Our next monthly meeting will be held at a new venue, as our old one has become too cramped for our meetings.  New Address is the:  ‘Bugle Tree Creek Communication Centre’, in Stoneville Road Mundaring.

Next month we have a speaker whose topic is about Bees.

May your gardens flourish,
Ralph Darlington.

Any OGAWA members in the vicinity would be welcome at our meeting
email Ralph: darlington2@bigpond.com

“Tropica” is the name I have given to my 120 sq m tropical ecosystem garden. It is one ‘room’ of my productive garden, “A Garden Path” which is in Bedfordale, near Armadale. When I moved onto it, the property was denuded land with just a few native trees and a small ornamental garden.

I like eating bananas and I wanted to have home-grown organic ones. Even though I was faced with limited water; long hot, dry summers, cold winters and no top soil I still wanted to have a go at growing them.

I chose a north-facing location that is protected from the summer Easterly winds and the afternoon (Western) sunshine. Then I set about creating top soil – on gravel and cap rock.

I followed Esther Dean’s ‘lasagne method’ to create rich organic ‘compost earth’. I made my lasagne by repeating layers of manure, newspaper, cardboard, straw and mushroom compost. Into the top layer (mushroom compost) I sowed wheat, oats and peas. At a certain stage I let my chickens turn the ground over. Then I made another large lasagne. Again, I sowed wheat (to give the chickens some green feed) and peas (to fixate nitrogen in the soil). 

After the chickens had turned the soil for a second time, I planted food plants. I also put in a false creek bed with little ponds to slow down winter runoff. These little ponds were great in winter time. Frogs moved in. I introduced native fish to eat mosquito larvae. My ducks had somewhere to swim. But in summer, the water went stagnant and hordes of mosquitoes thrived. Eventually, the ponds completely dried up. All the fish died.

I could have kept topping up the ponds but my garden was supposed to be water-wise, nor did I really have enough water for this, so this summer I pulled out the plastic linings. It meant taking all the rocks off the top of the connecting plastic to uncover the ponds.  

It was hard work but it has proven beneficial. My dry creek bed still slows down storm water runoff in winter, keeping it in the landscape longer. This is desirable as it enables ground water to build up. My plants continued to grow well. Furthermore, as the soil stayed moist for longer periods I noticed greater soil organism activity. I also noticed that I no longer had red gravel and cap rock; I now have a thick layer of soft, fine, black topsoil.

Three years on, I have bananas!

(Late last year, Caralyn’s garden “A Garden Path” was selected by West Australians as Perth’s Best Waterwise/Sustainable Environmental Project Garden. She has also been awarded State Environment awards for her community education activities. )
This year she will be providing several presentations (free) at the Perth Sun Fair on Sunday the 28th of March and at the Balingup Small-Farm Field Day on Sunday the 24th of April. Presentation Topics are “Sunburnt Country to Food Forests”, “Food Ecosystems: Starting a Patch from Scratch” and “Aquatic Food Ecosystems”.

This is your chance to tell us about your Garden! Email Tan at fusionherbs@westnet.com for a list of questions to help guide you with writing an article.

Hi everyone,
 
A big THANK YOU to those of you that came and supported the ‘Keep WA GM Free: From Farm to Plate’ rally Tuesday 23rd February. It was a great success and we had a lot of coverage in the media both before the rally and after.
 
The convoy of trucks, from as far afield as Williams, Mukinbudin, Beverley and Nannup were covered in banners with messages such as “Hey Terry, Take your GM Food and Ram it!” which possibly echoed the sentiments of many!
 
The huge presence of farmers and rural folk showed that this is not a townie-based campaign but an issue that unites all of us. We all have to eat and our farmers want to feed us with what we want. It is also their commitment to us and their families that they provide food that is safe and sustainable…GM is neither.

When Minister Redman spoke to the crowd he was jeered and booed, as we have had enough of his rhetoric, and misinformation. Labor MLA Mick Murray confirmed his commitment to keep GM canola out of WA, and this was repeated by Greens MLC Giz Watson who reassured us that they would put in a disallowance motion to stop the exemption order.
 
The decision is still to be debated in Parliament. This is where we can all help turn this decision around.
 
IT IS NOT OVER YET!
 
Go to our website at www.no-gmo.asn.au , click on ‘Petition to Minister Redman’ and send your email to all of the targeted MPs to ask them to disallow the exemption for GM canola
 
This needs to be done ASAP in order for us to contact all Liberal, National and Independent MPs.  We have heard that there are several of them that are as concerned as we are about the introduction of GM canola, so we need to let them know that we need their support now.
 
Send this link to all of your contacts so that we can make our voices heard loud and clear!
 
Here’s to a  GM Free WA now and in the future!
 
Cheers, Janet
Jan60gro@yahoo.com     www.no-gmo.asn.au

KidSnaK

We are working on an exciting line of new products which are about six months away from being launched.  We are also entering the vending machine business, and hope to be able to announce this development soon.

