Going Organic Dec 2015

Going Organic

with Eleesa Zlatic of the

 Lemon Farm Organic Market

(monthly column from The Friendly Bay Islander magazine - December 2015 edition)

I would like to thank all of our valued customers and friends for their support this past year. I can't believe another Christmas is just around the corner. On reflection this past year has been wonderful for The Organic Market, with lots of thanks to you. I am very grateful to all the beautiful people who volunteer to create the Saturday market, it is a group effort and treated very much like a co-operative. We are dedicated to bringing the best quality produce, dry goods, deli and garden products to the islands, all organic and chemical free of course... which supports your health and the health of our island environment.

The recent launch of the Chemical Free Islands campaign has been successful, with over 200 island members on the dedicated facebook group. Many of you are becoming increasingly aware of the toxic effects that the common herbicides and pesticides are having on our delicate environment and are doing your bit to make changes... good on you!


We have some exciting new things happening at the farm in the New Year, which includes the first stage of our organic cafe, so be prepared to enjoy fantastic organic coffee or tea while enjoying the relaxing farm vibes. Yes, we have been listening to all the requests, and fortunately the universe has delivered a gorgeous coffee machine! We will roll out more organic cafe experiences as the year progresses.

A few months ago we held our first extended market for "Fair Food Week" and got a great response from the stall holders and visitors. In 2016, we will be hosting some Micro Festivals in March, June, September and December. Our first in March works collaboratively with the "Artists at Work" event held over the Easter weekend. On the Saturday visitors to Macleay island will have the opportunity to visit the very talented island artsits whilst they showcase their talents, visit our micro festival and head down to the wonderful Macleay Island Arts Complex. So tell your friends and families that the Easter weekend on Macleay will be a great time to visit... after all we are just a relaxing ferry ride away!

With all that we have achieved this year, we have an exciting program of events planned for next year. This time of year always makes me ponder life, and with the events that have been recently playing on the world stage it makes me appreciate the fact that we live in a fantastic island community and beautiful enviroment.

This Christmas I wish for a peace filled world, a world where we all awaken enough to turn off our attention to the fear based reporting, the judgemental criticisms, and instead open our hearts to the light that shines within each one of us. It is this light that we need to shine, no matter what belief system we hold. We need to be compassionate to everyone's right to live their life, to focus on what we do want in the world, and to stop focusing on the negative people and situations. It starts with practicing love and forgiveness to ourselves first and foremost, and then to our families, our community and the world. Imagine the change we could make.

May love, health, happiness and blessings be yours this Christmas and all the years to come...
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December Market Dates

 

 Just letting you know that our regular Saturday market continues throughout December with the last one of this year being on the 19th December. Then on Wednesday 23rd December we'll have a pre-Christmas market from 8am to 12 noon for all your last minute shopping. If you can't make it along to a market before Christmas we're happy to make up seasonal produce boxes filled with delicious fruit and vegetables for pickup or delivery by arrangement. Just give us a call to organise!

In addition to our markets at the farm we can also be found this month at the Lions Club Community Market on Saturday 5th December (7am to 1pm) and then on Russell Island as part of the Bazaar For A Day: Busking Festival on Sunday 13th December, which should be a load of fun!   

  

We have a great range of items perfect for gift giving this season and we'll be making up some special little gift baskets with assorted goodies to make the task of gift purchasing a little easier for you. The gift baskets will be available over the coming weeks and we will also have gift vouchers.

Once our last market of the year is over (Wednesday 23rd December) we will be taking a short break over the Christmas and New Year period. The first market of 2016 will be Saturday 9th January.

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Elderflower Champagne

We're getting festive with some flower fermentation. The photo above depicts the first step of the making of elderflower champagne for the market crew end of year Christmas party. And here's a simple recipe should you wish to make your own...

Elderflower Champagne

Find an elderberry tree and harvest some of the nice young flower heads. Fill a large saucepan or pot of some kind with 4.5 litres of water. Add about six elderflower heads along with two sliced lemons. Put the lid on and leave it for 24 to 36 hours. Strain the liquid through a clean cloth (cheesecloth is ideal but any cloth will do). Add 750 grams of sugar and two tablespoons of cider vinegar and stir well until all of the sugar has completely dissolved. Pour into bottles and put the lids on but don’t screw them on tight yet. Keep an eye on them and after a few days you’ll see tiny bubbles forming as the yeasts and the sugar start working together. After a couple of weeks when the bubbles have looked like they’ve stopped, screw the lids on tightly and place the bottles in a spot somewhere fairly cool. Then allow them another few days to generate enough gas to carbonate themselves and you’re done. Pop them in the fridge before serving over ice with lemon and enjoy!

