FEBRUARY-MARCH 2016

PERMACULTURE YARRA VALLEY 1 FEBRUARY-MARCH 2016

Contents Editorial .............................................. 2

Members’ Library ............................... 2

Sustainable Edible Garden Fes val ..... 3

Your Commi ee .................................. 4

Commi ee Capers .............................. 4

A thank you......................................... 5

PDC ..................................................... 6

Edible weeds walk & book launch ....... 6

Autumnfest and the Market ............... 7

Seasonal Plan ng Guide ..................... 8

Grandma’s Know How ......................... 9

Earthbag workshop ............................. 9

PERMACULTURE YARRA VALLEY 2 FEBRUARY-MARCH 2016

Editorial In November last year, I came across an interesting article in the Good Weekend about ‘The Ark of Taste’ (link via the The Sydney Morning Herald below). It is without surprise that Australia is host to a wonderful variety of food plants listed in this article, but I was very surprised to read that an endangered animal listed on the Australian Ark is the Wessex Saddleback pig. Given that pigs aren’t native to Australia, I was intrigued to learn that since it was imported in the 1930s, the Wessex Saddleback breed has become extinct in the UK - giving it a unique status in Australia.

Having read this article, it was with a better understanding that I heard the following opinion of one of our members; that we don’t give the same consideration in keeping pure breed animals as we do in maintaining heritage seeds.

The potential extinction of rare breeds has implications for genetic diversity. It’s certainly ‘food for thought’ and something I’ll keep in mind for the future.

Kerryn h p://www.smh.com.au/good-weekend/keepers-of-the-ark-to-the-rescue-of-our-endangered-food-20151020-gkdwsl.html

Members’ Library at the Healesville Organic Farmers’ Market 1st Saturday of the Month: Books and permaculture magazines are available to members for loan from the PYV stand at the Healesville Market on the 1st Saturday of each month (except January), from 8:30am to 1pm. Next dates are Feb 6th and March 5th.

Volunteer roster: the monthly stand also provides an opportunity to sign up poten al members and have fascina ng conversa ons with visitors to the market. We would appreciate member involvement with managing the stand. Volunteers are required to begin at 10am; the stand will have been set-up and you will receive a briefing. Du es include lending items to members, offering brochures to interested visitors, signing up poten al members and packing up at 1pm. There is opportunity for you to make purchases during this me.

Book dona ons: we would like to expand our library. If you have any permaculture related books, magazines and/or DVDs you would like to donate or loan to our library, they would be greatly appreciated.

PERMACULTURE YARRA VALLEY 3 FEBRUARY-MARCH 2016

Sustainable Edible Gardening with Permaculture Twist – Sustainable Living Festival

Edible Forest Gardens Presents Sustainable Edible Gardening with Permaculture Twist – Sustainable Living Festival

Beyond the veggie patch February 28th

This is an open day to help you turn your backyard into a sustainable productive space. Regardless of how big or how small a space you have, you can grow something; from herbs, to an Edible Forest Garden and everything in between. With a little know how you can grow food and create your own Garden of Eden at home. There will be talks on topics including:

9:30 Feeding and care for chickens and ducks by F leur from BookAChook 11:00 Salad with Bite by John Ferris from Edible Forest Gardens 12:30 Keeping Bees by Bec from Bec’s Bees 2:00 Animals in Permaculture Systems by F leur from Santosha Pemaculture 3:30 Bush Foods by Karen Sutherland from Edible Eden Design There will be information stands including natural house building, herbal and nourishing teas, Pip Permaculture Magazine, Permaculture Yarra Valley and more. The event is being held at Edible Forest Gardens Nursery who specialises in edible and beneficial plants. Food: Babaji are suppor ting this event with their amazing Indian Street food which has vegan and gluten free options. If you wish to buy lunch, to help the environment, you are welcome to bring your own cup and plate too!

