Crowd Harvest; Seeds for Christmas

5th Annual Crowd Harvest; Seeds for Christmas 

Victoria, Australia. 

It's on again! After such great success over the last 4 years, people all over Victoria have been empowered to grow their own food. Save your left over and excess seeds this Spring, and send them to someone in need. NFPs supporting, enabling and empowering those in need to adopt self sustaining food gardening practices are looking to establish Seed Banks. By a central body establishing a seed bank, people facing difficult circumstances can access the seeds and establish food gardens. Gardeners everywhere harvest more seeds than can be stored, and need to be used before they expire. In this Crowd Harvest, Australian gardeners with excess seeds are invited to send them in a Christmas card or holiday card to one or more NFPs from the list below 🙂 Please package seeds in individual and labelled packages so food relief recipients can easily take them home. Experienced gardeners, please send viable, open pollinating seeds. Anyone wanting to purchase seeds for the NFPs, please look for websites and/or nurseries that promote 'heirloom', 'non genetically modified', 'open pollinating', or 'organic'. Each of the NFPs listed below has a certified horticulturalist employed, and ready to look after the seeds, either to start the seeds, store the seeds or distribute to others facing crisis yet know how to start seeds 🙂 You can be assured the seeds will be looked after. Variety is welcome! 

DIVRS & Darebin Fruit Squad 

Urban Food Program 

285 High Street 

Preston 3072 

http://www.divrs.org.au 

Email: urbanfood@divrs.org.au 

Social enterprise providing food relief to long term unemployed, aged workers and refugee groups, including food growing practices. 

STREAT Tastes Good. Does Good. 

66 Cromwell Street, 

Collingwood, VIC 3066 

www.streat.com.au 

www.facebook.com/streat.melbourne
www.twitter.com/streatmelbourne 

STREAT is a social enterprise designed to assist homeless youth in Melbourne. 

CITY HARVEST 

16 Portrush Loop, 

Armstrong Creek Geelong 3217 

www.cityharvest.com.au 

Social enterprise providing training for food security to long term unemployed, aged workers and refugee groups. 

Asylum Seekers Resource Centre Foodbank 

Level 1, 214 - 218 Nicholson St, 

Footscray VIC 3011 

Monday to Friday 10.00 am - 5.00 pm. 

t: 03 9326 6066 

e:admin@asrc.org.au 

Feeding refugees and those seeking asylum. 

PS. SAM FARBOD 

NEWHOPE IRANIAN COMMUNITY 

PO Box 255 

Kerrimuir VIC 3129 

https://www.newhope.net.au/Persian 

An Iranian community who fled to Australia due to religious persecution. 

Daylesford Seed Library, 

Cnr Bridport & Albert Streets, 

Daylesford VIC 3460 

https://www.hepburn.vic.gov.au/hepburn-libraries-3/ 

Rowville Community Centre 

40 Fulham Road, 

Rowville VIC 3178 

Food kitchen distributing and growing fresh food for low income Australians. 

The Grow Cook Share Project 

Ingrid Phyland 

The Salvation Army 

PO Box 992 

Bendigo, Vic, 3550 

https://bendigofoodshare.org.au/contact-us/ 

Growing, teaching food growing and sharing community home grown food to all. 

Alex Salmon 

CARRINGTON HEALTH 

Level 2, 43 Carrington Road 

Box Hill VIC 3128 

Food Gardens for Low income Australians 

www.carringtonhealth.org.au 

FOOD FOREST 

ASHBURTON GROUP 

C/O The Craig Family Centre 

7 Samarinda Avenue 

Ashburton VIC 3147 

https://foodforestashy.wordpress.com/ 

NEWHOPE COMMUNITY CARE 

Relief Care @NHCC 

PO Box 255 

Kerrimuir VIC 3129 

http://www.newhopecare.net.au/food-pantry 

Food Relief Centre 

looking to apply sustainable approaches to food resilience care. 

FOOD GARDEN - The Craig Family Centre 

7 Samarinda Avenue 

Ashburton VIC 3147 

http://craigfc.org.au/ 

Food Gardens for Low income Australians 

Alternatively: 

