Sep 1, 2009
ORGANIC GROWING NEWS Newsletter 264 – September 2009Levin Branch, NZ Soil & Health Association
Patron Fay Te Kira 364 5168 President Ian Sheen 364 3299 singa@xtra.co.nz Treasurer Liz Baucke 368 0009
Minute Secretary Val Nicol 367 8320 Secretary Annmarie Coote 367 3753
Committee Emily Williams 362 6684 Barbara van der Valk 364 3244 Jill Scott 363 7567 Michael Hunt 364 8053
Ambassador at Large: Winifred Bourn, 23a Fairfield Road, Levin Fax 368 6271, ph 368 6701
www.organicnz.org.nz/branch/Levin
Subscribe to Organic NZ magazineThe Soil & Health Association of NZ is the world’s oldest organisation dedicated to organic production. Since 1941, we have led the debate on issues surrounding health, sustainable development, safe food, pesticides, GE and organic food production. We rely on the generosity of members to continue working on your behalf.
By subscribing to the Association’s magazine, Organic NZ, you also become a member of the Association. Subscription costs $40 for one year (six issues) or $70 for two years (twelve issues). Family memberships, allowing two votes, are available for an extra $5 per year.
Send your subscription, or gift a subscription to family or friends, to Soil & Health Association of NZ, PO Box 36170, Northcote, Auckland, or via the website www.organicnz.org. You can pay by cheque, Visa, Mastercard or Amex.
27 September - Phillipa Martin & Emily Williams: An introduction to Kefir, Kombucha & other fermented foods. Levin Art Centre, Bath St. 1.30pm (Behind Thompson House on the eastern side of the railway lines)
Phillipa Martin will be speaking on fermented foods and the importance of them in our diet. These are delicious, nutritious and easy to make. They help repair the gut and balance its flora. Along with sprouting, soaking and culturing, fermenting helps make foods more easily digested and the nutrients more readily available. Fermenting also allows foods to be stored longer without nutritional loss. Fermented foods can be effective for the treatment of a wide range of illnesses, including many “modern” ones such as allergies, Crohns, asthma, ADHD, dyslexia, chronic fatigue, etc.
Phillippa will be demonstrating foods such as kefir and yoghurt, their culture and uses. There may be small samples available to take away so if you want some bring a small glass or plastic container.
Emily Williams will show how to make no- knead sour dough bread without the need to add yeast or sugar. Sour dough can, however, also be used to make pancakes, pizza bases and fruit breads.Come and taste some of these wonder foods and learn how to make them.
$2 gate charge includes afternoon tea, or bring a plate.
Future Meetings
1 November – Sowing and growing seedlings – a hands-on workshop with Anna Royal. Venue to be advised. Please bring along any surplus seeds for a seed swap, especially any unusual or heritage seeds.
6 December – Our Christmas afternoon tea for members and their guests at Thomas Reisinger’s organic lavender farm, Whakahoro Road, Manakau. We last visited this lovely property a few years ago.Thomas produces lavender oil and a range of lavender products. He now has his own still which he also uses to produce lemon verbena, lemon geranium and rosemary oils, and has manufactured a lot of his own machinery. $10 includes a fully-catered afternoon tea. For catering purposes, please book your place with a committee member.
The next committee meeting will be on Monday 12 October with Liz Baucke, 169 McLeavey Road, Ohau.
Talk on Transition Towns with Deidre Kent. Thompson House, 4 Kent Street Levin, Sunday 23 August
A group of about 20 attended our latest talk at Thompson House.
People are having a greater impact on the Earth every year. There are more of us, and our industrial power continues to grow too. We have cut down most of what was once forest, caught most of the fish, lost most of the topsoil, mined most of the minerals. But we still want more. In the process, we continue to pump huge amounts of pollutants into the air and water. Until, perhaps, our effects have become so great that we are beginning to affect the Earth’s climate.
The thing that has enabled this incredible explosion of human activity is cheap oil. Worldwide discoveries of new oil fields peaked about 40 years ago, and the new fields are much harder to extract oil from. Most experts agree that we are now producing as much oil per year as we ever will and that in the future we will gradually produce less and less.
Meanwhile, demand for oil rises more and more. Oil use now outweighs new discoveries many times over, and the gap continues to widen.
Whatever the future holds, it almost certainly won’t be the same as the past. Cheap oil has meant that we can live as if we had seventy or a hundred servants each. That is how much “free labour” the average person gets from oil and the machinery of modern life.
We will have to change, one way or another. We can’t keep polluting the world and wasting resources like we have. And without the cheap, plentiful oil we won’t be able to anyway.
But people are resourceful and ingenious. We can re-design our lives in the face of the realities that confront us.
Transition Towns is about managing the transition from the present to a very different future. A future that can be better than the present.
Transition Towns is about people getting together to educate themselves and others about the situations we face, to acquire useful skills and knowledge, to identify local needs and resources, to make local connections and networks, to plan for and move towards a lower-energy lifestyle. By doing all these things in a constructive way, we build resilient local communities and take responsibility for our lives.
