Collingwood Childrens Farm Spring Newsletter
description
Transcript of Collingwood Childrens Farm Spring Newsletter
Spring 2010
farm yarns
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Farm Manager Alex Walker
Have your next event at the Farm
Weddings
Celebrations
Corporate Events
A beautiful and memorable
location
Winter has seen many different things happen across the Farm, from Family day’s to Farmers Market
to bonfire to School Holiday Programs and the start of the Farmforce program. The School Holiday
Program was once again full booked out and all the kids in the program had a great time. Bridget did
a great job of organizing the chores for the kids to do with staff while Brodie and Liz were once again
outstanding with all the horse riding program.
The public crowds during the School Holidays varied as much as the weather and our largest crowd
was on Naidoc Day put on by Aboriginal Housing Victoria and the City of Yarra. The July Family
Day was very busy with the Australian Rat Fanciers Society Inc while once again the Walers help us
celebrate Horses Birthday at the August Family Day.
On the Monday after the Bonfire we cleared the mound and seeded it which has ensured we have
grass growing back on it now and hopefully it will continue to grow thus
cutting out a dust problem we can sometimes encounter. Thank You to
all attended the Bonfire but because of the crowd size we will have to
limit ticket sales next year with Members having first chance to buy them
so watch for the upcoming Newsletters with information of when tickets
go on sale.
The Farmforce program has so far employed twenty three workers and
they have been finishing off around the shed , install tanks to collect wa-
ter, building new chicken pens, starting on the stables extension as well as
anew Lambing Shed, fencing projects around the farm and some landcare
work along the banks of the Yarra. They have all fitted well into the farm and look forward to help
improving it.
Of cause with Spring comes our new Babies come on down and enjoy the sight of Spring Lambs
bounce around the paddock, goats and their kids strolling around while the piglets are up to all sorts
of Mischief.
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Young Farmer’s Program Brodie Harrison
The Young Farmer’s Program has been super busy even over the winter months. Horse riding continued
until the end of term 2 with the Saturday group having a bit of a games day to finish off the term and
wish the horses a happy holiday! Most of the horses have now gone on holidays with Charlie Benson,
Shannon, Stumpy Joe, Zac and April spending their time in Christmas Hills together. Hopefully they all
have fun and don’t get up to too much mischief! Annie and Maggie have now both gone to new retire-
ment homes near Daylesford so let’s hope they enjoy their life of leisure. Boss has also returned to Ride
ability where he will be semi-retired and all 3 of them will be missed by all of the young farmers.
With the horses gone we have been keeping busy and warm working hard on the farm. As always pad-
docks have needed cleaning, animals fed and water troughs scrubbed. We have also been cooking, with
a fantastic stinging nettle and potato soup by Susan and a group of the kids being one of the favorites.
We had fun making a two layered carrot cake with molasses, oats and apples for the horse’s birthday and
that went down a treat.
We have been practicing leading the goats ready for the goat show on Family Day in October. Walking a
group of young goats in a circle in a paddock then standing them up evenly is much harder to achieve
than it may sound. However it has been fun and given all of the Young Farmers and good laugh. Fingers
crossed that we will be a little better prepared when showing time comes around this year.
Last week Pierre the calf got lead down to the stables and tied up for the first time and he was perfect for
us to brush and give a little bit of attention. This is good practice for when two new heifers (girl cows
that have not had a calf yet) come for a visit at the farm in the next month. Warialda Belted Galloways
have kindly agreed to lend us Sally and Dora for the Young Farmers to learn how to handle, look after
and show beef cattle. We are all very excited about this!
Hopefully until the next Farm Yarns we can keep just as busy and with another trip to Sutton Grange
Organic Goat Farm (where Holy Goat cheese is made) planned for spring, and maybe even a trip to one
of the agricultural shows, it should be. We are all looking forward to spring babies and for the horses to
come back from holidays (we miss them already).
So till then, Happy Farming from all of the Young Farmers.
