Past Events
Farm Visits
Minto Galloways (beef)
Homeleigh Grove (olives)
Inglelara Garlic
Tweenhills Chestnuts (and hazelnuts)
Wynlen House (microfarm)
WindView Farm Saffron
Another Way of Living (turkeys)
Canberra City Farm
Other Site Visits
Sully's Cidery
3 Mills Bakery
Kokonut Pacific
Gallagher Winery
Apple picking in Krawarree
Working Bees
Assisted at Wynlen House during the drought: cleared garden beds, filled sandbags, laid orchard swales.
Workshops
Sausage making
Olive tree pruning
Hot cross buns
Dumplings
Lunches and Afternoon Teas Steamboat
Cooking with Jindaburra/Woolandra truffles
Chinese New Year afternoon tea
Terra Madre Celebrations Shoalhaven
Braidwood
Kiama 2019
Ulladulla 2015
Soup Kitchens
Hot soup served at the EPIC market over the winter months of the 2010s
Public Lectures & Presentations
June 2019: Walter Jehne
Cooling the Climate
October 2018: Charles Massy, Eric Holt-Giminez, Lyneham Commons
Bringing Together People, Food and Planet – A Better Food System
October 2018: Movie
In Our Hands – Seeding Change
Meet the Farmer
October 2021: Randall Organic Rice
Peter Randall organic rice
Sunday, 5 December 2021, 11:00–3:30
End of Year Get-Together: Long Table Lunch plus a presentation by Valerie Albrecht on The Spirituality of Food
We had a enjoyable meeting now that restrictions on gatherings like this are being lifted.
This presentation explored the connection between food and spirituality in the Indigenous cultures of Mayan, Native American and Australian Aboriginal peoples, and included food symbolism in Biblical narratives; It was followed by discussion of food and spirituality in our current western culture and completed with the sharing of food.
“Food is a ‘natural sacrament’ of family and friendship, with meanings greater than “eating” and “drinking”. We may not understand what that ‘something more’ is or wish to attach the word spirituality to it, but we nonetheless desire to celebrate food.” — Alexander Schmemann
Schmemann adds that to link spirituality and food may not be immediately obvious. Food is to sustain us, but not only our bodies, also through relationality and celebration — of land, nature, seasons, work and labour, to each other, and to whom-ever or whatever we relate to as Creator of these. Thus food becomes powerfully symbolic of much more than health, but also community, hospitality, care and reverence for Earth and expressing the spirituality of gratitude — thanksgiving or grace. There is far too little gratitude in this world.
Ideas we discussed included:
Cacao and the Origins of Life in Mayan Culture: The Maize God and the Sustenance Mountain
The Maya closely linked the agricultural cycle to astronomy and religion. Important ceremonies were held in honour of specialised workers beekeepers to fishermen; maize (corn) even had its own god.
Corn — the Connector to Holiness for Native American People
Family Trees on Corn, Ceremonies with Corn, Prayers with Corn, Painting with Corn
The Land, Plants, Trees, Animals and Healing — Australian Aboriginal Healers' Stories
Plants grow with the power of the land into powerful medicines which heal with song, sharing and give peace.
The Significance of Food — Glimpses from Biblical Narratives
Eating is paradoxical in that ‘one does not live by bread alone’ and, while one may enjoy feasting, there is also a time for fasting.
Wednesday, 27 October 2021, 7:00pm
Meet the Farmer: Peter Randall of Randall Organic Rice
Years ago Peter Randall became concerned about the high amounts of chemical pesticides and insecticides being used for conventional rice growing, and the deaths from cancer of too many people in the area including a close friend.
He set out to grow rice using organic farming methods. It's paying off now, with both good crops and a healthy ecology, but it's taken years and not been easy.
In 2017 he was a winner in the delicious. Produce Awards, which, in partnership with Miele, are a celebration of Australia’s magnificent bounty of ethical, sustainable and innovative ingredients, and the passionate, talented people behind them.
Hear about Peter's journey dealing with the vagaries of farming, legislative barriers and the good times as he has walked the path of organic farming for the past 32 years.
Join us for this Zoom seminar to Meet the Farmer and learn about a vertically integrated property, the impact of climate change, an insight into how he is helping to change farming methods in Vietnam, and the implementation of a renewable and permacultural agricultural system.
You can read Peter’s story at Randall Organic Rice
Wednesday, 18 September 2019, 7:00pm
Walter Jehne — Cooling the Climate
Something is wrong. Everyone knows this.
The climate is changing, becoming hotter and more erratic.
We don't have a lot of time to turn things around.
We can work with the most important greenhouse gas: water vapour. We've been ignoring this one for decades.
At the same time we must return to the permanently productive regenerative agriculture and forestry used by our ancestors.
Come and hear Canberra scientist Walter Jehne tell us how soil, water, vegetation and the climate are linked.
If you can't come to the live lecture, view one of his Youtube video lectures instead.
Thursday, 18 October 2018, 7:00pm
Public forum : Bringing Together People, Food and Planet: a better food system
In collaboration with the Canberra Environment Centre, Renewables Innovation Hub, Moore St, Turner
Join us for an evening of thought-provoking discussion with Lyneham Commons, Dr Charles Massy and Dr Eric Holt-Gimenez.
You may have heard people say "our food system is broken." But is it — or is it, in fact, performing entirely to specifications — albeit at great environmental, social and cultural cost? We are spending less on food than earlier generations, but that food is making us obese and sick. Control over the food system has concentrated into fewer hands, generating great wealth for a few but dislocation and poverty for many. Our soils are being degraded at an alarming rate. But new ideas, like regenerative farming, show a path to a better food future.
Hear interesting perspectives at local, national and international level about a new future for food and farming, challenging the assumptions and models of the 'industrial' food system.
Lyneham Commons is a local Canberra community group who have developed a ‘food forest’ on unleased public land in inner north Canberra. But maybe even more importantly, they have embedded the act of growing healthy food from healthy soil back into the local community.
Charles Massy is a farmer, author and advocate for regenerative farming and a better food system. Charles is known to many of us as the author of Call of the Reed Warbler, which describes his journey from ‘industrial’ farming to regenerative agriculture.
Eric Holt-Gimenez (bio here) is Executive Director of Food First (California) – a non-government institute that works, through research, education and action, to end the injustices that cause hunger. An author, academic and food systems activist, Eric brings a broad perspective as an advocate for ‘farmer to farmer’ learning and local food systems, as well as recognition of the economic and political structures that dominate our current food system.
Thursday, 11 October 2018, 7:00pm
Fair Food Week film screening – In Our Hands : Seeding Change
The Food Co-op Shop, Kingsley St, Acton
From the UK, this is an inspiring documentary about re-localising our food.
The film explores the daily reality of nine real life farmers who refuse to be ground down by the machinery of big agribusiness and are proving, every day, that an alternative is not only possible — it's profitable as well.
The UK's 2016 Brexit referendum provided the context for a re-think of food and agriculture policy. However, the themes of ruinous farm-gate prices, corporate domination of food from soil and seed through to our plates, and the shift from food sovereignty to a system run on capital and chemicals are equally relevant to Australia and to our local region. And the examples of taking food back into our own hands are inspiring.
Check out the trailer on Vimeo here.
Produced by the Land Workers Alliance, UK and Black Bark Films