Edible Forest Gardens, 5 Lower Homestead Road, Wonga Park, 3115 This open day has been set up so that you can learn where to get started to take your garden beyond the veggie patch! http://www.slf.org.au/event/sustainable-urban-edible-gardening/ https://www.facebook.com/events/157120887998382/

Your Committee Execu ve Office Bearers: President: Graeme George P: 5962 5070 E: earthcarepc@virtual.net.au Vice President: Julian Guess Treasurer: Graeme George Secretary: Monique Percy

Ordinary Commi ee Members: Paul Judd Kerryn Popa Deborah Guess Saba Issa Travis Heenan Responsibili es: Membership Officer: Deborah Guess Farmers Market Coordinator: Graeme George

Events Coordinator: Monique Percy Assistant Events Coordinator: Saba Issa Website Editor: Julian Guess Newsle er Editor: Kerryn Popa newsle erpyv@gmail.com General Enquires: permacultureyv@gmail.com

PERMACULTURE YARRA VALLEY 4 FEBRUARY-MARCH 2016

Committee meetings. Committee met late November and again in December to finalise urgent business before the Summer break. Thanks Julian and Deb for hosting us in Warburton for the November meeting and to Saba and Matt for hosting us in Lilydale for the December one.

Website. The new website is progressing slowly but still needs more content before going live.

2016 Events Calendar. The working group to finalise the Events calendar is still looking for a couple more sites to visit. If anyone has suggestions or offers please contact Monique.

Permaculture Design Course for PYV members. The committee meeting in December set a course fee of $250. To avoid competition in the market place with others offering PDCs to the public in your area, it was confirmed that enrolments would be limited to members on the books at the time of announcement. A program has been finalised starting Monday 11th April and finishing Sunday 6th November.

Autumnfest 2016. Planning is underway for this celebration of the 12th birthday of our Farmers Market on Saturday 19th March. Monique was unable to take on the Coordinator role due to clashing work commitments and Paul has now taken over this role.

Open Day at Edible Forest Gardens Nursery, Wonga Park. We’ve been invited to set up a promotional stall at this permaculture-inspired venture on the 28th February. The event will be part of the Sustainable Living Festival. See details elsewhere in the newsletter.

Yours in Permaculture

Graeme George

President

Committee Capers

PERMACULTURE YARRA VALLEY 5 FEBRUARY-MARCH 2016

A Thank You to PYV Thank you PYV for suppor ng our new vegetable beds

The Edible Warburton Community Gardens has received a great boost in the last few months thanks to generous funding from Permaculture Yarra Valley which has enabled us to build new vegetable beds made out of recycled bricks. These replace the old apple boxes which have started to rot.

All PYV members are warmly invited to volunteer at our weekly gatherings/working bees at the gardens on (most) Saturday mornings, 10am ll about midday. The gardens are at 3394 Warburton Highway, Warburton, opposite the ‘Chook-house’ shop and next to Warburton Wellbeing. Currently we are progressing with building recycled brick vegetable beds (so far we have built six), edging in-ground beds, digging up kikuyu in paths and replacing with sawdust, sowing seeds, plan ng seedlings, weeding and a whole range of other tasks. If you would like to help out at the gardens but can’t make Saturday mornings just let us know and we can get something organized.

Building the brick beds is a great, and free, way to get experience in brick-laying which you can apply on your own property.

Thank you PYV for your great support of this community project.

Deborah Guess on behalf of Edible Warburton.

Volunteers building vegetable beds at Edible Warburton One of the completed brick beds,

