A produce update

Hello, on this beautiful sunny Autumn day.

Today is the last day for a few weeks that we'll be having produce from Peter of Cooranbong. He has his next lot of crops in and they won't be ready for a while. That means his lovely corn, potatoes, cucumbers and heirloom pumpkins are finished. :(

However, as one door closes, another opens, as we have Bill's butternut pumpkins coming in from today, as well as his superb eggplant and some tomatoes. We are also getting in tomatoes from Glen and Peter, plus figs, herbs, persimmons and some trial melons. The cauliflower, broccoli, leeks and cabbage today is from Kurrawong Organics. We have those lovely apple cucumbers coming in from them as well, to join with cucumbers from Peter, "blonde cucumbers" from Rob, and our new local supplier, Virginia. We Figgies like our cucumbers! Great for munching and juicing or even making delicate cucumber sandwiches if you wish, they are a very alkaline forming food. (AKA, good for our health.)

The watermelon is from Pat, who is in conversion to being organically certified. Hooray for another organic farmer! Ed is supplying some zucchini, and Michael has lots of wonderful greens. Just don't ask him about lettuce! The last lot were weather affected and he planted more, telling us very enthusiastically that the next lot were nearly ready - just to have them wiped out in the rain and storms this week. Farming sure is a gamble. Luckily he has other produce in the ground as well, and that is arriving at the co-op today. Jean's basil continues, and we never knew how much bees loved basil until we grew some of our own and observed the mass of activity each year, perennial basil in particular.

We have local limes today in small quantities, also some lemons, and the valencia oranges are still available. Russian garlic from Bailey's farm up the coast is in today. They tell us they have been planting next year's crop and estimated they'd put in 8.5 kilometres of garlic. That's a lot! They're also diversifying into other crops as well; what started as a part time venture is moving into bigger production. Hooray there as well.

In this year, the UN International Year of  Family Farming, we need to encourage them as much as we can, more than ever.

See you at the co-op...

Pat Collins workshops on the Central Coast

Our friends at the Pulse Co-op are organising another series of Home Healing Workshops by Pat Collins, due to begin next month.

FIG members have been emailed the information however it's open to anyone on the Central Coast who is keen to participate and learn much about healing and making their own remedies, skin care, creams, lotions and potions!

Please contact Pulse direct for enquiries and bookings: <pulsecoop @ gmail.com> , removing the spaces and the < & >. Here are the details:

"Beginning on the second Saturday in February Pat Collins will begin her home healing courses again at Jilliby. Each course is very extensive, comprehensive and full of Pat's helpful healing tips. An extra course is now available also, course number 11 which is on depression and anxiety. Pat has added this course to her program as she is finding it more and more common in her practice.

Pat Collins runs a very successful natural health center in Muswellbrook called the Total Health and Education Centre (THE Centre) and you can learn about her at www.patcollins.com.au

Pat has been teaching courses in TAFE, community colleges, throughout various communities and at her practice for over 20 years, has written 6 books and appears on the local radio as well as working 4 days a week in her very busy practice. She is a qualified Herbalist, Iridologist, Hypnotherapist & Reflexologist and still frequently attends conferences and seminars to keep up to date with the ever changing world of health.

The courses she held during 2012 were very successful and inspiring for all of the students who are now practicing home healing in their own homes. It gives one a great feeling to know that on many occasions, you can take the health and well-being of your loved ones into your own hands and send them along the way mended and whole again. It also gives much more awareness of the world around us and nature and how it can all work together once we educate ourselves. These courses also focus on preventative measures to help you set up a life of health and abundance. It is no less than life changing to say the least - you will never look at a weed the same again and will always be able to think more about the choices you make for your health and well-being  It is very powerful to know these simple truths.

If you or any of your family or friends are interested in Pat's course for 2013 please email me ASAP with your details. I will be doing all correspondence for these courses over email and will be finalising the role in the next week.

Each course will be held on the second Saturday of each month from 10am till 4pm at Jilliby Hall (except for the December class which will be on the first Saturday) & we all bring a pot luck lunch to share. The cost of the course will be $70 for the day and will include all products to take home as well as rent for the hall. Please know that you leave the day with much more product than what you pay for; Pat is very generous with her goodies - some months we made up to 10 products each such as fresh herbal teas, capsules, creams and ointments, just to name a few. Not only would we come home with a bag of wonderful freshly made goodies, we knew from our teachings that day just how to use them in our lives. Each month we would come back with stories of success of the products we made and tried on our families!

The first half of the day is spent being taught by Pat on the chosen topic of the month and the second half is spent making all the products we leave with. You therefore learn all you need to about the product you are using and how to make it yourself - groups have been formed where the class has gotten together on their own to make products for themselves as we have been given the know-how to do this after learning from Pat.

Payment will be required in advance to secure your spot. I will confirm this with those who are interested and each month it will be required that you pay in advance for the next month. This payment system was used last year and attributed to the year being so successful and a full class most months.

Please contact me directly asap if you would like to be placed on the roll. It is expected that each student will attend each month, but if you are unable to make all months, please let me know.

Kelly"