DATECLAIMERS

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WINTER SOLSTICE FESTIVAL
We welcome you all to our Annual Winter Solstice Festival on Saturday 25th June, and we’re all set for another great party. The flier is available for distribution, with an electronic copy here. Please also stay tuned to our website or our facebook page for updates and late band announcements!  Brief details are:

• Event runs from 4:30pm to late
• Kids fire early in evening, with main fire at 10-ish
• 2 stages with over 10 bands
• Lots of food
• Free event, but with opportunity to donate to support the bands playing (we have no core funding for this event this year)

To register to help on the day or beforehand, please email info@nscf.org.au and indicate any preferences in activity or time. Options include kitchen, chai café, raffles, art, signage, bumping in, site preparation, cleanup, sausage sizzle, soups. We also have details on several working bees before and afterwards – please just turn up!

We have a great raffle running, with hundreds of dollars of prizes donated by Wray Organics, Brett’s Hardware, Reverse Garbage and many more. Tickets are only $2 and are available at the Nursery and at this Sunday’s Markets.

EDUCATION PROGRAM: COURSES AND WORKSHOPS
The Education Team will be running the following Permaculture Design Courses in the second half of this year (subject to minimum enrolments) and scheduling another if there’s enough interest.

Saturday PDC (Permaculture Design Certificate)  will run on Saturdays 16 July to 22 October with no sessions on 24 September, 2011

2-Week PDC  will run 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.

You’ll learn heaps, have fun, be inspired and probably make some wonderful friendships along the way. So enrol today!!  Please go to our education page, email our farm office or contact Kirsty, Tues-Thu on (07) 3857 8775.

GOLD PROGRAMS – Workshops for 50+ folks through Brisbane City Council, @ NSCF

How to enrich and love your soil organically
Thu 16 & 23 june, 10am -12noon (Free)

Container gardening on a budget
Fri 17 June, 9:30am – 12:30pm (Free)

Solar Cooking
Fri 17 June & Thu 30 June, 9:30am -12.30 pm (cost $10)

Building a Wormhouse
Tue 28 june, 9:30am – 12;00noon (Cost $5)

All workshops to be booked through BCC on (07) 3407 1580

INDIVIDUAL ALLOTMENTS
The individual allotments are planned to be functional around September. We are not taking any expressions of interest at this stage though, so we ask people to wait for further information which will be on our website by the end of July. Allocation will not be on a first in / first served basis, and will have clear policies and expectations. We have draft procedures already, but if you do have any ideas for consideration towards how allotments might work at City Farm, please email them to info@nscf.org.au labelled “Allotment Suggestions”. These will be filed and put on the table when the site team addresses this during July.

CHAI CAFE UPDATE
The Chai cafe has a new coordinator in Andrea Cameron. We wish her well with the creative ideas and energy she brings to this iconic NSCF Enterprise. Our sincere thanks go to Chris O’Brien for her great work over the past few years.
We have also developed a relationship with Montville Coffee, who provide not just our wonderful organic coffee, but have assisted with great training (Thanks Karen!)

At the same time, we had to review our own quality control and volunteering issues, and begrudgingly have had to revert to the use of compostable cups. Staff and the core volunteers were too stretched with the washing up which takes hours. This adds to costs and the environmental footprint, but on the positive side, a plan is being developed to compost the cups on-site.

And finally, we are asking our Sunday morning community members to assist where possible – in the Cafe on Sun with food prep, ideas, cleaning up, washing up or even taking on the composting of these cups.
There are exciting times coming up, with over $26,000 planned from Federal Government and Brisbane City Council funding for new paving, storage, shelter, solar hot-water system and serving benches. All by the end of this year we hope!

GREEN ARMY PROGRAM
We are almost half way through our 6-month employment program under the Queensland Government “Skilling Queenslanders for Work” program – and a walk around the site will show you the results so far. The participants have helped clean up and plant up all around the site, but most notably, have transformed the southern part of our land near Enoggera Creek. This area will provide a meeting, art  and recreational space, as well as the long awaited individual allotments. We thank the participants, along with the recently appointed staff: Bella Norris (Supervisor), Meg Maunsell (Coordinator) and Kym Burnell-Jones (Trainer).

SEA OF HANDS – NAIDOC CELEBRATIONS – SUNDAY JULY 2
NAIDOC Week celebrations are held across Australia each July to celebrate the history, culture and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. We join the celebrations at City Farm onSunday July 3 from 7:30 – 11:00 am with a variety of activities in the Village Life area of our Markets. This will feature a “Sea of Hands” at our stage area, as well as a bushtucker workshop, banner painting, performance by “Songlines Choir” and storytelling. The week is a great opportunity to participate in a range of activities and to support your local Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community. Program details on our website and facebook page by June 24.

