We will miss you Angela

Yesterday for our working bee we had a fair- well for Angela Dever who has been a great influence and contributor to the garden and surrounding community.  For the past year Angela has had the role of Community Project Officer in which she has effectively made connections with the community through fun days and being a support to all who attend. There is so much more that she had accomplished and as a community garden member I/we would love to appreciate Angela's contribution for the past year.

Stuffed Zucchini

One of the nicest pleasures of being involved with the community garden is the introduction of new recipes to my repertoire. 

For example, I have never before had access to humongous sized zucchini's before!! So when we picked them I'm like "what do you do with these babies???" I was then informed that one could stuff and bake them so I gave it a go.

For this particular recipe I made it up.

Ingredients

• A very big zucchini
• onion
• Tin of tuna
• rice
• tin or fresh tomatoes
• egg
• herbs
• veggie stock
• cheese

The how too

• boil rice
• fry onion
• mix tuna, rice, tomatoes, egg, onions into a bowl
• scrape seeds out of zucchini and make a nice little canoe
• pop mixed ingredients into the zucchini
• top with grated cheese
• pop onto a preheated oven 180deg
• Depending on how you like it, give it 50min or if your like me bake it until the zucchini is soft

There you go, I hope this is clear enough!!

Introducing Charlie Mgee

On Thursday night I went to the Flame Tree Community Food Coop to see Charlie Mgee, a Permaculture ukulele performer with a special guest Paul Spencer.

Paul Spencer

It was such a great atmosphere of live music, veggie soup and organic tea with honey.

Charlie Mgee sees himself as an educator for all things permaculture and writes wonderful catchy tunes so we wont forget what he's talking about. There were a few things that he sung about that really popped out at me, the first was a song about the edge. Life is far more interesting on the edge and I think I have to agree with that.

The 2nd was how we need to obtain a yield, whether you pick the  produce that you have planted, to the happy and satisfying feelings you get from gardening. It also strikes me that abundance is everywhere and we need to just be thankful and receive it. Its time to also break cycles of poverty within our communities and create more sustainable living for everyone.

The 3rd thing was about observing and I have to say it was like he gave me permission to just sit and watch. Not that I need permission as I am a person who always likes to watch, so perhaps I should just say, confirmation that what I do is awesome???

Charlie Mgee

Anyway here is one of his catchy numbers that I hope you will enjoy and just be careful, it will stay in your brain all day.

Sharing the Harvest

Cliff Came up with a top idea for our excess produce and was able to hand over a lot of food to a local charity called The Food Barn Warrawong, which is connected to The Hope Centre.

This is yet another positive and wonderful way of how a community garden can impact the neighbourhood and society. As people are increasingly finding it hard to keep up with bills or even find somewhere to live, community gardens is one of many solutions I believe that can address the mentioned crisis.

More focus and execution of such projects need to be implemented as this demonstrates a positive solution to an ever growing problem of families being short of cash. The reason why its important; is a community garden promotes friendship,  food education, innovation, hope and being able to obtain a yield. 

With that yield comes food, recipes, confidence, a sense of joy and being able to give back to the community and these things should never be underestimated!!

Community Gathering Day 16/12/12

Yesterday we had a community gathering at the garden and many thanks to Angela Dever for organizing the events throughout the year.

It was a very hot day and yeah for The Department of Sport and Recreation who brought along a slip and slide. I can testify, that sliding down it cooled me down for the day :)

Not only is there action pack activities on a gathering day, we also have artistic adventures for anyone who would like to get creative.

It's always great to eat produce from the garden. This is Cliff and he made a beetroot soup that was so refreshing!!!!

We at BHCG would love to thank Mark with his amazing passion for music making and giving us the opportunity to play and make. It made the day special. 

Now this is an awesome design!!!

This is Terry showing that he has an array of talents other then gardening.

On the day, we also celebrated a birthday.

Happy birthday Darren.

It's always a great atmosphere at the garden and I encourage people to come along when we have future events or just pop in when we have our working bee's.

Walking Track

So many great things are happening at the garden and one of those things is the construction of the walking track. Another element that's great, is how those who need to pay off their outstanding fines can do so by participating in voluntary work at the garden.

This is accomplished through participating in a Work and Development Order which is overseen by State Debt Recovery Office. Darren from Access Community Group facilitates the process and is very proud of the efforts from all involved.

"On behalf of Access community Group I would like to thank Barrack Heights Community Garden and their valuable members and community. Work and Development Order overseen by State Debt Recovery Office has seen people with debt reduced with valuable community contribution to Barrack Heights Community Garden"- Darren Bell

This is a very positive option for those participating, as it empowers those who embrace the opportunity. Jamie (one of the crew)  says "this should have been made available 10 years ago". As it has given him the ability to pay of his fines that would take him 10 years otherwise. It has also given him connection with the community and opened his world to further possibilities for the future.

As a community member of the garden, I see how this is life changing for those who let it be. I think it's a win win situation as the participants work hard to make the garden a more special place, making particular mention of the formation of the walking track.

I shall conclude with a parting comment from Darren "Go out on a limb, that's where the fruit is"

If you or anyone you know would like to participate in such a program here is a link for Illawarra. You can also click on the previous links for more information.

Seedlings and other Joys.

Martie is one of the founding members of the garden and is very happy with how everything is coming together. Martie is our seedlings expert and Darren, a fellow garden member has made her a seedling table. "To stop those pesky snails which I am very pleased about"

It's also been great having a couple of days rain as it's helped make the veggies flourish beautifully.