CERES Environment Park is an award winning, not-for-profit, environment and education centre and urb
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It's Back! W**d Dating.
If you haven't heard of this before, the clue is in the name. Think Speed Dating, but W**ding at the same time. Find someone you really "dig".
The real question is how many dating/gardening puns we can get out of this? Best pun in the comments wins a free ticket to our first session on Sep 16th.
Sessions happening monthly, spots are limited so book ahead!
https://ceres.org.au/whats-on/
🎶 Do you remember? The 21st night of September? 🎶
Aside from singing Earth, Wind & Fire this month, take a one day workshop at CERES and learn something cool. Book your spot here: https://school.ceres.org.au/workshops-and-courses/
🎶 Do you remember? The 21st night of September?
Aside from singing Earth, Wind & Fire this month, take a one day workshop at CERES and learn something cool.
Lessons from a supermarket tomato 🍅
In the 80’s and 90’s Colesworths dominated the grocery market and fruit and veg got very boring. Epitomised by the industrial tomato – tasteless, rock hard with incredible shelf life it was a supermarket's holy grail.
Reducing fruit & veg to generic commodities meant the big supermarkets could buy from whoever grew them the cheapest. Farmers either got bigger and cheaper or got out.
However, the tasteless industrial tomato left a tiny crack for farmers to slip through. A new generation of young, mostly women, market gardeners, free range egg farmers, holistic graziers, apiarists and mushroom growers emerged.
With them came food of such incredible variety and flavour, grown with heart and ethics that the supermarkets were forced to expand their produce and grocery sections and at least talk about the farmers who grew their food.
And then came the pandemic. grocery delivery orders tripled overnight. Customers were delighted by this incredible food. The consensus was that now people knew local food they'd never go back.
Then the pandemic ended, the cost of living crisis hit and the customers just disappeared. It was the perfect storm and it was brutal.
At Fair Food the hardest part was laying off the new staff who had worked through lockdowns masked up on the packing line or driving our vans for the better part of two years.
For other food hubs and farmers markets the drop in customer numbers below pre-COVID levels would mean going out of business.
Farmers and food hubs I talk to lately seem to be just hanging in there. The danger is we will lose this new generation of farmers and many of the food hubs, farmers markets and online box schemes that connect them to their customers.
There’s no government support for young farmers or the hubs and farmers markets but there should be. We've lost one generation of farmers, without the next who will grow our food?
Words by Chris of
If you're able to right now, support your local food growers and suppliers, they could really use it.
Keep your eyes peeled for these legends keeping all 10 acres of the CERES park looking shmick 👨🌾✂️🌳
You'll find our Park Team: Duncan, Xhemal, Jen, Belinda & Peter out and about managing our lawns and gardens, compost and waste systems, building maintenance, safety and volunteers. Let's hear it for the Park Team!
What is your favourite corner of the CERES Park?
Thinking of a green career change? 🌱
Introduction to Horticulture & Permaculture gives you a taste of both and provides 3 accredited units if you decide to study further.
In 15 weeks we'll cover recognising plants, soil and growing mediums, maintaining plants and crops.
Past students have gone on to further study in Horticulture, Landscape Construction, Parks & Gardens, Permaculture & Permaculture Presenting.
Apply today: https://school.ceres.org.au/programs/introduction-to-horticulture-permaculture/
Movie star, producer, director and regenerative farmer Rachel Ward came to visit CERES today and talk about falling in love with the Earth 🌎
It's something she knows a thing or two about. Her new film, Rachel's Farm, follows her voyage from wilful ignorance about the ecological impacts of conventional farming to embracing regenerative agriculture to restore the health of Australia’s farmland, food, and climate.
It's the kind of viewing that fills our cup.
[ID: Rachel Ward is huddled up with CERES CEO Cinnamon, CERES Farmer Rachel and CERES Fair Food Chris. Honey Lane, CERES regenerative farm is in the distance behind them]
Transformational learning using your head, heart & hands. Our 10 month immersive in partnership with Nature's Apprentice teaches the skills for the kind of earth-based leadership and resilience we will need in the coming decades.