CITY FARM GARDENS UPDATE – with volunteers needed in all areas

• Backyard Garden: We sincerely thank Kerry for her stewardship of the Backyard Garden over a number of years, and wish her well on her new chapter down south. Kerry has brought so much knowledge, energy and leadership to our garden, and we will miss her greatly. On the positive side, she has skilled up Vivienne and Lindsay who will take over as custodians there. Thank you!
• Kitchen Garden: Our gratitude goes to Paul for really cranking up this core part of our gardens. On top of regular hours, he has put a mammoth amount of volunteer time into this and the results are there to be seen (and eaten!). Come and check it out.
• Herb Spiral: Shirley continues to enable this iconic spiral to flourish, despite the challenges of the scrub turkeys. Her skill and diligence is enormously valued.
• Market Gardens: These are emerging from the floods, summer heat and encroaching weeds, and Simon has a great team of enthusiastic volunteers over there gardening and learning together. Mostly on Tuesdays but check in for other times. Also please support the farm by buying your produce from this stall at our Sunday Markets.
• NE Corner / School Gardens: The NE corner gardens are undertaking a huge rejuvenation thanks to Belinda, Claire and our volunteers This area will host many school groups and is set to become a really productive and vibrant educational space to visit

ACTUAL NIGHT OF THE WINTER SOLSTICE
Apart from our Saturday 25th party, some people will be gathering at the farm at dusk on Tuesday 21st June. We’ll have a small fire there from 5:00 pm, with people bringing food to share and any music they wish. There’s no program – just what people bring to it. The actual Solstice time is 3:16 am the next morning, so this will be the earliest sunset, and the next morning the latest dawn for the year. Here’s some background material on the science of the Winter Solstice.

WANTED @ THE FARM

• For the Nursery:  Ice-cream containers / yoghurt containers – needed desperately!  This will be much better than putting the worms we sell to people in plastic bags!
• Stackable chairs for our chai cafe area, education programs and events.
• Someone to take over the Kitchen Coordination. This is a volunteer role involving the rostering for our daily lunches and working with other staff and volunteers in bringing our kitchen to a more organised, safer, functional and productive space. Inquiries to community@nscf.org.au please.
• Coffee plungers for the caffeine lovers amongst the week-day volunteers.

ON-GOING AT THE FARM
Every Sunday Morning: Organic Markets, with Chai Cafe, Nursery and Village-Life
Six days a week: “Edible Landscapes” Nursery
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
Every Wednesday: “Planting for Pizzas” (gardening and cooking activities) 10am – 1pm
Every Friday: Playgroup

PLEASE SUPPORT OUR PARTNERS AND SPONSORS:
We thank the following businesses for their support, and encourage our members and friends to support them in return:

• WRAY ORGANICS NEWMARKET (regular food supplies, donations and major raffle prize)
• BASE PROJECTS (Builder/Partner in new Education Building)
• BRETT’S HARDWARE, WINDSOR (Raffle donation, regular discounts)
• Living with Eco2 (Please see the donated timber seating and furnishings around the chai cafe area!) Living with Eco2 supplies Australian hardwood timber, landscape sleepers & posts, structural big end posts & beams, joists and hardwood decking. Also commissioned pieces (one-off) indoor / outdoor furniture. Phone Glen on 0423 152 373 or email glen@livingwitheco2.com.au

PEOPLE WITH CENTRELINK OBLIGATIONS – OR ON ANY CENTRELINK BENEFITS
NSCF runs a program under the supervision of Taia on Tuesdays and Thursdays for people to undertake any required or volunteer hours from any Centrelink benefits. Whatever the program, we’d love to see you. Not only does the farm benefit then from continued funding, but you get to garden and undertake other landscaping and maintenance activities with the smiling Taia! Please contact Vanessa onVanessa.Moore@helpenterprises.com.au to chat further.

THE HOME FESTIVAL
NSCF is supporting a great festival on Sunday 19th June. The Home Festival runs from 11:00am – 8:30pm, at Raymond Park adjacent to the Pineapple Hotel, Main Street, Kangaroo Point. This is a free grassroots community event setting out to create a homely vibe where everyone feels included, safe and welcome to join in with a wealth of creative energy. Full details at Home Festival

COURSES AT CRYSTAL CREEK – Robyn Clayfield
I’m excited to let you know about 2 courses I’m putting on here at Crystal Waters in the next couple of months. The Permaculture weekend is Co-created and Facilitated by Mark Healy and myself.
22 – 24 July:  ‘Permaculture Meets Creative Design’ – Full Weekend
15 August:  ‘Creative Community Governance and Decision Making’ – One Day Workshop
Full details at www.dynamicgroups.com.au

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