Slide Night Dinner + Working Bee

We are so looking forward to this community dinner + slide show event! Some of you may have seen Brenna around these last few months. She is currently living and volunteering at Melliodora, studying permaculture, and working as an illustrator on David Holmgren's forthcoming book, RetroSuburbia.

As a 23-year-old, Brenna began to question the worth of her university degrees and the consumerist good-job-and-double-garage-and-2.4-children society that she felt pressured to commit to. So she bought a one-way ticket to India in the hopes of discovering a more meaningful life direction.

She spent the next six years hiking, hitching, riding, cycling, driving and canoeing her way towards a more sustainable life. She cycled 12,000 kilometres from Canada to the Panama Canal on a second-hand bike, and in the process learnt to appreciate the pleasures of voluntary simplicity. 

Over the next three years’ travel, she didn’t once pay for accommodation, preferring to rely on the kindness of others and on the non-monetary gift economy. As a volunteer, she realised the beauty and challenges of off-grid living, and the different reasons that drive people to live this way. She began to learn about permaculture, and that there were other people out there who thought the same way as she did. In Argentina, she fell in with a group of like-minded locos from all over Latin America, and they named themselves Rucache (‘the house of everyone’). Together they began growing their own food, building their own space, and facilitating permaculture events in Brazil, Chile and Argentina. This fascinating chapter of her travels will be explored during Brenna’s presentation for HRN. 

Brenna came home late last year, now aged 30, to be with her family and to further her permaculture journey. 

Entry is by gold coin donation. Please RSVP by Tuesday August 2.

---

We had another successful working bee out at Rod May's farm on Friday. A big thank you to Su Dennett for organising it, Ian Clarke for taking the pruning workshop, for everybody's enthusiasm and elbow grease, and for Kirsten Bradley for taking these photos:

---

Also, sorry fermies but Culture Club is having a break in August to make time for more literary pleasures over the Words in Winter weekend. We are already busy planning the September Culture Club which will be a natural cheesemaking workshop. Watch this space for more info!

Working Bee + Community Dinner

Hi everyone,

We have two reminders to share with you. The first is that there will be another working bee at Rod May's this Friday June 16 from 9.30am. Pls bring a plate of food to share, and warm clothes. The last working bees out on his farm were a joyous reminder of Rod's hard work - to fill the bellies of his community and beyond with organic food. Rod really was ahead of his time, having his farm certified organic 30 years ago. Only this week, a report has been released warning that pesticides on foods are far more dangerous than was originally thought, causing damage to the human brain.

The second reminder is to please book your places for the solstice community dinner next Thursday. We have two musical guests lined up, so we can sing Stephen + Maureen off into the sunset...

We hope you are keeping warm as the colder months set in, and are taking this time to seek much needed rest. It's so easy to get caught up in our busy lives, isn't it? Sometimes finding time for quiet and reflection is harder to find. Be kind to yourselves. x

Working Bee at Rod's

Thank you to the HRNers and much wider community who met out at Rod May's farm on Friday for a collective working bee, and a much needed collective cry. What a beautiful day! And a beautiful turn up of enthusiastic workers. Some of us helped kraut hundreds of cabbages from out in the fields, others helped rebuild the greenhouse and others helped Steph, Serge and Ogy fill veggie boxes for the Melbourne orders.

 

Other good folk who couldn't make it provided food for morning tea and lunch which was much appreciated and duly devoured.

We worked and ate and hugged and cried. We mourned and ached and had great conversations. We got a mountain of stuff done, and thanked Rod for bringing us together on such a glorious day.

We are planning another working bee on Friday June 16, to help salve our broken hearts. We will confirm closer to the date, but we are aiming to have a cider pressing day with all of Rod's apples. We hope you will be able to join us.

A memorial for Rod will take place at the Daylesford Town Hall this coming Thursday at 1pm followed by a get together with the family at the farm (89 Kangaroo Hills Rd, Blampied) for more celebrations. The pizza oven will be going and everyone is invited to bring a plate of local food to share, as well as cutlery and crockery. There will be some of Rod's delicious cider to accompany our meal.

We have lost one of our vital elders, but Rod's spirit lives on in each of us and (through us) will continue to nourish the community and beyond.