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Horticulturalist Toni Phillips
Rain, Prune and Re-invigorate! The rains came and it was wonderful, Let us hope that this will continue and the trees can be revitalized and the gardens be the most productive they have been for a few years. Volunteers, staff, and students have all been very busy pruning most of the farms fruit trees. Some of the trees, most obviously the Fig tree at the farm gate, have been radically pruned to give it the most chance of reinvigoration. The new tool shed is big and spacious, and wonderful but not yet as attractive as it could be, that is un-til the new plantings have time to grow. Plants here are drought tolerant, and highly valued for the Tussie Mussies.
Spring Planting Now we are having some sunny days we just want to start planting summer vegetables and flowers. However, nights are still quite cold and expect change, we can have sudden cold, even frost quite late, that will damage if not set back many summer veggies. Plants such as eggplant, cucumber, melons, corn, okra etc require warm temperatures and long sunlight periods to adequately produce, so provide protection by position -sheltered and north facing, or use pots, sculpture, plastic, cloth, glass sheeting, but remember to remove it during the day. Or just wait until the soil has warmed to around 20
0 will pro-
duce vigorous plants that quickly surpass those that were planted earlier. Cultivated soil will warm up much quicker than soil that is dense or covered with mulch. Mulch is great to reduce evaporation when it the weather is hot, to prevent weeds especially around trees, and protect frost tender plants at night.
Time to plant Now is a good time to plant early potatoes. Onion seedlings can be transplanted
now, also continue planting Kale and Asian members of the cabbage family like Wong Bok and Bok Choi, Peas, Salad greens and Lettuce. Seed direct into the garden Beans, Beetroot, coriander, carrot, lettuce, marrow, parsnip, pea, radish. Cucumber, melon, pumpkin, sweet-corn, zucchini and all those with large seeds, are best planted straight into the ground (after frost) or in pots. Sow seed in containers Asparagus, Broccoli, Cabbage, Capsicum, Celery, Chives, Chili, Dill, Egg-plant, Parsley, Tomatoes. Grow on seedlings of tomato, eggplant, squashes, basil, celery, okra etc until large enough to survive if half eaten. When planting out consider covering with the cut off soft drink bottle or make a little fence out of 2L milk containers with both ends cut off, to offer some protection from slugs and snails as well as insulation.
Wild food Chickweed not just for Chicks! Chickweed (Stellaria me-
dia) - Is a common weed of veggie gardens all around the world and a sign that the soil is fertile containing potassium, Ascorbic-acid, Beta-carotene, Calcium, Magnesium, Niacin, Potassium, Riboflavin, Rutin, Se-lenium, Thiamin, and Zinc. Chickweed is an accumulator of copper in the soil making it available to other plants and extremely valuable in the com-post.
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NMIT horticulture students about to revitalize the orchard trees
As you may guess it is loved by chickens and caged birds. It has long been used as a bird feed, and in winter provides one of the few sources of fresh seed for them. It is also enjoyed by pigs, cows and horses, sheep and goats also enjoy it though it is necessary to limit their intake as chickweed is so rich it can lead to scouring if they eat too much. Chickweed is also the original ingredient for Chick- a-Leeky a soup similar to spinach, not chicken as many people assume. Chickweed is edible and nutritious, and is used as spinach either in cooking or raw as in salads or in juice. Chickweed is very high in Protein and minerals. It is very high in Vitamin C and is excellent for helping to dissolve fats in the body It is one of the 7 ingredients of the symbolic dish consumed in the Japanese spring-time festival. Traditionally as a tea or other topical application, Chickweed has been used for skin complaints since skin started complaining, it is very effective for itches, eczema, rashes especially Nappy Rash and chapped skin. Used as a poultice it is wonderful for extreme rashes and sores and a great scrub for acne. Taken internally as a tea or food it is excellent for weight reduction, particularly for discouraging fat retention.
Side Effects and Safety-Side effects may include contact dermatitis after skin contact with the herb. People with allergies to the daisy plant family may also react to chickweed. Chickweed should not be used internally as medicine by pregnant or nursing women or young chil-dren.
