DATECLAIMERS

EDUCATION PROGRAM: COURSES
Our next Permaculture Design Course (PDC) is a Two-Week Intensive running from Monday 19 September to Saturday 1 October (inclusive) during the school holidays, plus a final day for design presentations, celebration and wrap-up on Saturday 15 October. Enrolments are open now!

EDUCATION PROGRAM: WORKSHOPS
We are proud to announce a new range of half-day and one-day workshops over the coming months. Spaces are limited, so get in early. Full details on all Sustainable Living Workshops here

Saturday 13 August, 9am – 12pm: The Cultivated Ecology – Growing Healthy Vegetables. Limited places.  Seasonal selection, crop rotation, companion planting and other ways to get the best out of your edible garden.  Full day fee if booked together with ‘Establishing and Maintaining a Vegetable Garden’ on the same day.
Saturday 13 August,1.30pm – 4:30pm: Establishing and Maintaining a Vegetable Garden Limited places. Learn how to build no-dig and other vegetable gardens, plant them out and maintain them. Full-day fee if booked together with ‘The Cultivated Ecology’ on the same day.

Saturday 20 August, 9am – 12pm: Animals in Permaculture. Limited places. Learn how to keep bees, cows, goats, sheep and wildlife

Saturday 20 August, 1.30pm – 4:30pm: Keeping Poultry. Limited places.  Learn how to keep healthy and happy chickens in your backyard for a supply of fresh eggs, garden work and entertainment.

Saturday 27 August, 9am – 12pm: Trees in Permaculture 1. Limited places. Characteristics, functions and design applications
Saturday 27 August,1:30pm – 4:30pm: Trees in Permaculture 2. Limited places. Tree ID, tree care and design exercise

Saturday 3 September, 9am – 4:30pm: Thinking of a Tree Change? Bus tour – limited places.
Saturday 3 September: 9am – 4:00pm: Growing a Sub-Tropical Food Forest. Hands-on workshop guiding participants through the design concepts and implementation of a subtropical food forest including the creation of a banana circle incorporating annual food crops combined with long term tree crops and clumping bamboo species for diverse and resilient food and fibre production.

24 & 25 September: Learn how to build with bamboo – a 2-day workshop. Participants will gain the skills to build with, harvest and preserve bamboo.
1 October, 9am – 12noon: Sustainable Housing – limited places.
1 October, 1.30pm – 4:30pm: Appropriate Technology – limited places.
8 October, 9am – 12noon: Seedsaving and Propagation – limited places.
15 October, 9am – 12pm: Building a Local Permaculture Community – limited places.
15 October, 1.30pm – 4.30pm: Sustainable City Living Walking Tour – limited places. Be inspired by visiting some interesting permaculture gardens and sustainable buildings in the inner city suburbs.
29 October, 8am – 12 noon: Keeping Chooks in the City – Getting Started
29 October, 9am – 1pm: Establishing a Bee Hive
Saturdays 5-26 November: Organic Herbs and Vegies Permaculture Basics: Spring and Summer. This four week course will help you understand and enrich you soil with you own compost, worms and tonics; and grow herbs and vegies for healthy, year-round harvests.

“EDIBLE LANDSCAPES” NURSERY SPECIALS

• August Special: All natives are 20% off for this month (excluding BCC free trees)
• Also on Mondays and Wednesdays during August, get a free “Plant of the Week” when you buy a fruit tree!

VOLUNTEERING DURING THE WEEK
Belinda, our Volunteer Coordinator, will be in the kitchen area to welcome and support new and regular volunteers and visitors from 9:00 am until lunchtime every Tuesday and Thursday. The Tuesday 9:30 am free tour is the best way to orientate, and lunchtimes on those days are the best times to eat!

NSCF LIBRARY
Come and visit us in our beautiful new Eco-office, browse or borrow or both. We have treasures newly catalogued for all permaculture Interests.

BROWSERS: That’s everyone! Come in, climb those stairs, sit comfortably at the table & read.
BORROWERS: Borrowing is available to NSCF members, volunteers, permaculture students and program participants
NEW OLD GEMS: Grass Roots collection – these wonderful old mags date from 1977. Magazines – miscellaneous permaculture, Australian poultry & plants
NEW BOOKS: Topics: Non-violent communication, global warming, herbs, chooks, backyard gardening, plant biology, bush tucker, ecology, Australian plants and wildlife and many philosophical and life-style books.
REFERENCE: Permaculture magazines &  texts to be studied in the library.
COME AND VISIT – IT’S YOUR LIBRARY ON YOUR FARM. Office hours are 10am – 4pm Tuesday – Thursday.