You'll cover:
- Practice wildcrafting and rewilding skills
- Eco-psychology philosophy & practice
- Clarity of your personal gifts and purpose
- Apply community-building techniques
- Facilitation, mentoring and leadership skills
- Sense of place and belonging
- New possibilities for systems change
The first program of it's kind in Australia, learn more about the program and book your spot here https://school.ceres.org.au/programs/nature-based-leadership-training/
Less than half of Aussie kids play outdoors most days, and in our urban environment it can be difficult to find spaces for kids to really let loose in nature.
The Guardian shared a cracking article over the weekend about why more parents are seeking out nature play for their kids, and why it is so important (article linked in comments).
Our Nature Playgroups for 2-5YOs meet in Brunswick East on Mondays and Coburg at CERES Joe's Market Garden on Tuesdays. Book a place here: https://school.ceres.org.au/nature-playgroup/
For those a little farther afield we also have an online workshop to teach you how to facilitate nature play yourself https://school.ceres.org.au/programs/nature-play-online/
Here's to the power of nature play 🍃
JOIN THE CERES TEAM 🥖 Do you look at bread as lovingly as our head baker Alex? Then you might be our next star Sourdough Baker, pumping out beautiful organic loaves for the local community from our bakery at Brunswick East.
We're also hiring for a Partnerships Lead to help us achieve our goals. Visit our careers page to find out more https://ceres.org.au/careers-at-ceres/
There's a saying in permaculture that "the problem is the solution", that every element we perceive as negative can be of positive use if we’re creative enough. Case in point, the origin of the Urban Orchard crop swap which has been running at CERES every Saturday for nearly 20 years:
"In the fifties and sixties there was a wave of post-war migration from Italy and Greece. With the migrants came their heart trees - the keys to Mediterranean cuisine.
Right across Carlton, Fitzroy, Brunswick, Northcote, Coburg, Thornbury, Preston and Reservoir a veritable urban orchard of lemons, limes, olives, grapes, persimmons, pomegranates and stone fruit was planted.
For the following generations who moved into the inner-city the fruit trees presented a conundrum – without extended families and preserving skills how could this all this amazing annual abundance be used?
In 2004 CERES had a go at answering the question with the launch of Urban Orchard, Australia’s first produce swap. The idea was simple - a swap table appeared outside CERES Grocery each Saturday where people could bring their excess produce and/or take something they wanted home.
Swapping soon extended to herbs, vegetables, seedlings, seeds, preserves, cakes and more. It became as much a social project as a way to share produce as people made friends sharing recipes, preserving and gardening tips.
Initial fears that some swappers would take too much were ill-founded – it turned out that people were almost always too generous in their giving and too polite in their taking. Starting a produce swap was so simple that swaps began popping up across the country and not long after around the world."
Words by Chris for the CERES Fair Food newsletter.
Come down on Saturday or, if you've got more crop than you can swap, Fair Food are currently accepting donations of excess lemons, limes and bay leaves to reshare. Check out CERES Fair Food for all the info!
Make the weekend count with a one day workshop at CERES! Explore and book a workshop or course here https://school.ceres.org.au/workshops-and-courses/
Good things come in compostable packages 🍃 Packaging our microgreens in eternal plastic never really sat well with us, but we found that other options couldn’t keep 'em fresh. No more. Finally we’ve found packaging that keeps our greens crispy AND can be composted at home, so this Plastic-free July we're making the switch.
Keep an eye out for our new look Microgreens at CERES Fair Food and your local shop. They're 20g bigger too, which means a win for you and the planet.
Nothing tastes better than 30,000 less plastic bags in the world each year.
[ID: Microgreens Queen Jess holds a bag of Wasabi Pea shoots grown organically at CERES]
Calling all those who want to learn to advocate for the environment and inspire others 📞 You might be a teacher, sustainability officer or just a legend who wants to skill up in communicating about stuff that matters.
Learn from the CERES School of Nature and Climate team including Lorna Pettifer our Learning Innovation Director and just quietly, winner of Australian Environmental Educator of the year.
Take the entire 8 week course or pick and choose the most relevant sessions to you. Kicking off this Friday July 14. Find out more: https://school.ceres.org.au/programs/environmental-education/
Oh the places these baby rainbow chard seedlings will go:
🌱 Almost big enough to head on up to the CERES Nursery and on to home gardens across Melbourne.
🥬 Or maybe this batch will head to CERES urban farms, Honey Lane & CERES Joe's Market Garden where they’ll grow big and strong before heading your way via The Grocery on-site or CERES Fair Food online.