The Transition movement started in England and Ireland only four years ago. There are now over 150 Transition Towns in fourteen countries. There are many in New Zealand, including Kapiti and Otaki.
Transition Towns Otaki puts out a monthly newsletter. The latest one lists garden tours on 20 September and 18 October, a regular pot luck dinner, news from the Sustainable Food Group, information on the four-lane expressway, climate change and peak oil, a report on a local currencies workshop, and a link to the movie “Home” (from the photographer of “The Earth From Above”). - Singa
Deidre noted the following useful resources:
- A film: ‘The Age of Stupid’
- http://www.chrismortenson.com
Contact Deidre on 3647779 or deidrekent@gmail.com to receive the newsletter or for more information.
Shiatsu Workshop:
Following the great interest shown at the recent Shiatsu meeting, Amor Walter has offered to hold a one-off workshop for our members. Cost is $20. A set of notes is also available for $15. Please register your interest with a committee member at or before our next meeting on 27 September. Time and venue to be advised.
Paraparaumu Food ForestA group on the Kapiti Coast is looking to establish a food forest in Paraparaumu. A food forest is a garden modeled on the ecosystem of a forest, with multiple layers of plants from ground cover herbs to canopy trees. Species are selected to create a stable, functioning environment that provides food, medicine and other useful crops. In mimicking a natural system, advantages are gained in post control, weed control and fertility without resorting to chemical means.
The motivation to create a food forest springs from issues such as knowing where our food comes from, teaching our children about food and our relationship with it, fostering and maintaining a sense of community, safeguarding the genetic diversity of our food plants and protecting heirloom varieties.
If you know of any existing food forests locally, or are interested in helping, contact Bena at danbena@paradise.net.nz
PSGR (Physicians and Scientists for Global Responsibility) put out a comprehensive newsletter with scientific findings on GE from NZ and around the world, as well as items on food safety, swine flu, stem cell research, nanotechnology, biofuel, climate change and uranium. Contact roberta@clear.net.nz
The Biosecurity Amendment Bill recently had its first reading debate. It will increase the instant fines that can be charged for biosecurity offences at airports (or in Court if a passenger disputes the offence) and makes a number of small administrative or technical changes.
Biosecurity is crucial to defend our natural environment, and also our key food production and tourism industries. The potential costs of even single biosecurity breaches are enormous – in the many billions of dollars.
This Bill involves a move to cut the Budget for biosecurity by 11% (and 54 jobs), and is moving from universal biosecurity screening of incoming passengers to a “risk profile” based selective screening. This is certain to increase biosecurity incursions, one would think. Increasing the fines simply will not balance out this increased risk.
Yet the biggest problem remains in the commercial importation of goods, especially through shipping containers, where more than 90% of containers – almost 400,000 each year – are not even inspected. The frequent and significant incursions that are detected in the sample of containers that do get inspected, suggests that many biosecurity threats go undetected.
Apparently New Zealand currently has the toughest biosecurity requirements of any country, but surely the evidence, and the stakes, demand that our protection should be tougher still.
Pip Martin has lots of baby nikaus and other natives which anyone is welcome to come and dig up. Phone 06 362 6826.
Organic wholemeal flour now available at de Molen windmill in Foxton.
1.5 kg for $5.80. de Molen is open between 10am and 4 pm, 7 days.
Enquiries: phone: 06 363 5601 email: demolenfoxton@xtra.co.nz
Te Horo market. Saturday mornings to 1pm. Behind Hyde Park Café and Museum, cnr Te Horo Beach Road and SH1. Local crafts and organic and spray-free produce. Contact Cath 021 524585 cath@sugarspice.co.nz
FLAX PLANTS WANTED to revegetate wetland areas. If you are digging out unwanted plants or know of anyone who is, don't throw them away. Just phone and I will collect. Tel: Anne 027 695 4058.
Peter’s Yoga Sunday morning Yoga Classes for Men & Women
Improve your flexibility, strength & balance
Promote your own health & wellness
Learn to relax and enjoy life!
9.30 -11.00am Sundays
New students can start on any Sunday
More Dance Studio, 268a Oxford St, Levin
$10 for a casual class (Discount for pre-paid 10 class ticket) Enquiries: Peter Macdonald: (06) 3681454 or (0274) 418358
EM (Effective Micro-organisms)
EM 1 available in 750ml, 2 litre and 20 litre containers.
Bokashi Zing Compost Buckets and Bokashi Zing.
Full range of EM Ceramics and EMX.
EM Practical Workshops..... to be advised.
Dave Johnston, 39 State Highway 1, Otaki, ph 06 364 6101, email lao@ihug.co.nz
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.
IMAGO ORGANIC ORCHARD (OFENZ Certified) Home grown & local fresh, dried, preserved and processed organic & spray free fruit & berries. Agrissentials Rok Solid & Organic 100 also available.
Summer hours 9.00am – 5.30pm. Winter hours by arrangement. Phone Ann 06 3683858
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.organics4you.net.nz or phone Louise (06) 364 2190
