Sustainable Gardeners and Farmers

SUB-REGIONS: UPPER AND MID-LOWER BM PROJECTS

= along the ridgetop, within short train/carpooled distance of all BM townships in the same basic climate area)

Examples for Upper BM to date (please email lizzieconnor any more that you know of): 

•  Katoomba’s Winter Magic Festival held each year on the weekend closest to the Winter Solstice, including a Slow Food café featuring local produce and chestnuts harvested from private orchards at Mt Wilson and Mt Irvine.
• Blackheath Community Market on the first Sunday in each month (except January), with a wide range of goods on sale, including organic seedlings and produce from UBM growers (and beyond).
• Lithgow's Farmers Market (Pilot project September to November, 2009), selling vegie and herb seedlings, local fresh and value-added produce.
  
• Local Co-operative Gardeners Network (LoCo), which has established The Quarry Co-operative Garden in Blackheath, is now exchanging seedlings and fresh produce from there and from individual members' gardens, and also selling produce at the Blackheath and Lithgow Community Markets.
• Footbeat Festival at Wentworth Falls TAFE, focused on Sustainability woth a huge range of events and stalls etc, October 23-25.
  
• Katoomba's Blue Mountains Organic Community Garden - with a dedicated small group of volunteers working one day a week as well and an annual (spring) Festival of Joy that draws people from throughout the Blue Mountains and beyond. In 2009, supported by BMCC's Water For Life project, they are also mounting a school kitchen garden project as part of the annual Footbeat Festival.
  
• Permi-UM (Upper Mountains permaculture group) – their main focus to date is monthly working bees at individual members’ food-gardens.
• Blackheath Growers Market on the second Sunday of each month (except January) - a popular venue for locals and tourists, but no emphasis on organic produce, and featuring vegetable seedlings and value-added products from a wider area than the Blue Mountains.

Examples for Mid-Lower BM to date (please email lizzieconnor any more that you know of): 

• Mid Mountains Seedsavers Network, around four meetings per year at Bullaburra Progress Association Hall – at each meeting members exchange seeds and plants, and package locally grown seeds for sale at the Magpie Markets and other local venues.
•  Magpie Markets at Lawson PS, held on the third Sunday of each month (except for January) - so far with two stalls selling chemical-free food-plants as seeds or seedlings: John McNaull and Loret Runagal; Deb Hurley and Ben Cameron. There is also an MMNC stall for exchanging or buying/selling vegetables, fruit, eggs etc from across the mountains.
• Mid Mountains Community Garden Group (supported by MMNC) exploring possible sites, garden structure etc
  
• Love Lawson Festival
• Mid-Lower Mountains permaculture group – checking out the Mid-Lower Mountains scene and taking action where indicated. They currently have monthly working bees at individual members’ food-gardens.
• Culture-Lab organic food-in-a-box deliveries, including pick-up of fruit etc along Bells Line. Boxes delivered across the mountains.
  

VARIOUS TOWNSHIP PROJECTS

= within walking/cycling/short carpooled or community bus distance of most people’s homes/schools/workplaces

Examples for Katoomba to date (please email lizzieconnor any more that you know of): 

• Blue Mountains Food Co-op’s local fresh food section (in Katoomba's shopping centre).

Examples for Hazelbrook to date (please email any more that you know of): 

• Jan Goodlet’s permaculture workshops for adults and children - usually held in her inspiring mature garden in Hazelbrook.
• Paul, Hazelbrook greengrocer who is happy to sell any surplus of locally grown produce, eg bay leaves, lemons (and provide broccoli boxes for low-cost box-gardens).

Members please email any more projects that you know of for other townships.

VARIOUS NEIGHBOURHOOD PROJECTS

= within walking/cycling distance of one’s home

Examples to date (other members please email any more that you know of):

• A group of three food-gardening households at the corner of Clissold and Hope St, Katoomba (within easy sight of each other) - so far exchanging informal visits, successes, problems, ideas, seedlings, produce etc, but working towards small seasonal harvest celebration events where other neighbours are invited to join us, eg construction of an outdoor oven under my oak-tree, to be available for community bread/pizza-making get-togethers etc.
  
• A few households in Mount View Avenue, Hazelbrook – exchanging seeds, plants, seedlings and gardening ideas, as well as some shared work in each others’ gardens.

• Katoomba (South) PS has a large food-garden, comprising six separate vegetable beds and a number of mature and newly planted fruit trees – established by a P&C subcommittee, but progressively involving more and more teachers working on class “allotments”, and also using the garden as an outdoor classroom across a range of curriculum areas.

INDIVIDUAL HOUSEHOLD PROJECTS

= within easy walking distance of one’s back/front door

Examples to date (other members please email brief descriptions of your own):

Lizzie’s (at 4 Hope St, Katoomba), which has taken her eight years to get to a stage where she can theoretically base her main daily meal throughout the year on food from it - without jeopardizing her precious hanging swamp and creek. Very happy to share her experiences, new-found skills and produce – currently sharing them with a friend who doesn’t have space for a food-garden but wants to eat home-grown vegies and fruit.

Maryanne’s (in 3 Mount View Ave, Hazelbrook) – purchased in 1999, the house and gardens have been modified to become a more energy efficient environment. Major landscaping to insert contours on a very steep block and improve access and drainage has been undertaken. She now has a productive Zone 1 nearest the backdoor providing salad, tomatoes, corn. She is establishing an orchard in the front garden Zone 3 with hazelnut trees, plums, figs and apple trees. And has planted out the entire verge with trees – original exotics and now natives. She is collecting compost materials from 2 other households and grass clippings from a next door neighbor and is sharing seedlings, plants and produce with a few neighbours. She hopes to improve this aspect of the Street Neighbours Exchange Groups.