Note: There’s no need to add yeast as the natural wild yeast on the blooms will do the fermentation. We’ve used our own organically grown elderflowers and lemons. Also the sugar and cider vinegar we’ve used are organic products (both available from the market by the way!). Obviously you don’t need to use organic ingredients but we choose to because that’s just how we roll. And being an organic champagne gives it that healthier edge which completely justifies consuming larger quantities!
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Going Organic Nov 2015

Going Organic

with Eleesa Zlatic of the

 Lemon Farm Organic Market

(monthly column from The Friendly Bay Islander magazine - November 2015 edition)

Today we collected a swarm of bees, and it reminded me of how misunderstood these little creatures are. Thankfully the yard they landed in also belonged to a lovely lady who respected bees enough to ask for help in rehoming them rather than killing them. Did you know our survival on this planet rests on the work of these amazing creatures? They play a vital role in the health of our environment, busily pollinating plants. Without them many food crops would become scarce, and life as we know it would change dramatically. Thankfully for this swarm, the facebook suggestions to kill them were ignored, and they will have the opportunity to have a hive to call their own. There are some situations where unfortunately a natural hive or swarm cannot be relocated due to the strange places they decide to nest. But generally this is not the case, and it is fear and lack of knowledge that cause these creatures to be killed. 

Swarms are a group of bees protecting their queen whilst finding somewhere new to set a hive. Generally if left alone they will not sting. However it is always the safest option to call on a local beekeeper to remove the swarm. Just don't destroy them without seeking assistance.

The plight of bees is saddening, it makes me wonder how humans in the past few generations have become so fearful, so intolerant, and naive about a creature that plays a vital role in allowing us as humans to exist. In earlier cultures they were treated as sacred. I recall seeing a wall painted with a beautiful bee and the words "When we go we're taking you all with us". I think that says it all.

Please stop using herbicides and pesticides on your own property and support local organic beekeepers. The honey will be far superior to the pasteurised and diluted honey from the big honey producers. It will also have health benefits. Create gardens with bee foraging plants and annual flowers... you will be the bees best friend!

I do hope in years to come we will see the humble bee buzzing around on flowers, and humans showing it the utmost respect for the role it plays in the health of the planet.

Thank you to everyone who recently attended the launch of the Chemical Free Island campaign and our extended market. It was a lovely day and we look forward to hosting events like this more often. If you would like to know more about this campaign please join our facebook group CHEMICAL FREE ISLANDS. You will find some interesting articles about why this is important to our fragile environment and for your own health. 

In conjunction with the Two Grumpy Old Men we are hosting Free Movie Screenings. The next Cinema Under the Stars event will feature a fabulous documentary called "Dirt! The Movie"...which is being played again by popular request. So if you love the earth, growing things, and doing your bit for the environment, come along to this evening on the 21st November.

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National Recycling Week

We have a load of styrofoam broccoli boxes to giveaway at the moment, which ties in nicely with National Recycling Week, so come on down on Saturday and grab some! These can be reused as vegetable/herb planter boxes & are ideal for people with limited space to grow things. Or with a little extra effort and a few simple materials they can easily be made into wicking beds or worm farms.

 

Visit SpurTopia for instructions on how to make self-watering planter boxes.

And some great instructions on how to convert the boxes into worm farms at Simple Things

Happy gardening folks!

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Wild Pollinator Count

 Join the Wild Pollinator Count from 15th to the 22nd November!

Australia has lots of wild insect pollinators that are often overlooked. European honey bees get a lot of attention because they are an adaptable, generalist forager, which means they are happy to visit almost any flower, in most climate zones. They are also a social species, so their hives are easy to domesticate and manage.

However, many native insects also contribute to pollination in crops and gardens all around the country. We still need to do a lot of research to identify all our insect pollinator species, understand their ecology and how they are affected by human activities. So far, we know that  Australia has around 2,000 native bee species, all of which are important pollinators. We also know there are a couple of thousand butterfly, wasp, fly, moth, beetle, thrips and ant species, some of which are documented pollinators. Unfortunately, we don’t have a lot of information on the ecology of many of these insects, what flowers they pollinate, or where they are found.

The Wild Pollinator Count gives you an opportunity to contribute to wild insect pollinator conservation in Australia. We invite you to count wild pollinators in your local environment and help us build a database on wild pollinator activity.

You can join in by watching any flowering plant for just ten minutes sometime in our count week.

• You don’t need to be an insect expert.
• You don’t need fancy gear.
• You may be surprised by what you see!

[images & text sourced from Wild Pollinator Count. Please visit their website for further details]

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Wordless Wednesday

"Simplicity, the best city to live in..." ~ Muhammad Zaki 
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