See you on Thursday..

With open hands + open hearts

As most of you have no doubt heard, Rod May passed away two days ago after being in intensive care at the Alfred Hospital in Melbourne for a week following his road accident.

We join hands with everyone who knew Rod, his friends, family, colleagues, customers + wider community members to support those closest to him during this raw time of shock, mourning, remembering and deep deep love.

Tributes have been shared far and wide about what a beautiful man our Rod was. We were lucky enough to know him, to embody his kind wisdom with every mouthful of his veggies we took in, that filled our bodies and propelled our actions.

HRNers have been paying tribute to Rod. David Holmgren wrote this beautiful account of Rod's life and the relationship he and Su shared with him, and Patrick Jones wrote this moving poem. Eight years ago Meg Ulman took these photos of Rod's hands:

Your hands too can be this deliciously chocolatey on Friday. A working bee has been organised out at Rod's: Captain's Creek Organics, 89 Kangaroo Hills Road, Blampied (look for the large '89' sign).

There is one more bin of apples to pick and lots of kraut to make with all the cabbages. Come for as long as you can and bring a bite to eat to share. We will have a hot cuppa organised to warm our hardworking hands as well as our bodies.

Please join us from 9.30am and bring a big sharp knife and a big chopping board for cabbage if you can.

It's going to be a big couple of days of kraut making. Don't forget the Community Krauting Day this Saturday from 9.30am - 12 noon. Details here. Cabbage orders close on Thursday June 1.

Sending love to each and every one of you. Be kind, be brave, and please please be careful when you drive in cars.

Skate Park Food Garden

A new edible garden is just about to be planted at the Daylesford Community Park (skate park) cnr Duke and Stanbridge Streets and you are invited to be part of it.

Click for bigger

Working bees
Sunday 4th August 2 – 3pm (tree planting)
Thursday 15th August (mulching)
Saturday 24th Aug 2 – 3pm (perennials)

Please bring protective footwear and clothing, gardening gloves and shovels. Dogs are welcome but must be on leads.

Community, social groups as well as school groups and individuals are all invited to join in. Plant donations welcome or drop in at St Mel Cyclery & Café and sponsor a tree of your choice for $20.

For ongoing information about this exciting project visit: www.justfreefood.blogspot.com.au

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:

Sharing Skills

Thank you to everyone who came along to our sauerkraut and kimchi making workshop last Saturday. We won't know for another four weeks or so, until the ferments are ready, but in terms of our enjoyment and skill sharing, the day was a huge success

One of the main things HRN tries to do is encourage the learning and sharing of skills that will help prepare us for an energy descent future. Which means courses, tutorials and workshops galore.

This Saturday (July 13—sorry for the late notice) Stephen Oram (woodworker of fine furniture and harps) is offering a free workshop from 10.30am - 12 on repairing and maintaining garden tools in conjunction with the Daylesford Community Food Garden's 10-12 monthly working bee at the Albert St garden.

Bring your old or broken tools that need fixing and extra files, screwdrivers, chisels, etc that might be useful in doing the repair work.

Do you have any skills that you'd like to learn or teach? Please let us know and we'll get some more workshops happening.

Barley, Courses and Working Bee

On Tuesday afternoon at Sailors Falls a big semi-trailer overturned and spilled its 50 ton load of barley all over the road. Good for chooks and goats. People have been collecting it, but there are still many tons to be picked up before the rain comes and spoils it. Take your trailers, bags, shovels and friends and help clean up at the corner of Telegraph and Ballan-Daylesford Roads.

---

There are a couple of upcoming courses at the Daylesford Neighbourhood Centre that might be of interest to HRNers:

Prune Fruit Trees and Vines on Saturday June 16 ($22) and Chook Wise, a 1-day beginner level poultry care course on Saturday May 26 ($70/$55 conc).

Bookings via the Neighbourhood Centre on 5348 3569.

---

Just a quick reminder too that this Saturday is the monthly working bee and Daylesford Harvest Swapmeet at the Albert St community food garden. 10am-12pm. Please bring sacks of gleaned leaf mulch, animal manure, edging tools eg spades, weeding tools and your raincoat.