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Welcome to the Northey Street City Farm E-news for March 2017
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This month we welcome our new Nursery Coordinator Jennifer Hughes, who has extensive retail nursery management experience. Please come down to the City Farm Nursery, Thursday to Saturday 9am-3pm or on Sundays during the Sunday Organic Markets from 6am to 12pm and say G'day!
The Chai Cafe is in urgent need of cutlery and crockery and we would appreciate any donations from our members. At the Farm we always try to first recycle and re-purpose, before buying new. This ensures that we have a lighter footprint on the earth, staying true to our vision of ’sustainability for all'. So if you have some plates, mugs, knives and forks gathering dust at home we will happily give them a new lease on life.
We are very sad to have to say goodbye to our free range rooster Horatio! A real character on the farm and loved by so many. His beautiful feathers and strong crow will be missed!
We have launched our new website www.nscf.org.au. Check it out an let us know what you think - send feedback to info@nscf.org.au. Thanks to all the people who worked a lot of volunteer hours to make it happen - special thanks to Ronni, Mel, Christa and Disa!
We have two positions advertised this month: A WEX Urban Farm Project Coordinator and an Earth Kids Activity Tutor. CLICK HERE for details.
We have several volunteer places on the Earth Kids program. Volunteers require a current blue card (working with children check) and will have an opportunity to learn about the content in the program, including approaches to nature connection, permaculture, Earth Arts and Indigenous culture. If you are interested in this, please email Emma at education@nscf.org.au. We are taking bookings for the Easter Earth Kids School Holiday Program now!
Visit the Farm! There is a FREE farm tour every Tuesday 9.30am-11am. All welcome!
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The Easter 'Earth Kids' school holiday program will run from April the 3rd to 7th and support kids to become 'nature smart' - to have the knowledge, understandings and skills to engage in creating a more sustainable world. This will be a fun and interactive week of outdoor discovery in which kids will learn about the animals and plants at the Farm through observation and supported questioning, explore indigenous knowledge, experiment with Earth Arts and Bushcraft skills, and to put permaculture into practice. The program will be for kids aged 7 to 11 years of age, and will go from Monday to Friday from 9am to 3.30pm each day. For enquiries please email Emma at education@nscf.org.au. For more information CLICK HERE.
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Winter Solstice is a midwinter event, marking the shortest day and the longest night of the year. In many cultures the midwinter festival is deeply connected to seasonal changes relating to food crops, marking the last feast before deep winter. Here at the Farm, the annual Winter Solstice Festival has always been an invitation for the community to come together in joyous celebration of the seasons, learn more about permaculture and sustainable living, and to take the opportunity to join with others in ceremony. This year is no exception, and with our new Events Coordinator on board, we are on our way to creating another wonderful, family-friendly, community event, that will include permaculture education, covering a broad spectrum of topics about sustainable living, kids' activities, yummy food, music, a lantern parade, bonfire and ceremonies.
Our theme for this year is “Celebrating Nature’s Abundance”, and that is exactly what we are going to do, with an expanded education program and an abundance of entertainers on our main stage. We are even introducing a chalkboard/cabaret stage, cos we know what a talented community we have and we want to give you the chance to share your gifts with us. So make sure you block out Saturday 17th June in your calendar and we will keep you updated here over the coming months as we finalise our program. If you know some local act who would love to perform at this year’s Solstice, or you are interested in becoming involved as a volunteer to help put on this great event, please contact Georgia Railton-Stewart: events@nscf.org.au
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Great workshops coming up including Weeds - Friends or Foe with Dick Copeman, Cultivating Your Group Ecology with Erin Young, Crochet for Beginners with Ronni Martin and Intro to Permaculture with Morag Gamble. To book CLICK HERE.
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Lockyer Valley Permaculture Design Course
Sunday 4th June – Sunday 17th of September 8.30am – 5pm
“Visions of an Ancient Wisdom”
This unique course, delivered over 16 weeks in the Lockyer Valley and surrounds, gives you the knowledge and skills to observe and design from the natural patterns to create productive gardens & properties, grow your own food, apply appropriate technologies, learn to use resources wisely, build on living systems and rebuild communities.
Learn to:
• Build Resilience through Connectivity
• Facilitate Regeneration of the Earth
• Create Abundance through Design
The Permaculture Design Course (PDC) builds from its foundation in the ethics and design principles to strategies giving you the techniques and tools to inspire critical thinking. This PDC is a special collaboration between Northey Street City Farm & Savour Soil Permaculture.
For more information and bookings CLICK HERE.
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Planning and preparation for the new season…
Autumn has just started and it’s a great time to be adding lots of organic matter and compost to your garden beds, around 4 or 5 cm of compost or manure on the top of your beds will be enough to add nutrients for the next season. An additional layer of organic matter like sugarcane mulch or lucerne will help deter those pesky weeds from coming through. To help plan your autumn and winter crops below is some of the new stock that has just arrived to add into your edible garden plan.
Perennial coriander - sawtooth leaf, all year round corriander flavour
Borage - butterfly & bee attractor, edible flowers
Garden Mint - zingy addition to summer salad & cold drinks
Roma tomatoes - fullsome flavour addition to pasta sauces & salads
Yellow Pear tomatoes - sweet flavoured, bright coloured addition to Summer salads
Black cherry tomatoes - hardy, easy to grow - probably won't make it into your salads, the kids will have eaten them off the vine
Red Coral lettuce - full of antioxcidant free radical scavengers, a beautiful health giving leaf picking plant
Red galangal - delicious addition to Asian dishes & also has traditional herbal uses
Ginger - a must have in any subtropical garden, so many culinary & medicinal uses
Turmeric - a beautiful plant, one of our favourites, so many health enhancing uses
Brazilian Spinach - a hardy perennial green, iron rich groundcover and more
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Our Organic Markets are on every Sunday from 6am-12pm. This Sunday the 5th of March the Upcycle Market is on from 7am-12pm, showcasing low impact makers, crafters, artists and clothing designers committed to using ecologically friendly practices and re-purposed items and materials. For more information on the Upcycle Market CLICK HERE.
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Northey Street City Farm will again be participating in Clean Up Australia Day on March the 5th at 8am to 12pm. Join us to help clean up, fix up and conserve the environment. Please meet at 20 Edmund Street, Windsor, near Enoggera Creek. To register CLICK HERE.
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 Around the Farm
Thank you to the stall holders that came to our annual lunch. We are working hard to try and implement all that great feedback you gave us.
Thanks to all the management committee, managers, staff and volunteers who came to the Northey Street Bunya Mountain Camp Out and visit to the Ration Shed with Michael Williams. It was a wonderful social permaculture opportunity to learn about Australian First Nation history, reflect on how that impacts on us today and what the farm can do to be a more inclusive and supportive to First Nation Australians. It was also a great opportunity for the farm team to connect, learn about each other and bond in the great outdoors. |
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