Dinner and Decadent Film Night

On Thursday 22nd March we will have our first sustainable eating out dinner of the year followed by a screening of the film Decadence. Please join us at Conti at 6.30pm for our usual organic/wild tucker and see the film afterwards. Bookings essential on 5348 3636 or email us.

In other news, the lovely Ro has been busy making kefir and has some excess grains she is offering to HRN members free of charge. If you're interested, please contact her. And if you'd like to know more about all the wonderful benefits of kefir, there is some great info here.

Nicole Foss at the Daylesford Town Hall

Last Thursday about 90 people sat riveted for an hour and a half while Nicole talked about the bubble dynamics of the global  economy over the last 30 years and how we are in the throes of a deflationary collapse of our financial system that is likely to be far worse than that of the great depression.

She explained the implications for us all and suggested changes in how we manage our financial affairs and run our daily lives without credit. While her analysis was shocking, the conclusions drawn reinforced the HRN strategies of focussing on rebuilding our household economies, working more in the community and enjoying stronger self reliance.

Nicole acknowledged the long term threats of climate change and peak oil but emphasised the bursting of the financial bubble is a more immediate challenge. These three are all important but getting our finances in order immediately will help with the other two as well. Mayor Sebastian Klein and David Holmgren also had some excellent input at question time.

If you missed this event you can always go to the Automatic Earth where Nicole, amongst other things, has a list of things to do. Nicole is not just a theorist as you will see. See more here...

From L to R: Laurel Freeland, Nicole Foss, David Holmgren, Sebastian Klein

Shoe Making workshop

So, the first of the three workshops on making shoes will be held this Saturday. Here are some examples of the shoes that Duncan makes and some ideas. We will be learning the whole process from go to woah and these particular shoes are mainly glued. At the end of our series we will have a new pair of shoes to wear! There is one more place available due to a cancellation. Do you want it?

Duncan's son's school shoes

A new pair

Duncan's everyday short boots

Some shoe ideas that could be made

Nicole Foss in Daylesford, Shoe making workshop and Cob Earth Building at the Rocklyn Ashram

Hi folks, don't forget to book for next week's opportunity to see Nicole Foss in Central Victoria; actually here in Daylesford (she is coming to us instead of us having to go to her somewhere quite distant from home). You can get a preview at this week's film night at the Town Hall on Thursday and see her in person a week later. Click links or check blog site (and scroll down) for further info.

Secondly, there has been a cancellation for Duncan McHarg's shoe making workshop series, starting this Saturday. The three workshops cost $190 (subsidised by the Shire) and you will be supplied with the materials and assistance to make a pair of leather shoes for yourself.  So... who will be the lucky one to get the place?

Also, for the aspiring builders, the Rocklyn Ashram is conducting a week long cob building practicum starting on Friday 10th Feb. Great program and costs only $300 for the week.

Nicole Foss in Daylesford

Nicole Foss is coming to the Daylesford Town Hall  February 16th at 7.30pm.

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 Nicole is the co-editor of The Automatic Earth, where she writes under the name Stoneleigh. She and her writing partner have been chronicling and interpreting the on-going credit crunch as the most pressing aspect of our current multi-faceted predicament. The site integrates finance, energy, environment, psychology, population and real politik in order to explain why we find ourselves in a state of crisis and what we can do about it. Prior to the establishment of TAE, she was editor of The Oil Drum Canada, where she wrote on peak oil and finance.

Foss runs the Agri-Energy Producers' Association of Ontario, where she has focused on farm-based biogas projects and grid connections for renewable energy. While living in the UK she was a Research Fellow at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies, where she specialised in nuclear safety in Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union, and conducted research into electricity policy at the EU level.

Her academic qualifications include a BSc in biology from Carleton University in Canada (where she focused primarily on neuroscience and psychology), a post-graduate diploma in air and water pollution control, the common professional examination in law and an LLM in international law in development from the University of Warwick in the UK. She was granted the University Medal for the top science graduate in 1988 and the law school prize for the top law school graduate in 1997

She is also extremely practical. Below, she shares with us what she and her family have done to prepare themselves for the big changes on the way.

Don't miss this opportunity. Book now and get a 20% discount on the door price or email HRN for more info

Peak Oil Ball & 1st workshop of the year

The Mayor's Peak Oil Ball drew a diverse crowd. Quiz Master Rick Tanaka, in his inimitable style, and team mate David Holmgren (below with Laurel and Gabe) brought a few more hidden facts to light.

Beth (centre), natural fibre prize winner 

Miri and Clay recycled  outfit prize winners

Hubbard's Peak by Maureen

Thank you to everyone who came and contributed to the fun of the evening and to the Mayor's Climate Change Fund.

The first workshop of the year will be held on January 13th at Melliodora and will be on creating a clay floor. The workshop will be lead by James Henderson and there will be only 6 places. There will be some preparation leading up to the day which will require participants to be available for a couple of hours during the week before the workshop day (TBA). Expressions of interest should be sent to HRN. More details to come.

HAPPY SOLSTICE TO ALL!!

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.

Peak Oil Ball

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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

Reminder for Pardon My Carbon and community dinner

The Rod Quantock show is this Thursday. Please let us know by tomorrow if you would like to join an HRN table for what promises to be an entertaining night. BYO dinner (local of course) and drinks to share.

And the Community Dinner is on November 16th which is the following Wednesday. Book if you would like to join us so that we can set table.