🥧 Or perhaps they’ll only make it as far as the Merri Cafe where they’ll make the world’s best spanakopita(personal opinion, don’t tell your Yiayia).
No matter what form you buy your chard in, when you buy from CERES you support this sustainable food system and make it possible for CERES to be 95% self-funded. We know times are getting tougher and it is harder to afford to buy from small-scale enterprises like ours, but if you’re in a position to do so please pop in and make a purchase this month.
Photo in the propagation tunnel by
18-25 and feeling a bit... blergh? Then our new free program might be just for you.
Growing Together is a 12 week program for young people feeling disconnected. You might be feeling uninspired about work and study and at a bit of a loss about what's next for you.
As a group you'll learn to grow food in our urban farms and use it to cook and share meals together. Receive mentorship from a member of the CERES crew and access to counselling through The Opportunity Lab
The first group will meet on Tuesdays 10am-2pm starting on August 8th. A second group will meet on Wednesdays starting in September. If you, or someone you know could benefit - send us a message to find out more. Made possible by VicHealth
HEY GIVEAWAY!
CERES Fair Food just turned 13 years old which means it's about to start experiencing mood swings and experimenting with eyeliner. To celebrate we’re giving you the opportunity to win $150 to spend within the CERES ecosystem including:
🥬 Organic goodies delivered to your door by CERES Fair Food
🌱 Spring seedlings to fill your garden from CERES Nursery
🥐 Your body weight in croissants from The Merri Cafe
🤚 A workshop to learn a new skill at CERES School of Nature and Climate
🪵 Sustainable timber for your next project from CERES Fair Wood
Head on over to CERES Fair Food's Instagram to enter! What fun, good luck!
CERES is privileged to operate on Wurundjeri land everyday.
As the Traditional Owners of Narrm (Melbourne) the Wurundjeri people will acknowledge their Elders across NAIDOC Week by bringing together a public portrait installation on the banks of the Birrarung (Yarra River) at Fed Square .
We walk alongside Wurundjeri people on their traditional lands, as they elevate the voices of their Elders and continue to preserve Wurundjeri Culture for future generations.
https://fedsquare.com/events/celebrating-wurundjeri-elders-during-naidoc-week
If you scroll through our workshops and think "but I want to do them ALL" then the Complete Urban Farmer course might be for you 🥬🥚🍯🍊
Learn all the skills you need to create an edible oasis in any space. Over 14 weeks you'll cover:
- Intro to permaculture
- Chook care
- Beekeeping
- Composting
- Organic growing
- Seed saving
- Propagation
- Community gardens
- DIY backyard construction
+ so so much more
You'll be tutored by Justin Calverley, a household name in the world of horticulture and permaculture. Justin approaches teaching with a mix of theory and hands-on experience to get what you're learning into practice right away.
Our July intake is now open, meeting on Thursdays. Find out more here https://school.ceres.org.au/programs/complete-urban-farmer/
Our next olive oil pick up day is just around the corner - and we're looking for a few more hands to help on the day! Volunteering includes welcoming people, bottling oil and helping to make the day run smoothly. In return you'll receive your own bottle of oil and a whole lot of wholesome interactions.
The details:
Sun 2nd July, 10am-4pm, CERES Fair Food Warehouse Preston.
Register here: https://shorturl.at/ikwFX
This is the last week of our EOFY Appeal.
Thanks to the generosity of 234 community members, we’ve raised $46k and we’re so close to our goal.
We thought we’d share some of the reasons why people from all over the country have donated to our EOFY Appeal over the past few weeks.
Without our community chipping in, we wouldn’t have been able to deliver transformative projects like the Community Garden Renewal 2021 and the Farm Renewal 2022.
We’re just $3k off our initial target of $50k… can you help us beat that?
Donate here: https://ceres.org.au/eofyappeal/
From buzzy bees to crusty sourdough, there's so much to learn in a day at CERES this July.
Our Environmental Education course kicks off for anyone who would like to learn how to educate others about sustainability in an engaging and hopeful way. Facilitated by CERES own Learning Innovation Director Lorna Pettifer, each of the 8 sessions are available as a one-day workshop.
