Hi friends, well we’re all back to appreciating our local neighbourhood for a week hey?

At ACC we’re primarily working from home, but are still here to help. Feel free to give us a call on 9499 7227 or send us an email if you need anything. We’ve got some meals in the freezer we’d be happy to deliver etc.

Also note that there is a whole network of support infrastructure that is now well-established in our neck of the woods if you need a hand.

This guide published by Darebin Council outlines services for food relief, shelters and support for families experiencing violence, community legal service links and more.

You can also call Council on 8470 8888 and ask for the Community Navigation Service to access in-person help.

If you need food support another good place to start is Darebin Information Volunteer Resource Service (DIVRS) on 9480 8200, Monday – Thursday between 9.30am -12.30pm. You may need to leave a message with your name and contact details but you will receive a call back the same day.

You can also contact:

• Encompass Care, Bundoora: 0422 461 847

• Northern Community CareWorks, Preston: 9484 4788

• Salvation Army – Emergency Relief, Preston: 9471 9111

• St Vincent de Paul - Call Centre: 1800 305 330

We look forward to seeing you back at ACC on the other side.

Look after yourself.

Our paving completed … why not pass by and admire it on your lockdown 4 walk! You could also grab a book from the book library or check out the seeds in the seed library and do some autumn planting.

Our garden is coming along.

And with exciting plans and opportunities we hope more volunteers will come to enjoy time pottering in the garden here at ACC into the future.

Katrina and her special helper lent a hand when the soft mulch arrived and needed to be spread a few weeks ago.

Along with Jenny and Phil who mowed and mulched the never ending sea of leaves, Anne who planted and weeded and Demisse who also tackled the leaves - our garden is now getting wrangled into shape.

Volunteers are an invaluable resource for places like our community centre. Great things get done when they are here to help.

Cardamon and other raw spices

We were very thrilled for Manu that her Chai and Marsala Chai workshop went so well last weekend. It was a lovely experience for participants who learnt not just how to make chai, but also gained a whole lot of cultural insight from Manu as she explained chai properties and history.

Congratulations Manu on your first workshop here at Alphington Community Centre. We hope it will be the first of many.

Here are some photos I snapped during the workshop. We are excited to think of what you can teach us next!

Did you know that sweet and milky chai is best accompanied by savoury food? Manu made samosas and other savoury snacks for participants to enjoy while tasting the Chai.

Kalimna popped in to visit our line dancers last week whilst they were holding their Biggest Morning Tea event - as you probably already know this is a morning tea to raise money for the Cancer Council, to support those impacted by cancer.

Around 20-30 lovely locals come together each week on a Wednesday morning from 10am down at the Alphington Scout Hall to line dance and then share a cuppa and a chat. It is a real community in and of itself. We drop in and see them every now and then, and also support Shirley behind the scenes (the dynamo behind it all) as she seamlessly organises the whole shebang.

She’s a star.

And anyway … lucky Kalimna went along. Because not only were the dancers happy to give her a demo, they were ALSO happy to do so in fancy dress. How fun - I think it should be a lifegoal for everyone to be part of a group that gets together in fancy dress for special occasions! Why not right?

Thanks Shirley, Thanks Kalimna. Thanks enthusiastic line dancing locals.

It really has been a fruity gardening week or two here at ACC. We’ve had lots of posts relating to gardening.

And the latest thing on our radar is medlars … have you ever heard of them?

Fairfield neighbour Bernie, who has come along to Preserves Group in the past, contacted us with a donation of some medlars - a fruit that looks a lot like a big rosehip and that tastes quite a lot like very ripe apricot (I think anyway).

Along with the fruit she gave us a recipe to make medlar jelly which, a bit like quince jelly, will have a lovely floral scent. And she also explained the process of bletting - where we have to leave the fruit out for a couple of weeks to go really soft and squishy, just like you would with a persimmon.

It is quite bizarre, because they are ready to eat when they look quite brown and rotten … but the skin peels off easily and they actually taste quite nice. Bernie says she often just eats them with cheese and biscuits at this point, and I can imagine this would be quite delicious.

If you are interested in finding out more about this unusual and ancient fruit, which has been around since Roman times, you can check them out on the bench in room 2 if you are passing by … they’re in some wooden trays under a cloth doing the bletting thing - take a peek.

Or let us know if you’d like to be involved in the day of jelly making … it will probably be on Friday morning this week or next (when the fruit is ripe enough to use).

Email us here if you are keen to join in. And thanks Bernie for the fruit donation and education!