Contacts: Ph 9761 2901  Fax 9761 2905  Email:  admin@organicfinefood.com.au
www.organicfinefood.com.au
  

MASSIVE GROWTH SPURT PREDICTED FOR ORGANICS
Budding beauty:    Organic cosmetics certification takes the next step

In a move towards promoting greater consumer confidence in organic beauty and personal care products, the Biological Farmers of Australia (BFA) has announced the launch of a new Australian Certified Organic “beauty” logo. The logo will be used on cosmetic products containing more than 70%, but less than 95% organic ingredients, giving authenticity to the claim “made with certified organic ingredients”.

To be classified as Australian Certified Organic, food and other products must contain 95% organic ingredients with the remaining 5% being restricted to natural ingredients which meet stringent requirements. In the beauty world, it often can be difficult for products to meet the 95% organic ingredients rule and until now consumers have not had the benefit of knowing if products containing less than 95% organic ingredients are endorsed by Australian Certified Organic. The new “Beauty” logo will give consumers more choice and new confidence in products which are natural while still containing between 70 and 95% organic ingredients.

As with all Australian Certified Organic products, the non-organic component of products making the claim “made with certified organic ingredients” must still be natural and meet tough requirements in order to carry the logo as well as undergo annual audits.

In a global market, despite a lack of agreements between international organic cosmetic standards, organic and “natural” cosmetics are reputedly growing by over US $1 billion a year. The BFA’s Australian Organic Standard has rapidly gained wide recognition and consumer acceptance in Australia and abroad for its more stringent definition of organic cosmetics.  

Ms. Akiko Nicholls, Managing Director of ACO, says that the Australian Organic Standard for cosmetics, to which Australian Certified Organic products are certified, is one of the few practical cosmetic standards in the world which is very close to organic food standards and that it is a real benefit in Asian markets, where consumers are more conscious of quality claims.

“ACO cosmetic products are becoming popular in markets like Japan, where consumers pay more attention to the product ingredients’ source. Some overseas standards allow products to contain as little as 20% organic ingredients,” she says.

Ms Nicholls points out that even some completely natural cosmetics, such as mineral-based products, cannot be labelled “organic”, even though they contain no harmful chemicals and preservatives.

“Minerals are not cultivated in soil so cannot be classified as “organic” according to standards – but for consumers seeking naturally-derived mineral-based cosmetics there are products endorsed by the BFA which carry the “BFA Approved Product” logo.”        
Ms. Nicholls notes ACO’s resolute and respected standards are helping penetrate the international market and that trade and government agencies are increasingly supportive of certified organic products because they understand certification is an important factor for consumers.

Government drops funding for Sun Fair
Well it looks like SEDO(Sustainable Energy Development Office)/OOE(Office of energy) will no longer help to support the Perth Sun Fair. The Sustainable Energy Development Office has been integrated into the Office of Energy. This is a dismal state of affairs.

The Perth Sun Fair is the premiere sustainability event in WA. 15,000 people turned up at the Fair last year, there were 100 organisations with marquees and 4 seminar venues running hour hour seminars all day. These seminars alone were overflowing all day at last years Fair. The event is held on a shoe string budget and in terms of value for money must be one of the best winners that SEDO ever backed.

I convene the Fair (with no payment at all) and one project officer does and enormous amount of work (which would be worth well over $50,000 if charged at a regular rate) for something like $15,000. This is just a fraction of one salary at SEDO.

I would like you to email the Premiere and the Minister for Energy to express your dismay at this dismal performance of SEDO/OOE funding for the Fair.

I would like you to cc this to any other ministers either state or Federal as well as radio, TV and newspaper media.

Minister.Collier@dpc.wa.gov.au  Minister for energy
cottesloe@mp.wa.gov.au               Colin Barnett

Thanks

Jonathon Thwaites
Perth Sun Fair - Convenor
Mobile 0419 924 355      http://www.sustainability.fm.uwa.edu.au

The 2010 Sun Fair is held on Sunday 28th March - the weekend before Easter.
For more information see the website http://www.perthsunfair.com.au.

Organic logo unveiled

Set for introduction from 1 July 2010.                                                    
The European Commission has unveiled the winning design for the new EU organic logo, which will
legally have to be marked on products. The new
logo will be obligatory on all pre-packaged organic
products that have been produced in any of the EU
member states and meet the necessary standards.
It will be optional for imported products. Other private, regional or national logos will be allowed to appear alongside the EU label and the organic farming regulation will be amended in the coming weeks to introduce the new logo.

All sessions will include a meal.  Resources will be provided at each session.
Contact Peg Davies for more information: 
0422 941 492 or email pdavies@mrc.wa.gov.au

OGAWA Member Discount Scheme - Supporting businesses that promote organic food and farming
WA organic food and farming businesses offering discounts to members of OGAWA continues to grow. We thank these participating businesses for supporting the OGAWA and encourage all members to tell your friends about these great organic products and services available.
Click this link for the list of participating organic businesses.

The MDS is only available to current OGAWA members as shown by a valid membership card.
OGAWA Member Discount Scheme - Ask for your member discount from these participating businesses.  
Simply display your member discount card with some ID to verify your OGAWA membership.

Membership Renewals    Download Ordinary Membership Forms $30    
Download Commercial Membership Application $60