Second Saturday of TAFE course

It was a bit drizzly yesterday but we still got some practical work in on the middle Saturday of our TAFE introduction to fruit and nut tree growing in the Blue Mountains course, as the photo shows.

EcoFair North Katoomba Primary School

The EcoFair (aka Fooprint Festival) held on Saturday promoted sustainability initiatives throughout the mountains, such as the Alternative Technology Association, Climate Action, solar panel businesses, plant and seedling sources, Slow Food and our own BM Fruit and Nut Tree Network. We shared a stall with Slow Food Blue Mountains. That's Anne Elliot who runs our preserving fruits workshops seasonally in the photo of the stall.

TAFE course Day 1

Yesterday Susan Girard started the TAFE course introducing the basics on fruit and nut tree growing in the Blue Mountains. She took us on a tour of the Blue Mountains Organic Community Gardens where the course is being held. Then Sue talked a lot about the appropriate soil and local weather conditions, the geology of the Blue Mountains, testing the soils in a garden, creating soil suitable for healthy plants, aspects created by our movement around the sun throughout the seasons and precipitation.

Hazelbrook Food Forest

Given the wet weather only a few of us made it to the Hazelbrook food forest last Saturday morning but it was well worth it: evidence that a Blue Mountains block can be turned into an edible nursery by following permaculture principles. We had another recommendation that Daleys Nursery is a reliable source for fruit stock, and I notice good words from Katoomba and Springwood residents in their testimonials. Their stock includes bush food, about which we know too little. The local lillypilly is probably our most obvious indigenous fruit but I have native raspberries (shared through cuttings from others in our network). Please post a comment or email me with other experiences of indigenous fruit and nut plant growing in the mountains, as well as reliable suppliers.

Festival of Joy, 1 October

The Blue Mountains Organic Community Gardens held its annual gathering yesterday, which was pretty bad weather, as you can see by the sky in the shot of the hazelnut grove. But the apple and other fruit tree blossoms are out — see heritage apple walk pic. And the berries are producing beautiful green shoots, worth a visit to check out their trellis. If you can make it during the week, they are open every Friday morning for working bees on the garden.