The community for cool things you've done out in the real world, or are doing in the real world!
Covers things like volunteer work, community gardens, political activism, organizing clubs and communities in your public circles, and all the information surrounding how to do that stuff. Also covers self-help and betterment, because to help your community it helps to help yourself!
This community's icon was made by Aaron Schneider, under the CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0 license.
Kia ora! Nice to see the whanaunga here!
I work for a social service that does a lot of community building and mutual aid work, but it's something I'd really like to build up more of in my personal life! We've got a community garden a minute away I'd love to get more involved in this summer, and a big back yard I'm keen to do more with.
Meaningful mahi you're doing! I'm keen to hear how you get on with your local community garden so I can steal all the ideas haha
Absolutely! Our own backyard is full of fruit and even some hops, so I've got real into home brewing - made enough wine this summer to be able to share a good few bottles with the community!
Yay home brew! I live in hops central so while i have a couple plants on the deck, it's easy enough to grab some wildling bunches by the river cycle path. I can't have any alcohol with my medications so our home brew equipment is gathering some dust atm but I've been seeing more alcohol free options so I'd like to try making my own. I have planted a hundred + feijoas so I was thinking of doing a feijoa fest and bottle sesh where we all get together, bottle, and share the spoils but I'm not sure the legalities on large-scale community food production. Something i need to sort out.
Anyways please share all your favourite home brew tips and if you have any knowledge on making some alcohol free varties let me know!
Oooh interesting! I'm not sure about brewing alcohol free, but it's something I'd be interesting in learning more about for sure!
I know with feijoa you can make soda real easy with the skins by just letting them sit in a bottle of sugar water - it'll naturally carbonate and will be very low/no alcohol!
I've found wine really simple to make - the formula of fruit, water, sugar, and yeast is pretty much always the same and it's very much a set it and leave it once it gets going! The waiting is the hardest part ๐
Yes! Feijoa fizz! That's exactly what I was thinking of making as it would be family friendly. I haven't made any wine but i was planning on trying some elderberry champagne and gorse flower champagne this spring. I won't be able to drink it myself which will be lame though ๐ฎโ๐จ
Oh exciting!
I've recently got into making kombucha, too, which has been a lot of fun - family friendly and you can play around with using different teas. A favourite so far has been made with a pear and caramel black tea!
It works so well for me cos kombucha is quick turnaround, beer takes a few weeks, and wine a few months - so it helps with my impatience ๐
Ooooo that sounds so good! I would love a recipe! Did you make your own starter or get one from somewhere?
I made my own starter using buch from the supermarket! You just have to make sure it hasn't been pasteurised - if it's got bits in it, you're good.
I boiled some water, added sugar and a few teabags and let it sit until room temp, then put that and about 100ml of the store kombucha into a large wide topped jar until the scoby formed. Then you basically repeat in a larger vessel, adding the scoby and some of the starter, start tasting after 3-5 days til it gets to your desired sweet/sour level!
If you want to you can then put it into swing top bottles to carbonate, but I like it mildly fizzy straight from the initial fermentation. I picked up a cute pineapple shaped glass vessel from kmart with a tap and it's great!
For flavours, i just use flavoured tea! I always add one or two gumboot black tea bags along with them to make sure the scoby gets the nutrients it needs.
Thank you so much! I'm going to give this a go after payday and my supplies run to town. Sounds like you're in my corner of the world so do you have a recc for an unpasteurised kombucha you like?
I have a glass beehive that I think is originally from kmart but my mate found it for me at the dump.
Fun! I think i usually get the Remedy brand, but can't remember for sure! They should say on the label that it's unpasteurised, and you can usually see bits floating at the bottom of the bottle!
Community gardens are fun! I wish I had one here, but it's a bit of a rough neighborhood. What kind of stuff does your community garden grow?
I'm not too sure, actually - last time I popped by was at the beginning of summer and it was a lot of veg!
I did some volunteer work at a cat shelter/adoption agency for a few months, it's a great little place that rescues at-risk kitties from other shelters that would've put them down otherwise. Lots of poop cleaning, but there was some cuddling too - and the little guys were grateful, rubbing up against my leg when I gave them a clean box, haha. I would play some soft music when I worked, and deep down I really hope that I got some of them into Japanese Citypop. Always sad to see my regulars disappear some weeks (we had a list of who was adopted when), but it was still a good feeling since they were finally with a family.
Sadly, I had to stop going since my own cat is extremely territorial and started to attack me when I got home. He began waiting for me at the door, and would barely let me inside - and he's a big cat, too. I tried multiple things, but the scent of other cats was ultimately too distressing for him.
I really hope other places like this exist elsewhere, alternatives that allow animals a safe haven and give them a chance they wouldn't have ever had. Anyway, that's my little story. Hope it's okay!
Dang sorry to hear your kitty's needs weren't compatible with your volunteer work. That's rough but I agree it shouldn't come at the cost of your kitties happiness. Sounds like a lovely cat facility though! In the city south of me there is a cat cafe where they take rescue kitties, socialise them, and have them available for adoption. I think it's a cute idea and I liked getting a drink and sitting with kitties
Oooh cat cafes are awesome!! I have one near me but haven't gone yet, I really should go sometime soon.
It's so fun! This one would give you wet food treats to give the cats you would be drowning in kitty. It was the best
Ahhh that sounds precious!!
We recently donated dozens of plants for two fundraisers in our town - one supporting the town library, and the other supporting the town food pantry. They were both happening on the same morning, so we made sure to mention that to the organizers... There were SO. MANY. PEOPLE coming to the library stating that they heard about it from the food pantry plant sale, and we got a text from the FP organizers later saying how wonderful it was to have patrons coming saying they had heard about it at the library.
Our engagement with the food pantry also allowed us to have a conversation with them about informing their clients about a program Maine runs that allows SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) beneficiaries to receive additional assistance when buying food from farmer's markets. We're hopeful that these conversations will help to bring better nutrition to our neighbors that are struggling, increase support for our local growers, and reduce the carbon footprint by bolstering our town's circular economy.
I really love the idea of additional assistance for supporting local food systems. That's a really great idea! Having to fundraisers connect like that sounds like such a beautiful community moment ๐ฅฒ
It's through a USDA grant, so I think it's something that each U.S. state could do if this kind of program isn't available (yet) where folks are. Maybe I'll try to scrape up some details around it, it seems like a good topic for this /c/
I'd also be really interested! I actually work with plants in my area and would love to find a way to help get more veggies in folks homes
Heard! I replied to Wigglet above but want to assure you I'll work on it, but want to take a little time to get links and documents lined up, try to be extra useful
Thank you so much <3
Definitely make a post! I want to make a mega doc with resources we can put in the group bio.
I'm a huge fan of this idea. I'll start working on some links and documents to make it as thorough as I can for the group.