Northey Street City Farm permaculture courses begin Feb 18

Discussion in 'Jobs, projects, courses, training, WWOOFing, volun' started by andihazelwood, Feb 7, 2006.

  1. andihazelwood

    andihazelwood Junior Member

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    https://www.northeystreetcityfarm.org.au ... _workshops

    I'm very excited about these courses and will be taking as many of them as I can. Unfortunately I'll be out of town for the first few, and come April we'll be moving to our property in Biggenden, so "as many as I can" may not be much! But with any luck it will give us a good bit of knowledge for getting started.

    Has anyone taken courses at Northey Street before? Any opinions or thoughts? Thanks in advance!
     
  2. britishwhitesrock

    britishwhitesrock Junior Member

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    Northy street is really good you'll learn lots there. It's a really nice atmosphere, nice people. They even have a composting toliet!
     
  3. Zephyr

    Zephyr Guest

    I've got a friend doing a course there and understand people are put on a roster to cook for the entire class each week. He's just gotten the shock of his life and is contemplating how he's going to put on lunch to feed 20 people.

    20 people! Eeek!
     
  4. barely run

    barely run Junior Member

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    Did the garden tour at Northey St yesterday. There is plenty to see and take ideas from...they are very low on volunteers at present so would welcome input from any brisbanites.
    Hope to do a one day course with them while I'm here
    Cathy
     
  5. andihazelwood

    andihazelwood Junior Member

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    Okay, that one scares me a bit.... yikes! Can't imagine how the person who gets chosen to cook learns anything- I guess I'll give them a call and see what's the go. barely run, thanks for the input. We're going to be crazy busy over the next couple months working on and moving to our property, but we're definitely going to get in to the Saturday classes that we're in town for.
     
  6. Richard on Maui

    Richard on Maui Junior Member

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    Well, really cooking for twenty people is just like cooking for 2 or 4 people, except you do 5 or 10 times as much... and really, Permaculture is as much about preparing food as anything so it is all a part of the learning experience.
     
  7. Mozzie

    Mozzie Junior Member

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    Hi there.

    While I'm not new to land farming methods, I'm new to the permaculture world so I have been hovering around reading but not commenting because...well, I haven't got much to say. And I haven't got much to say because I don't know much about anything. Yet. :twisted:

    However, this is changing. And this is something I do know about and so I comment accordingly.

    Firstly, is that the meal is made by students only participating in the PDC, not the people who are attending the workshops or the odd full day as plenty have been as the workshops do not include lunch. They're a separate thing from the PDC. This process is part of the course requirement and the roster was decided in the first week. Each PDC student put them hand into a hat and drew a piece of paper with a date and a plant on it. So Andi, you don't need to worry about this. The plant presentations and meals are held outside the workshop times anyway.

    What Zephyr didn't mention (or probably isn't aware of) is that another classmate also doing the PDC cooks the same week as you but with a different plant. The Farm also puts on a generous salad, provide a heat source if you need it and the instructor is there to assist you with any worries.

    The point of the exercise, as I discovered, has...more than one point. Yes, you have to cater for 20 people as a round figure (there are actually 17 in the group) and I can understand why some might initially freak out about that but that's the byproduct of learning and not really a focus in of itself. You also have to consider the plant (which you are expected to research, identify and come up with a recipe), its nutritional and cultural values and deliver this in meal form via permaculture concepts and principles (as well as a dash of commonsense). You harvest the plant from the Farm so, expense wise, it's but a tiny, tiny dent in your wallet. I the amount spent on one meal was $3.20 and $5 with the other.

    For the student's effort, what is offered in return is: Smiles, laughs, heaps of encouragement, compliments, questions, positive feedback from the teacher and a really good "tick in the box" feeling.

    Kind of outweighs the freaking out.

     
  8. andihazelwood

    andihazelwood Junior Member

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    Thank you for the insight, Mozzie! I was hoping there would be some further information like that :D
     
  9. Mozzie

    Mozzie Junior Member

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    Happy to oblige. (Edited that other post as I'm a spelling Nazi).

    I can understand how things can be misunderstood.

    And if you are from out of town
    and/or you're just doing one workshop
    then raise your hand and say hello.

    Or, if you're shier than I am :D, announce it here so I'm clued in and can hunt you down on the day so you don't have to go through the awkward 'breaking the ice' situation.
     

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