TINY TROWEL 

P.O Box 4076 

Box Hill South VIC 3128 

Twitter: @Tiny_Trowel 

Blog: http://mylittletrowel.blogspot.com.au/ See Less

Crowd Harvest: Winter Citrus

Crowd Harvest: Winter Citrus Crowd Harvest: Winter Citrus Lemon trees are heavy laden in the middle of winter. Nearly every home has a healthy citrus tree producing a bounty in the winter: Grapefruit, Lime, Cumquat, Oranges, Mandarins and Lemons. Citrus helps fight the winter colds and flu. Anyone growing produce in their own backyard inevitably produces excess - more than one family can consume. Winter brings a citrus bounty and gardeners are overwhelmed with fruit! Why not take some down to your local Food Relief provider and help those facing food insecurity and homelessness. We can all lend a hand in providing a lift up. Donating excess home grown produce is a small but significant way to help make a real difference. MELBOURNE CBD, WARRANDYTE, ROWVILLE, COLLINGWOOD, FOOTSCRAY, CROYDEN, AIRPORT WEST and PRESTON. The event runs for the whole winter season - Facebook only allows 2 weeks for event creation, so if you are looking at the Facebook event please ignore the dates. Now and Not Yet Cafe 148 Yarra St Warrandyte VIC 3113 03 9844 0994 Monday to Sunday 8.00 am - 3.00 pm nowandnotyet.com.au Assisting Asylum Seekers and people fleeing domestic violence. Rowville Community Kitchen Rowville Community Centre 40 Fulham Road, Rowville VIC 3178 Monday - Friday 10.00am till 3.00pm http://rowvillecommunitykitchen.com.au/ SALVATION ARMY KITCHEN Melbourne 614 69 Bourke Street Melbourne VIC 3000 Monday - Friday 9.00 am - 4.00 pm https://www.salvationarmy.org.au/melbourne614/ STREAT Tastes Good. Does Good. 66 Cromwell Street, Collingwood, VIC 3066 Monday - Sunday 8.00am till 3.00pm (03) 9629 4222 www.streat.com.au STREAT is a social enterprise designed to assist homeless youth in Melbourne. DIVRS 285 – 287 High Street Preston VIC 3072 Ph 03 9480 8207 Monday- Thursday 9.30 am – 2:30 pm www.divrs.org.au Helping Hands Mission 492 Fullarton Road Airport West 3042 Monday to Friday 10.00 am - 4.00 pm ELISHA CARE 14a Croydon Road, Croydon, VIC 3136 Please go down the drive towards the back for drop off. Monday - Friday 9.00 am - 5.00 pm http://www.elishacare.org/ Asylum Seekers Resource Centre Foodbank Level 1, 214 - 218 Nicholson Footscray VIC 3011 Monday to Friday 10.00 am - 5.00 pm. t: 03 9326 6066 e: admin@asrc.org.au Food seeds also welcomed! To make a contactless donation, please go to the rear of the ASRC building. This is the roller door opposite no. 46 Albert St Footscray. Press the red buzzer to the right of the roller door and reception will open the door remotely. You can drive right in if need be. Please leave any donations on the table marked ‘donations here’, and don’t forget to record your details on the tally sheet so the ASRC can send you a thank-you note! Gippsland Seed Drive The Stephanie Alexander Kitche Garden group is promoting the Gippsland Seed drive for schools.  Seed drives running across Gippsland to restock Primary School Kitchen Gardens affected by the Bushfires 2019 - 20.  The clusters of schools that your donations will bring a smile to include: Lakes Entrance Primary School Bruthen Primary School Toorloo Arm Primary School Tambo Upper Primary School Nungurner Primary School Metung Primary School Paynesville Primary School St Brendan’s Primary School Lakes Entrance Secondary High School Lakes Entrance Child Care Centre Milestone Early Learning Lakes Entrance Please send your clearly labelled seeds and your well wishes to: Gippsland Lakes Complete Health, PO Box 429 Lakes Entrance, VIC 3909 Sustain: the Australian Food Network Survey. Sustain is a collective of organisations with a shared understanding that growing edible food can be a force for good in society. The group is interested in understanding the extent to which the COVID19 restrictions and their legacy have impacted the attitude and actions of community members towards edible food growing. Find out more and have your say now: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/foodgrowing Gardening Australia really is a must watch for any food gardener. Check out this one!  In Whitehorse, the local police partnered with local churches to assist those doing it tough during COVID restrictions in Victoria.  So good to see food seedlings going out with food hampers, creating long term food resilience.

