FARM YARNS
Summer 2010
Picture taken by one of our Young Farmers
Farm Manager Alex Walker Other the past three months we have started to see the fruits of labour of our Farmforce team. The Extension to the back of the stables has been completed and this now gives us extra under cover space for visitors when the weather changes. You now don’t have to make the quick dash all the way back to the Barn to find cover, it also provides cover for the Riding for the Disable program. The new lambing shed is nearly completed and will mean the stables will be able to be used throughout lambing season rather than being locked with the sheep. Dennis, Cameron and the work crew have done a great job on both these buildings. Besides coming down and checking out the new building’s also have a look at the Windmill. A genuine Southern Cross windmill from a farm in outback Dubbo, install by Richard and Dave from the there along help from our Farmforce crew. The next phase for the windmill will be to connect it to the tanks on the back of workshop and pump water out to the paddocks for the animals. Extension to the toilet block will start early December followed by work on a new reception area where the old workshop is. Since June this year the Farmforce program has employed 30 workers in thirteen week programs and these workers are support by seven full time and part time project workers. Spring has seen new lambs, kids, piglets and chicken all arrive and the look joy on the faces of our young visitors is great to see.
Farm moving forward… Along with the spring babies came the spring rains which this year have been great. Over spring we have had more rain then we have had in the past 12 months and this has help all our paddocks and they have great spring growth. With the spring rains we saw the Yarra break its banks on lower part of the stables paddock for the first time in nearly six years. The Annual meeting of the Committee of management saw minimal changes, Netta MacArther is President with Greg Spark as Vice President, Secretary is Helen Semmler with Cheryl Cameron as treasurer. Many thanks must go to the committee members that did not seek re-election Peter Yewers for his outstanding work as Secretary over the past for years and his work with Tractor Bob on Family Days. Also to Lindsay Round a garden plotter that bought another view of the farm to the table over the past two years. We all wish you both well and hope to see you around the farm. The (Yarra Council Representative) . We welcome new Committee Members in Lachlan Fitch and Mikyla Hart.
Young Farmer’s Program The Young Farmers have been chugging along enjoying life at the Farm as they always do. They have had a go at felting with Julia, and made quite a lot of lovely soft felt out of the wool of our English Leicester sheep, and, more bizarrely, out of the shed hair of the pony. This year quite a few kids helped out at the Royal Melbourne Show in the Chicken Pavilion for the first time. They were helping with the chicken cuddling pens, and of course did a great job as they have all had lots of experience helping here at the Farm with guinea pig cuddles. They all got a free pass and were able to have a look around the show as well. Budding photographers in the group have had the opportunity to take some photos and they have been entered in the Photography section at the Whittlesea Show. Good luck to those people. When the river was flooding, some of us walked up to Dights falls to have a look. It was like being at the surf! We also did some water testing with the water watch kit to see how the flood had changed the kinds of pollution that was in the river.
We found it was very stirred up and muddy, but surprisingly, not very dirty from dog poo washing down from the streets. We are going to test it again soon, so we can compare the results.
Farmer Andrew talks ... WASTE OT, WASTE LESS – PART 1 They are the most important three R’s that have been well and truly drilled into all of us – Reduce, Re-use and Recycle. Or should be! But when everyone visits and enjoys the Farm, do they wonder how this important mantra is given positive action here? What may immediately spring to mind might be the most obvious visual elements – our Worm farm (recycling food waste) and Composting Piles (recycling hay, food waste and manure). However, the Farm does generate a quantity of general rubbish - which undergoes a series of behind-the-scenes processes to actively reduce our environmental impact. Helping to ensure this happens are two important people – Sam and Gary (if you visit the Farm on a Monday you may well have seen them toiling away). Sam is a casual member of staff and Gary one of our valued long-term volunteers. Sam came to work at the Farm after a stint of unemployment brought him here on a Work for the Dole placement. And Sam has kindly agreed to answer a few questions about himself, the role he performs at the farm and how we manage our waste. Thanks Sam! Did you grow up on a farm? No, but both my parents did. How much rubbish does the Farm generate each week? Does any particular day or event generate the most? Between 12-20 rubbish bins (240 litre) each week. A busy Farmer’s Market Day would generate the most! How is it sorted and processed? What is recycled? Every bin that has rubbish in it is gone through and sorted. Any rubbish that cannot be recycled or reused goes to the council collection (e.g. plastic bags, old pens, old rope, worn shoes/boots, damaged electrical equipment). Any food waste goes to the Green Waste pile to make compost. We then have two bins for things that can be recycled – what goes into these are glass bottles, plastic, paper, some metals and milk bottles/cartons. These are taken by the council for recycling. The Farm has five bale bags for cardboard and paper that is collected by VISY for recycling into a variety of products – such as egg cartons. Does the Farm receive any external food waste? How is it recycled? We have a lady, Mandy, who works in an organic greengrocers and drops off their food waste (about 1014 rubbish bins (20 litre) each week – which gets put into the Green Waste pile for composting. What was the most interesting you’ve ever found in the rubbish? A New Zealand $10 note! What other tasks do you do at the Farm? What is your favourite one? Water the gardens, milk the cow, repair fences and gates, feed the animals, sometimes set and pack up the Farmer’s Market, yard duty and assist other staff. My favourite? Feeding the animals. Do you have a favourite (or favourites) animal/s on the Farm? ALL animals are my favourites. NEXT FARM YARNS – WE INTERVIEW GARY!
