Seeds of change: planting out our future

Introducing Hepburn Seeds Savers

"The smallest seed of faith is better than the largest fruit of happiness." -Henry David Thoreau

Introducing Hepburn Seeds Savers, the newest member of the HRN family. 

The Hepburn Seed Savers's charter is to help take responsibility for our Shire's local food supply. It will operate out of the Daylesford library, where it will have a permanent installation consisting of small packets containing seeds for vegetables and herbs that grow and thrive in our bio-region. 

The day to day loaning of the seeds will be managed by the Hepburn Shire Council library staff. 

How the Seed Library works:

• Borrowers check out the seeds, then
• Grow the seeds in their gardens
• Use the crops to provide food for their family + friends
• Allow some plants to mature (to produce viable seed)
• Save and dry the seeds
• Return the seeds to the library to be repackaged
• The beautiful cycle of life continues…

Before the seed library can get up and running, organiser + seed enthusiast and down right wonderful woman Brenna Fletcher is putting a call out for seeds, and volunteers to be involved in this life honouring new project. 

Please email Hepburn Seed Savers to make a donation of seeds and to get involved.

* * *

Daylesford Extinction Rebellion Second Meet Up

We had Jane Morton (Extinction Rebellion Melbourne) come out and give an inspiring presentation last Tuesday on the climate emergency and what we can do about it. Now we're meeting up again to come to a decision on the best way forward for the emerging Daylesford Extinction Rebellion group.

Tuesday September 24

7pm - 8.30pm
Senior Citizen's Room (rear of Daylesford Town Hall)

We'll be deciding what form we would like our local XR group to take, and what works best for us (i.e. do we want to do a Non-Violent Direct Action training, more workshops, local protests, and what role will Daylesford play in the International rebellion in October?)

This is a free event and everyone is welcome to attend. We'd love to see new faces who couldn't make it last week, and if you can't make it this time, feel free to post ideas on the event page and we'll bring them up at the meeting.

Coffee and tea will be available. BYO snacks/bikkies to share if you would like.
Just a reminder that all HRN events are waste-free. No single use plastic please.

RSVP here.

Thank you to Hepburn's Brenna Quinlan for facilitating the XR group. We love your gutsy energy!!

* * *

Introduction to Natural Dyeing

Discover some of nature’s hidden sources of colour! Plants have been used to dye fibre and fabric for thousands of years and a beautiful natural palette is still available to you without the need for harmful chemicals. Local weeds or kitchen off-cuts can offer harmonious hues in a range of values and intensity. 

This hands-on workshop with Ilka White introduces a selection of local colour possibilities, as well as discussing fibre types, mordanting options and safety of dyes. A shibori technique will also be used to produce patterned cloth.

Sunday 29 September

10am - 4pm

Community Kitchen, 30 Templeton St. Castlemaine

Cost - $95
Details – www.lkawhite.com.au/intro-to-natural-dyeing-castlemaine
Bookings - ilkajanewhite@gmail.com

* * *

Screening of 2040

For those who haven't seen it yet, Hepburn Wind is putting on a free screening of 2040.

The film captures a positive vision of our future where environmental challenges are faced with practical solutions available to us now.

Before the film screening, a panel will discuss how the Hepburn Shire is implementing its own vision to protect our planet and reduce emissions through local projects and the Hepburn Z-NET project.

Thursday October 17

6pm – 9pm

The Palais, 111 Main Road Hepburn Springs

Free screening but bookings are essential. RSVP here.

* * *

Wild Fennel's inaugural workshop

50 people turned up to the first Wild Fennel workshop. 50!! A sure sign that our community is ready to learn about the plants that surround us and to take responsibility for our own health.

A huge thank you to Rosie Cooper and Ali Grace for facilitating the workshop and sharing their knowledges so generously. Have a look at Brenna Quinlan's stunning illustration of the workshop:

Larger version here.

Details for the October Wild Fennel gathering here.

* * *

Mazel tov Hepburn Shire!

Congratulations to Hepburn Shire Council for fessing up to what's happening on our planet and declaring a Climate Emergency at last Tuesday's ordinary council meeting. 

If you'd like to know more about what it means when local councils declare a Climate Emergency you can read more here: www.climateemergencydeclaration.org

From the HSC FB page: 

...Council unanimously resolved to join a growing global movement and declare a climate emergency. This further supports the proactive actions Council is already taking to mitigate the worst impacts of climate change, by reducing our own emissions and assisting the community to reduce theirs. With initiatives like the Towards Zero Emissions Roadmap and Z-NET Hepburn Shire, Council and community are at the forefront of localised emissions reduction action.

Roots, Leaves & Seeds

Adam Grubb (VEG, Permablitz) and his girlfriend Annie Raser-Rowland have just released the excellent Weed Forager's Handbook: A Guide to Edible and Medicinal Weeds in Australia.

HRN is selling copies at the reduced rate of $18. Please email us to order your copy.