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Land Management Bridget Bainbridge
Everyone has their babies in the Spring, including the people! We welcome the
Charlottes: Congratulations to Julia, who is the proud first time grandmother of
Charlotte; to Tom and Pip from the cafe on the birth of another Charlotte, sister
for Minnie; and to Nick and Catherine, who had a baby boy, Charlie, a sibling
for Jonah. Welcome to the babies!
The animals are a little way behind in the birth stakes this year- the first of the
sheep are due from next week, followed by the goats. The pigs are also due,
Greta is due from the first of August (were nor sure exactly when..)
Heather the cow is still down in Gippsland with her bull friend, and will remain
there until she is about 1 month off calving. Patsy meanwhile is producing milk
by the bucketful which is feeding her calf, Pierre, and the chooks.
The chook incubation will begin in late august, this year in our new incubation
shed (which will be completed shortly) complete with water, electricity, insula-
tion and skylights!! Once incubated, they will be moved to another new pen, di-
vided into 3, which will house the young chicks to pullet stage. These buildings
will improve the ease the congestion in some of our grower pens of late, ena-
bling us to produce better quality, healthier happier hens more easily.
The horses are going on holidays up to the Horse Resort in Christmas Hills (a
yummy 10 acre paddock with a big dam!). Brandy and Ted are staying to hold
the fort and do pony rides for birthday parties, Boss has finished his stint with us
and returned to the RDA in Officer-thank you Boss and RDA for your help. An-
nie and Maggie are retiring (again) to go to separate homes in the Daylesford
area, where they will still see each other occasionally.
Landcare There is heaps of weeding activity along the riverbank thanks
to Dennis and the Taskforce team. They are slowly clearing a HUGE moun-
tain of Tradescantia that has been growing along the riverbank for some
time.
Additionally we have had the Citipower planting day, where we have
planted about 400 plants in 2 hours.
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THANKS
TO ALL
VOLUNTEERS
Come and be a
Farmer for a Day School Holiday Program
Tend and feed the animals, learn grooming, saddling and horsemanship, milk the cows,
round up the chooks and generally help run the farm
Every Monday, Tuesday & Wednesday
of the school holidays. Cost—$60 per day. Ages of 8 and 16.
To enrol : trybooking.com
The Young Farmers Program is bubbling away. Despite the horses going on
holiday for the term (how WILL they cope??!) there’s lots of things to do.
Cooking, gardening, helping out with setting up for events, and even picking
up poo somehow ends up being fun when the young farmers are around.
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Community garden news Toni Phillips
The Community Gardens Plots are a hive of activity and still the most popular plots in Melbourne.
Hard -working Plotters help to make the plots enjoyable and interesting for all Farm visitors. This happy bunch have just completed their obligation of attending working bees or assisting the Pan-cake or Farm stall at the Farmers Market or Family Day.
Working Bees at the plots is fun and a great use of energy for everyone.
Our Mission Statement
The Collingwood Children's Farm is a fun and inspiring country experience for city folk
As described in the last few editions of Farm Yarns, the first half of 2010 saw the committee of manage-
ment focused on developing a ‘plan for the future’ to establish and embed good governance, work prac-
tices and programs that would support the ongoing sustainability of the farm.
The process, supported by the Myer foundation, aimed to be inclusive of our broad farm community.
Workshops were conducted with farm staff and the Committee, we conducted our first member and visi-
tor survey and we kept our community members updated with regular communications. Many topics were discussed and debated – growth, values, education, accountability, community, inclu-
sion. These sessions culminated in the development of our mission statement (above) and a series of
statements which will guide staff and committee decision making over the next three years.
We: -embrace social justice and inclusion
-manage our resources for now and the future
-deliver enriching, educational experiences and activities for children
-continue to be a rustic, community, working Farm
-operate effectively with a welcoming and skilled team of staff and volunteers
-govern responsibly and accountably
The process also resulted in the development of a detailed plan of initiatives for the next three years cov-
ering various areas of the farm from visitor program and experience design to building the farm commu-
nity.