Crowd Farming: Garden for ANZACs Unprecedented times call for Unprecedented measures. Victory gardens! We are in a battle against an unseen virus. Planting a garden, just as Europeans did post WW2, will feed your family confined to home all through the winter time. It will also be packed with nutrients to keep a family strong. In fact, a home vegetable garden may produce enough that you are able to share with neighbours who find themselves in self isolation for 2 weeks, or have lost their jobs. In the years just after WW2, all allied nations encouraged all citizens with land, to dig up their lawns and plant a food garden.  These were called 'Victory Gardens'. I recall my English Grandparents telling me that those with homes, dug up their lawns to plant food to give to those whose homes had been bombed. Australian governments planted apple and plumb trees in the nature strips so that those without food would have something. It was ANZACS that did this for us, now it's time to do it for them. We now face a time where millions of Australians are loosing their jobs. While there are measures in place to increase financial social security supports, the generosity of those of us that can garden will lift spirits, build community and feed the hungry. It's time to dig up our lawns and plant for neighbourhoods. Plant for yourself, your family, your churches, your sports clubs and your neighbourhood if you can. Please wear gloves and a filtered gardening mask while harvesting and delivering any donation in the 2020 season. Only do so if you are well, and have sufficient crop for yourself as we live as if on a wartime footing. So this Crowd Farming is in honour of the ANZAC spirit. People are already getting onto social media and talking about their hardships, so if we can grow, we may save a life. Stay well everyone! Maintain social distancing. The Obama's did it while in presidency: https://www.sgaonline.org.au/victory-gardens/ This Youtube video is fairly good. https://www.google.com/search… If you are a novice, it is best to plant in raised beds and buy good quality potting mix, as any residuals in the soil may poison the crop, and then the consumer. Raised beds, wicking beds, and pots are a great looking way to get produce. If you are a gardener, plant double this season - for your neighbours! By the time the crop is ready, public restrictions may have been relaxed. Otherwise, leaving crop in 'Grow Free' carts, neighbourhood houses, and 'Little Street Libraries' or 'Little Street Pantries' will be options. For a full list of Grow Free Carts can be found here: http://www.growfree.org.au/ Find seeds here:https://www.diggers.com.au/ Enjoy the sunshine, while it lasts  Facebook Page:  https://www.facebook.com/tinytrowel/ Planting food for neighbours who may have suddenly fallen on hard times. So we plant in our own backyards for a later date. Financial hardship impacts individuals and families for at least 2 years. Any home planting now, is for the long haul in all our local neighbourhoods.

Crowd Harvest: Tomatoes for Easter Amended Crowd Harvest: Tomatoes for Easter The Prime Minister has announced more levels of social isolation in the battle against COVID 19. We are now advised against going out in public unless it is for an essential service. Any excess tomatoes can be dried, made into passatta sauce, chutney or treated as "sotto olio". Dried: https://www.food.com/recipe/make-your-own-sun-dried-tomatoes-oven-dehydrator-or-sun-263929 Under Oil: https://www.food.com/recipe/italian-oven-dried-tomatoes-in-olive-oil-68023 Passata: https://www.delicious.com.au/recipes/tomato-passata/gOyOAkHb Chutney: https://www.taste.com.au/recipes/tomato-chutney-2/8olmph7n If then you find people near you are isolated in their homes and unable to go and get groceries, you will have a home abundance to share while they pass through self isolation. If you choose to do this, then please wear gloves and a gardening mask, to deliver, leave outside the door and alert the recipient to collect once you have left the premises. There are Grow Free Carts in some communities. If you exit the home for essential services only, and one of these carts is on your route, you may like to leave some there for your community. Please wear gloves and a mask if you choose to do this. Please follow all government advisors in your jurisdictions. Individual excess = Community abundance During 2020, you may like to donate excess to a neighbour in need or unwell. Please wear gloves and a filtered gardening mask while harvesting and delivering any donation in the 2020 season. Only do so if you are well, and have sufficient crop for yourself as we live as if on a wartime footing. Stay well everyone! Worm Farms Worm Farms Can be purchased at most Bunnings stores. Worms can take care of kitchen scraps, and generate great fertiliser for your food garden, while reducing the affects of gases on the environment. https://products.tumbleweed.com.au/collections/worm-farming Don't Waste The Crumbs Many vegetables bought at stores can regrow at home.  Have a look at this website for more details: https://dontwastethecrumbs.com/regrow-food-water/

Bushfire Food Gardening Recovery

Gardeners everywhere may be wondering what to do in the face of devastating fire throughout the Australian landscape. Some ideas include; Start food and flower seeds at home - in 4 - 6 weeks when people are recovering from the shock, they may accept seedlings into fire ravaged areas. Save seeds - as many as possible - to send to garden groups when they come together and are ready to revegetate. Prepare to volunteer in a few months time when food gardens and community gardens are ready to replant. Take cuttings from fruit trees, and propagate at home - ready to donate to fire areas in 6 to 12 months time. :-) At home now, put out bird baths and wildfeed for birds flying in looking for food. Insect hotels can also be placed in back yards, assisting bees and other insects. 
Stay safe everyone.

