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.

Birth Rights

Even though doctors and midwives know that when women give birth at home, on the whole there are less complications than hospital births, independent midwives across the globe are being persecuted for providing loving care as an alternative to what the medicalised system offers.

On Sunday, over 500 people filled the Daylesford town hall for Family Fun Day: a celebration of birth. There was live music, local food, a magic show, a pop-up op shop, face painting, circus workshops, story telling, craft activities and a silent auction. All proceeds went to a local independent midwife, to cover her legal fees as she fights a bureaucratic system that doesn't understand or value what she does for birthing women and their families.

The afternoon was an enormous success: one community's joyously positive protest for women's rights to give birth in their own way, in their own time, and in their own place.

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.

Kinglake & Kitchen

Day 1 of the Kinglake Regenerating People Place Prosperity Preparedness conference was truly a knockout. With so many speakers the day promised to be almost too full, but in groups of three the speakers managed to bounce off each other, stick to time constraints and be up for questions at the end of each session.

The content, as you may have seen in the program, is broad ranging due to the inspired organisation of Daryl Taylor. This event was made possible with monies from the 2009 Black Saturday fires funding for badly affected areas.

See if you can make it to Day 2 of this event on Sunday May 5th—National Permaculture Day—to celebrate the best of lessons learned in the wake of disasters close to home.

Inspiring stuff!

Please email us for car pooling options.

* * *

Gardening Volunteers Wanted

The Kitchen Garden program at Daylesford Primary School is looking for volunteers. If anyone is available to assist, even for one session, please contact Jennifer Thompson at the school on 5348 2480. Other Shire schools would be also interested in Volunteers for their gardening programs with students; it's a great way of helping the younger generation go green.

Earth Render Workshop

Join local builder James Henderson, an authority on earth renders and earth buildings, for a workshop at the Rocklyn ashram (393 Dean Barkstead Rd, Rocklyn).

Learn how to do a clay/sand render with a little chopped straw; the most basic and the most popular of the earth renders.

Join James as he demonstrates wet and dry processing, tests the clay for use in render, prepares the walls and details, mixes the render and shows a variety of application and finishing methods including lime and clay casien paints.

3 - 5 May 2013

Option 1: $250
Friday after 2pm until Sunday 
Includes: Shared accommodation, all food, yoga sessions and workshop

Option 2: $220
Saturday 8.30am until Sunday
Includes: Shared accommodation, all food, yoga sessions and workshop

Day Options: $100 per day
Saturday 8.30am - 5.00pm
Sunday 8.30am - 5.00pm 
Includes: All food, yoga sessions and workshop

Yoga sessions:
6 - 7 am yoga posture class & meditation
Daily Yoga Nidra - deep relaxation
Evening program chanting

Bookings essential.

Ph: 5345 7434 or yogarock@satyananda.net

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!

Regenerating...

Regenerating People Place Prosperity Preparedness is a two day conference exploring a diverse range of community regeneration and disaster preparedness issues and opportunities, experiential learning and the latest in-depth research findings.

Featuring fire scientist Kevin Tolhurst, ecological historians Tom Griffiths and Bill Gammage, trauma psychiatrist Paul Valent, economic regeneration consultants Peter Kenyon and David Engwicht, social entrepreneurs Margi O’Connell and Jan Owen, climate modeler Penny Whetton, sustainability activist Cam Walker, community safety policy experts John Handmer and Blythe McLennan and socio-ecological resilience practitioners David Holmgren and Erin Bohensky.

You can download the program here.

For those who are unable to attend, the event will be filmed and hopefully screened at an upcoming HRN film night.

For those who are able to attend, please email us for carpooling possibilities.

* * * 

Wild Foods: Regaining Local Knowledge 

Want to know more about what local food you can eat for free without doing any work, except for a restorative walk? Join Patrick Jones for a four hour forage on the outskirts of Daylesford identifying edible-medicinal leaves, seeds, mushrooms and fruits that constitute bush foods, weeds and other naturalising plants. Learn some of the eighty-five species that Jones and his family incorporate into their diets.

Saturdays starting 20th April till end of term
1-5pm (all weather except torrential rain)
$30 per person
Contact Daylesford Neighbourhood Centre for bookings on 5348 3569 or daylesford@ourneighbourhood.org.au