Joyful mindshifts
Changing how we think about something that has always been this way is one of our most powerful human abilities.
Sometimes it feels like the idea was there all along and that a veil has just been lifted. Of course!
CERES history is alive with such shifts in thinking.
From our founders standing on an unwanted urban tipsite and imagining a creative, green sanctuary; to a young CERES project manager seeing value in household rubbish and starting Australia’s first kerbside recycling collection; to the CERES teachers recognising that our bush, gardens, ponds and creeks were the best places for children to learn.
CERES’ beloved Olives to Oil project is another mindshift.
In the 1950’s people migrating to Melbourne from Italy, Greece, Türkiye, Malta, Lebanon and Syria filled their front and backyards with lemons, figs, persimmons, pomegranates, apricots, nectarines, almonds and of course olives.
In the 90’s as the suburbs changed, a new generation of residents found themselves custodians of olive trees without the knowledge or traditions to make use of them.
Year after year tons of unpicked olives fell and rotted on the ground.
In 2018 a project called Olives to Oil drew a handful of people together to pick unwanted olives.
Two hundred kilograms of olives were harvested and pressed into 20 precious litres of extra virgin olive oil.
Small beginnings but it shifted something.
Last year 3,036 people (helped by two hundred volunteers) picked over twenty-eight tons of urban olives that were pressed into 4000 litres of oil.
Collectively collecting and pressing olives is purposeful and joyful; it brings friends, families, neighbours, community groups together to do something so intrinsically human.
This year’s Olives to Oil kicks off on Sunday 3rd of May and is open to residents of Merri-Bek, Darebin, Whittlesea, Hobsons Bay, Maribyrnong, Brimbank and Melton. (CERES has a limited number of places available for residents in other council areas):
It’s so simple:
1. Book your Olives to Oil ticket – be quick places go fast
2. Pick your olives (no earlier than two days before your drop-off for freshness)
3. Weigh your olives
4. Drop off your olives (with your proof of address)
5. Your olives get pressed
6. Pick up your olive oil on your pick-up day
Here are the drop-off dates…
Merri-Bek, Darebin and Whittlesea residents:
- Sunday 3rd May, CERES Brunswick East – Lee Street Entrance
- Saturday 9th May, Whittlesea Civic Centre, 25 Ferres Blvd, South Morang
Hobsons Bay, Maribyrnong, Brimbank & Melton residents:
- Sunday 17th May Outside Visy Cares Hub, 80B Harvester Rd, Sunshine
- Sunday 24th May Newport Community Hub, 13/15 Mason St, Newport
- Sunday 31st May McNish ‘Dinosaur Park’ Reserve, Court St, Yarraville
As I said, be quick Olives to Oil always sells out – book your ticket or sign up to volunteer here.
Btw – last year’s oil took home a silver medal in the Australian Golden Olive Awards.
Here are the judges’ tasting notes: Clean aromas of cut grass, green banana, tomato vine, red apple and malt. Good transfer with green tomato, almond, banana cake mix, snow pea and sorrel heat finish. Clean mouthfeel. Long length with balanced bitterness and pepper.
Want to taste? Fair Food has a few bottles to try here.
Soft plastics pick-up is GO!
Fair Food’s soft plastic pick-up went live just over a week ago and the response has been huge.
We’re collecting your soft plastics (not just the ones that come with your Fair Food order) and sending them to be recycled at APR’s new mixed plastics pyrolysis plant.
Here’s how it works;
- Purchase a Soft Plastic Pick-Up bag here
- Rinse and dry your soft plastics, put them in the Pick-Up bag.
- When your bag is full, tie it up and leave it for your driver to collect with your next Fair Food delivery.
Bags cost $2 each or you can buy a pack of 20 bags for $20, which we reckon should just about get you through a year!
Once we collect your soft plastics we send them to APR in Dandenong South where they are transformed into 100% recyclable builders film.
See the pic below for what can be recycled. There’s more info on the service here.
