Hi everyone

Gosh time goes by fast doesn’t it. It is hard to believe that this is the last week before school holidays … when we’ll be taking a two week break.

In this final week we’ll have Garden to Plate on Monday (I haven’t set up the booking but please come along), Crunch on Thursday (as Lee was away last week) and our Friday program with Community Lunch will round out the week.

Over the holidays we have Project Stationery here again in the first week and I will put some info up on our website about what they are up to - they did give us a poster a couple of weeks ago that Kalimna put up outside - but annoyingly it blew away in the wind on one of those bad weather days.

Anyway, I hope to see you soon at ACC.

Cheers

Leanne

We’ve had an abundance of leafy greens growing in the garden and they are all about to go to seed. If you are in the same boat (ready to harvest leafy greens) here’s a great recipe we trialled at Garden To Plate this week.

We used bok choy - but you can use whatever you have.

Bok Choy with Ginger

Ingredients

• 6 small bok choy

• 2 tbsp vegetable oil

• 1/4 cup ginger finely julienned

• 1/4 cup water (for steaming)

• 3 tsp cornflour

• 1 1/2 tsp soy sauce

• 1 tsp oyster sauce

• 2 tsp Chinese cooking wine

• 1 tsp sesame oil 

• 1/4 cup water (for sauce)

• salt

• white pepper

Instructions

• Trim the base of the bok choy then separate all the leaves. Cut the larger stems in half lengthwise so all the leaves are roughly the same size. Wash thoroughly and pat dry.

• Mix the cornflour, soy sauce, oyster sauce, Chinese cooking wine and sesame oil together to make a smooth paste, then add the water. Season with salt and pepper.

• Saute the ginger in the oil until it turns golden (about 1 minute). Then add the bok choy and toss to combine.

• Add 1/4 cup of water and turn the heat up with the lid on, so the bok choy steams for 1 minute.

• Remove the lid, add the sauce and gently stir until the sauce thickens. The bok choy should still have a soft crunch. If the sauce is too thick you can add more water.

• Serve with rice.

Thanks to everyone who came op shopping with us on Tuesday. We dodged the rain showers (mostly) and had a lovely time in Abbotsford visiting two op shops. We also stopped for Vietnamese for lunch on Victoria Street. Everyone bought something - Linda bought a footstool (which was tricky to carry around), Marie-Louise a dress, Monica some tea … and I can’t remember what the others got (I bought 2 jumpers and a long sleeve t-shirt).

Thanks to Clifton Hill/North Fitzroy Community Bank for supporting this adventure - it was really inspiring to go op shopping on public transport. Truly. So relaxing.

This last week it has been great to usher in spring - whilst Thursday felt like the depths of winter, Friday was sunshiny and lovely … and it was amazing to spend time in the garden! It is looking so fantastic and Clare and Corrado and Jenny - and everyone else who comes along on Fridays and contributes should be super proud. The wicking beds out the front, along with the delivery of fogo compost that we spread around, have transformed the bed outside our fence. Thanks to Yarra Council for helping us purchase the beds and for delivering the compost for free. On Friday Clare picked a huge amount of produce (our bokchoy was about to go to seed) and so we have lots of lovely home-grown vegetables ready for cooking this coming week.

Speaking of coming up this week we have all the usual things - our food programs, line dancing, book clubs, choir, music lessons, sound healing - along with two exciting workshops on the weekend. Weaving with Corrin starting up for a 6 week course (book in here) and Spoonmaking with Maylei - a one-day workshop (book in here).

We hope to see you at ACC soon.

Cheers Leanne

A few snaps from our Thriftseekers Op Shop Adventure on Tuesday.

We caught the train from Alphington to Collingwood, then took a short stroll down Gipps Street to the Abbotsford Salvos. It is such a great op shop, with furniture (Linda bought a footstool) and clothes (Leanne bought two tops) and homewares ((Kalimna bought an owl) and books (Heather shopped in this section) etc. etc.

Then we walked down to Victoria Street to the other Salvos (near North Richmond station) and ran into Rob - who does lots of arty things at ACC and also volunteers weekly at this Salvos). Lovely!

After exhausting ourselves shopping we went to Tran Tran for lunch - and returned to ACC by train at about 2.30pm.

It was an excellent adventure! We look forward to the next one, coming up soon. To join in just book online.

Thanks once again to the Community Bank on Queens Parade for supporting us to run this adventure in our own backyard.

ACC is a great place to host your child’s next birthday party on a Sunday. We have all the equipment you need and a nice clean space ready to go. So you just need to send out the invites and bring your own food and it will all be super easy!

Our base rate to access the kitchen, the main room and the pergola in the backyard is $165. If you want to host a larger party you can also access our front garden and the room off the kitchen for an additional $110.

As we are in a residential neighbourhood parties can only be for low key events (we are keen not to annoy our neighbours) and there are two booking times, 9am-1pm or 1pm-5pm. In this time you will be able to set up, host your event and pack up, leaving the space clean and tidy and ready for the next user.

Our calendar is filling up this year. Parties seem to be more popular than ever! To find out available times and dates etc. just head to the venue hire page on our website.