Pedal to Preserve

On point!!! Lets get those larders stocked for winter.

Not all climate solutions need to be high tech or rely on government. Many actions are small but have high impact when enacted by many people. There is a great, untapped positive power in certain acts of domesticity, and preserving food is one of them. By preserving food when it’s in season and in excess, we can bypass long, convoluted mainstream food supply systems. You can avoid the wastefulness of having apples kept in refrigerated storage for up to 1 yr (HFCs in refrigeration have 9,000 times greater capacity to warm the atmosphere than CO2). You can avoid berries in plastic punnets. You can store the tastiest parts of the summer months and enjoy them throughout the year! Make use of some of the 40% of edible food in Australia that is otherwise wasted.

If you can preserve home-grown or foraged food, awesome! You’re making the most of fresh, local, nutritious food. You save money if you preserve locally grown food too, because seasonal produce tends to be cheaper than out-of-season food. Preserving food inevitably means thinking ahead and watching for seasonal cues to see what is in glut through the seasons. And you can share or trade food with others, strengthening local community ties - an essential part of successful action on climate.

You can bottle, ferment, pickle, freeze or dehydrate, your surplus. You can dry herbs, make passata, kimchi, relish or jam. We included many food-preserving recipes in our book ‘A Family Guide to Waste-Free Living,’ because preserving food helps reduce or avoid waste, and it can be done on the cheap. Use jars you have and preserve your excess. If you don’t have a surplus, ask your neighbours. We’ve helped neighbours harvest fruit that they don’t have time to harvest, and shared the bounty, making us that little bit more resilient through the coming months.

For this week’s have a go at preserving something seasonally and locally available to you. It could be as simple as hanging up a bunch of herbs to dry and use as tea over winter, or you could have a full-blown tomato bottling day. Whatever you choose, have fun with it, watching that pantry fill or sharing the surplus.

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A Manifesto for Urban Foraging - Commoning Edible Cities

We citizens of the cities claim the right to feed ourselves and find medicine from the urban landscape;

We call the city our garden;

We are aware that while foraging people reconnect with their food, its origins, its seasonality, and shape in nature;

We dream of seeing more wild edibles everywhere in the city, and the adoption of permaculture principles to create self-sustained edible ecosystems;

With the interest of biodiversity at heart, we plant and disperse seeds without waiting for a public administration to tell us so;

We care for the edibles we feed from and seek to explore new ways to do this;

We pay attention to local regulations that protect sensitive areas and endangered species;

We are generally against the exploitation of the foraging ethos for commercial purpose, but we dream of a day where edibles will be so widespread that commercial foraging may not be a problem any longer;

We should strive towards cities that are free of soil and air contamination, and free from any fertilizers and pesticides, while raising awareness of and supporting the knowledge of related risks among urban foragers;

We share the knowledge of plants and sustainable foraging with everyone who is genuinely interested;

We find peace and comfort among nature, we honour and show gratitude to the plants and trees;

We respect the claims of all living creatures, human and non-human, to feed from plants and trees, but see the claim for life of any plant and tree superior;

We are part of nature, we are nature.

I am pedalling the streets 🚲 of Nipaluna/Hobart on the search for urban growers and farmers who are interested in sustainable or regenerative practices 🌱who understand the state of the world 🌏 and climate change and are trying to reduce their overall impacts.
I know I can’t do everything myself, when I try to I end up spiralling out of control and energy is lost🌪 I want to close the loop.
Lets get to know our neighbours, they are the growers that either you do or don’t know yet. 🏡👩‍🌾
A social and collaborative approach to sourcing food and growing our local food network, can potentially reduce the energy and cost associated with large scale food production and distribution.🚛+✈️+🚢+🏭+🏗= 🔥
What extra (fruit 🍎 veg 🥕 herbs 🌿 and edible natives) do you grow? I would love to assist in re-distributing surplus to the wider community and generating a return for the producers.
I am working towards having an electric cargo bike to assist me in harvesting, trading or buying produce from YOU and delivering to partners 🤝 in the community, starting with Source Community Wholefoods. I am a part of a team of dedicated volunteers that work in a Cooperative and offer bulk whole foods, seasonal fruit and veg, cafe style food 🥗 and beverage ☕️ service to members of the cooperative and the wider community.
As Pedal to Preserve, I aim to value add to the delicious seasonal fresh produce collected and create wild and whacky preserves and pickles. 🥫
These will be available for sale Source Community Wholefoods and re-distribution by order in "preserved produce packs" options for barter and trade are also available.