Putting the Community back into Community Supported Agriculture!
Come on down to our film-night fundraiser:
Sunday May 27, 6-8pm, at the Yarraville Yoga Centre, level 1, 36 Ballarat Street Yarraville
Click on the image to enlarge, or at least to get a printable version to show your friends. Hope to see you there!
We featured in an article in The Age about local hero Nick Ray’s new website Local Harvest:
‘In Melton, 40 kilometres west of Melbourne, Carey Priest has taken a lease on a small farm. He’s starting slowly, beginning with a modest market garden and 100 free-range chooks that peck their way around the old olive and almond groves on the property.
Each week, Mr Priest supplies about 35 dozen eggs to several food co-operatives in the city’s inner west.
”Many of my customers have visited and seen the chickens and the conditions where their eggs come from,” he says. ”We run regular open days – it’s as transparent as it can possibly get.”
His farm is one of the initiatives listed on a new food website, Local Harvest, created by the Ethical Consumer Group.
Read the rest of the article here: http://m.smh.com.au/domain/green/taking-the-mileage-out-of-our-meals-20120324-1vqv2.html
And check out the fantastic Local Harvest website here: 
Pictured below is the first harvest, today, right then and there, of our much anticipated old school, heirloom maize variety “Kanga-maa”. Said to be one of the few strains remaining not yet contaminated by the rampant and unscrupulous spread of Genetically Modified Organisms (don’t blame the microbes, it’s not their fault). Whilst not every cob will be as full and lush as this one – and isn’t it a beauty! – we hope to now have enough seed, proven under local conditions, to grow a serious crop next season. Sown late October 2011, on the birthday of the most awesome Amanda, who grew the first batch in a tiny Yarraville plot!
We need the little white silica packs you may have lying around from supplement and or pharmaceutical pill packets; pills, nori sheets, biscuits, all manner of perishable items come packed with these moisture absorbing packs. They are non toxic, and can be safely dried, and used again and again. We need them for our seed storage, to keep moisture down. Please let us know if you can help!
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It took awhile to realise that our broody Isa Brown really meant business, so full credit to her for seeing it through, even after being removed from the nest for weeks at first, she’s done it! The only names I’ve had for her are completely wrong (..Ben; broody hen, and now.. Men; mother hen), so help us out with a name!
Who said Isa Browns were bad mothers..
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After working away through Christmas & New Year, the Mobile Chook Palace is built, and the hens have entered the building! Using portable electric net to keep predators out and chooks in, we move The Palace every other day, so there’s always fresh green pick and bugs for the hens to chow down. This also breaks the link in the poop-pathogen-cycle, deposits natural fertilizer at balanced concentrations, stimulating the pasture to bounce back, developing full roots and shoots (and bugs) in the lengthy recovery period, before the ladies arrive again. Crusing through the orchard takes advantage of fallen fruit, or in the paddock, fly larvae (protein!) in the cow poops. Hats off to the Salatins and other pioneering flock folk worldwide for redefining farm diversity and ecological productivity as we know it in the western world. I feel this is the beginning of a long learning curve..
See a few happy snaps and or slideshow below!
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From our current flock of 37 hens, we supply the weekly eggs needs of more than 20 families, and we keep getting asked for more, so there was only one thing for it… more chooks!
We’ve finally taken a deep breath, and ordered a whole lot of chickens, 100 of them, coming December 28..
This is our first major CSA offering, and a great example of the reciprocal nature of community ventures. If we all pitch in a small amount, the total purchase price comes within reach, and no-one goes into debt.
Here’s the deal:
In order to offer more eggs (and turn more of our grass and bugs into food), as soon as possible, we elected to buy Point Of Lay (POL) hens, meaning the hens are 15-16 weeks of age, and are about to start laying. If you help us buy the chooks, we’ll give you free eggs!
We negotiated the best price we could, and secured a modest discount from $20/bird down to $16/bird, but this still adds up.
Depending on your eggs needs and or level of enthusiasm, we hope you will find an option that is right for you. Assuming, below, that an average member buys one dozen (at $5) eggs per week:
➔ 2 hens, $32, and 6 weeks of ‘free’ eggs
➔ 3 hens, $48, and 9.5 weeks free eggs
➔ 4 hens, $64, and 13 weeks free eggs
➔ 5 hens, $80, and 16 weeks free eggs!
The free egg time period can be adjusted up or down to match your egg requirements, holidays etc.
Most CSA models ask for advance payment on goods, to get up and running. And so do we, on the basis that we will do our very best to care for, nurture, and protect our fine feathered friends. And whilst there is an end to the ‘free’ egg pay-back period, the interest on the loan continues as eggs you can’t get anywhere else – except possibly your own backyard.
The Hens
Abundant Layers in Emerald have been highly recommended, and the new management team seem great. The hens are all fully-beaked (and proud) Isa Browns; all rusty-orange browns and reds with white faintly patterned in.
This breed of chicken is known for its high egg laying capacity, and battery-cage exploitation. In contrast, we work hard to give them the best life possible: excellent nutrition, access to dust (dust bathing is essential chicken behaviour), regular, fresh and novel environments (move the chook pen often), low stress handling, and housing royale. Isa Browns are also good natured chooks, inquisitive and affectionate, given the chance.