Explore our workshops in detail and book here: https://shorturl.at/atRWZ
Over 300 school kids visit the CERES park every day. But coming to visit isn’t the only way for schools to get involved, we also come to you. All public Victorian Schools who want to make their school more sustainable are eligible for free mentoring and facilitation through Sustainability Victoria's Resource Smart Schools program. All it takes is one passionate teacher or parent to get the ball rolling, so follow the link and inquire if that person is you! https://school.ceres.org.au/resourcesmart-schools/
✨ Today is our End of Financial Year (EOFY) Giving Day ✨
Thanks to the Inner North Community Foundation, every dollar donated will be doubled, up to $2000.
That means if you donate $50, it will be matched to $100 - just like that!
Donate today to double your impact.
⭐️ Link in bio
Help shape the future of the CERES park Village Area. We’d love your input on this particular area of the park, it’ll inform the longterm design to ensure the space is as relevant and useful as it can be for the next 40 years of CERES.
Take our survey to have your say: https://forms.gle/qqCS581Q9EtxUNRX9
🫒 Cintia, Anthony & Olive picked olives in Moonee Ponds, Brunswick East & Northcote. “Olive has a taste for her own species, she’s eating them off the ground” The first thing Cintia is going to make with her oil is focaccia.
CERES Fair Food have shared a ripper focaccia recipe so you can too: https://www.ceresfairfood.org.au/recipe/foccacia/
This is the seventh and final part of the series as part of the CERES3000acres Olives to Oil Festival. We hope you've enjoyed reading them as much as we enjoyed collecting them.
Salvatore, Cora & Michael picked from two large trees Salvadore planted many years ago. Their garden in Fawkner is home to figs, plums and even avocados! “They grow in Melbourne, last year, 900 avocados.”
This is part six of the series as part of the CERES3000acres Olives to Oil Festival.
Here's what is open at CERES on Monday 12th of June:
Nursery
Open 9am–5pm
CERES Organic Grocery & Bakery
Closed
Merri Cafe
Closed
Fair Food
Closed
Fair Wood
Closed
CERES Visitor Centre
Closed
The park gates are always open for a stroll or a wintery picnic on the grounds 🧣
[ID: A photo of the farm on a wintery morning, there are many rows of veggies growing in the crisp sun and white polytunnels in the background.]
Jen & Gary picked from 35 year old trees they inherited in their garden.
“There’s quite a few trees in our street but hardly anyone picks them, so they go to waste. Our neighbour Susie told us about today - she emailed the whole street to let us know there was a pressing happening”.
This is part five of the series as part of the CERES3000acres Olives to Oil Festival.
Elle, Shannon, Archie & Mabel picked in Coburg from two trees on their nature strip.
“We picked them together yesterday with my aunties and uncles and my mum. The kids got all the low hanging ones and then just rolled around in the mud.”
This is part four of the series as part of the CERES3000acres Olives to Oil Festival.
Lea & Sam picked their backyard tree together in Phillip island.
“Next year we will get the grandchildren to help pick them, they’re young and tall. We’ve been married for 57 years. The secret is to fight, but always coming back together. Better the devil you know.”
This is part three of the series as part of the CERES3000acres Olives to Oil Festival.
Cousins Tim, Tom & Pete collected from street trees in Fairfield & Alphington.
“You need to ask first. There are a lot of houses where people have moved out and the olives are no longer being used, so it’s worth asking.”
This is part two of the series as part of the CERES3000acres Olives to Oil Festival.
Pippa & Mac collected olives from a local park in Coburg and at home in Glenroy.
“We picked olives with a bigger group as part of one of our programs at the Carinya Society, a day service for adults with disabilities. We are going to use the oil in the kitchen there and send some home with the participants”
This is part one of the series as part of the CERES3000acres Olives to Oil Festival.
Olives to Oil is about much more than olives, it's about people coming together to achieve something great as a community. Every bucket of olives comes with a unique story, and over the next few days we'll be sharing a few that we managed to capture on the day.
If you participated in Olives to Oil we'd love to hear your story - Where did you pick from? Who picked with you? Tell us your
Stunning photographs by Ana at .portrait
CERES3000acres
Join us for a Saturday morning of mingling, learning and planting as we improve the Wetlands area at CERES Brunswick on June 17th .
This is a volunteer event so free to attend, and lunch will be provided. Numbers are limited so if you would like to come along, book quickly!
