February rich pickings for the thinking farmer

February – rich pickings for the thinking farmer  February is a busy time for most farmers and gardeners but if you can get somebody to cover your zucchini harvest, water your microgreens and bottle your kombucha then this month there is some seriously inspiring fruit to fill your metaphorical apple picking bag! Here’s a taster….. Saturday Feb 3rd  CERES Joe’s Market Garden Tour  […]

Between convenience and connection

Murnong planting day Joes Garden

Between convenience and connection   Yesterday morning at a small café off Sydney Road I shared a plate of fried dumplings with my eight year old son. The café was empty apart from a solitary diner across the room sipping her wonton soup . As we ate our food we curiously watched a stream of […]

Sofi’s Seasonal Signposts / Fair Food Job Closing

Sofi Sabbagh seasonal calendar

  Sofi’s Seasonal Signposts   Last week in a return-of-the-light antidote to mid-winter, post-election, extinction crisis despair I wrote about the first Murnong planting at Joe’s Garden, the CERES staff solstice bonfire and NUCA’s (Neighbours United for Climate Action) first meeting. I also wrote about an eight season calendar that I’d fallen in love with which I couldn’t quite fit in….until […]

What took us so long? / Best hospo gig ever?

Resparkle range

What took us so long? Early this morning I was over in the park walking Jessie, our kelpie.  The remnants of a kid’s party lay scattered on the ground around a picnic table. I picked up the foil lolly wrappers, the empty plastic creaming soda bottle and a half dozen plastic cups. Passing by, my neighbour, Alan […]

Wanna buy a farm? / Complete Urban Farmer

Wanna buy a farm? Carolyn Suggate wants to buy a farm, well lots of farms actually and not just for herself she wants to buy farms with people who care about securing land to be farmed organically forever.  This week the Organic and Regenerative Investment Co-operative (ORI Coop), Carolyn co-founded is launching the prospectus for Lyndale Park, a 714 hectare […]

How weeds lead and why we follow / Try Monday and/or Friday

How weeds lead and why we follow  Two years ago this coming weekend CERES farmer Emily Connors (that’s Em with her marriage equality rainbow chard above) started selling a few bunches of  produce from a table at Joe’s Market Garden.  We’d been talking about setting up a farm gate just like farmer Joe Garita had done many […]