Organic Growing News - Levin Newsletter Jan 2007
15-01-2007
  WELCOME
We would like to welcome over 300 Soil & Health members throughout the lower North Island to this edition of the Levin Branch’s newsletter. To Wellington, Wairarapa, Wanganui and wherever, welcome.
The Levin branch has been active for over 50 years and currently has over 100 members. We hold nine meetings a year, from March to December, where we visit local organic properties or have a guest speaker. In 2006 we visited a 30-acre mixed farm, an organic poultry farm, an organic orchard for a pruning demonstration, a country garden and a backyard garden. We had talks and discussions on GE, holistic healing, bees and medical herbalism.
Our main event of the year is our stall at the Organic River Festival in Levin on the last weekend in January. We hope to see you there.
Our newsletters now appear on the Organic NZ website, or by email via Dave Johnston. See our homepage for contact details. If you would like to receive a hard copy by post please call Winifred (06) 368-6701.
Photos included below are by Annmarie Coote from our end-of-year visit to Phillipa Martin’s country garden. We try to make our last meeting of the year a relaxed, informal occasion where members can mingle and socialise in pleasant surroundings. Phillipa led us on a tour of the property, giving us a potted history of the house and grounds. We then adjourned for a sumptuous and bountiful afternoon tea on the lawn in the shade of the trees.
ORGANIC RIVER FESTIVAL
The 2007 Organic River Festival will be held at Kimberley Reserve, Levin, on Saturday 27th and Sunday 28th January.
We will be having our usual stall, with plants, food, drinks, literature and so on. This is our major fundraiser for the year, and also our main opportunity to present ourselves and our message to the public.
We look forward to your contributions to help make our stall a success. We have potted up some herbs and veges kindly donated by Common Property, and Barbara will have her usual array of plants for sale, but your donations will be greatly appreciated. Please make sure that all plants are labelled with their names. We will also be happy to accept fresh organic produce, herbs and flowers, or packets of seed from your garden. Home baking is always welcome, using organic ingredients as far as possible. Please note that health regulations are enforced at the Festival, so please limit your contributions to cakes, biscuits and slices, which should all be wrapped. We have been overwhelmed by used supermarket bags and plant pots – thank you to all concerned.
The best time to bring in your donations is on Friday from 3pm when we will be setting up, or before the 10am gate opening on the Saturday and Sunday. Some vacancies still exist for volunteers to do a 3-hour shift on the stall. If you can help, please call Winifred.
As usual, our stall will also feature a range of organic literature, and organic gardening aids such as rock dust and dipel. We will be raffling a herb bed donated by Kiwibackyard Products, made from untreated macrocarpa which slots together. As well as garden beds in a range of sizes, they also produce a compost bin and a worm composter.
Entry prices to the Festival are:
Saturday 27th (includes evening concert) - $20 adults, $15 seniors, $5 kids (5-13yo), $45 family (2 adults 2 kids)
Sunday 28th (includes twilight concert) - $15 adults, $10 seniors, $5 kids, $30 family
SEASONAL GROWING GUIDE FOR KAPITI-HOROWHENUA
A few years ago, the branch received a very generous bequest from Johanna
Oderkerk of $1000, to be put towards a suitable project. We are pleased to announce that we will soon be publishing a month-by-month guide to organic growing, specific to our region.
Kath Irvine has spent a full year interviewing various long-time local gardeners, gathering information on what they were doing and why. That information has now been collated and is being prepared for publication. We hope that it will be released by the middle of the year.
Here is a snippet from the introduction:
There is nothing more satisfying for me than growing my own food.
It allows me to be outside in the soil, under the sky away from the mad, rushing world, It means I can provide my family with the best tasting, most nourishing food under the sun. I love the simple joy of harvesting my own tea and the special connection that the stories and memories attached to all my seeds and plants bring – just knowing that these snow peas were Marion’s favourites, these were the first potatoes that Cara grew, that these beans (Bob’s beans) were smuggled back to NZ in his sock, that these freesias used to grow under grandma’s window. As we move further away from the soil and closer to a reliance on supermarkets, we lose our health and our connection with the Earth. Growing your own food gives you the opportunity to eat the best and tastiest produce available – food that is spray free, and additive free. Therein lies your family’s good health and the opportunity to pass this all-important Earth knowledge to your children.
I hope this book will inspire you to grow your own food by empowering you with the necessary knowledge and rekindling your connection with the Earth.
-Kath Irvine.
LIVESTOCK’S SIZABLE BIOLOGICAL FOOTPRINT
When you think abut the growth of human population over the past century or so, it is all too easy to imagine it merely as an increase in the number of humans. But as we multiply, so do all the things associated with us, including our livestock.
At present, there are about 1.5 billion cattle and domestic buffalo and about 1.7 billion sheep and goats. With pigs and poultry, they form a critical part of our enormous biological footprint upon this planet. Just how enormous was not really apparent till the publication of a new report, Livestock’s Long Shadow, by the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations.
Consider these numbers. Global livestock grazing and feed production use 30 per cent of the land surface of the planet. Livestock, which consume more food than they yield, also compete directly with humans for water. And the drive to expand grazing land destroys more biologically sensitive terrain, rain forests especially, than anything else.
But what is even more striking, and alarming, is that livestock are responsible for about 18 per cent of the global warming effect, more than transportation’s contribution.
The human passion for meat is certainly not about to end anytime soon. Our health and the health of the planet depend on pushing livestock production in more sustainable directions.
-Editorial, The New York Times, reported in The Dominion Post 30 Dec 06
MOON PLANTING GUIDE - FEBRUARY 2007
- Full moon 2nd
- Last quarter 10th
- New moon 18th
- First quarter 24th
Best dates for sowing root crops such as beetroot, carrot, onion, turnip and radish are the 7th, 8th and 9th.
For sowing and planting leaf crops such as broccoli, silver beet, lettuce and spinach, the best days are the 19th, 20th and 23rd.
The best dates for cauliflower are the 27th and 28th.
Keep the soil moist, but avoid wetting the foliage of vegetables in the hot midday sun and in the late evenings.
Ray Bourn
THE NEXT COMMITTEE MEETING will be held on Monday 12 February at 10am with Liz,169 McLeavey Road, Ohau. All members are welcome to attend.
Adverts
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A1 SHELTER BELT TRIMMERS for all your shelter belt and hedge trimming. Height reduction and decrowning now available. Competitive prices, prompt service. Phone Marty (06) 362 6737
MAWHENUA FARM - organic since 1986. Beef, hogget & lamb processed & packaged under MAF licence. Craft & knitting wools available. For price list and inquiries contact Warren and Trish Gilbert, RD 7, Dannevirke (06) 374 8281.
AGRISSENTIAL NATURALLY BETTER FERTILISERS BIOGRO certified Rok Solid and Organic 100, available from
IMAGO ORGANIC ORCHARD For information phone Ann (06) 368 3858
CACKLEBERRY ORGANICS Organic chickens, pieces and pies. Organic chicken manure/sawdust mix. For inquiries contact Jeff & Christina Paulin (06) 368 8961 cackleberryorganics@clear.net.nz
World’s first fully certified organic SKINCARE, BODYCARE AND COSMETIC PRODUCTS 100% free of synthetic chemicals. Discount and free shipping available. Order on-line www.organic4you.net.nz or phone Louise (06) 364 2190
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