Spring is in the air and, with its exciting promise of fresh home-grown fruits and vegetables, food is the inspiration for the next forum in Sustainable Living, Armidale’s popular monthly series.
Always a passionate advocate for locally grown food, Robert Gasparre will speak about the past, present and future of the Farmers’ Market, which is firmly established and becoming increasingly popular. Robert and his wife, Sarah, worked for over a year and overcame a number of setbacks and disappointments in order to eventually succeed in setting up the market in November 2009.
Jo Leoni will talk about the market stall run by Armidale Local Food (ALF), and plans to develop the stall into a casual drop-in spot for people to meet and share their ideas and enthusiasm for food, gardening etc.
Armidale ought to have a community garden – people have been saying it for years. At the forum Robert and Jo will outline the broad vision for a community garden which is currently under discussion with Council. “This is a very exciting proposal,” says Jo. “The site has enormous potential, and we know there are a lot of people who are keen for Armidale to have a community garden
at last.”
Finally, there will be a screening of the inspirational film Farming with Nature, in which Austrian farmer Sepp Holzer shares some of the principles which have led to the success of his organic permaculture farm under conditions which make Armidale’s climate seem positively idyllic.
SLA continues to bring to the community a wide range of sustainability issues in its Thursday forums, as well as maintaining a regular information stall at the mall markets and a produce stall at the Farmers’ Market. Previous forum topics have covered solar hot water systems, conflicts between mining and agriculture and the current debate over putting a price on carbon pollution.
SLA’s ‘Forum on Food’ will be on Thursday, October 6 at 7pm at Kent House, Faulkner Street, opposite Central Park. Light refreshments to follow. All welcome, a gold coin donation would be appreciated.
