Wastewise Clothing Swap- 17th May 2019

About 25 members of the local community took part in the Friends of the Farm inaugural Clothing Swap Event on 17^th May, 2019 at Ambury Farm. I was very happy to be part of the team organizing this fun event.

Friends of the Farm promoted this event via flyers, emails, and social media prior to the Clothes Swap and, on the night, a team of dedicated volunteers set up the space with changing rooms, fairy lights, mirrors, flowers, and music.

The idea was simple: we invited registered attendees to come with some second-hand clothing in season and in good condition, and ‘swap’ their items for new items to add to their wardrobe. While attendees enjoyed some drinks and light supper, Friends of the Farm volunteers organized the donated items to look like a ‘swap store.’

Once we opened the store, folks were speedily sifting through items and trying them on in the newly created changing rooms. Thanks to the keen volunteers, enthusiastic participants and a great energy, the swap was a great success; everyone went home with something “new.”

The remaining items were donated to the St Vincent de Paul shop in Mangere Bridge.  We have them to thank for the loan of the clothing racks and, thanks to a koha basket, we raised $60 at the end of the night.

This was an entertaining and enjoyable event that helped raise awareness in the local community of the impact of over-consumption and offer some ways to combat this mindset. In addition, Friends of the Farm was able to share details of other initiatives coming up throughout the year. We had such a good time, we’re hoping to replicate the event as we approach summer.

Special thanks to all the donations and to the volunteers that made it happen. I’ll definitely be coming back and encouraging my friends to do the same! 

Written by Rachel Kitchens

Sarah’s Street Clean-up- 27th April

Last month, local resident Sarah was feeling very sad about the amount of rubbish lying in the streets around her house.  Friends of the Farm offered to support Sarah and her family to organise an event; Sarah’s Street Clean-up day. 

Our plan was for people to clean up an area around their house, then bring the rubbish they’d collected to a central location, where Friends of the Farm volunteers were stationed with bins and a BBQ.   

Around 30 families pitched in and arrived with rubbish they’d collected from neighbouring streets.  A lot of the rubbish collected was recyclable, so Friends of the Farm member Caroline was on hand to help sort it into the right bins.  This also gave us an opportunity to provide some education on what can and can’t be recycled.

Once again, Māngere Bridge locals Steve and Gemma from We Compost pitched in and supported our efforts, by delivering bins for us and then taking all the different waste streams away- such great community support!  Fresh Choice kindly donated the sausages and bread, and Paul from the Fruit Shop made a fruit hamper with Sarah’s help, as a free raffle for clean-up participants. Māngere Bridge Pharmacy also supported with a $30 gift voucher.

Feedback from participants showed that people liked this low key event and found it easy to join in, even if they had younger children.  Participants were excited by the opportunity to contribute to their community, and Friends of the Farm really enjoyed the community partnership with local rangatahi.  Together, we’re helping to care for our patch!

Easter Clean-up 13th April 2019

It’s been a while since Friends of the Farm has had a community Easter Clean-up at Ambury Farm.  For the past five years, we’ve supported the Sustainable Coastlines’ ‘Love your Coast’ Campaign on the Manukau Harbour instead, with a large number of schools coming through the Farm to collect rubbish from the Ambury foreshore.  With ‘Love Your Coast’ coming to an end in our area, this year we returned to our roots with our traditional Easter Clean-up.

Friends of the Farm co-ordinated the clean-up on the Ambury foreshore, as well as supporting the Tararata Stream Team to host a clean-up there. Although it was a small turn-out, it was great to see our regular Easter clean-up supporters returning, as well as some new faces.  Some participants commented that there didn’t seem to be as much rubbish around as on previous clean-ups. However, you do have to have a keen eye to notice all those tiny pieces of plastic out there.

During the clean-up, we ran a competition to guess how many rabbit poos were in a jar, and lucky Lenna had the job of counting them! In total, there were 1409 rabbit poos.  The prize was the jar, and an Ambury Farm hat.  It was a beautiful afternoon, and participants’ efforts were rewarded with stacks of Easter eggs and a sausage sizzle.

The clean-up was a simple event for FOF to organise, and participants enjoyed the feeling of taking action to care for the environment in such a beautiful setting.  A small group meant were plenty of Easter eggs to go around!

Community orchard working bee- 30 March 2019

This year has been a really successful one for our community orchard, with the feijoa trees producing the biggest fruit we’ve seen yet!  We put this down to our thorough pruning and thinning out of the trees, which created more light for the fruit.

