th November, 10am-3pm
Bullarto Primary School

Come and experience:

• a variety of goat breeds on display- Meat, milk and fibre
• milking and goat husbandry demonstrations
• a goat sausage sizzle
• stalls featuring local produce
• a great opportunity to find out more about goats and what makes goats so great for self-sufficiency

This event is being run by the Central Highlands Goat Club who promote 'Supermarket in a Goat': Milk Bank, Backyard Baskets, a Trading Table and Makers' Market.

Supermarket in a goat is about how goats are an important part of self-sufficiency.  Meat, milk, manure, and bleat!

• They have fresh or frozen raw goat's milk available at their Milk Bank.
• Backyard baskets are chemical, spray free, locally grown boxes of mixed fresh produce.
• The Trading Table allows members to sell different things such as fresh fruit, veg, herb, flowers, frozen berries, preserves, jams, lemon butter, cordials, soaps, eggs, honey, etc at their meetings. (10% of sales go back to the club for insurance and to fund future club events.)
• The Makers' Market are an active group with a number of different stall holders at Glenlyon and Kyneton Markets. 

 
The Central Highlands Goat Club meets on the 1st Sunday of the Month at Bullarto Primary School.  They bring a plate and have a lunch at 12.30 followed by a discussion at 1pm. They do farm tours and workshops at different properties. Their meetings cover a wide range of subjects and give people a chance to learn about goats prior to getting them, assistance in locating suitable goats when set-up and ready, access to discount animal health products and feed, on-going advice and assistance.

Membership is $20 year.

Email centralhighlandsgoatclub@gmail.com for more information and to join their email list to be informed of club events.

Solstice Party

Well, the summer solstice is just around the corner so come and celebrate at Melliodora under the pear tree on Thursday December 22nd after 5pm.

Please bring a plate of your homegrown/preserved goodies turned into your favourite dish or drink or a meat dish from wild or homegrown/home killed source. No pets please. For more info contact us.