CHANGES IN COMMITTEES AND CORDINATION ROLES
The farm has undergone a significant change to roles and staff with more transition on the way. The current Management Committee has evolved since the November 2010 AGM, and now consists of Coordinator: Mal Teggins, Treasurer: Tai Cotter, Secretary: Rob McGuigan, Members: Simon McVerry, Peter Clements, Virginia Balmain, Lindsay Cooper.

Also, several coordinators have resigned, or are about to move on. These are Rob McGuigan (formerly Green Team Coordinator), Wendy Marchment (Education Team Coordinator and PDC Coordinator) and Rossco (Operations Coordinator). We thank them for all their work over the years and wish them well in new pursuits.

These changes highlight the importance for our planned review in October-November this year of our farm organisational structure, decision-making processes and all our Teams and Roles. Already, the staff have undergone our first formal position review process (thanks Mal and Virginia) with staff and some volunteers also undertaking training in communication and decision-making (thanks Kirsty). Planning is now under way regarding facilitation and processes to be used in the review.

VOLUNTEER POSITIONS AT THE FARM – Kitchen Coordinator
While all positions (paid and volunteer) will be reviewed soon, the farm requires a volunteer kitchen coordinator to support the volunteers’ lunches and other kitchen activities. If you can help, please speak to us at info@nscf.org.au.

SAUSAGE SIZZLE – New Menu Ideas
Steve from the Northey Street Sausage Sizzle Fundraiser is looking to expand the menu to include a larger breakfast range.
Anyone with an interest in being part of this new enterprise, please see Steve at the Sunday Markets, or phone him on: 0401 806 521.

SUNDAY TALK: BEYOND ZERO EMISSIONS
This Sunday, 14th August, near the Chai Cafe at the Farm, Richard will host three presentations on “How Australia can be carbon free in 10 years” – The complete plan on how to electrify Australia with Solar – no coal, gas or oil. These will be at 8am, 9am and 10am. This strategy is put together in a 140 page plan by Beyond Zero Emissions as a vision and a reality for future.

DEEP ECOLOGY YATRA with JOHN SEED
Of interest to many Northey Streeters and environmentalists in general is the work of John Seed on “Deep Ecology”.  John will be co-hosting a Deep Ecology Yatra in the rainforests of Northern NSW (Nightcap National Park) from Sunday 11th – Friday 16th September 2011. The ‘Deep Ecology Yatra’ is a unique rainforest walk exploring the concepts of Deep Ecology along with the traditions of Yoga and Meditation. (With John Seed, Ken Golding & Ronny Hickel). More details here.

This will be immediately followed by a 7-day Dhama Yatra (Meditation Pilgrimage)  on 17 – 24 September, and participants can attend both. More details here.

PERMACULTURE GATHERINGS AND INFORMATION FROM AROUND THE COUNTRY

• The Australian City Farms and Community Gardens Network (ACFCGN) has a great website, recently updated with good-news stories from around the country. Thanks to Russ Grayson for his great work here. Simply go to http://communitygarden.org.au.
• August 2011; The inaugural South East Australian Bioregional Permaculture Convergence will be held at the Bega Showgrounds from  August 19th to 21st. Registrations and detailed informationhere.
• September 2011: Permaculture Melbourne will be running a Permaculture Gathering and Conference on the weekend of 30 September and 1-2 October for the south-east Australian bioregion. This is planned to be held in part at CERES in Brunswick and other venues around the Melbourne area. This event will be celebrating the 30th year of Permaculture Melbourne as an organization and a Gathering/Conference of permaculture and to convene discussions on a range of issues facing the permaculture movement in Victoria and beyond. More …
• April 2012: 11th Australasian Permaculture Convergence, 11 – 15 April 2012, Turangi, New Zealand. Yes, the APC is to be hosted in New Zealand for the first time! A dedicated website will be coming soon. In the meantime, mark these dates.

ON-GOING AT THE FARM
Most Saturdays: Permaculture Workshops (see above)
Every Sunday Morning: Organic Markets, with Chai Cafe, Nursery and Village-Life
Seven days a week: “Edible Landscapes” Nursery (yes, open on Mondays now)
Every Tuesday: 9:30am: 1 hour orientation tour of farm – good for new volunteers.
Tuesday – Friday each week: Volunteering in and around the Farm, from 8:00am. Ask for Belinda
Every Wednesday: “Planting for Pizzas” (gardening and cooking activities) 11 am – 2pm. Ask for John or Rob
Every Friday: Playgroup, from around morning tea

We hope to see you at the farm soon for one or many of the above!

Cheers, and happy days to you all.

Operations Team,  Northey Street City Farm