Enjoy Wetlands Working Bee, Hosted at CERES Community Environment Park, Stewart St & Roberts St, Roberts St, Brunswick East VIC 3057, Australia, Sat 17th Jun 2023, 10:00 am - 12:45 pm AEST. Tickets are free. Only on Humanitix
Join us this weekend for the final few days of Origin to Object, a CERES Fair Wood exhibition as part of Melbourne Design Week. Showcasing 12 makers who explored what it means to make a truly local piece of furniture.
Open daily from 10am-4pm until Sunday, you can find us in the Industrial School at the Abbotsford Convent. Don't miss our Makers panel this Sat from 11am-12:30pm, where you can hear directly from the talented designers behind these remarkable pieces. Reserve your spot here https://abbotsfordconvent.com.au/event/ceres-origin-to-object/
Photos by Andy Webb and Joanne Odisho.
CERES Joe's Market Garden and farm gate remain open
Update from CERES Chair and CEO:
CERES Joe’s Market Garden is on Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung country. People have gathered here and all along the banks of the Merri-Merri for thousands of years, harvesting, singing and being in relationship with each other and the Earth.
Following colonisation, Chinese and Italian market gardeners grew food here for more than 150 years. In 2003 Joe Garita started handing over the farming one row at a time to Chris Ennis, a CERES farmer. In 2008 CERES accepted a lease over the land from Merri-Bek City Council. Since then many CERES farmers have been involved, and all kinds of initiatives have grown out of the relationship between community and farming. We want to ensure that continues long into the future.
In the last 12 months, since lockdowns lifted and foot traffic lessened, floods engulfed half the farm and the cost-of-living crisis became more acute, together the market garden and farm gate have been operating at a significant financial loss. We need to make some changes.
We are currently reviewing operations and this is what we’re proposing:
The farm gate to open on Saturday mornings only, over winter. Coffee, snacks and a small amount of produce and flowers grown at Joe's will be available for sale. We will review again in spring.
The market garden to remain operational 7 days per week, with a renewed focus on farming. Activities such as volunteering, education and nature play will continue. We will focus on looking after the land which is entrusted to us, and ensure it remains beautiful, productive and sustainable. Food grown in the market garden already goes to CERES Fair Food for delivery to homes across Melbourne, and this will continue.
We understand how much the community loves CERES Joe's Market Garden and have been moved by the level of community support. The farm gate is open this week from Thursday to Saturday. We encourage you to come down to the community-organised event on Saturday 27th May from 9am.
We’re deeply honoured to be the ongoing caretakers of this unique and special community place.
Please email [email protected] with any comments and suggestions.
Andrew Hewett, Chairperson
Cinnamon Evans, CEO
Tim Read MP popped in today to congratulate us on yesterday's Victorian Government funding commitment for the CERES Community Enterprise Precinct. Super grateful for the support!
Whew... that was a big one! Thank you Melbourne for showing us what a community working together can achieve:
Thank you to the people who travelled from all over to drop off their olives, a record 20 tonnes!
Thank you to the volunteers across Brunswick East, Preston & Oakleigh who gave up their Sunday(and upper body strength) to get all those olives weighed.
Thank you to Barfold Olives, Cockatoo Grove and Kyneton Olives who stepped up to press an unexpectedly gigantic olive haul!
Can't wait to do it all again in Hobsons Bay on June 4th.
Sheena Watt MP visited today with news that the Victorian Government has committed $1 million dollars over 2 years for the CERES Community Enterprise Precinct.
Their support will enable us to open more facilities, offer more environmental programs, and employ more people at the CERES Park in Brunswick East.
We are beyond grateful for this support and humbled to receive it at a time when there is so much need.
[ID: Five people stand in front of the farm looking at the camera, there are rows of veggies in the background and blue skies. Everyone looks suitably chuffed.]
Corner Roberts And Stewart Streets, Brunswick East
Melbourne, VIC
3057
| Monday | 9am - 5pm |
| Tuesday | 9am - 5pm |
| Wednesday | 9am - 5pm |
| Thursday | 9am - 5pm |
| Friday | 9am - 5pm |
| Saturday | 9am - 5pm |
| Sunday | 9am - 5pm |
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CERES is a community organisation dedicated to learning and action that connects people with each other and the Earth.
We do this in three main ways:
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