The working bee focused on creating a better bed for our blueberries, by removing kikuyu and adding some top quality worm castings from the big worm farm at Ambury farm, as well as mulching.  We also took the opportunity to mulch the other trees, prune our espaliered trees, (which are growing beautifully) and build a temporary hen enclosure under the feijoas.

We’ve been working hard to reduce the guava moth in the feijoas this year, by spraying with neem oil, picking up the fruit from off the ground (where the larvae like to grow) and by trialing the use of chickens to help clean up the fruit on the ground and eat the grubs.  Our orchard neighbours are enjoying the chickens, although their egg laying is a bit sporadic! 

We had a lovely turn-out of locals at the working bee, and were once again treated to a feijoa cake (thanks Rose!), on completion of our work.  The orchard has been well used this year, with lots of neighbouring families enjoying the fruit.

The citrus trees are producing beautifully now, and there’ll be plenty to share once it’s ripe.  We still have some work to do to improve the shelter belts for some of the younger trees and extend the orchard further.  Keep your eye on our Facebook page for future working bees in our community orchard.

Ihumātao reclamation Festival 2nd March 2019

This history-making event was organised by local group SOUL (Save Our Unique Landscape), who wanted to create a celebration on land at Ihumātao which is currently under threat from a proposed housing development.  Thousands of people turned out on a stunning Summer’s day to see the many great acts, and to sample the delicious food and workshops that were on offer.

To show our support for the cause, Friends of the Farm offered to help by creating a zero waste event, and to feed all the hardworking volunteers on the day.  Prior to the event, we worked with food vendors to help them source compostable packaging, and funded Koia Teinakore (ME Family Services) and his awesome team to man bin stations.

Four bin stations were dotted around the event, and we were thrilled by how respectful concert attendees were, with minimal litter left behind to clean up. Everyone truly grasped the significance of this special place.  Friends of the Farm was pleased to be able to contribute our mahi as a koha to the hard working SOUL campaigners, who’re tirelessly working to save a very special place in our community.

Bike Powered Sewing Machine

After nearly two years of research and co-ordination, Friends of the Farm is proud to present a  Māngere Bridge (possibly Auckland, maybe New Zealand) first- our bike-powered ELECTRIC sewing machine!  Not only is our Tote All Recall bag library scheme helping to reduce plastic bag use in the Bridge, but our sewing operation is now able to go totally off the grid. All we need to boost the solar panel on our sewing machine is pedal power – kindly supplied by our enthusiastic visitors.

Seen for the first time on Saturday 8 December by the lucky few who were visiting the Māngere Bridge library, this video footage captures just how keen people were to join in.  Keep an eye out for us in the middle of a paddock somewhere near you! We’ll be sewing bags to refill the Tote All Recall boxes in the Village, where you can borrow a bag for your shopping convenience.  Boxes are located at the library and at Māngere Bridge Fruit and Veg. 

We're always looking for new sewers, so please ask at Māngere Floral Studio or contact us on friends@fof.nz for more information about how to get involved. We’ll provide fabric and a pattern; all we need is your time and expertise.

With huge thanks to the Tread Lightly Caravan for their starter pack and to Graeme from The Auckland Teaching Gardens Trust Inc. for his engineering brilliance. We look forward to continuing our alliance. Our bike was inspired by Harriet Riddell in this video https://www.facebook.com/bbcoxford/videos/1428540333855050/

Eco Christmas Workshop

Friends of the Farm members Caroline and Meredith transformed the Ambury Farm barn into a homemade Christmas wonderland recently, for their Eco Christmas workshop.  Using natural materials like wool, paper, wood and fabric, they managed to create zero-waste gift ideas, wrapping paper and decorations that were not only affordable and kind to the environment, but also beautiful.

Workshop participants were given the opportunity to try their hands at wet felting Christmas tree decorations and making hand-made paper infused with seeds.  These activities were popular with children and adults alike, and gave people time to reconnect with old friends and catch up on neighbourhood news while creating their masterpieces. 

    

        

There were plenty of edible Christmas goodies to sample as well, including peppermint candy, personalised Christmas biscuits and the ever-popular Christmas mince pies.  DIY edible gift ideas like homemade lemonade and “biscuits in a jar” were also on display, providing quirky alternatives to the usual Christmas fare.  
 

The workshop gave us all inspiration for making the coming season a time of beauty and creativity, in stark contrast to the excessive consumerism and wastefulness we see around us.  If you weren’t able to make it, we hope the photos (and the internet) will give you some ideas for creating your own eco-Christmas this year.  Many of the items made for the workshop are now having a second life in a ‘Homemade Christmas’ display at ME Family Services in Mangere.