Our annual Apple Pressing is on Friday 12 may 2017 at 1pm. So….. get “foraging” or “scrumping” and dont forget to take out of your feezer the apples you have sitting there. They need to be well thawed to go through the cider press. By freezing the apples you get more juice and clear juice - even though the apples look terrible! see photo. If you are planning to come to the regular Friday volunteer morning bring along some lunch and saty for the pressing and even if you dont have any apples to press come along and sample the results! Bring along your own plastic containers to put your juice into.
Another very successful Natural Body Products workshop was held by Honorlea on 22 April 2017. All of the participants enjoyed the experience of making their own products from natural materials and great comments came from the day. The next workshop is on Saturday 20 May 2017 and there are only 4 places left so get booking! For more information see factsheet or contact
some comments from the workshop were:
‘Very informative, great hand-outs and relaxed learning atmosphere’
’excellent day - perfect size of group and great venue and loved the shared lunch idea’
’great course- really fun and amazing products to make’
On 10th April 2017, Jesse Bythell and Chris Rance welcomed eleven Southern Institute of Technology first year Environmental Management students to the Plant ID Course at the Community Nursery. Based on the NZPCN two day course, this cut-down single day version concentrates on Southland species with classroom, field component and plant ID exercises. Feedback from the students was very positive and lots of enthusiasm was shown.
Kahui Manu – seed collecting – Thursday 6th April 2017
An enthusiastic group of 20 Home Based students enjoyed a run around seed collecting expedition recently. Chris led the group around the pond track where sticky kohuhu seeds, flax, mingimingi and cabbage tree were collected. These were then looked at in the Education Centre and a few were taken home to grow.
Weaving around! Saturday 1 April 2017
On Saturday 1 April we had an informal weaving day. Collecting lots of natural materials – from giant spike rush in the pond (kuta), Muehlenbeckia, rushes, tussock, harakeke – some interesting articles were made, before sharing a pot-luck feast! Food for thought for a weaving workshop to come.
The next event on the Community Nursery Calendar is Apple Pressing with Malcolm McKenzie again bringing his cider press to the Community Nursery. The pressing will take place 1-3pm and if you have picked apples already you can freeze them but make sure you completely thaw them before the day. By freezing the apples you will get more juice and a clearer juice - dont forget to bring along your own containers for the juice. Its a great event - come and join the fun and bring along some afternoon tea to share (even if you dont have any apples!).
Around 40 students from Glenham School arrived at the Community Nursery on Monday 3rd April, all ready to study native plants. Glenham students are in the happy position of having wonderful supportive farmers on their doorstep – David and Alana Clark. They have allowed the Glenham School to adopt an area of their farm, with a stream, to revegetate and turn into a place for wildlife. The children came armed with lots of knowledge and good questions as we looked at the “big picture” for making a nature area and then delved into the ways to make it happen! Mark Oster showed the children the big picture ideas of turning a paddock into bush, looking at Rances pond and planting areas and then exploring the tall bush. Meanwhile Chris led a group of seed collectors – finding, identifying and collecting seeds from flax (black seeds in black pods), Manuka (brown seed capsules), kohuhu (sticky black seed), koromiko (pods not ready yet), mingimingi (blue berries), Cabbage tree (white berries), to name but a few. Back at the Education Centre we looked at the seeds in more detail and talked about growing the plants that would be needed for their project.
After lunch in the Education Centre, Mark devised a game of exploring the paddock koru and then drawing the shape they thought it was, in the gravel of the carpark! They did an excellent job especially as you can really only see the shape from the air! – see photo.
Then onto a design project – the children mapped out on the ground the area of Clarks farm – with stream, culvert, fallen tree and planting area and chose native plants from a selection Chris had put out. These plants were then given to the School and the Clarks for incorporating into their project. It was a great day – thanks to Mark Oster, Principal, Mark Wiseman, teachers and to the great parent supporters who made it an excellent day.
