WASTE NOT SWAP JUMP START 17th Feb 2013

Hi all

As you may know the "Waste Not Fruit & Veg SWAP" had been running for several years thanks to the great work of John, Karyn and Greg.

It was a wonderful initiation for the gardening community but it was unfortunately temporarily suspended last year. It is such a worthy enterprise that it deserves another chance.

WASTE NOT SWAP JUMP START

Swaps are a major principle of permaculture and a great community function.
This is a worthy event for the Illawarra - your support and presence would be fantastic.

We are holding the SWAP on Sunday 17th of February at 9.00am to noon.

There will be a chance for you to:
Swap your surplus fruit & vegetables
Share information, plants, seeds, books & magazines etc.
Indulge in great coffee and nibbles
Discuss and volunteer for the ongoing functioning of this Swap.

AND there will be live acoustic music from about 10.30

- Paul Spencer (writes and performs quirky comic political folk songs to entertain the activist in you or re-energise the jaded cynic).

- Ecopella (an environmental a cappella choir that sings about the beauty of our world and the struggle to protect it).
This is a not to be missed event, so see you all there.

If you are unable to make this Swap and you are interested in volunteering, please contact us.

We Avoid the Wind & Waste Not!

Well after a wild & windy start to the weekend the weather was good to us with a perfect day for our 1st Waste Not! Swap meeting, since our winter break.



















After a quiet start we ended up with a good roll up and a table full of fruit and vegies including a bucket full of custard apples, lemonade fruit, cabbages, paw paws, radishes, lettuce, oranges, mandrins, seedlings & sourdough starter!

I cranked up the coffee machine started making everything from lattés & long blacks to baby chinos – (not always in the right order) but it was a great way to get some practice & no one complained. I certainly have a bit more respect for those baristas pumping out coffees in crowded city cafes all day.

So coffee and homemade slices were available for a small donation. And as usual many conversations flowed along with it on various topics from gardening, chooks, music, and politics to recipes.

So I hope you will join us next month on the 21st November.

Thanks to John & Karyn for helping setup & pack up, our kind neighbours who let us use their power, Jason for bringing the coffee & his beautifull daugter & all those who took the time to share there produce & themselves. Just shows we that need no more than a common interest and a nice setting to create community!

Waste Not! Swap this Saturday 9-12

That's right. Cauliflowers as big as your head! In April! Bring some of your home grown fruit and veg to swap and you might be lucky enough to take a giant cauli home...

But seriously, what we can promise is great coffee and company. So come along from 9-12 on Saturday morning with something to share (size is not not an issue) and take home something special. don't believe me? take a look at Happy Earths description and photos of the bounty at last months swap: http://www.happyearth.com.au/

hope to see you there.

Next SWAP & Working Bee Dates

Hi everyone, sorry for the lack of posts lately, seems like everyone's lives are getting more complicated and less time to get around to doing this. I just wanted to let you know our next Fruit & Vegi "SWAP" Day will be this Saturday. As usual bring along your surplus fruit & veg to swap and have a chat with some fellow growers over a coffee from our own coffee machine!
Note: that due to the Easter holidays in April our next "Working Bee" will be postponed. Please check back for a confirmed date.
Keep Crankin the Goodness. And remember:
"you can choose what you do, but you cant choose what you like to do."

Sorry Folks...No December Swap

Apologies if you heard otherwise, but Waste Not! falls on Boxing day so the Swap has been cancelled for December. Instead, be sure to take your great Aunt Betty that box of vegetables. The green leafy ones have lots of calcium which is good for her bones.

The next Swap will take place on Saturday, January 23rd 2010.

In the meantime, check-out a bit of Waste Not! background published at: http://communitygarden.org.au/sharing-the-wealth

Happy Holidays and see you in January!

From small things, big things grow

Well, it's a week or two since our second Waste Not! swap of the new season. It was a special one, where each swapper got to take home a few packets each of heirloom and popular varieties of Italian seed imported by The Italian Gardener (http://www.theitaliangardener.com.au). Huge thanks to Geoff for the seed. Swappers also brought dozens of interesting tomato and capsicum seedlings to share including: 'Black Russian', 'Green Zebra', 'Jaune Flammee' and 'Brandywine' to name just a few!


It's a real pleasure that the swap can play a role, however small, in both the production and consumption/redistribution of locally grown food.

Although we are well into the spring/summer planting period, it's never too late to get something new into the ground...especially if it's interesting!! So, don't miss the next swap on Saturday November 28th. There is sure to be more special seed and seedlings along with the usual assortment of homegrown organic fruit and veg. See you there!

Swap your way to lower CO2

Thanks to Garden volunteers, this months Waste Not! Fruit and Veg Swap (Saturday October 24th from 9-12) has joined the International Day of Climate Action. We will be one of (currently) 3559 actions occurring in 161 countries that will draw attention to the global need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in order to minimise our contribution to climate change. Is the Swap relevant? Of course it is! If your veg is local and organic, then you've just reduced one of the major sources of CO2 emissions. Conventional petroleum-based farming, long-distance transport and long-term food storage are all serious (but avoidable) contributors to climate change.
Go to http://www.350.org/ and 'search for actions near me' to find more stuff happening locally. Make a day of it by visiting our friends at Futureworld Eco-Technology Centre Open Day where they are also celebrating the day of action: http://www.futureworld.org.au/. See you all down at the Garden on Saturday.

Bees, Seeds and Swaps...Fill Your Diary!

Spring has arrived and the Garden is alive. So much going on. And the humans are active too! If you thought you missed our monthly Working Bee, have no fear. It was simply postponed due to Fathers Day. Please come and join us this Sunday the 13th from 10-3pm to do some compost shifting, seedling nurturing and food sharing.