Crowd Harvest; Seeds to Renew

STAGE ONE - Post bushfire renewal
Victoria, Australia.
Community Gardens near to areas affected by Bushfires are in a position to grow food and flower seeds now, ready to move to community gardens and schools (as central points) in bushfire affected areas in 3 - 6 weeks time. If you run a community garden and wish to be placed on the list for this effort, please contact.
By central bodies establishing a seed bank, people facing difficult circumstances can access the seeds and establish food gardens.
Gardeners everywhere harvest more seeds than can be stored, and need to be used before they expire. In this Crowd Harvest, Victorian gardeners with excess seeds are invited to send them with a message of hope and support to one or more Community Gardens or NFPs from the list below :-) . More addresses will be added over the next few weeks, so please pace out contributions, sending small packages to each area.
Please package 'in date' seeds in individual and labelled packages. Experienced gardeners, please send viable, open pollinating seeds. Please consider the season and what seeds will take immediately.
Anyone wanting to purchase seeds for the NFPs, please look for websites and/or nurseries that promote 'heirloom', 'non genetically modified', 'open pollinating', or 'organic'.
Each of the NFPs listed below has a certified horticulturalist on site, and ready to look after the seeds, either to start the seeds, store the seeds or distribute to others facing crisis :-) You can be assured the seeds will be looked after.
Variety is welcome!
Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/tinytrowel/

Yinnar Community Garden
C/O P.O Box 10
Boolarra VIC 3870
Australia
https://www.mirboodistrictfoundation.org.au/index.php/9-news/128-yinnar-community-garden
Supporting Mallacoota and surrounds
Happy to accept herb plants during Autumn during opening hours if you are a local to the YCG.

The Sustainable Activity Centre
17 Yarralumla Drive
Wodonga VIC 3690
Australia
https://www.facebook.com/SustainableActivityCentre/?rf=150259389011532
Supporting communities closer to Alpine areas, Corryong and surrounds, and into NSW regions.
The SAC here, are capable of receiving bulk packages and able to then repackage into smaller packs ready to redistribute to the three areas named.

Baw Baw Sustainability Network

PO Box 161

Yarragon, 3823

https://www.bbsn.org.au/

Supporting areas In Gippsland.

Thank you one and all. Please remember, small packages and save seeds for all of January ready for the next community ready to receive seeds. Crowd Harvests will roll out in stages. When communities are ready, seedlings and small plants will be needed, and experienced gardeners may wish to graft fruit trees ready for a 6 - 12 month timeline.

Australia has strict quarantine laws on all biological resources. Please do not send seed from overseas unless absolutely sure of the legislation requirements: https://www.agriculture.gov.au/import/goods/plant-products/seeds-for-sowing?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIi8SkjPuW5wIVTQwrCh2dmg25EAAYASAAEgKovvD_BwE

NB: This Crowd Harvest is around food seeds, and flowers for pollination of food seeds. Anyone wanting to assist with flora and fauna renewal needs to contact or join Landcare Australia: https://landcareaustralia.org.au/
or
Habitat sanctuaries
https://www.facebook.com/habitatsanctuaries.org/

Australia Day celebrations are a great time to express the generous Australian spirit towards asylum seekers and those in need.

During the summer time, herbs are flourishing!
Many home gardeners find their herb plants outgrow their pots/land in the summer time, and usually split the plant to share with their family and friends. Split plants donated to those facing food insecurity can make them feel the generous spirit of Australia Day.
Such a gift would provide an ongoing, self sustaining way for people to enhance their own nourishment. Sophie from Gardening Australia shows how it can be done with ease in this engaging video: http://www.abc.net.au/gardening/stories/s4570418.htm

Small pots are the best way to present your wonderful gift, with a label to identify the plant.
The ASRC, Newhope Care and Rowville Community Kitchen have clients who could use some home grown herbs in pots. People receive great joy when gifted with herbs! Strawberry and pepper plants are also greatly appreciated.
Dried herbs, freshly cut herbs, and bay leaves are all welcomed. You might be cutting back your rosemary - the ASRC would love all the off cuts :-)
Just pop in and say Hi from Jan 11 to Jan 28 during their opening times and help celebrate Australia Day. Remember, all NFPs are closed on Monday Jan 27 - a public holiday!

Asylum Seekers Resource Centre Foodbank
Level 1, 218 Nicholson S
Footscray VIC 3011
Open Monday to Friday from 10 am to 3 pm.
Closed on public holidays. Closed on Weekends.
https://www.asrc.org.au/get-involved/donate-food-and-goods/
Pots and soil would also be appreciated at this venue to enable asylum seekers to plant out the herbs.

Rowville Community Centre
40 Fulham Road,
Rowville VIC 3178
Open Monday to Friday from 9 am to 4 pm.
Closed on public holidays. Closed on Weekends.
http://www.knox.vic.gov.au/rcc
Food bank and kitchen distributing and growing fresh food and plants for low income Australians.

NewHope Community Care
3 Springfield Rd (Carpark at cnr Middleborough Rd)
Blackburn North VIC 3130
Open Monday to Friday 10 am to 4pm
Open Sunday 10 am to 2pm
Closed on public holidays.
W: http://www.newhopecare.net.au/community-care
Food bank distributor caring for Iranian refugees and other low income members of the community.