'Making Time' exhibition by Makeshift in Perth

Dear friends,

We’ve just begun a new project in Perth called ‘Making Time’, as part of the P4 (pilot) initiative from Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts & Performance Space. It’s happening at PICA, where we’ll be pickling, preserving, making jam and having conversations about our practice with participants this weekend only (11am – 6pm Saturday/Sunday) in the Westend Gallery. After Sunday, our improvised test kitchen can still be viewed (without us) until December 19, as part of the Now! Right! Now! live art program.

If you know anyone west side who would be willing to share their pickling skills or recipes with us, has an overburdened olive, fig or lemon tree (or any other surplus backyard produce, native or otherwise), knows where some good public fruit can be found, or who might be interested in visiting us to hear more about what we do … or for any other reason, please send them down quicksticks. We only have a very short time here, so any personal connections would be very much appreciated.

We’re taking appointments for mini preservation workshops by phone (0411 873 322) and email (makingtime@makeshift.com.au). Preservable foodstuffs can be brought in anytime, and recipes can most certainly be emailed to us if you’re too far away to attend in person. We promise to try our hand at anything you send in...

The project can also be followed online here: www.making-time.net
 
Best regards,
Tessa & Karl

makeshift
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www.makeshift.com.au
& www.makeshift.com.au/journal
0411 873 322 / 9357 1528
mailbox@makeshift.com.au
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Cholocate coated kawakawa berries

Kawakawa ice cream

Wild food walks in Daylesford

Alexis Pitsopoulos, locavore, DJ and Edible weed expert, runs regular on demand wild foods workshops at the Daylesford Neighbourhood Centre. Call DNC on 5348 3569 to enquire about the next one or you can join Alexis' mailing list.
Also check out this awesome blog post by Patrick Jones on a recent weed walk with Alexis.

Feral food future

Eating weeds, as I’m beginning to understand, is the most radical food supply available. It is one that attends to the desire to make the transition to ecologically embedded modes of existence, transitioning to a feral food future perhaps more suited to non-Indigenous Australians. We are, after all, weeds ourselves. However, with expanding populations a relocalised food supply system is going to rely on biodiverse modes of supply that Malthus could have only dreamed of. Permaculture shows us how to cohabit the earth again alongside non-human nature while generating an abundant and diverse food supply. Permaculture is a transitional ideology, a framework for putting all the local food supply options back on the table – foraging for feral fruits and nuts, growing annual and perennial vegetables, eating edible weeds, developing reciprocal relationships with other species, eating much less or no meat, understanding the importance of micro-fauna and micro-fungi networks to enhance soils for greater food abundance
Patrick Jones from Greenwash #13 article published in In Trouble

Wild fennel and whitebean dip!

Wild fennel foraged from the train tracks around Daylesford made into a fine fine blend with white beans and fetta.

Wild food foraging

What is important to me, and what Frank also taught, is people need to re-learn foraging, healing and celebrating with wild plants. These humble, undomesticated, feral beings. Domestication leads to docility, to a slow death of our senses and a loss of connection to our soul.
I believe individuals need to start learning ‘skills for self reliance’. We live in challenging times with global warming, peak oil, food security and sustainability being the new buzz-words.
Re-discovering the lost art of foraging is a joyous and pleasurable way to reconnect our fragmented souls back with Nature, back to the ancient roots of this land, and ultimately back to our true kinship with each other.
The coming years on an individual and collective level will be challenging, it is up to us to face those changes directly, to re-empower ourselves and support each other. And the humble plant kingdom has a lot to teach us all.
-- Robin Harford
Wild foods foraging courses