The Garden is also very excited about the fact that Jude and Michel Fanton, founders of the Seed Savers Network are visiting Wollongong thanks to Sustainable Illawara. To celebrate their visit, a screening of the film "Our Seeds: Seeds Blong Yumi" will take place at 6:30 Friday, Sept 18 on Level 9 of the Wollongong City Council building. See the flier for more info. And on the following day, the Garden will host a very special seed savers workshop tutored by the Fantons. But it's totally booked out!!! We're sorry! Don't worry our local seed savers are here to fill the gap. Go to www.seedsavers.net to connect with the Illawara Seedsavers and get involved with preserving our human right to seeds!


Last but not least, the Garden is happy to anounce the return of the Waste Not! Fruit and Veg Swap on Saturday, Sept 26 from 9am-noon. Come and get involved with a like-minded community of growers who don't like to waste the fruits of their labor. Bring your garden surplus (or seeds and seedlings if that's what you would like to share) and swap others for the abundance from their gardens. Then sit back, enjoy a coffee and meet some new folks. Everybody is welcomed, even if you just want to come and hang-out. If you have any questions please don't hesitate to contact us.

See you all real soon,
The Garden Crew

Last Swap of the Season!

It's great to know that the swap has been so well received. The consensus seems to be that the vibe is really good and the fruit and veg is truly worth swapping. Thanks so much to everyone for making it work.
We have decided that the next swap will be the last of the season (sorry, but we've got to let the earth rest once in a while, ya know?!)...don't worry, we will kick off again in spring! Listening to 2SER today, a food expert claimed 50% of the world's food goes to waste in some form or another...man, we've got work to do.

So DO NOT miss the coming swap on Saturday June 27 from 9-12. It will be business as usual with loads of both common and unusual edibles and of course coffee from the Port Kembla Men's Group. We're guessing this swap will be citrus heaven, so if you are feeling a bit swine-ish then come and get fixed-up.

By the way, if your garden has totally gone to bed for the winter, maybe rummage through your book/magazine collection for something to swap. The Garden is looking for old (and new) organic gardening magazines like Warm Earth and Grass Roots to build a local public collection of organic/permaculture/ sustainability/self-

sufficiency related resource materials. Books welcomed too.

We leave you with reminders of the last swap. Thanks to VJ for the photos. See you on Saturday!

The Swap Goes On!

Winter is creeping in but we are pushing back! Still producing the veg and ready to swap.

The 2nd Waste Not! Fruit and Veg Swap will happen at the Garden @ North Wollongong PCYC on Saturday May 30th from 9-12. (the 5th rather than 4th Sat this month!!)

Port Kembla Mens Group will provide the fantastic coffee as before and we will have sweets again. So come and bring your surplus herbs, veg, fruit, seeds, plants to trade with like-minded growers, have a coffee, catch-up with old friends and make new connections.

Also come check out the Garden Stall, the weekend before the swap, at Coledale Market on Sunday the 24th

See you at the swap

Swappers' delight

We couldn't have asked for more! The weather was glorious and the people were generous. Our friends from Port Kembla Men's Group provided seriously good cups of fair trade coffee for 30 or so swappers from in and around Wollongong. The produce was beautiful and varied: Vietnamese mint, lemongrass, mind-blowing chilis, three types of basil, pumpkins, curry leaf, lettuce, spinach, passion fruit, macadamia saplings and nuts, strawberry plants, mustard greens, chokos, beans, wax jambu, cucumbers, tamarillos, Jerusalem artichokes, rosemary, fennel, flat and curly leaf parsley, bulls horn capsicum, garlic chives, curly kale, eggplants, garlic, figs, limes...are you getting the picture!!!

A lot of healthy organic food got redistributed and people made new friends in the process. And in keeping with our motto 'Waste Not!' virtually every leaf and sprig that was donated to us was sold the following day at Coledale Market (pics and more info to come) which will allow us to keep the swap going.



Humongous thanks to everybody who participated and made it such a relaxed and positive morning.

Fellow swappers at Happy Earth(http://www.happyearth.com.au/) wrote a very kind report about the day as well. A podcast may also appear on Tim Denshire-Key's blog (http://upyourjumper.wordpress.com/). Tim visited us as a part of his Australian tour in which he is documenting the various ways communities are addressing sustainability and the challenges we face as a result of climate change and peak oil.

So spread the word. The Waste Not! swap will happen on the 4th Saturday of each month from 9-12 here at the Garden.

Swap your surplus veg at the Garden!

Waste Not! Fruit and Veg Swap is being launched at the Garden @ North Wollongong PCYC on Saturday April 25th.

Details are on the flier, but basically you bring some surplus herbs, fruit and/or veg from your garden i bring from mine and we swap! simple!

The equitability of the swapping will be determined between swappers. so if you are happy to receive a sprig of parsley in exchange for a pumpkin...cool!

Although we want as much veg as possible, don't be shy about bringing other stuff. Maybe people want flowers or dried beans or a branch of rosemary

Our only request is that you donate some of your bounty to the Garden for sale the following morning at Coledale Market (Wollongong Produce and Creative Traders Markets - About Us ). The little $$ we make at the market will be be re-invested in the costs of the swap/market and into ongoing projects at the Garden. As time goes on and we gather more members, we can all discuss whether that arrangement works or needs to be changed.

If that isn't enough...we hope to have some sweets and coffee on hand for the swap.

Before you come, take a look at your food garden through fresh eyes...all the stuff you are sick of is probably just the thing others are searching for.

See you at the swap!