with plants generously donated by Yarra Valley ECOSS

PERMACULTURE YARRA VALLEY 6 FEBRUARY-MARCH 2016

Permaculture Design Course - PYV PDC

The Permaculture Design Course for our members is scheduled to start Monday 11th April. To be eligible members will need to have been on our membership list when the course was announced. The cost has been set at $250. Full payment will need to be made on booking unless an alterna ve arrangement is nego ated. Bookings will be required by the 1st March so that planning can proceed in the knowledge that we have the numbers to make the course viable. The class is to be limited to 20 places, with a couple of extra spots for members who have completed a PDC but want to do a refresher on selected topics. These casual sessions will also need to be booked in advance at a cost of $10 per evening session or $20 per Sunday. A copy of the proposed program is available on request from Monique. When : Monday evenings, 6.30 - 9.30 pm weekly, except school and public holidays, and one Sunday per month, 9.30 am to 5 pm, starting Monday 11th April and running till Sunday 6th November. Where: Woori Yallock Farm School, School Road, Woori Yallock, for Monday evening sessions. Sundays as per program. Tutors: Graeme George, Stu Ryder and Trav Heenan. For more detail see the notice in the December newsletter.

Edible Weeds Walk and Book Launch: The Art of Free Travel

On Saturday 20th February, Patrick Jones and Meg Ulman will be running an edible weeds walk in Warburton, followed by the launching their book; The Art of Free Travel

“Patrick, Meg and their family had built a happy, sustainable life in regional Victoria. But in late 2013, they found themselves craving an adventure: a road trip.

But theirs was a road trip with a difference. With Zephyr (10), Woody (1) and Zero their Jack Russell, they set off on an epic 6,000km year-long cycling journey along Australia’s east coast, from Daylesford to Cape York and back.

Their aim was to live as cheaply as possible - guerrilla camping, hunting, foraging and bartering their permaculture skills, and living on a diet of free food, bush tucker, and the occasional fresh road kill. They spent time in Aboriginal communities, joined an anti-fracking blockade, documented edible plants, and dodged speeding cars and trucks on the country’s most dangerous highways. The Art of Free Travel is the remarkable story of a rule-breaking year of ethical living.”

Meet at 11am at the Cog Bike Café, 42 Station Rd, Warburton, for the edible weeds walk, followed by the book launch at 12pm.

PERMACULTURE YARRA VALLEY 7 FEBRUARY-MARCH 2016

Autumnfest 2016 - 19th March Every year the Healesville Organic Farmers Market holds Autumnfest as a celebration of the Autumn harvest and birthday of the market. It is held near the Autumn equinox, so will be held this year on the 19th of March, the weekend before Easter. Please put this date in your diary. We will have the normal market stalls plus other fresh food stalls, community groups, live acoustic music and entertainment for the children. If you are an organic/permaculture/biodynamic grower/food product producer or sustainable/environmental business/community group, please contact the coordinator, Paul Judd. Keep a lookout for posters and newspaper adverts in the coming weeks. If anyone would like to help distribute flyers, or help set up the day before, or on the day, please contact the coordinator.

The Healesville Organic Farmers Market is held every Saturday from 8am to 1pm at the West end of the Coronation Park car park. If it is dry and warm we are under the trees adjacent to the car park.

Currently we have 15 regular stalls attending, plus casuals who come once a month. We have local fresh produce stalls, honey, coffee, olive oil, organic food products (preserved and freshly made), seeds and seedlings. The best way to find what we have each week is check the HOFM facebook page https://www.facebook.com/healesvilleorganicfarmersmarket/ from Thursday.

We have the PYV members’ Coop Stall every week, and on the first Saturday of the month, we have the PYV members’ library.

SNAP SHOTS at the MARKET

PERMACULTURE YARRA VALLEY 8 FEBRUARY-MARCH 2016

Seasonal Planting Guide For The Yarra Valley - Graeme LATE SUMMER (Mid-January to February) This is usually the peak of the Fire Season in the Yarra Valley with hot weather and low rainfall making life challenging for both people and plants. The recent heavy rains of late January will hopefully provide some relief this season, but the humidity associated with the tropical low pressure weather cells reaching Victoria increases the frequency of fungal diseases like Brown Rot in stone fruit.

February in the Vegie Patch January was the last chance to sow some summer crops for Autumn harvest (beans, beetroot, corn, cucumbers). February is the time to start winter crops that need to be well grown before cool weather sets in. Autumn is too late for many of these.

