CITY of Coffs Harbour’s Living Lightly program is funding three free workshops in May.

The first workshop offered by the Nana Glen Food Collective (NGFC) is ‘Basic Home Herbal Remedies’, to be facilitated by Coramba homestead owner Jodie Nancarrow on Saturday 6 May, which booked out quickly.

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Upcoming is ‘Basic Sewing and Mending’ on Saturday 27 May facilitated by the Country Women’s Association (CWA) in Woolgoolga.

This workshop coaches participants on how to bring up hems on jeans and dresses, sew on buttons, hand-sew patches, darn jumpers and repair rips rather than throw their clothes into the rubbish bin.

It’s an educational workshop where the CWA volunteers will be demonstrating how to do the mending, rather than doing the mending themselves.

Participants bring their own item of clothing to mend, to be guided through the process, so the practice can be continued at home.

On Sunday 28 May, the third workshop, ‘Soil Health’, is to be facilitated by soil analyst Ian Epic Earth, founder of the Gourmet Garden School.

Here participants will learn how to manage their own organic vegetable garden, how to plant a garden, mulching, potting soil, watering, how to build raised garden beds, heirloom seeds, soil improvement, homemade fertilisers, amongst other earthy tips and techniques.

A spokesperson from the Living Lightly program told NOTA, “Living Lightly is a sustainable living program run by the City of Coffs Harbour.

“It offers hands-on and solutions-focused sustainable living workshops, events and online tutorials to the community.

“We are supporting Nana Glen Food Collective as they have similar goals and values as our established community gardens, to teach and share gardening skills, to foster community connection, and to strengthen local food security.

“While Nana Glen Food Collective doesn’t have a community garden yet, it is one of their long-term aims.”

Nana Glen Food Collective spokesperson Richilde Flavell told News of The Area, “The Nana Glen Food Collective began mid-year 2022, with a focus on local food and building community in Nana Glen and surrounds.

“We are a group of passionate optimists with big dreams and a healthy respect for the people and history that already make this area so wonderful.

“We started with the idea of a community garden in Nana Glen and have developed a number of projects on the path towards that goal, such as our twice monthly ‘Swap Shuffle Shares’ (home grown produce is shared and swapped amongst participants) and the Summer and Winter Solstice Celebration (coming up on Saturday 17 June).

“From the very beginning we worked on developing a relationship with City of Coffs Harbour council, sending polite, enthusiastic and insistent emails to various staff to try to find the people and programs that could support our vision.

“Quite quickly we found the wonderful Sustainability and Community Engagement team who run the Living Lightly program.”

See the Nana Glen Food Collective Facebook page and www.ourlivingcoast.com.au/living-lightly for more information.

By Andrea FERRARI