Hi everyone,

Lots happening this week in the lead up to our Christmas Makers’ Market this Saturday the 22nd of November! The weather is looking good - touch wood - and it’s shaping up to be a lovely day to celebrate another great year here at ACC. We have 25 stalls this year, so lots of opportunities to find perfect gifts.

And while you are shopping we’ll be running Christmas craft activities to keep the kids entertained, and naturally a barbecue to keep everyone happy. We’re also looking for volunteers to help out on the day - see more details later in this newsletter.

Alphington Open Studios will also be starting this weekend, and the inside of the centre will we transformed into a gallery space on both Saturday and Sunday to feature some awesome local artists. How exciting!

And before all this we have another great program lined up this week:

• Garden to Plate this morning from 11.30am-1pm - book online

• 3rd Monday of the Month Book Club tonight 7-8.30pm

• Tomorrow from 1-3pm we are running a special Preserves Group in preparation for the market on Saturday. We will be making jams, pickles and relishes, and we encourage everyone to come along if you can! And donate small clean jars if you have them hanging around …

• Toy Library will also be open tomorrow from 1-3pm

• And 3rd Tuesday of the Month Book Club will be meetomg tomorrow evening 7.30-9pm

• AAA Bowls at Alphington Bowls Club, Line Dancing at the Scout Hall and Alphington Playgroup here at the Centre Wednesday morning from 10am-12pm

• Armchair Theatre Wednesday from 1-3pm

• Crunch on Thursday from 12.30-2pm

• Alphington Arts will be running Thursday evening from 7.30-9.30pm and we will doing linocuts to make Christmas cards! This is a super fun activity and a great way to get into the Christmas spirit. We hope to see you there! Book in online.

• Community Garden and Craft Friday morning from 10am-12pm

• Community Lunch Friday 12-1pm

• AAA Art Friday 1-2pm

Looking forward to a very Christmassy week!

Cheers Leanne

With the combination of rain and sunshine the winter silverbeet and kale is growing out of control, going to seed and ready to rip out. But … before you do this, here’s a recipe to consider …

This week in Garden to Plate we made a FABULOUS! pasta dish - inspired by Jamie Oliver.

it is fabulous because it uses HEAPS of dark leafy greens!!! Reducing food waste from your garden and good for your health - a real win/win.

Here’s the recipe.

Ingredients

• 1 packet of dried spaghetti or other pasta (500g)

• 8 cloves of garlic, peeled

• 600 grams of leafy greens, stems stripped out (eg. kale, silverbeet etc.)

• 90 grams of parmesan cheese

• 90 grams ricotta

• 3 tablespoons olive oil

• salt and pepper

• water from the pasta

Instructions

• Boil a pot of water, add salt and cook the pasta

• With 10 minutes to go until the pasta is cooked, add the torn up leafy greens and peeled garlic cloves and cook until wilted.

• Add the olive oil to a blender, then use tongs to transfer the leafy greens and garlic to the blender as well, before whizzing until super-smooth. Add additional water from the pasta to thin out if needed. When silky smooth add the parmesan and whizz again … then add a good teaspoon of salt and lots of pepper to taste (and whizz again).

• Drain the pasta and return it to the pot. Add the sauce back into the pot too and mix it thoroughly through the pasta.

• Serve this very green pasta with lovely white ricotta dotted on top.

Bon Appetit! It’s really good!

Garden to Plate runs on Mondays from 11.30am-1pm. We cook a couple of recipes together each week … and then sit down to share a meal - it’s lovely! Book in online.

Friday mornings are always lovely down here at Alphington Community Centre, with craft, chats, gardening and, of course, a delicious lunch.

We love to see everyone each week connecting and getting involved in the activities, and we especially love seeing our garden flourish - as it has in these spring months.

The flowers have been beautiful and the produce is looking fantastic. Recently we’ve harvested bok choy and lettuce, silverbeet, beetroot, chives, coriander, spring onion and cabbages (although someone took all of our large cabbages so we couldn’t use them in our community cooking programs (sad) … never mind. Let’s assume they REALLY needed them). Also rhubarb, parsley, cumquats and lemons 🍋. I think we even grew a lime on the tree in the middle of our raised bed this year!

We’re now getting our summer planting in - tomatoes and new silverbeet. More herbs etc. And our fruit trees are fruiting - plums and apples - it’s very exciting.

We feel so lucky to have such committed gardeners in our community who are willing to help out each week and hope you are also enjoying our lovely space and appreciate all of their hard work too, when you pass by or come here for activities.

Thanks gardening peeps!

We’ve got heaps! Last week at Preserves Group we made 24 jars in just 1.5 hours - very industrious and efficient.

So now we have loads of cucumber pickles, tomato relish and marmalade for sale. If you’d like some drop past $7 a jar. The profits support our AAA programs.

Thanks to those that came along.

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.