This monthly of recent news and upcoming events is emailed to all members and subscribers. Continue reading for this month’s issue and the opportunity to sign up for future updates.

Hello and welcome to our first eNews edition for the New Year… and what a start it’s been!

We acknowledge the new people to this eNews list, especially those who joined us through the Woodford Festival Workshops and the Joel Salatin Presentation. May you find something useful below!

DATECLAIMERS

Thursday 17 February: New PDC (Permaculture Design Certificate) begins

Sunday 20 February: 1st Community Harvest  Day for 2011, 2:00 – 6:00 pm

Saturday 5 March: 1st Community Benefit Festival for 2011, “Live, Care, Inspire”

Saturday 12 March: Working Bee, from 7am

From March: Sustainable Living Workshop Series for Autumn

Sunday 20 March: 2nd  Community Harvest  Day , 2:00 – 6:00 pm and Autumn Equinox Celebration

Saturday 25th June: Winter Solstice Festival

PERMACULTURE DESIGN COURSE (PDC) STARTING THURSDAY 17 FEBRUARY

Due to the floods, we’ve deferred the start of our first PDC for the year to Thursday 17 February. This is a weekly course that runs over 14 weeks finishing on the 26 May 2011. Past participants of Northey Street’s PDC have described it as “inspiring”, “fun” and “the best course I have ever done”. A PDC is so much more than garden design. Come along and find out. Visit our Courses and Workshops page for more detail and how to book in. There are still a few places left.

OUR FIRST 2011 EVENT:  COMMUNITY BENEFIT FESTIVAL HERE AT THE FARM

We are excited about hosting our first Community  Benefit  Festival at the farm on March 5th . These activities will complement  our regular free events such as the Solstice and Equinox events, but also bring great music  and new energy to our farm and community.

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They also have targeted community fundraising and information outcomes.  Our first event will benefit a program to support youths at risk, wildlife rescue in Brisbane, and the catering proceeds go to Northey Street City Farm to crank our kitchen up!

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The performers are donating their time – our community just has to buy a ticket and come along to share the love!  The details are:

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Event: ‘Live, Care. Inspire’

Date: Saturday 5th March, from 5pm -10pm

Bands Include: Chocolate Strings, Truth Serum, The Roaring Fire Community Choir, Kindling (the boys from Kooii) and Yani, Chris, and the Silver Fox band

Cost: $20  ($15 Concession, $5 Children)

Tickets: Available through Green Tix – but get in fast!

Catering: Cob Oven Pizzas, Soup from our Gardens, Chai Cafe and more

Event Information: Ph. (07)3246 5426 or email Rebecca at Rebecca@rbcpromotions.com

Volunteers: We’d love a hand setting up, serving and cleaning up. Please go to community@nscf.org.au
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We’d appreciate any effort to spread the word! Show your support on Facebook, or Download & distribute the full poster

GREEN ARMY PROGRAM FOR CITY FARM

Northey Street is running a Green Army work program for 26 weeks from March.  We are seeking to employ and train long-term unemployed participants, as well as filling the job vacancies of Coordinator, Supervisor and Trainer.

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Participant Registration – Green Army Program
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Northey Street City Farm is recruiting long-term unemployed people for paid work and skills development in Permaculture on projects of community benefit at the farm. Successful applicants will be employed for 30 hrs per week, Tuesday to Friday for a maximum of 26 weeks, subject to meeting project eligibility criteria. They will also be provided with Accredited Training (Cert. 2 in Permaculture) as well as other training and work experiences.

The program commences on Tuesday 22 March, 2011. To be considered, participants must be registered on the Skilling Queenslanders for Work Website and need to do so by 4:00 pm on Friday 4th March, 2011.Upon registration, you may choose to forward on your acceptance email, or simply email info@nscf.org.au to advise the farm that you are on the database and elegible for employment in the program.  Just so we know you’re there!

Shortlisted people, selected from the database, will be interviewed at the farm before selection of the final 12 participants. The notional interview dates are Tuesday 8th March and and Wednesday 9th March, but dates and times will be advised prior to that. The farm will be looking to ascertain those who will most benefit from the program in terms of attaining skilling and employment outcomes.

The project is funded by the Department of Employment, Economic Development and Innovation’s Skillin g Queenslanders for Work initiative.

For more information, please see the Skilling Queenslanders for Work brochure.

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Job Recruitment – Green Army Project Staff
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The following 3 positions are being concurently advertised.  People may apply for one or more of these.
Click the positions below to find out more.

Coordinator
Supervisor
Trainer

Applications Due: Wednesday 9th March, 2011, at 4:00pm. Short-list applicants will be informed within 24 hours by  phone.

Interviews with Short-Listed Applicants: Tentatively over Friday 11th February and Saturday 12th February, 2011
Program Commences: Tuesday 22 March, 2011

FLOOD RENEWAL – HOW YOU CAN HELP

Firstly we wish to thank all the wonderful volunteers who came and cleaned up our community garden after the flood. Many regular farm workers were joined by neighbours, farm members and even the odd bus load of people. We are also grateful for our neighbouring business Tentworld and the wonderful people from Baked Relief and others who provided food.

