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!

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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.

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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.

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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.

 

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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.

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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. 

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Growing Wild

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Earth Fever: comedy from the brink of catastrophe

Tickets here.

Events events events!

Hello everyone, and if you follow the Gregorian calendar happy 2020!

Daylesford Repair Café

The first Repair Café for the year is this coming Sunday January 19 at the Victoria Park pavilion from 1pm - 4pm.

You can RSVP on the FB event here.

Last year an amazing one tonne was saved from going into landfill. How much can we save this year??

For the New Years Eve parade, Daylesford Repair Café joined forces with HRN and the Daylesford Community Food Gardeners. The flambouyant and gregarious float was a great success. Not only did we have the crowd joining in our Bob the Builder call and response Can we fix it? Yes we can! but we were the recipients of the Hepburn Wind best sustainability float award, which came with a cheque for $100, which will go towards more Repair Café tools. Well done to all who participated! A huge thank you to Cath Davies and Jeff Stewart for organising the parade, to Hepburn Wind for our prize, and to Kiara Clifton for this pic:

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Daylesford Culture Club

You are cordially invited to come and get your pickle on at:

Culture Club's annual Community Pickling Day 

Saturday February 1

9.30am - 12.30pm

Senior Citizen's Hall (rear Daylesford Town Hall)

We are hoping to once again partner with Edward + Fiona from Adsum Farmhouse but we are still waiting to hear if our gherkins will be ready in time. If they're not ready we will be devastated, but we will dill with it! And we can always reschedule our day to fit in with the growing season.

More details to come soon. Stay tuned!

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Hepburn Seed Savers

Fore more info: www.facebook.com/Seedkeepers

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Wild Fennel: Hepburn Herbal Group

We can't wait for the first Wild Fennel of 2020:

Saturday February 15

9.30am - 12.30pm

Senior Citizen's Hall (rear Daylesford Town Hall)

The workshop theme is lavender and will be presented by special guest Mara Ripani, who is also the talented photographer of these photos from the December Wild Fennel, where we honoured St John's Wort:

You can join the Wild Fennel FB group here.

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Make a human sign at Hepburn Wind

As part of the Sustainable Living Festival, Hepburn Z-NET, Hepburn Wind and Act on Climate Victoria are co-ordinating community members to make a human sign - demanding climate action.

The Hepburn Shire has an ambition to reach zero-net emissions by 2030 in order to play their part in keeping temperature rise below 1.5° degrees.

Community members and visitors will be meeting at Hepburn Wind to make a human sign highlighting the need for greater climate action and support for community led work.

It is vital you RSVP so that we can all be notified if the event is canceled due to weather, and so a plan can be made for an appropriately scaled outline for the human sign.

Gates open at 9.45am, human sign at 10.15am, finish at 11.15am.

The event will be canceled if there is any fire risk, high temperatures or storm warnings.

Proudly supported by Hepburn Z-NET and Hepburn Relocalisation Network.

RSVP essential
FB event here

If you have spare seats in your car or are looking for a lift, let's all share the carbon!
You can register your car or that you're looking for a lift here.

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Community campaign - Hepburn’s Local Law No. 2 review

Hundreds of concerned residents from across Hepburn shire, along with dozens of community organisations have issued an Open Letter to Hepburn Shire Council over the failure to engage in a proper community consultation process regarding overreaching Local Laws.

The letter calls for Hepburn Shire Council to form a working group with residents to redraft the law – General Local Law No.2: Community Amenity & Municipal Places (draft), and to take seriously the concerns raised in over 100 submissions the council has received on the matter.

To find out more, to view community submissions, to receive updates, and add your name to the open letter, visit: www.hepburncommunity.org

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Local Lives Global Matters 2020 Convergence

Following on from the successful 2015 conference, Local Lives Global Matters 2020: A Convergence to focus on Insight and Action will be held over the last weekend in March from Friday 27th to Sunday 29th.

The world stands on a precipice and we are facing an extended period of challenge and change. Convergence 2020 is being organised to rekindle and extend the energy generated at the 2015 Local Lives Global Matters Conference. It will bring together Central Victorian communities in a transformative process to better meet the challenges ahead.

We are living in a world driven by greed, extraction and growth which has brought us to the brink of social, economic and environmental collapse. The Dja Dja Wurrung have borne the brunt of this damage. They also hold knowledge of how to nurture and sustain the land we live and work on.

Local Lives Global Matters 2020 is underpinned by a deep change approach rather than doing ‘more of the same’.  It’s time to make sense of the crises we face; to collaborate and connect; to take deeper, further and faster action; to build resilience and embed deep adaptation; to transform ourselves and our communities; and to support each other as we relinquish what we need to let go of and restore and create what will sustain us.

The Convergence 2020 organising group is calling for people, groups and organisations to attend and contribute. The following framework is designed to inspire and challenge us in our thinking:

Head What is the latest knowledge? How do we make sense of the crisis we face? What do we need to un-learn?

Heart What do we need to let go of or strengthen? What are we grieving and what are we thankful for?

Spirit What stories do we need to guide us? How do we more deeply connect to the land and each other?

Hands Where do I put my energies now and with whom? What can we restore and what do we need to create ?

Please contact:
John Terry for session proposal forms- Ph 0432 593 514, johnterry@gcom.net.au
Natalie Moxham 0448 372 466 or Laurel Freeland 0498 066 660 to discuss your contribution.

Closing date for session proposals is February 19.

Further information will be available soon on Localising Leanganook.

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DATES FOR YOUR CALENDAR

Sunday January 19 - Daylesford Repair Café - Vic Park Pavilion

Sunday January 26 - Terra Nullius Breakfast - Outside Daylesford Town Hall

Saturday February 1 - Hepburn Seed Savers meet up - Glenlyon Town Hall

Saturday February 1 - Community Pickling Day - Daylesford Senior Citizen's Hall

Friday February 7 - Apis: natural beekeeping group - 6 Tierneys Lane Daylesford

Saturday February 8 - Daylesford Community Food Gardeners working bee - Albert St garden

Saturday February 15 - Wild Fennel lavender workshop - Daylesford Senior Citizen's Hall

Friday March 27 - Sunday 29 - Local Lives Global Matters 2020: a convergence to focus on insight and action - Castlemaine

Tuesday April 7 - Soap making workshop in Hepburn - More details to come soon

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Wait up 2019! A few more workshops before you go...

Daylesford Show

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 forager and 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!

XR Daylesford FLASH MOB at the Sunday market

More info about the Show here.

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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:

Click here for larger version

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)