THE RIDGE GOOD FOOD NEWS email: thffridgeproject@gmail.com

https://www.facebook.com/groups/272562686549721/

THE OFFICIAL NEWSLETTER OF THE RIDGE COMMUNITIES GOOD FOOD NETWORK

WELCOME - 1 GOOD FOOD EVENTS AND HAPPENINGS - 2 GOOD FOOD IN THE HILLS - 3 WINTER GARDENING WITH DAVID NICHOLLS - 4 PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT - 4 MEMBER FEATURE -  GO TO GROUND - 5 GOOD FOOD USEFUL LINKS - 6

WELCOME

An initiative of The Hills Food Frontier (THFF)

Welcome to the first edition of The Ridge Communities Good Food Network Newsletter. In 2016 The Hills Food Frontier engaged a Project Officer to conduct a mapping exercise of the Ridge area of the Dandenong Ranges to find out about food gardening and good food activities across the Ridge Communities. The project discovered that there is a great deal of food gardening happening, particularly in schools and in community groups where there are people that are highly committed and passionate about food gardening.  The project found that there is an abundance of people working hard in food gardens in schools and community organisations, many of them doing so voluntarily. What was also found was that there is a wealth of knowledge and experience in these volunteers and paid gardeners and all have a willingness and desire to share what they know with others doing similar things.  

edition 1 : july 2017

 Our Vision:  The Dandenong Ranges will be an inspirational, sustainable food     destination in Australia

IN THIS ISSUE

SCHOOLS

Ferny Creek Primary School Kallista Primary School

Mount Dandenong Primary School Olinda Primary School

Sassafras Primary School Sherbrooke Community School

COMMUNITY HOUSES

Kallista Community House Olinda Community House

GROUPS/ORGANISATIONS

EPIC Project Go to Ground Permaculture

CAFES & FOOD RETAILERS:

The Deli Platter Kallista Biodynamic Market

Organic Fanatic Proserpina Bakehouse

Come and join us on an exciting bus tour of the Olinda area showcasing Good Food and Gardens.

Start with a delicious Hot drink & cake at The Deli

Platter, followed by a look at the recently relocated

Olinda Community Garden, then an informative chat at Go to Ground with Miranda

Mueller, finishing with a visit to see David Nicholls inspiring home garden.

Expressions of Interest to thffridgeproject@gmail.com

by 3rd August 2017 Contact Jasmine on for

further information

When: Date to be Advised Time: 10 am - 1 pm

Where: Leaving from 'The Deli Platter' at 10 am, join

us before we leave for complimentary coffee and

cake from 9.30 am

MINI  BUS TOUR

The Ridge Good Food News - July 2017

NETWORK MEMBERS

GOOD FOOD EVENTS AND HAPPENINGS

COMMUNITY DINNER

Come along to a family feast, meet the locals and hear all about what's happening on

The Ridge.

Brought to you by THFF Contact Barb MacFarlane on

0407 548 165 for more information

For bookings go to www.thehillsfoodfrontier.org.a

u/events   

MARKETSKallista Community Market

1st Saturday of Month  9.00 am - 1.00 pm

Olinda Community House Car Boot Sale and Market

18th November  9 am - 3 pm

When:   19th August Where:   Sassafras Hall Time:   6.00 - 8.30 pm

BYO Food Chai & Mulled Wine available

http://thehillsfoodfrontier.org.au/events/

The Deli Platter is open 7 days a week for breakfast, lunch, coffee and afternoon tea, There is also a take-home option and an extensive range of local, imported and speciality cheeses, small goods, delicatessen and gourmet produce.

