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Visitors to Riverton

Nelson Lebo and his partner Danni, both ulta-enthusiastic environmental educators, arrived in Riverton for a weekend of talks, workshops and getting to know us. (10th-11th November) They’ve both recently been in Ladakh, nestled between Pakistan and Tibet, where they stayed and worked at an Eco-Academy, built and run by poor Ladakhese students and designed on sustainable, energy efficient principles. Both Nelson and Danni plan to open a similar school in Nicuragua. They talked also, about their 200 year old homestead in New Hampshire where they had built everything themselves and grown vegetables for the local farmers market and all of the adventures that involved (they mentioned bears!). A good number of locals and visitors from afar turned out to the Environment Centre to see their slide show and hear of their trials and tribulations and some of those people returned during the weekend to do workshops on organic weed management and other tricks of the trade that Nelson had learned during his stint as a market gardener. Nelson has been a gridiron coach for many years and had a very strong interest in ergonomic gardening, where effort was translated most efficiently into results and harm to the body was eliminated. No sore backs for the followers of his methods! During the demonstrations, Nelson sang the praises of a new form of scythe he had come across being used in the North Island, stirring up our interest, so it was with great surprise and delight that we learned a week later, that the promoters of the Austrian scythes were on their way down to stay in Riverton after they had an unexpected break in their scything workshops tour. They arrived the next day so had little time to organise a workshop but did ring a few people we thought may be interested.

Jo, Bryan Innes and Joanna Pearsall are the leading lights in Permaculture education and organisers of the Eco Show series that has been so successful in the North Island for many years. Their travelling companion, Kristov, who was packing several of the scythes we had heard so much about. He wasted no time in demonstrating their efficient and effortless ability to cut grass very closely, so convincingly that we bought one of the mid-range models and have been using it since in the place of a lawn mower. Jo and Bryan seemed particularly taken with the Environment Centre and all that goes on there and invited Robyn and I to tour the North Island to talk about the successes of the Centre all the projects we have going on and our food forest in Thames Street. They offered to organise venues and accommodation for us and we are sorely tempted. Jo travels with a big suitcase of books on the themes of organic gardening, cooking, living and we had a good browse through what she had and bought some of them for the Centre.

Open Orchard Project Update: Robyn has made up a 5 page orchard project report and we have sent it to crops for Southland and will also send it to community board, city council, Royal Society, Southland Lions etc- it looks good ( read it at our orchard display or click on this link: Heritage Orchard Project Outline We are hoping to get wider support for the heritage fruit tree preservation work. 80% of our grafts have come through and luckily, as we did two of each, most of the diversity has been saved. We are hoping that the weather will be kinder to them from now (but as I write this it is hailing again!)

Help design our new look! After eight years it is time for a building face-lift! Now is your chance to get creative and design something to make us stand-out. Will we freshen up what we have now or go for something totally new! We have another 7 years’ lease on the building so it is a good investment. Email the office@sces.org.nz and we will send you a photo of the building for you to ‘photoshop’. We will display the designs and ask for your feedback. If you aren’t a designer come and choose your favourite look! We need to have designs in by the 19th of January at the latest so we can finalise it at our committee meeting and get it painted during the summer months

A sad loss Very sadly, we received the news that Lindsay McGarry, our long-time organic vegetable supplier and ‘stirrer-upper‘, had died. Lindsay came to Riverton from Roxborough where he was an organic orchardist and in 2003 he and Debbie semi retired to grow organic vegetables here in Castle Street, for sale in the Centre and other shops in the town. He was a great champion for the elimination of synthetic chemicals from our environment, in particular those that disrupt the endocrine system, as anyone who met Lindsay will know well. He used them himself until he had a serious brush with cancer many years ago. He was not shy about expressing his disgust at the manner in which these chemicals are still used throughout the world and in particular here in Southland. Lindsay was increasingly ill from Motor Neuron Disease up until the time of his death and it is ironic that the chemicals he has campaigned against so dedicatedly are one of the suspected causes of the disease. He had a style all of his own, and a wonderful sense of humour. He will be very much missed by all those who knew him. Our condolences go to Debbie and their extended families.

Recent Events Rural Heritage Day -Thursday November 19th Marquees and gale force winds are not a happy mix and I was far from overjoyed, being battered by wind-driven hail at 6 in the morning, gathering up the remains of the awning of our ‘cute as a button’ camping trailer, that had suffered badly from the overnight thrashing from wind and hail. Robyn and I had set the trailer up the evening before, in preparation for the big day, but had to relocate with our Open Orchard display, to a shared marquee following the collapse of our original venue. Everyone else was in the same soggy boat as us, but no one despaired and the day went well, even attracting a good sized crowd of Southlanders, most of whom wore gumboots! A number of visitors to our stand had stories about orchards they wanted to see saved and others had questions about one apple or other that they needed to be identified. It was a very chatty day for us both. Robyn made a great set of photo boards of the Open Orchard Project that were very well received. And the display is now in the Centre window and worth taking time to look at

Organic group 20 years pot luck event Sunday night December 13th- It was a lovely night looking at the slide show of past events and remembering those who were there at the beginning. We will put the photos on a CD for safe storage until our 25th!