The book reveals how to distinguish a tasty sandwich-filler from its dangerous look-alike, which weeds are among the most nutritious vegetables ever tested, and how you cook with delicious nettles without fear of being stung

It will forever change your concept of where to go looking for lunch.

* * *

Community gardener Brett Adamson has just returned from 6 months in Afghanistan with Médecins Sans Frontières. He is just about to head over to South Sudan for a 3 month mission and is seeking donations of organic seeds to help revitalise the local community food system and seed bank over there. To make your donation, please bring your seeds to the next Daylesford Community Food Garden working bee this Saturday Nov 10 at the Albert St garden between 10am and 12pm.

The working bee also coincides with the Daylesford Harvest Swap Meet, so don't forget to bring your excess garden produce to swap.

* * * 

Another community gardener Patrick Jones has just made a gorgeous little film about how (and why) he makes dandelion coffee:

Peak Oil Ball

Click for bigger

Come and help support the Mayor’s Emergency Climate Fund to help Hepburn Shire communities with emergency relief for climate-related disasters such as fire, flood, winds, etc, and innovation in renewable energy.

Date: Saturday 3 December 2011
Time: 7:00 pm
Venue: The Palais, 111 Main Road, Hepburn Springs
Tickets: Dinner and Show: $65. $600 per table of 10
Show Only: $25 - at the door on the night
Music by the Cartwheels Big Band
Quiz by Rick Tanaka
Drinks at bar prices

• Prize for best recycled outfit
• Prize for best local natural fibre outfit
• Prize for who ever walked to the event from the furthest away

Book at the The Palais, 111 Main Road, Hepburn Springs
Ph: 5348 4849 www.thepalais.com.au

Another date or your diaries is December 10 when SBS gardening guru Costa will be in town to help launch the Hepburn Wholefood Co-op.

A PS from last time about Seed Saving. The Seed Savers Handbook is usually $32 but for orders of 4 or more it is $19, so please email Liz on relocal.liz@gmail.com by 4 December if you'd like to add yourself to a bulk order. $19 if you drop off your money in a (second hand) envelope with your name on it to Melliodora, 16 Fourteenth Street, Hepburn, $21 if you pay afterwards, to cover costs.

Also mentioned at the film night was the possibility of a bulk buy of some of Juliette de Baircli Levy's books about dog health and Farm and Stable. Unfortunately we haven't found any bulk buy options, so perhaps instead you could look at purchasing them from ABE books, a website that collects together suppliers of second hand books.

Peak Oil Ball & Saving Seeds

Hi all,

Firstly just a bit of housekeeping: the Community Dinner that was scheduled for tonight has been cancelled due to lack of numbers. In the future if you would like to see such events go ahead, please make sure you book in advance.

The next upcoming event is the Mayor's Peak Oil Ball on Saturday Dec 3 at the Palais. Details to come.


Thank you to everyone who turned up for the screening of Juliette of the Herbs at the Savoia. What a lovely film and what a lively discussion afterwards. Thanks to Margot for being the scribe. Here are the notes from the night:

How do we create a culture of seed saving and swapping?

Save seeds from our home gardens and community gardens.

Swap them at community garden working bees and at the monthly harvest swap meets.

Be careful as cross pollination can occur between some plants eg: zuccini, squash and pumpkins. Daikon crossed with wild raddish makes a useless root.

Growing successful plants means they are better adapted to a specific area, but they can lose the individual characteristics the plant started with.

Adaptability vs quality.

Rijk Zwaan is a Musk-based seed company that specialises in breeding and supplying vegetable seed for commercial cultivation. Maybe we could have an excursion out to see how they their company operates.

To save seeds make sure you identify what they are:

•     Variety
•     Lineage (how long you have been growing the plant)
•     Where the plant was grown (wet or dry part of town)
•     When the plant was harvested
•     What type of soil the plant was grown in
•     How was the plant fertilised?
•     Was the plant grown in sun or shade?

 

Perhaps we could have a communal stamp made up with all the info we need to know about seeds. Variety, shade, frost sensitive etc.. Just like regular seed packages.

Do we want to have a centralised shire seed bank?

Resources:

www.seedsavers.net

The Seed Savers' Handbook by Michel and Jude Fanton

Film: The Seed Hunter

Old Is New Again, Transition Conference in Melbourne, Rod Quantock in Daylesford & film night this Thursday

Well, just take a look at the Automatic Earth blog: October 30 2011: Reviving the Department of Subsistence Homesteads and discover 'the solutions' from the States to the1933 great depression...anything look familiar?

You can watch Nicole Foss explaining finance - highly informative but give yourself a free evening and a nice snack before you settle in. Or shall we do a film night so we can talk about it?

You may be interested in this MAV Transition Conference but if you can't get there (or it is a stress on the finances), contact a Councillor or Shire officer to suggest they go.

SHARE is hosting Rod Quantock again so if you want to join us on the HRN table, let us know. The cost is $19/head.

Oh, and don't forget film night this Thursday and in preparation, think about what seeds you have or could collect to swap/gift this year.