Work Experience and Volunteers Anita Stec First of all, a big thank you to all our wonderful volunteers and work experience students, we could never run this place without all of your hard work. We accept work experience students from all over Victoria. We have high school students that come on a regular basis all the way from Cobden in South West Victoria. Our university placement students this year have mainly had a vet, animal science, teaching or horticultural background. We try and provide a range of different activities for our students. Anything from helping visiting kids milk the cow, to feeding the animals hay, some construction work as well as some gardening. The sun and rain has provided perfect conditions for our gardens to grow. We have just started a new volunteer gardening group on Tuesday afternoons. We do all sorts of things from weeding, to harvesting fruit and veggies, also some planting, it all depends on the time of year of course. The great thing about weeding here is that it gives our volunteers a chance to feed some wild foods (the animals prefer that name rather than ‘weeds’) to any animals of their choice. Anything that cannot be fed out will be eventually made into compost. Every fourth Wednesday I have a lovely bunch of ladies from the Good Shepherd Youth and Family Services that come down for the afternoon. So far some of our little jobs have included: poo pick up in paddocks, preparing the stables for lambing season, pruning tag and then feeding it to the goats, harvesting citrus, weeding, milking the cow and then feeding the lambs and calf their bottle with the fresh milk. Our newest group of guys has come from Quinn House, and they are coming every Thursday afternoon to help out with a range of construction work, they are working with Nick. Their first project is to put up frames and nets over our fruit trees to help protect them from predation by birds and fruit bats. You can find more information about work experience and volunteering on our website under the link ‘get involved’.
Animals and Land Bridget Bainbridge The horses are back from their holidays and in full swing again, with their multifaceted jobs keeping them busy. We are hoping to welcome a new donkey to the Farm, his name is Mickie, and he is coming all the way from East Gippsland. We hope he likes his new city home, and his new lifestyle. The sheep were shorn on the November Family Day, and most are now sporting their summer clothes. There were four lambs shorn as well- these are the four ewe lambs chosen to join the flock and keep as breeders for the future. Additionally there is a Shropshire lamb who will be kept as well, but being a bit younger, she was a bit small to be shorn. (The main reason for shearing these lambs is simply so it is easy to identify which lambs are to be kept, an which lambs to be sold.) All the lambs however have been crutched (had the wool from around their bottoms shorn away), so that poo covered wool doesn’t attract flies and then fly strike. A good idea on a wet but warm humid year! Enormous thanks to our shearer and skirterBrian and Helen Harker and family, who come all the way down from Benalla each year to shear our sheep. Were looking forwards to our next batch of piglets- Moira is due from mid November, so we hope she has an easy time giving birth. Patsy the cow is producing heaps of milk at every milking, and is her usual easygoing, gentle self. Her son Pierre has however hit his teenage years, and is giving everyone he sees a run for his money. He does seem to be kept well in line however by the horses he is sharing the paddock with. He is currently looking for a new home.
Heather, our Ayreshire cow is currently enjoying her biannual holiday in Neerim, with Mike Perry and his family, where she is staying (for the second time) for the duration of her pregnancy. We hope to see her back here around Easter time, to have her calf and take over the milking job from Patsy, who can then go off to visit her bull.
The chicken sheds have had a huge makeover over winter, and are waiting for the first lot of newly hatched chicks to be installed in the new pens. Three new pens have been built to house the young growing chicks, so they can be housed with similarly sized chicks to prevent bullying. As well, a fantastic new shed for incubating eggs has been built. With power for heat lamps, running water and a sink, heaps of shelving and cleverly designed windows so that even the smallest kids can get a good view of the chicks as they grow, this shed is pretty palatial, and there have been many jokes about who is going to be the first to move in. These new sheds are going to make a huge impact on in reducing crowding, which will make their lives much more comfortable, especially when its really hot weather.