The Committee and staff will now set to work on implementing the plan to provide a fun and inspiring
experience for city folk.
Agi Luczak, Netta McArthur, Helen Semmler, Alex Walker, Pip Hay, Julia Smallwood
Working Bees at the plots is fun and a great use of energy for everyone.
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Planning for a sustainable future
Planning sub-committee
Would you like to be part of the Committee of management for a community fo-
cused not for profit organisation?
The Collingwood Children's farm Committee of Management provides strategic direction and oversees
the organisation. We are looking to grow the diversity and strength of our team and seek highly commit-
ted and passionate candidates who have some or any of the following skills:
- Finance
- Animal management / husbandry or veterinary
- Land care
Please contact Farm Manager Alex Walker on 9417 5806 for more information on how to be involved.
During the July school holidays I was fortunate enough to spend 3 days and nights at the Melbourne
Show Grounds on a camp organized through the Royal Agricultural Society and Stud Beef Victoria. The
camp is run for kids aged 8 up to adults to learn how to handle and show stud beef cattle and is a very
hands on few days. The camp started on Tuesday evening with all the campers and cows arriving and
everything being sorted out. Over half of the campers were using animals supplied though the camp so
deciding who was getting each cow took time.
I was fortunate enough to have Dora the Explorer, a Belted Galloway heifer kindly provided by Wari-
alda Belted Galloways, one of our stall holders at the Farmer’s Market. We had to put wood shavings
down in their tie up area, give them water, hay and hard feeds. We then set up our bedding in one of the
big sheds. I was very, very glad that I had a swag, down sleeping bag and a doona as it was freezing!
The following day we made rope halters and leads, learned how to tie up correctly, a seminar on cattle
nutrition and feeding then preparing your cow for show. Now this is much more involved than it sounds.
First there is the shampooing, scrubbing and conditioning before the brushing and blow drying. That’s
correct, blow drying! They have big industrial strength blow-dryers and the cows just happily stand
there being dried and brushed to perfection. As Dora has quite long hair this took me an hour and a half
and I was very thankful that I didn’t have the highland cow the girl next to me was drying as she was
there for nearly 3 hours.
With Dora looking sparkling clean it was time to practice leading, so with cow halter on, nose clip in
and with my cattle cane in hand I was ready to go. Dora is a fairly quiet cow and that provided a good
stepping stone for me in all the ins and outs of cow handling and showing. I found out that cows are not
has happy to lead as horses and when they decide to stop or go check out the grass over the other side of
the path it is much harder to tell them that you are the boss. Also getting them to stand up square, so you
are showing them off to their best for the judge is another acquired skill.
The following day we did more practice with the camp concluding in a handlers show on the last morn-
ing. Overall the week was a fantastic experience that we are hoping next year that some of the Young
Farmers will come as well. All of the kids on camp had an absolute blast and it would be great to see
some of our kids being involved in the future.
Allen and Lizette from Warialda Belted Galloways are kindly lending the farm Dora and her mate Sally
in the next month, so the Young Farmers can start to get an idea about the cow handling and this show-
ing business. So watch out cattle showing world, here come Collingwood Children’s Farm!
Royal Agricultural Society Cattle
Handlers Camp-
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St Heliers Street Abbotsford
Melway Ref 44G5
Open every day of the year
Entry: $16 Family
$8 Adult
$4 Child
Phone: 9417 5806
Email: [email protected]
Web site: www.farm.org.au
Collingwood Children’s Farm
PO Box 80
Abbotsford 3067
Farm phone: 9417 5806
Email: [email protected]
Website: www.farm.org.au
Address sticker goes here
Stamp goes here
Also enjoy hay rides and
pony rides, and other farm
activities all for price of
entry.
Family
Fun Days Sept 5th
Oct 3rd
Nov 7th
Dec 5th
Farmer’s Market
held the second Saturday of every month for beauti-ful fresh, quality produce.