We plan to incorporate more breeds of chicken, and on-farm rearing, after this first stage is established.
Getting Eggs To You
All our eggs are currently sold through the Organic Food Co-operatives operating in Melbourne’s West, and it makes sense to keep our delivery run centred around this area. We do also travel to the Brunswick area, but would need a minimum order to make deliveries feasible.
We presently make a single weekly delivery to the front porch of WOC’s Footscray member’s Nick & Janet.
People then collect their eggs as it suits them, with payment and ordering happening online, or the good ‘ol honesty box system.
Ideally for us, we’d make a few deliveries all on the same day, either to a front porch, or the sorters house for a groups’ weekly fruit & veg box packing. We’ll need to work with the various groups to organise what works best for everyone – but the eggs are coming soon, so let us know what works for you.
Sign Me Up!
Yes please, put me down for the following number of Chicken Shares (circle one option):
➔ 2 hens, $32, and 6 weeks of ‘free’ eggs
➔ 3 hens, $48, and 9.. weeks free eggs
➔ 4 hens, $64, and 13 weeks free eggs
➔ 5 hens, $80, and 16 weeks free eggs!
➔ Or more, if you’re super keen, but let’s talk first
Thanks for contributing to the edible revolution! We’ll be in touch soon to confirm you’re order.
All the best,
Carey, Nick, Ellen, and Dan
For more information contact Carey on 9746 7031 or email careypriest@yahoo.com.au Or see the websites www.meltoncsa.org or http://www.organicfoodcoop.org.au/farm/
Hello peri-urban farming friends!
Supercharge your diaries for a special event at 40k(m) farm! We’re overdue to rock the front paddock with summer vegetables like tomatoes, eggplants, herbs and beans.
And we’re very lucky to have special guest Kirsten Larsen to report back after her extensive visitation of CSA‘s in North America recently. A great opportunity to learn more about Community Supported Agriculture, and the various models employed overseas. Naturally we’ll be discussing how that applies to both you, and us.
We’re also toasting summer rains, our wonderful supporters (you), the ever amazing basalt plains, and our two new moo cows, Bobby and Stella!
40k Farm Planting and Christmas Party
Sunday December 18
10.30am – 4pm
178 Highett Road, Melton
Ph 9746 7031
So whether you’re up for some relaxing farm time, learning more about CSA’s, or putting some veggies in the ground, we do hope you’ll come along; there’ll be plenty happening on the day. BYO hat/gumboots as suiting weather on the day. A small contribution to a shared lunch also most welcome, but not obligatory.
But don’t fret if you can’t make it – we’re now opening the farm every Sunday, and inviting our members to come any (or every!) Sunday that suits them. Open to prospective members too. We’ll try and keep the website updated so you can see what’s on, week by week.
This way, something will always be happening, that will happen faster with your help. And if you ever feel like a trip to the farm, now you can, without waiting for open days, exclusive visits from The Queen, and the like.
For directions to the farm check out the “Where are we?” page.
Hope to see you there!
Carey, Nick, Ellen and Dan.
We’re very lucky to have what may be one of the few remaining maize varieties free from contamination with Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO).
Plus it makes the most sublime and delicious polenta (corn flour) for both sweet and savoury dishes – or enjoyed straight from the cob ala sweet corn.
Pictured is our small trial crop to test direct sown viability, with a larger ‘main crop’ being prepared, and we hope to invite you along to plant it soon!
Wow, what a lovely, action packed, and inspiring three hour session that was!
THANK YOU to all our selfless volunteers who did everything, literally! From feeding us to cleaning to building, seeding, scribing, and posting signs. All that and more which made the day possible, and enjoyable for all.
And of course thanks EVERYONE for coming along – friends old and new; a privelage to show you around the farm, to hear what excites you about the project, your ideas and experiences you’ve had elsewhere. Great to see people of all ages, and of course little ones scooting about all over the place.
The Egg & Spoon race was a personal highlight with some very close racing, some tear-filled disappointment, and even some controversy – was it pure skill that Ellen won two heats and a final, or did she have an unfair advantage.. a magic spoon perhaps!?
Photos welcome to careypriest@yahoo.com.au and we’ll get a photo gallery up and running.
Stay tuned for near-future events at Melton CSA, and thanks for being part of it.
It’s on for young and old, so come on down to the farm!
11am-2pm Sunday October 16.
178 Highett Rd, Melton. See our ‘where are you?’ page, here.
Events for the day include but are not limited to: farm tours, kite flying, egg & spoon race, farm name competition, market garden layout, planting corn and trees, bird watching, ping-pong, badminton, klop. What’s klop?
We invite experienced or budding growers of food, carers of animals, or leaders of groups to see the farm and get inspired to take something on; grow tomatoes for the co-ops, run courses in bio-intensive land rejuvenation.. or basket weaving, bring groups for bird watching, food recycling, ‘r n r’, or just being outside.
Enjoy the beauty of the following invitation, and see you there!