Currently the geese and ducks are sitting on eggs, and we are waiting for something to hatch. Waterfowl have different humidity requirements for their eggs from chickens, so it is not possible to put duck and chicken eggs in the same incubator. Medicine Shed and Animal Sick Bay Our new medicine shed is complete! It is no longer a small cabinet and some plastic boxes covered in possum piss! YAY!!!!! We now have a small shed with rodent proof, lockable cupboards, a fridge and a table top, as well as a small yard and (hopefully soon) a shelter, to put animals that need quiet, or require quarantining, away from other animals. Already this is having a big impact on how well we can look after our animals when they are unwell. Thank you!
Landcare We are so far ahead of our original plans in the riverbank revegetation project! Partly this is because of the long hours of hard slog put in weeding by the Farm force teams over the last 6 months, and partly it is because it has been such a terrific year for planting because of all the the rain. The plants we planted in winter are growing on really well. The river has flooded, which has in fact helped a lot of these plants as they have been waterlogged, which is what they quite like. In the last few years we have lost rushes and sedges as the river was so low they were not getting enough water. We are trailing growing some of our own seedlings for planting next season with reasonable success- there are now boxes of “scrappy looking weeds� (Microlena and Themeda) growing in the Nursery.
Garden News Toni Phillips All the flowers and the trees (and the birds and the bees) and the all the growing plants at the farm give a huge thank you to all the volunteers Jess, Mez, Aneka, Jacqui, Joy, Gary, Graeme, Josh, Jen, Aneka, Tom, Kuong Monica, Ann-Marie and all the school and farm program participants. All these great people put a lot of hard work and energy into the garden, weeding, carting it off to the appropriate animals or compost, propagating, planting, pruning, mulching and not forgetting watering. Thanks also to all the chickens, ducks, geese, pigs, goats sheep horses and cows for eating up all their greens i.e. wild-food i.e. weeds. The oak tree is growing some new leaves. After the extreme pruning in winter, we want to allow and encourage this popular neighbourhood icon to regenerate. Because it seems to be too tempting to pull the leaves off when you are up a tree, now we don’t want anyone to climb it. Early Summer In the veggie garden Time to plant nearly everything; root veggies beetroot, carrots, celeriac, potatoes, radish and swedes can all be directly planted into the garden or container. Leaves e.g. amaranth, celery, coriander, endive, parsley, lettuce, silver beet chives, spring onions, shallots and leeks can all be planted as, seedlings or directly, remember that lettuce and coriander bolt very quickly if they dry out, can be easier to maintain them in partly shaded areas and area that you access most easily. European brassicas (Brussels sprouts, cabbages Chinese cabbage) can all be planted out now in full sun, plant area that is not prime space as you won’t you need to access them for harvest for months. Asian Brassicas (mizuna, mibuna, mitsuba bok Choy, Choi sum) are great as salad greensand are harvested often and so very suitable for small gardens and containers. Veggies beans, capsicum, chilli, corn, cucumber, eggplant, pumpkin, squash, tomato, zucchini all require full sun. .
Wild Food Fennel Originates from the Middle East and spreading to India and Europe, seeds and shoots are known to be of use medicinally since Roman times, but suspected much earlier. Used for digestive and respiratory conditions and as an infusion for eye-washes for sties, infections and even believed to restore sight. Fennel is loved by goats, sheep and cows and is excellent for milk production but can alter the flavour. Powdered fennel seeds can be an effective flea repellent in dogs’ beds and nest boxes. As a vegetable if you want sweet crunchy bulbs then it is better to plant the cultivated varieties Finoccio or Florence Fennel, however wild variety is fine if you want leaves an seeds Fennel and Peppermint Tea excellent for hiccoughs, lung congestion, flatulence, wind and as a gripe water, 1 tsp fennel seeds 1 table spoon peppermint leaves 1 cup boiling water Fennel is mixed with honey for all types of respiratory conditions and without any sweetener for digestive complaints. Fennel has been long used as an apatite and sweet-craving suppressant and to help breakdown fat cells and aid dieting, either as a tea before meals or chewing a few seeds after meals. Creamed Fennel 4 stalks fennel 4 tablespoons fennel leaves 2 tablespoons butter 8 garlic chives or spring onions ½ cup yogurt Cook sliced fennel and chives in butter over a low heat for about 4 to 5 minutes, then stir in yogurt. Serve hot, great with pasta or potatoes, or allow to cool for salads. Have your next event at the Farm Weddings Celebrations Corporate Events A beautiful and memorable location
Our Goats Leonie Greiner Goats are smart, wonderful and lovely creatures that enjoy interacting with human visitors. The goats at the Collingwood Children’s Farm are trained from birth to believe that humans bring love in the shape of pats, massages and food. The five kids born this season are growing well and attracting lots of pats and cuddles from their human visitors. We will be keeping the two doe kids, Astra and Athena, as well as Aristotle, (the buck kid with spots) and selling the two buck kids, Aaron and Adam. Astra and Athena will be used in our breeding program, while Aristotle will be trained to pull a cart with Robert.