A second planting of crops like silver beet & chards will give you extra plants to see you through the winter when production slows right down. In warmer areas a planting of broad beans may give you a late Autumn harvest. Sow - beetroot, broccoli, cabbage, chinese cabbage, choys (bok choy, tatsoi, choy sum, mizuna, etc, but cool areas only), carrots, cauliflower, celeriac, celery, chicory, coriander, endive, kale & collards, kohlrabi, leeks, lettuce, mustards, parsnip, radish & daikon, rocket, shallots/spring onions, leaf beets (silver beet, rainbow chard, etc), swedes, turnips. Plant - Seedlings of Brussels sprouts (don't wait till the Autumn – that's too late), last chance to plant tubers of potatoes.

EARLY AUTUMN (early March to late April) Over the last decade we’ve seen a trend towards a dry early Autumn and a wetter late Autumn. Early Autumn can be characterised by the change of colour of the leaves of deciduous trees and late Autumn by the first decent rains (the Autumn break that farmers wait for). Whenever they happen the Autumn rains are eagerly awaited by mushroom foragers and we haven’t had a really good season for many years.

March in the Vegie Patch. Continue successional planting of brassicas for winter harvest - broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, but watch out for Cabbage White Butterfly caterpillars. Make first sowings of chervil and corn salad which won’t germinate in hot weather and kale if you didn’t get it started last month. Recommence successional sowing of bok choy, tatsoi, choy sum and mizuna, as soon as cooler early Autumn conditions appear.

Continue successional sowing of coriander, dill, lettuce (cos types do better in cooler weather), mustard greens, Barletta and spring onions, rocket, shallots/bunching onions, spinach, and turnips (it’s a bit late for swedes). Plant Garlic, particularly those varieties that don’t keep well. If you have an empty bed that can benefit from a green manure crop then a sowing of cool season green manure crops can go in during this season. This can include lupins during March, but not later.

PERMACULTURE YARRA VALLEY 9 FEBRUARY-MARCH 2016

A recipe to combat the current ZUCCHINI GLUT… and relish in it 1 ½ kg zucchini 2-3 onions 1 tblsp salt 1 cup sugar (I used rapadura*) 2 cups vinegar (recipe says white - I used mixture of cider vinegar and white) 1 cup water 1 ½ tsp curry powder 1 ½ tsp turmeric powder 1 ½ tsp mustard seeds 1 ½ tsp cumin seeds (recipe says celery seeds, so you can experiment!) Finely slice zucchini and onion. Place in bowl and sprinkle with salt. Leave for 1 hour. Drain off liquid. Combine other ingredients in a saucepan and bring to the boil. Add zucchini and onions. Boil for just under 5 minutes. Store in sterilised jars. NB: original recipe is 1 ½ cups sugar and 3 cups vinegar, no water. But I always look for ways to reduce the sugar content! *Editor’s note: rapadura is unrefined whole cane sugar. Detailed informa on can be found at this website: h p://www.quirkycooking.com.au/2009/07/rapadura-panela-sucanat-muscavado-turbinado-organic-raw-sugar/

Grandma’s Knowhow - Saba

Earthbag Workshop

Save the date ….

A free workshop on making and using earthbags on Saturday 30th April and Sunday 1st May 10am – 4pm at Edible Warburton Community Gardens, Warburton. We will be making a large sea ng area out of earthbags. This is a great chance to enhance your skills in construc on using sustainable materials. More details in the April newsle er.

The workshop is generously sponsored by:

NEWSLETTER CONTRIBUTIONS

Ar cles for inclusion in the newsle er are most welcome.

Submit your piece and photos as a word document.

Address submissions to Kerryn at newsle erpyv@gmail.com

Please keep in mind that as editor I may have to change fonts and move photos to suit the newsle er format. Please email me with any ques ons you may have.

Deadline for the next issue is 20th MARCH for April issue

To:

Fix stamp

From: PYV

PO Box 259

Yarra Junc on 3797