Recycling Party This was so much fun we are planning another one in Autumn. 13 people came with their collections of items for recycling, from designer clothes to sale items that never fitted, unwanted handcrafts and unwanted gifts. It was a lot of fun. We had 3 dressing bays with full length mirrors and their was lots of parading and debate on who suited what outfit the best, then, if no-one wanted something we tried to convince Robyn’s wwoofers that they were ‘perfect for gardening’, sometimes this was true and other times it made us laugh when we visioned someone wearing the garment in the garden or how would you use that item in the garden! Only two bags were needed for the unclaimed items, though 12 bags came in! We had drinks and nibbles and great music to add to the atmosphere. Don’t miss the next one! Sharing healthy recipes

We have restarted ‘Healthy Cooking’ events and our first one on 5th December was a treat. There was cashew sauce, vegetarian pate, wholemeal herb and onion scones and wholemeal date scones , ‘super easy to cook’ couscous, one sweet and one savoury dish and Louise’s yummy oat biscuits we all thought she should make for the Saturday market. We have collated all these recipes and will eventually produce a cook book. Next event is a healthy picnic at Judes- (inside or out) 24th January, car pool from the Environment Centre. Bring along a healthy picnic dish to share along with the recipe.

SCES Restructuring over the summer

We are currently restructuring to give us strength and flexibility for future growth.

The Centre itself is going to return to being run solely by our many capable volunteers. This is the fun part; ‘playing shops’, getting to meet and talk with all our lovely regulars and the interesting visitors we get from all over NZ and the world, keeping the Centre clean and tidy and the co-op running smoothly. You are welcome to join this wonderful team that creates the warm and interesting atmosphere in the Centre. Streamlined office systems will make room for more a busier future and more activities which will enable our groups and projects to thrive without getting snowed under with admin. Groups and projects can request support as before but are being encouraged to stay independent with their management. Projects, workshops and events will be in the main self funding.

Co-ordinators position is now divided up Co-ordinating and supporting the centre, office, projects, publicity, staff, volunteers, coastline newsletter and website (and everything else!) was more than the part-time job we funded. Robyn often worked full time to get everything done! We are going to split those roles up, share them around more and get a team spirit going. Robyn is keen to focus more on projects and events. This will enable her to get busy doing what she does best, making things happen. She is moving her project headquarters upstairs so she can work uninterrupted when necessary, but still be available when really needed.

Staff Changes Our co-ordinator Robyn kindly reduced her 20 paid hours in early October to 5 hours a week to allow us to restructure but has continued to work as before with the balance of her work done voluntarily. Many of her previous roles should soon be absorbed and it is hoped with good teams supporting her, 5 hours will be all she needs to continue in this role. Office Administration will be managed by paid, highly-skilled staff working behind the scenes but with fewer, flexible hours. They will be running our point-of-sale and quick books systems, making the hours we need for accounts and banking take a fraction of the time. Budgets, cost analysing and financial reports will be readily available which will mean that we can know where we make losses and how to budget for events, giving us a lot more confidence. Yvonne and Wendy finish their fixed-term contracts with SCES at the end of January. They have been a wonderful team working with the increasingly busy and sometimes chaotic life in our ’old office’, always with a smile and time for a chat. Once our office systems are updated and computerised we will have a clear idea how much funding we will have left and any opportunities that exist to create small paid jobs.

Groups within the Centre to become more autonomous As the years have passed, the groups that share the Centre have varied in strength and have at times needed support from SCES in various ways. The Centre office has taken over several parts of some group’s administration, which ideally should have remained the role of their secretaries and treasurers. We are now reversing the trend, encouraging groups to be independent and vibrant once again but now they will have a well resourced office and qualified accountants to support them when needed. ROG has lots of secretarial work for its three groups and are looking to pay toward this work themselves.

Other SCES News:

Tender for Lawns behind Centre If you have a weed eater and a lawn mower and keep our back yard super tidy we are asking for quotes for 12 months care from 1 Feb. It is to be managed spray free and there will be more work in the warmer 6 months and little in the cooler ones. Please drop off a tender in writing with you contact details. Tenders in by the 19th January please. Have a look out the back -so you know how long it will take. Holiday Roster for staffing the Centre

With people away over the holiday period there are a few more gaps in the roster . Call into the office and see if you can fill one of them and lighten Robyn’s load.