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And now it’s time for Renewal:

The Gardens

These were severely hit by the flooding. Some good tips about garden flood recovery on Annette McFarlane’s website, including assisting others to re-establish their gardens.  There’s also plenty of work to be done at the farm if you’re willing to volunteer some time and/or materials:

• on one of our regular volunteer days Tuesday – Thursday
• at our Saturday Gardening session, from 7am each Weekend
• at an upcoming working bee.

Art activity around a welcome space for people

It’s time to rejuvenate our rather bland and invisible welcoming area. We hope to turn the end of the veranda of the old office, near the Chai Cafe area, into a bright and attractive welcome area, with lots of information and colour. This requires artists and handy-persons. Would anyone like to take this on as a project?  Contact community@nscf.org.au  We’d love to hear from you or your community group (maybe a shared project here!)

JOB VACANCY:  CHAI CAFE COORDINATOR POSITION

The position of Chai Cafe Coordinator is vacant. We thank Chris O’Brien for all her great work here over a few years now, and we’re grateful that she is able to stay on until the position is filled and the new person inducted.  Full position and application details will be on our website in the next week or so. Stay tuned!

Exciting New Education Program Possibilities for 2011!

1.       PDC in the Evenings?

We’ve had a number of enquiries about running a PDC in the evenings. The PDC teachers are willing and able to make this happen if there are sufficient numbers. We envisage the course would run over 20 evenings with 4 practical or off-site days on a Saturday. If you’re interested in enrolling in an evening PDC, then please email the PDC Coordinator, Wendy Marchment, cityfarmpdc@gmail.com with the subject Evening PDC and indicate 1. what evenings would suit you and 2. your preference for 1 or 2 evenings per week.

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2.       PDC Students Group Design Location – Expressions of Interest

As part of the PDC, the students undertake a group design exercise off-site for a full day 9.00am to 4.30pm. This has usually been conducted for a community organisation or school.  The ‘client’ is interviewed at the start of the day and is there for the small group design presentations at the end of the day and they receive a copy of the designs. In return, we request our hosts provide appropriate facilities for the students and teacher/s plus sustenance for them during the day. If you would like to express an interest in your organisation or school being a host for the group design exercise please contact the PDC Coordinator, Wendy Marchment cityfarmpdc@gmail.com

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3.       Sustainable Living Workshops Program – Expressions of interest for facilitation and participation

The Education Team has been busy working on the Autumn Workshop Program and it will be on the NSCF website by the end of February. There is still time to put up your hand to run a workshop or make some suggestions about what you would like to see included in the program. Email info@nscf.org.au  with the subject Workshop Program.

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4.       Certificate III in Permaculture?

We are taking expressions of interest for a Certificate III in Permaculture to start in May 2011 and finish in December 2011. This would be a full-time course with two days per week attendance and approximately one day per week of associated homework and practical exercises/work experience. Ideally students would have completed a Permaculture Design Course but this is not a requirement of entry. This course is nationally recognised and is AUSTUDY Approved via Eltham College, Victoria. The estimated costs would be $5000 full fee and $4000 concession, with payment plans available. If you would be interested in enrolling then please email info@nscf.org.au  with your full contact details. Further information about the course is available here.

FOCUS ON LOCAL FOODS

In acknowledging that our farm community needs to focus on local food systems in our kitchen and all activities, and get back to “Best Practice Permaculture“,  a group of volunteers is developing a list of recommendations. This is on all topics from organic food, to waste systems, a healthier and safer kitchen, our free lunches to volunteers, links with growers and suppliers, food policies around all activities at the market and during the week and having more food harvests and celebrations.

We invite your concerns and solutions! Ideas to community@nscf.org.au in the next few weeks please.

COMMUNITY HARVEST DAYS

Following the successful model at last year’s Summer Solstice where people gathered, harvested, gardened, cooked and then celebrated together, we are having at least 4 Community Harvest Days this year, helping us re-focus on food and community.  These next two will run from 2pm – 6pm , on Sundays, after the Markets. There will be harvesting, gardening, preserving (and people can bring some home) and then sharing of food. This is a working bee, but is about learning from each other, and we will be asking for a donation to cover City Farm costs.

1. Sunday 20th February: Herbal Infusions
2. Sunday 20th February: Harvesting and Preserving the Summer Surplus. This will also be our Autumn Equinox Celebration

Just turn up, or for more  information,  contact anaheke@gmail.com

LIBRARY ASSISTANCE – AND OUR GRATITUDE

A huge thank you to those who responded to our call for donations for our library which is a key education resource. In particular Murray for his great collection. There are a large number of lifestyle and self-help books also, so we’ll have breadth as well as depth.

We are feeling a little overwhelmed though and need a hand. If you are interested in assisting our volunteer librarian Rosemary to cover and catalogue the donated books then please contact the Education Coordinator, Wendy Marchment, education.nscf@gmail.com .  We would love to see all the donations up on the shelves for borrowing as soon as possible.

Every Sunday Morning: Organic Markets, with Chai Cafe, Nursery and Village-Life

Six days a week: “Edible Landscapes” Nursery

Every Tuesday: 9:30 am:  1 hour orientation tour of farm – good for new volunteers.

Tuesday – Friday each week: Volunteering in and around the Farm

Every Saturday Morning: Gardening – volunteers needed!

Every Wednesday: “Planting for Pizzas” (gardening and cooking activities)  11 am – 2 pm