Changing Seasons

This Update

• Camden News
• Seasonal Vegetables
• Surplus.

Camden Town Farm Community Garden

Image thanks to Troy Newman

The present weather conditons have been an absolute godsend to the community gardens, forget drugs in sport, if only these sports folk could harness the stuff going into our vegetables they wouldn't be in the strife they are. Zucchinis only look like they are on steroids, squash as pictued previous are the size of dinner plates and beans seem to be multiplying overnite. With this growth comes change though, we now find ourselves on the down hill run into winter, but with a huge growing season ahead of us, autumn will certainly be a time for growth, pumpkins starved of rain early are now growing overnight and putting some serious metres onto their vines, sweet potatoes are going just as well. The weather has also helped our herb garden immensely and the local produce markets have been a great source of funds for the garden with fresh herbs being sold at the last few markets, the rosemary has been hugely popular given that it produces great skewers for lamb about 20-30cm long, thanks to volunteers Hazel, Georgia, Steve and Charlotte that have been involved so far. The stall certainly couldnt be done without their help.

Camden Show hits town this week and the ovals are being filled with marquees all week, Camden Community Garden is working in with Macarthur Centre for Sustainable Living and a Kids interactive display so if you are visiting why not stop in and say hello. Thanks to the volunteers who have put up their hands so far. I also hear that Sunrise is broadcasting from there on wednesday morning, i suspect its the weather as in previous years.

Some more workshops are scheduled over the next month with 3 booked in so far, 5th of April, 17th and 19th April, all are for children 6-12, call 46455006 to book in, the next workshop for the big kids, (the rest of us) will be a permaculture workshop, with the date being currently organised. Stay Tuned.

On the build front, if you have visited lately some works are being finished off, the old barn is getting something off a refit, a new roof should be going on over coming weeks as well as an extension by way of a skillion off the airport side, this will also give us a great shelter and new venue to work under. The area around the raised beds is getting a similar treatment to the paths and will be accessible to wheechairs over coming weeks, the path down the hill is also being finished off as it stopped short, this will clean the area up considerably. We are also currently waiting on quotes to come in for the floor area around the 2 sheds and its also hoped some large compost bays should also be installed soon.

Seasonal Veggie time

Tomatoes are on their way out if not already gone and beans may only have another couple of months in them, if you dont have them in it may be almost too late, especially if we get an early frost at the farm. Speaking to Norman from The Big Spud at Robertson its time to get another crop of potatoes in, ideally we want about 100 - 120 days before the first frost to get them in the ground, if we miss this window then we will be waiting till mid/late september in order to get our chistmas spuds in. As beans and tomatoes come in its time to get broad beans in with peas, cabbages, broccoli and caulis, check out Gardenate.com for more great info, remembering we are borderline, cool mountain/temperate zone.

 

Surplus

If your like the majority of gardeners you have put a whole packet of beans in and now getting a bit tired of them, succession planting is the best way to go in that you have 3 or 4 plants going in every few weeks, but if not there are a myriad of ways to carry over that surplus season stuff, from pickling beetroot, to blanching beans, as far as peas go i have just podded them and frozen them fresh, chillis as long as they are little fellas freeze well also, doing this sort of thing helps take advantage of those excesses and helps you avoid paying the higher prices at the supermarket when the produce is out of season here and has to to shipped in from Kenya, South America or China, (beans, bananas, berries). If you are buying frozen veg, check its origin, and google food laundering, a very hot topic at the moment where by produce hits our shores via other markets. Check our links pages for some great resources and spread the word about our garden.

 

Enjoy.