Vegetable News Alert: Ugly is the New Pretty
Welcome to another permablitz newsletter with a thick cream dollop of upcoming courses and blitzes, plus some wow-you-out-of-your-seat post-blitz photos, getting intimate with arthropods, a horticultural challenge to the US president-elect, and much more, but first some good news for the world’s ‘ugly’ vegetables…
Why — oh why — was the word ‘plain’ ever a synonym for ugly? If plain really was considered ugly there would be no botox injections. But it seems that, in the world of vegetables at least, the days of boring symmetry are over. Europe leads the way reversing laws which for the last 20 years have banned ‘ugly’ vegetables from supermarked shelves. Three legged carrots, bloated beets, heart shaped potatoes, rejoice! For your time has come again:
<http://www.independent.co.uk/
~~~ Upcoming blitzes ~~~
Kinglake Blitz (Blitz #57) Sat Nov 22 10am-4pm
Come along and bring your garden tools and enjoy a creative ‘get the job done’ day. Locally Grown and Permaculture Kinglake Ranges present PermaBLITZ! Please bring garden tools, and if you can, a small plate of food to share. Email us if you’re driving or would like a lift: [email protected] More…
Noble Park (Blitz #58) Sun Nov 23 10am-4pm
Please come along to help Mamta and Gopal, and their children Nishtha and Leisha, turn their hot backyard into a fruit and vege producing haven. Delicious Indian food will be available as you help to add shade creating fruit trees and child friendly vege and herb beds. More…
Have you been to three blitzes? Would you like your place to be blitzed? Contact us for a free design and help organising a blitz. If it sounds too good to be true, maybe it is. Maybe some secret service agency from the 8th dimension will abduct us, and rewire everyone’s brains to forget we ever even existed, so that the universal cynicism balance is restored. It could happen any time, so get in quick! Contact [email protected]
~~~ Upcoming courses and seminars ~~~
Lots of great courses coming up…
Free! Home Food Growing for Beginners Thurs Nov 20 6:45 – 9pm
Paul, Adam and Nathan from Permablitz are inviting all to this free 2-hour seminar on how and why to successfully grow your own veges and fruit. Where: Town Hall Room – Maribyrnong Council Offices at the corner of Napier and Hyde Streets in Footscray I can’t believe it’s free…
Living Foods Workshop Sun Nov 23 8:30am – 4:30pm
Adam and Dan from the permablitz team are running another Living Foods Workshop on Sunday November 23rd in North Fitzroy. Come along and learn how to: • Make and bake your own Sourdough and Essene bread • Make your own yoghurt, kefir and cottage cheese • Grow and make your own green smoothies • Grow healthy and delicious sprouts on your kitchen windowsill • Make your own sauerkraut Get enzymes…
Beginners Guide To Compost And Worms Thurs Nov 27 7:30 – 9pm
Turn waste into rich fertile soil. Paul, Nathan and Adam present an hour and a half course in Fiztroy which is a great way to learn about how to employ the work of worms and microbes to turn your household waste (including cardboard and paper) into beautiful organic soil. The number one secret of good organic gardening. Hit me with worms…
Getting Started with Edible Food Gardening Sunday Nov 29 10:30am-4:30pm
Paul, Dan, Nathe and Adam from permablitz present a one day guide to getting started at home food production. Topics covered include garden layout, water-wise gardening, soils, compost and worms, companion planting, organic pest control, chooks, and the real basics of how to plant seeds and seedlings. I’m in the mood for food…
Plus many more, check the calendar…
~~~ Past blitzes ~~~
~ Rosanna ~
Angela, a first time blitzer at last weekend’s blitz in Rosanna, has written a great article about her blitz out experience. If you’ve not yet made it to a blitz, read this:
Do The Permablitz
~ Eltham 6 months later ~
Prepare to be wowed.
Here’s photos from the permablitz earlier in the year at Rachel and Brent’s house in Eltham — first time food gardeners.
An here it is six months down the track:
So foliagey! Well done blitzers, designers and Rachel and Brent for all their hard work, a truly beautiful result.
More photos: http://www.permablitz.net/
~~~ Diary and Calendar ~~~
As we enter 2009, the year in which people’s status first becomes associated more closely with the size of their pumpkins than their cars, no fashion conscious person would be seen without a 2009 Permaculture Diary or 2009 Permaculture Calendar. Start using them now in 2008 just to show how ahead of the game you really are. They are both full of great and inspiring photos, and available now: http://www.
~~~ Maria’s Mama’s Tomato Preserving Workshop ~~~
Have you got your tomatoes in yet? It’s not too late! Plant in a forest of them for come harvest time next year our friend Maria and her mother will be running a tomato preserving workshop for permablitzes! There is no pasta sauce like the home ripened tomato version. We’ll announce a date in this newsletter.
~~~ Transition Towns Workshops ~~~
Sonya Wallace writes: “Transition Sunshine Coast is proud to announce upcoming Transition Town* workshops in December, February, April and May. If you are interested in learning how to establish a transition initiative in your community, then this is the course for you. [*See www.transitiontowns.org or www.transitionculture.org for more information on Transition Towns]”
Sonya and Janet Millington are achieving amazing things up on the Sunshine Coast organising community to prepare for peak oil and climate change. If there are courses worth travelling that far for, these are it. Check out the Sunshine Coast Energy Action Centre calendar for more or email [email protected]
~~~ Market Sprouts in Thornbury ~~~
This Thursday 20th, champion blitzer Zanni Walstein is organising what is the first of monthly markets starting in February in Thornbury at the Sprout Comminity Garden, with organic produce, clothes and a food surplus exchange. More…
~~~ Bug Love ~~~
Did you know that only 1% of the world’s insects are considered pests of gardens or agriculture? The rest are either neutral or beneficial. Your backyard is an unexplored ecosystem and you can Burke and Wills it. Check out these for example:
Tamara’s exploration into the sap sucking harlequin bugs…
<http://www.flickr.com/photos/
Wow a “Phabulous Phemale Phasmid of Phitzroy!” photographed by Geoff. Must be seen to be believed.
<http://www.flickr.com/photos/
An unidentified ‘conehead’ insect. This in turns absurd and threatening looking creature is featured on a website devoted to non-toxic pest managment:
<http://www.symbios-witticism-
Two related links: Which Came First, Pests or Pesticides?
And Pesticides Make Farmers Literally Depressed.
~~~ Grow Food Party Crew ~~~
Whoa. It’s taken us two and a half years to do 56 blitzes. These Californians are planning to install 100 food gardens in a weekend. Crazy? I don’t know but I like their style…
<http://www.venturacountystar.
~~~ Out with the First Lawn. In with the First Potatoes ~~~
Encourage the US President-elect to plant a vegie garden on the Whitehouse lawn at www.eattheview.org — a hugely popular campaign.
Check out the great videos, esp #2 tracing the history of the “first-lawn” as a food producing area throughout the history of the USA.
~~~
You’ve made it to the end of another permablitz newsletter. We encourage you not to swim for 30 minutes.
And hope to see you at a blitz! Adam @ Permablitz Decentral
