Community Fruits

I got all warm and fuzzy listening to a great report on ABC's Bush Telegraph Podcast broadcast on 21/2. It was about a fantastic initiative set up in Castlemaine, Victoria whereby a group of people are helping the local community help themselves to post-flood laden fruit trees in public areas just ripe for the picking. They are also going around to local growers and ordinary folk who might just have a pear tree in their garden that needs harvesting, pruning and a little tender loving care so that it may continue to produce fruit for future generations and at the same time feed the local community right now.

What a wonderful project and one that can be replicated across the world as we all strive to grow our own, buy local and eat local and help take the strain of the global food economy. One of their programmes is called Urban Food Maps, I'm still trying to find out the link to the original Castlemaine project. Such a project would work so well in London, there are countless fruit trees in parks that could be harvested. Our local Hackney City Farm has recently started a community edible garden that will be open to the public for harvesting and I have just discovered that there is a group called Hackney Harvest that mobilise the community to sites where harvesting is open and trees need planting. Why have I only just discovered this!

Well, blow me down, I have also just found out that this Australian initiative also exists right here in London and is called The London Orchard Project. It's great to know that all those plums are not going to waste this year!

Spiritual House

I found an inspiring article today in Frame Magazine about a contemporary designed building used to "accommodate spiritual, social and political gatherings for Pan Aboriginal groups across North America...The white cedar structure is a network of lamellar arches prefabricated from a computer model...As you enter, you smell the sage and sweet grass that are burned during meetings and counselling sessions." Imagine having such a peaceful space for contemplation and a cleansing of the senses... Read the article here
It's a magnificent building but practically speaking.. could a straw bale house be created from this kind of framework? with a render to the inside & outside..

Places of interest

I just discovered Fryers Forest which is an eco-village in central Victoria. I was surprised to learn that one of the founders of Permaculture was from Western Australia and this eco-village has been designed and developed by him entirely on his Permaculture principles. The eco village currently has homes for 27 villagers and includes a community orchard, three artificial lakes stocked with fish and a community house.

It would also be well worth a visit to Melliodora, for research/inspiration. This is a site located in the spa town Hepburn Springs, to quote: "It is one of the best documented and well known permaculture demonstration sites in Australia. The passive solar house, mixed food gardens, orchards, dams and livestock, and creek revegetation show how permaculture design can help to restore and improve land, provide for residents' needs and enjoyment in a cool inland climate."

And all this right in the neighbourhood of the area we are looking to establish our makers farm!