Eudlo Organic Food Collective

Transition Town Eudlo's Food Collective is working on a variety of projects to help localise our food production, supply and distribution.

Projects include: the Eudlo Organic Food Co-op, supporting local produce, supporting our local markets, permablitzes, our seed saver group, EGG (Eudlo Growers Group) and the start of a Community Harvest Project. Live local, eat local.

Our Food Co-op is a major project and this year it's set to really ramp up its activities.

You can find out more about the Eudlo Food Co-op and all our Transition Town activities at the Eudlo Autumn Leaves Market on Sunday March 28 at the Town Hall from 7am-noon.



cheers,
Sonya Wallace
Transition Town Eudlo
Coordinator

Community meeting Jan 11, 2010

As mentioned in a previous post, there was a get together of locals last night to discuss a few ideas for Eudlo and how we might get them started and out into the community.

There are a number of things happening in Eudlo already and we looked at how we might start linking them together and create opportunities for people to meet.

We already have;
A Town Hall association and the lovely Town Hall itself
Transition Town Eudlo
The Tennis Club
The Old Mill Site
Recreational grounds (skate park and play equipment)
The Eudlo Markets
The Rural Fire Service
Local shops - the General Store, hairdresser, beautician and Sweetheart's Cafe
Local Primary School and it's P&C
The Post Office
The Pony Club
The Bike Club
Numberous B&Bs and lots of other home businesses
and Chenrezig Buddhist Institute

We talked about how we might start contributing to Council's Town Planning process, how we could create a Vision and Plan for Eudlo, and ways we could share information and communicate better with each other.

Most importantly, we also talked about how we could retain the character and heritage of Eudlo, the things we love most about it, the reasons we moved here in the first place.

So outcomes were;
looking at how we can create a 'get to know your neighbours' area at the next markets
Setting up a facebook page for Eudlo Village so people can stay up to date with what's happening
and setting up a follow up meeting

For Transition Town Eudlo it's the start of the Energy Descent Action Planning process and we also identified some opportunities for how we might get the Eudlo Food Co-operative up and running.

We'll also hopefully have a talking tent at next markets in March and we might look at having family film nights in the Town Hall too.

And the idea of Eudlo being Carbon Neutral by 2020 was floated too...

Cheers,
Sonya Wallace
Transition Town Eudlo
Coordinator

Eudlo Food Co-operative

Following the overwhelming interest in creating a community food co-operative we've been busily working behind the scenes to make it happen.

In June we will hold a get together and invite all the people who have already expressed interest - and anyone else who is interested to come along.

We'll kick start the ordering and explain how it will all work. We'll start with non-perishables, dried and canned goods, all organic and as local as possible.



Keep an eye on this blog for details of exactly when and where the Eudlo Food Co-op event will be.



Also, mark Sunday June 14 in your diary. That's the date of the Eudlo Winter Market - again at the Town Hall. We'll be there with fresh produce, plants, food, lots of information about what's happening and all things Transition Town.



Cheers,
Sonya
Transition Town Eudlo
Coordinator

Creating a culture of local food

The recent Eat Local Forum at Palmwoods attracted 150 people - a lot of people for a small town and considering the event didn't receive a lot of publicity.

It does show a shift in people's thinking though. For whatever reason, whether its cost, quality, environment, health or ethics, there seems to be a distinct shift toward local food.

Local, organic, in-season food. The renaissance of a local food culture.

So how do you go about creating a local food culture?

Plenty of people around Australia are doing it already - food box systems, community supported agriculture, school gardens, community gardens, permablitzes, farm gate sales... supporting local growers and importantly local food distribution points - including restaurants that support local organic growers.



I found a really interesting and inspiring site from Victoria the other day - the Community Harvest Project -

The Community Harvest Project exists to:
Help individuals and groups to grow or access healthy, sustainable, affordable, locally produced food.
Connect individuals and groups to share skills, knowledge, resources, and create a vibrant, cooperative and resilient community.
Help your community deal with climate change, peak oil and the rising cost of living.

Sounds like a great foundation for a Transition Town food sub-group.

It provides a framework for small scale growers to sell their surplus. For many of us, particularly here in Eudlo where we mostly have acreage, going full time into commercial food production is out of the question, but having a viable outlet to sell our chemical free, high-quality surplus is really appealing.



The Transition Town Eudlo Food Group has decided to start out with dried organic goods to kick off our Eudlo Food Co-operative. We chose dried goods because we have access to them at wholesale prices and because they don't need refrigeration. We also chose dried food as a lot of us already grow most of our fresh food, so there isn't a need for that.

Once we have the dried goods part of the co-op working well, we'll branch out into honey, tahini, tamari, oils... and then ultimately fresh produce: salad greens, vegetables, herbs, sub tropical perennials etc. We may even develop a market for preserves: jams, stewed fruit...



So far, we've had more than 30 - yes, 30! families in the Eudlo and Ilkley area sign up to be involved in the co-op. Another 30+ families in neighbouring towns also want to be part of it.

Sixty families in total to start our co-operative. That's fantastic and very heartening. It did come as a surprise for us, so we're going to rethink how we do this so it is successful, innovative, ethical and economically viable.

It's not to late to join in either, if you live in Eudlo, Ilkley, Palmwoods, Mooloolah or Woombye, get in contact - leave a comment here and you can be part of this exciting adventure!



[Some of these images were sourced from US websites]

Meeting this week

[Above: a display of the types of foods we'll be ordering through our food co-op]

This Sunday is our regular meeting for Transition Town Eudlo. Hopefully it won't be too rained out - we've had some localised flooding overnight and yesterday.

We meet at Sweetheart's Cafe in Eudlo at 8.30am for a coffee, a catch up and a chat. You're welcome to come along if you are interested in Transition Towns.

We'll also be able to talk about the very successful Local Food Forum we had last weekend at Palmwoods. I've attached some photos here.

[A photo of the crowd, about 140 people turned up, and a photo of some sweet potato plants we have for sale]





Our Sunday morning meetings are very social, often with new people turning up wanting to know about the group or Transition Towns in general.

Some people also come to our meetings because they are thinking about moving to Eudlo and want to get a feel for the town.

There aren't many community groups you can turn up to and find out such things, so that's yet another need that TTs fill.

[Below: a photo of the mind map I put together on local food solutions]