Our Groups
Bee Group is currently opening the hives twice a month, on the second and fourth Sunday of each month at 10.30-12 noon. They are selling honey to passes by from other hives operated by the group members. Honey from our own hives should be available soon at the Farmers Market and at Reception. Looking at the huge amount of clover coming up in the paddocks from all the rain, hopefully it will be a big year for honey production! As well as honey, the Bee Group have been busy fixing the shed roof, and organizing a new garden to be planted containing lots of the bees favourite plants. The Worm Farms are as productive as ever, carefully tended by Joy and Mon on a Tuesday morning, and with help from Gary and Jacquie during the week. The castings are being sieved almost weekly at the moment, and the worms are breeding madly. Rideability (Riding for the Disabled) is operating again throughout fourth term, on one day and two evenings every week. It is very pleasant riding in the evenings, now it’s day light saving. A number of riders are making great progress in their riding, as well as having a great time with other members of the group on a social level. We have only two secondary schools this term coming down in the afternoons to help out- Carnegie School and the local Sophia Mundi Steiner School. The Steiner School have been building fences in the pig yard and we hope these will soon be finished, so we can grow vegetables for both ourselves and the pigs to enjoy.
Supported Volunteer Program Julia Smallwood As I said in earlier Farm Yarns the volunteers in this program play a vital part in the farm’s day to day running and we really appreciate their commitment and enthusiasm. After our recent good rainfall and the warm spring days the weeds (sorry, chicken feed!) are taking up a lot of time for the volunteers. A group from Lynall Hall school are tackling the house garden whilst others are preparing beds in the late orchard for planting. The beds near the duck shed are to be a riot of flowers for the Tussie mussy ladies….well that’s the plan anyway! Have you ever bought a bag of feed for the goats and sheep? These are made up by Bobby from Alkira, Able Australia, Oakleigh Connections, two young ladies from Adult Options and the great crew from Interact based at the Convent. When things get busy anyone we can grab also makes up “just 2 cups” in a recyclable bag!! All the animals need fresh, clean water. Thanks to Bulleen School, Belinda, Matthew, Bobby (and whoever else needs a job) the baths are scrubbed and refilled regularly. The piazza chickens and ducks love to scratch in the compost bins near the duck sheds. The boys from Connections keep this area spic and span every Thursday. Our pigs have access to lots of mud and a relaxing wallow thanks to the boys from the College for the Deaf. The pristine pig pens are due to the excellent work of Steve, Trevor and Lindy from ONEMDA who come every Friday. Greta, Moira and Typhoon are less impressed when staff does the cleaning I am sure! Whenever we have a tree to remove we call on Paul from the Interact crew. Paul loves a challenge, and we have been able to keep him busy with often difficult jobs. His current project is removing the very large bamboo plant near the house. I fear it is a long time project but he is confident he can do it. We will keep you posted! You may not know that we have a weekly delivery of waste from an organic greengrocer. Greta the pig recognises the truck and gives a good impression of a starving pig to try to elicit food. I collect a wonderful array of food for pigs, goats, chickens and Guinea pigs for the young students from St Pauls in Kew to feed out to the animals. They have overcome many fears and enjoy this interaction with the animals. So add to this the work experience people from schools and TAFE, as well as many more individuals and you can see the program plays a big part in the farm. It is great that we can provide an environment where individuals can develop skills and feel supported and valued. Guinea Pig Update As always these gentle creatures are in high demand, especially during school holidays. Possum and Daisy even had a visit from their original owners! Thanks to Leonie all the guinea pigs are taking turns to spend two weeks resting and eating on her lawn at Croydon. Sadly we have lost 4 of the girls over the past year due to old age: Daisy, Bobo, Squidge and Spikey. Thanks go to all the volunteers who make sure they all have clean cages, fresh water, food and green treats .
Collingwood Children’s Farm PO Box 80 Abbotsford 3067 Farm phone: 9417 5806 Email: enquiry@farm.org.au Website: www.farm.org.au
Stamp
Address
Family Fun Days First Sunday of the month (no fun day in Jan)
Farmer’s Market held the second Saturday of every month for beautiful fresh, quality produce.
Also enjoy hay rides and pony rides, and other farm activities all for price of entry.
St Heliers Street Abbotsford Melway Ref 44G5 Open every day of the year
Entry: $16 Family $8 Adult $4 Child
Phone:
9417 5806
Email:
enquiry@farm.org.au
Web site:
www.farm.org.au