Wanted: flat screen for new computer kindly donated by the Community Trust of Southland. We have decided to keep in in the library corner so volunteers and the public can use it to research eco topics, browse book marked favourite environmental web sites, view our website etc. We will load all our info sheets on there so they can be accessed easily. It has been sometimes awkward inviting the public into our office to do this in the past. It will have a password on it and will be used only for these educational purposes, not for public to use otherwise. (There is an internet café next door)

National Funding drying up Our final report for the Ministry for the Environment due end of month and then our final grant payment of $6,000 will be sent. We can apply to be in the running for one further year of funding in March. The future of this Environment Centre funding after that is unknown. The Governments Sustainable Management Fund and Enviro Schools fund no longer exist and no funding round this year for Sustainable Farming Fund. We need to be more creative how we get funding for projects now, but we are creative and we will find ways!

The 2009 Annual Report of the South Coast Environment Society is available in the Centre and is also on our website- we have had a busy year! Click for SCES Annual Report 2009

Coastline out the last week of each month.

The Coastline will now come out soon after our committee meeting (3rd Tuesday of each month). This enables the ‘Co-ordinators Report’ to be used as a base for the news and will save us time. Expect it from now in the last week of each month. All subscribers with an email address have been emailed the Coastline link for the last 6 months. If you prefer a written copy please let us know and we can put you on the mailing list instead. Farmers Markets 10.30-12.30 2nd, 9th, 16th,23rd 30th of January Organic Goats milk, cheese, yogurt now available near Riverton. For further information ring the centre for Jesse and Kristy’s contact details.

Riverton Organic Growers News

Wild, wild weather - it IS summer, isn’t it? It’s been a tumultuous start to summer in the South. We’ve been battered like lemon fish and we need some respite! There has been hail, lashing rain, relentless wind and occasional earthquakes, all contributing to the particularly pale look to us Southlanders this summer. It’s been a struggle to get outside at all. We don’t have a drought though and for that we are grateful. Apple growers in Central Southland report that their young fruits are shrivelling due to lack of moisture in the soil and Environment Southland is reporting record lows for groundwater readings in the region, so those of us on the south coast are not complaining too loudly about the weather, at least when foreigners are around.

The school garden is growing strongly, though the wheat isn’t a high as an elephant’s eye, but that’s because of the sandy soils we are working with, I’m sure. We’ve oats, lupins, peas, sweet corn, teasels, cardoons, potatoes, fava beans, alexanders and black parsley covering our half of the field, while the primary school, childcare centre and kindergarten have potatoes and courgettes growing through plastic, alongside of their new compost bins and tin shed. It’s an interesting contrast of styles and the results of the opposing methods are going to be closely watched by all! The Community Orchard is bustling with growth. The tree lupins and high mallow have done their job of protecting the fruit trees from wind admirably and everything looks the picture of health. There is corn planted in the lee of the lupins as well and a wide range of perennial herbs becoming established. The quality of the soil has improved markedly, with the masses of mulch that has been produced as a result of the vigorous growth and the free ranging ducks and hens, all helped along by a satisfyingly wet start to the summer. The sunchokes and gooseberries growing outside of the east fence are up and away and make a great statement about the garden inside of the fence, to those passing by, saying, ‘It’s jungly in here!

Coming up:

2010 Year of Biodiversity

Wildlife Wednesdays We’re looking for adventure and to discover all about the creatures and plants that live in our neighbourhood. Join us on our Wildlife Wednesday adventures around Riverton. Sign-on at the Environment Centre 2 days earlier then get your back-pack, walking shoes and raincoat ready for the two days in January, the 6th and the 20th, when we go adventuring! The cost is $7.50 for each day and we start at 1:00 p.m. at the Environment Centre learning about what we might see then adventure until 4:00 p.m. (when we arrive back.) We have experienced leaders to keep you safe and make sure you have fun! Wildlife Wednesday - It’ll be wild!

Sharing Healthy picnic food: A healthy picnic at Judes ( Old Pahia School) This will be inside or out depending on weather 24th January 12.30pm car pool from the Environment Centre. Bring along a healthy picnic dish to share along with the recipe. Organic Group garden visit: 26th January carpool from Centre 7pm sharp. We will visit two different local organic gardens and learn from the techniques used.

February 6th Cycling Activities Riverton. Ken has visiting regularly re Cycle and walking potential developments in Riverton . He is working with us and other community groups promoting cycling events on 6 February. Pump up your tyres and dust the cobwebs of your bike and join us. If you have ideas and would like to be involved in the planning let Robyn know.

Heritage Harvest festival- of 27th 28th March Due to popular demand this is now an annual event/weekend of displays and workshops. What interesting or wonderful produce can you bring from your garden? What workshops of the harvest theme can you run or would like to take. Let the Robyn know if you want to be on the organising sub committee for this wonderful event. Click on this link to see our new ‘Suggestions for Slugs and snails’ info sheet