"Stunned by the information on the TV show we immediately initiated our own war on waste to become part of that movement to reduce usage of disposable coffee cups. We started on June 1st. The day we started we sold 6 cups. We've sold about 20 keep cups in all. We keenly await our next order and many customers have ordered ahead by asking for a cup to be put aside for them. It has been quite the topic of conversation and we are very encouraged by our customers who think it's great.  (The company 'Keep Cups' themselves are working day and night to fill orders) We are keeping a daily tally and are up to 60 for the month. We offer 50 c off anyone who brings in their own cup whether, it was just hanging around their kitchen cupboard, or they purchased from us or not. We are also registered on the responsible cafes website. We've recently installed solar panels to better manage energy usage and production and to reduce our carbon footprint. We compost our waste food and coffee waste and recycle our cardboard packaging by utilising our dumpster which we have had for years" 

At the Organic Fanatic you will find the freshest locally sourced organic foods, fruit and vegetables. These are free from allergens, Gluten and Growth Hormones. You can also buy beautiful inspired floristry and gifts.

At the Kallista Biodynamic Market you will find a fabulous range of fresh organic and biodynamic fruit and vegetables, meats and free range chicken and eggs. They also have large range of organic grains, pasta, legumes, chocolate, coffee, tea and fruit juices, plus organic toiletries, skincare, shampoos and cleaning products. And daily deliveries of organic bread.

The Ridge Good Food News - July 2017

The Deli Platter 1514 Mt Dandenong Rd, Olinda, 3788 Ph 03 9751 0144

Organic Fanatic234 Ridge Rd, Mount Dandenong, 3767 Ph 9751 0994

Kallista Biodynamic Market3 Church St, Kallista, 3791 Ph 9755 1111

GOOD FOOD IN THE HILLS

DESCRIPTION

Throughout 2016 it became clear that food waste processing is a challenging project for many schools, early years centres and other educational facilities. EASL is coordinating a Professional Development session on food waste and composting / worm farming in a school setting to provide some guidance and assistance to those with systems in place or those looking to set systems up. Ella Gaye from Chooktopia will lead us through some of the pitfalls and hurdles of composting as well as answering anyof those niggling questions you've always had about composting.

Afternoon tea is provided.

PLEASE NOTE: BOOKINGS CLOSE 6pm, MONDAY 21st AUGUST

Composting - Feeding it Right by Eastern Alliance for Sustainable Learning (EASL)

DATE AND TIME

Tue. 22 August 2017 4:30 pm – 6:30 pm AEST

LOCATION

Mt Evelyn Christian School 135 York Road

Montrose, VIC 3765

BOOKINGS 

https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/composting-feeding- it-right-registration-33912263493?aff=efbneb

The Ridge Good Food News - July 2017

professional development

winter gardening What can you do in the garden in Winter?  by David NichollsWhat can you grow in the Dandenongs when the temperature stays in single figures and it's either raining or frosty?

Well, not much. Anything you sow will either not come up or it will sit there and sulk. Later sowings do better so save your time and money. Maybe some of the onions but they have a hard time of it.

What you can do is enjoy the returns on all the work you did over summer and autumn. Now you can have spinach, silver beet, broccoli, leeks, kale, radicchio, parsley and the other hardy herbs. Then there are the root crops like potatoes, beetroot, parsnip, swede, carrots and oca. (Oca is one of the lost roots of the Incas. A bit hard to get but it can be worth it.)

Fruit trees bearing now include lemons, limes and Japanese mandarins. There's more if you live a bit lower down than Olinda. We would have had persimmons but the birds stripped two trees of every unripe fruit.

It is a good time to do any construction and major clean ups. A green house is great on rainy days - I just cleaned out the last banana capsicums and cherry tomatoes.

