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.

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

Last week we had a packed house for Garden the Plate, where we cooked vegetarian Indian dishes - they were really yummy. We had a pea raita, eggplant in coconut and a dry cauliflower curry, with basmati rice. It was excellent.

This week we are making okonomyaki (Japanese vegetable pancakes) - shining a light on cabbage. And we will make some teriyaki prawns and rice as well. Yum. Cooking starts at 11.30am. It usually takes about an hour for the cooking and then we sit down together to eat our creations … and finish up at 1pm. Book in on our website if you are coming along so we can judge numbers.

On Tuesday we have our Op Shop Adventure - you’ll find the details and the booking link the post below. We’d love you to come along. Last time was lots of fun - it was great to see what others were looking for and to compare bargains!

On Wednesday we have our 1st Wednesday Book Club here at night …and the two book clubs on Thursday (day and night). It is now the time of the year for book clubs to choose their reads for next year which is always a bit exciting! Darebin Libraries purchase new sets of books each year to try to ensure that book groups get variety year in and year out.

Speaking of Darebin Libraries, we have a little interactive community thing called Due Back up at Fairfield Library for Adult Learners Week. If you pass the library or an in the library please take a minute or two to fill in a card - a recommendation from you of a ‘book that stayed with you’ and a quick note about something you learnt from it There are some photos in the post below.

Corrin in starting up her Learn to Weave course in the Community Shed from this coming Saturday - if you are interested there are still spots available. It runs from 10am-1pm for 6 weeks and you will learn to weave and make something beautiful in the process - a scarf or the like. Here is he link to find out more and book in.

We also have Maylei back teaching a Spoon Making (whittling) for a one day workshop on Saturday 13 September from 9am-3pm. You can find out more in the post below.

Of course we have our Community Morning on Friday - a great chance for a chat inside or out (Clare will be busy in the garden with Jenny and Corrado and our garden is looking super with all their love and care) followed by lunch at 12pm.

We’d love to see you.

Cheers Leanne