October News

It’s been another busy month for the Friends of the Farm (FOF) team, with a pop-up stall at the library, a sewing bee, our ever-popular beeswax wrap workshop and supporting the Department of Conservation and Ambury Farm with the Kiwi Guardians Walk. 

Our pop-up stalls at the Mangere Bridge library continue to be a great opportunity to talk to people about the different initiatives FOF is involved with in the community, as well as to give one-to-one support to reduce household waste.   

The beeswax wrap workshop last month attracted a group of 24 people and was, once again, a lovely time to meet and talk rubbish!  A smaller group joined us for the bi-monthly sewing bee at the Farm, adding a few more bags to our growing Tote All Recall community bag collection.  With Fresh Choice set to ditch plastic bags very soon, the time is certainly ripe for our reusable cloth bags.

The Kiwi Guardians walk, run by the Department of Conservation, is promoted as ‘an activity programme for kids to learn about nature, earn cool rewards and go on epic family adventures’.  This month, Ambury Farm hosted the event and FOF stepped up to lend a hand, providing volunteer support from our community for the various activities on the day.  Around 1000 people attended from all over Auckland, enjoying the opportunity to take part in some farm activities, including feeding the animals, making butter, exploring the lava cave and milking a cow.  Big thanks to our young people and others who helped out with the activities on the day. 

WHAT’S PLANNED FOR THE REST OF 2018

-       Saturday 3 November, 2.30pm Screening of the film ‘Edible Paradise’ in the Barn, in partnership with Live Lightly. The movie was made over five years as part of the Localising Food Project and travels to the four corners of Aotearoa to meet local food campaigners instrumental in creating community orchard and food forest projects in their patch.  Come along and meet like-minded locals, mingle and share ideas over a cuppa and cake and make clay seed balls to take home.  If you’re worried about baby-sitting, fear not, one of our lovely volunteers will be just next door doing crafts and games with the kids.  Please RSVP to friends@fof.nz for catering purposes.

-       Wednesday 7 November 5-6pm Foreshore clean up from the carpark at start of Kiwi Esplanade . 

-       Saturday 24 November Pop-up at the Mangere Bridge Library.  Come down and find out more about FOF and how to reduce waste at your place.

-       Saturday 24 November, 2-3:30pm Eco-Christmas gift workshop at the Farm.  If you’d like to know how to make seed paper, cute wet-felted gifts, advent calendars and stocking fillers as well as alternatives to wrapping paper.  Keep an eye on our Facebook page  for details and be sure to RSVP at friends@fof.nz .