The best thing when the weather is really going for it is to sit inside and read gardening books and seed catalogues and imagine what great things you can do next season.

https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/composting-feeding-it-right-registration-33912263493?aff=efbneb

The Ridge Good Food News - July 2017

In October 2012 we, as a family, were invited to a protest. A protest against a McDonalds store set to be built on a block that was right in the gateway to our mountain home. A piece of real-estate that is now recognised as a political edge and significant in the timeline of our community growth. A protest site that is now celebrated as: A top ten public relation disaster for a multinational corporation. Our community fought back with seeds and a garden. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w1wDZZDboZM 

We were there, as a family on that early, icy morning when an entire mountain clan gathered to transform a vacant block into a food growing space in protest. A robust, headstrong, Mountain Tribe that fought back with seeds, plants and most importantly a real time illustration of a plan forward.  A community that were held together, though faced with earth movers, demolition crews and a plastic fast food store with money to burn. It was a powerful protest because rather than the focus being centred on blocking the imminent, incoming forces of a multinational corporation it highlighted unity and a vision forward without them.

Imagine if we could change the world by changing our food choices on a local level? This community protest was enough to inspire us to think as a business, together with our community we can.

The Go To Ground business model was inspired by and largely built on this very ideal. Here we are, many years on and we’ve only just begun, with years and years of stripping, unlearning, unpicking and scrapping ideas. Working through how we best fit into a world where the food system is broken and more importantly how we can, together effect change.

Since protesting against that horrible, multinational fast food corporation in 2012, being on the front of protest lines, writing letters to disconnected politicians and generally being warriors in a fight, it’s become clear that fighting is only a small portion of what is a far larger pie. A community pie.

We’ve tried very hard to look at this furore as a recipe, where we see that the drive through, fast food mentality of plastic and quick junk doesn’t fit our community’s ingredients list. We’ve found a committed group of people that are happy to join forces and start a groundswell of action.

How do we inspire change? How do we turn a broken food system around? How do we demand a different food story for our mountain community?

The Go to Ground crew have thrashed these questions out to the wire. We’ve done countless hours of blocking drive throughs, engaging in protests, waving banners and marching. All of it mildly satisfying, none of it creating permanent change or offering a way forward. We’ve discovered the greatest protest there is against the unfair swamp of our current food system, is connecting real people with real food, and from the very beginning. It’s a most important journey. Right back to the start. It all begins with a seasonal seed and our workshop calendar for 2017 is focused on handing food growth and power back to people. Supporting and sponsoring community growing spaces and encouraging our visitors here in our virtual garden classroom to connect with a seed and plant food for change and growth at a ground level.

Our 2017 focuses on putting real, home-grown food back onto a kitchen bench space and we’re so proud to be involved with the revolution that is a collaborative brainchild: The Ridge Communities Good Food Network.

We have some workshops in the coming months that will take things right back to earth loving basics: The kind of days that will put your hands back into soil, and encourage a reconnect between you, your community and the earth that we’re all entitled to harvest from: Come join us on the 16th of July for our first kitchen real-time harvest cook fest: You’ll find all of the event details on the below link and regular updates for upcoming events if you stay tuned https://www.facebook.com/GoToGroundpermaculture

Love pride and dirt to you all, Miranda X

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w1wDZZDboZM

VIDEOS WASTE NOT WANT NOT

http://www.abc.net.au/gardening/video/video_index_May2017.htm 

LOVE FOOD HATE WASTE

http://www.lovefoodhatewaste.vic.gov.au/ 

SUSTAIN: THE AUSTRALIAN FOOD NETWORK

https://circlesoffood.org

SUSTAINABLE GARDENING AUSTRALIA

http://www.sgaonline.org.au

ABC GARDENING AUSTRALIA

http://www.abc.net.au/gardening/ 

FOOD FOREST GAWLER

http://www.foodforest.com.au/ 

AUSTRALIAN CITY FARMS & COMMUNITY GARDENS NETWORK

http://communitygarden.org.au 

CULTIVATING COMMUNITY

http://www.cultivatingcommunity.org.au 

USEFUL LINKS

SWAP THE STRAW DANDENONG RANGES

https://www.facebook.com/swapthestraw/

RESPONSIBLE CAFES REGISTER

http://www.responsiblecafes.org/ 

useful good food links

THE HILLS FOOD FRONTIER

http://www.thehillsfoodfrontier.org.au