blown away

A wind has blown the rain away and blown
the sky away and all the leaves away,
and the trees stand. I think, I too, have known
autumn too long.
..
-- e. e. cummings

In this issue:

Wild & Slow
New brewing club
Apple press hire
OOOOBY Store news
Winter Solstice celebration
News from our network

 

See more photos from the recent harvest celebration

Wild & Slow, 19-20 November 2011, Macreddin Village (Aughrim)

A unique festival that celebrates everything that is good about Irish food: fresh, local, traditional and wild.  OOOOBY will have a stall, and if you have any wild/foraged foods you want to sell on the OOOOBY stall, you must get in touch with us in advance.  Details about the festival are on the Wild & Slow website

New homebrewing club, Saturday 26th November 2011

With the surplus of apples this year, and with more interest in people making their own beer, cider, wine & mead, a bunch of us are getting together around the apple press, some barrels and a bit of yeast, to create something to enjoy in the dead of winter or maybe to keep until the spring.  We're starting with the leftover apples all donated for the Harvest Celebration, but most of us want to brew beers as well.  This is a collaborative effort, we'll be sharing ingredients, equipment, expertise and of course the end product!  For more information, contact Mike

OOOOBY Store news

The OOOOBY Veg Box has had a hugely succesful second year.  We're stopping for the season on 26 November, but will restart at a date to be determined in the new year.  The key thing we've identified for the next season is getting more people involved to spread the work and share the social side, so we'll be looking to expand the network to hopefully include you!

The OOOOBY Store will have regular hours (Thu & Sat 10-2) until Saturday 26th November.  After that, the Store will be closed until the Winter Solstice celebration.  Special arrangements will be made for anyone collecting online orders

We have several varieties of organic chili pepper plants for sale, which I just learned (thanks Mick Kelly!) are perennials.  We're selling them for €3.50 each, or barter is ok -- you will need to do a quick pruning & give the plant some new compost, then it can sit on your window sill until next year when you should get nice hot peppers earlier than you would if you grew from seed.  

We recently got in a small stock of Opinel knives.   These French knives lock in both the open and closed position, are carbon steel so they're easy to sharpen.  We have the regular ones (good for carving, bushcraft, camping, general purpose) and a special pruning knife with a hooked blade.  The French helpfully give pruning grape vines as one of the possible uses!  They do prune other plants too ;-).  Might I suggest a useful well-made knife is a good inexpensive gift (prices start at €6.90 for the regular knives, the pruning knife is €13.90).

Permaculture

The Permaculture Skills Exchange group is continuing to cover new ground, cob oven (re)building and design work done recently. More in the next newsletter!

We now have the latest issue of Permaculture Magazine in the store, or we can post it out to you for an extra €2

We're doing another community book order, including Permaculture-related titles (see suggestions below).  The way this works is that you order the books you want and we then do a big order from distributors.  Browse the full list of books available, then send us your booklist and a deposit (50% of the RRP).  The final cost of your books will depend on exchange rate and the total number of books ordered, but as an example, a book at sterling list price of £19.95 would have costed you about €18 (if you're not collecting your book, shipping is extra).  The profit from these sales, as with all our sales, helps us continue with community/food free events like the Harvest Celebration, the Permaculture Skills Exchange and the Winter Solstice celebration.

Apple Press

Our Apple press has gotten a good workout this season, it's been to about 10 different events!  If your group still has apples, the press is available for hire for a short while longer until it hibernates for the winter.

Winter Solstice celebration- 17 December 2011

At the darkest part of the year, welcome in some warmth and light with this mid-winter celebration.  One of our most popular events, this is a community/collaborative effort, so we are asking you to please contact us NOW if you can help planning & organising, with setup/cleanup, have a stall, etc. 

News from our network

An Irish GM Moratorium petition launched recently.  Follow on Facebook at  www.facebook.com/GMMoratorium
DIY Skillshare & Activism Festival THIS weekend 11-13th Nov
Deep dive event in Cloughjordan EcoVillage

 

Thanks for reading,

Mike & Suzie Cahn
www.dulra.org - info@dulra.org