Yesterday's final Crop & Swap for season 1 has been and gone, it was great to see so many new faces and of course to have all of our regulars swappers with their wonderful produce.
This morning the kids are sitting down to some porridge and yoghurt topped with Grant's Tamarillos...they love them! So does Joe, he just declared he is 'in love withe tamarillos' and plans to have several trees producing fruit by this time next year.

Joe and I are about to sit down to Peter and Amber's beautiful bagels, topped with ham and cheese....ummm, yum!

Steve organised a really fantastic slideshow of the Crop & Swap, season 1, so for any of our regulars who weren't able to be there yesterday we will post it over the next few days.

The Finale lunch was proof of what the Crop & Swap is all about. Set up outdoors under the shade of the trees was a marvelous spread made by the swappers including a giant, Atlantic pumpkin as the table center-piece, filled with delicious pumpkin soup, a giant pumpkin cake, pizza, salad, dips, sorbet, tarts, foccacia, chocolates, slices and more, everyone shared a neighbourly lunch and chatted away into the early afternoon.

Over season 1, 115 locals registered as swappers, there were close to 2000 swaps made between individuals and over 1000 kgs of locally grown and homemade foods and items, travelled home to local kitchens and gardens and most importantly countless new friendships amoungst neighbours have been formed.

Sounds like a pretty successful first season.

Thanks so much to everyone who took part. The April edition of 'The Share Barrow' newsletter will be sent out soon and we look forward to keeping up with everyone via the blog and face book.

Until Season 2,

with neighbourly cheer,

Jo, Joe, Steve and Annemaree

Season finale lunch

Please join us at the Crop & Swap season finale lunch to mark the end of our innaugral season

When: Sat 14th April @ 12, immediately following our final swap of the season
Where: Faulconbridge Community Hall
Who: Everyone is welcome
What to bring: Finger food platter to share and drinks

There'll be a couple of surprises for adults and children - so be sure to join us to celebrate season # 1.

The March Crop & Swap is this Saturday, the second last for the season!

Hi everyone,
                    happy Autumn :)... we are really looking forward to seeing you at Crop & Swap this Saturday if you can make it, it sounds as though there is going to be some wonderful home grown and home made items there this month. We will be sending out the 4th issue of the Crop & Swap newsletter by Thursday evening, so if for some reason you don't receive one, be sure to shoot us an email and let us know and we will check your details on the emailing list. There will also be some paper copies available on the registration table on Saturday. If any Crop & Swappers have anything they would like to advertise in the 'Share Barrow', feel free to send us email between now and Wednesday morning,

So happy growing, harvesting, making or baking,
til this Saturday,

Steve, Annemaree, Joe and Jo

Crop & Swap Culinary Challenge

Rhubarb champagne by Melanie & Alexander

We hope everyone has had a great summer holidays and your crops have survived the downpours and occasional bursts of heat!

After last Crop & Swap, Amber & Peter mentioned they try to use all the things they receive from the swap in dinner that night. So that got us thinking…..it’s time for our inaugural ‘Crop & Swap Culinary Challenge’.

So much of the fun in what we do, is in enjoying what we receive while it’s fresh and hearing all the stories

So here’s how the challenge will work:

1. Come along to Crop & Swap this Saturday 11 Feb, and swap ‘till you drop
2. Whatever goods you walk away with, use as much as possible in dinner that night
3. Share your stories - email stories & photo’s to cropandswap.bluemountains@gmail.com or upload as a comment to this blog post
4. We’ll then collect all the stories and publish them in the share barrow (Crop & Swap newsletter) which will be out again in March.

And no Saturday night dinner will be complete without Melanie & Alexander’s rhubarb champagne. Get your aprons ready…The challenge is on!

We’ll look forward to seeing everyone on Saturday.

With neighbourly cheer,
Steve, Annemaree, Jo & Joe

Next Swap this Saturday!

Happy New year everyone! Our next Swap is on this coming Saturday, 7th of January 2012.

this month we will be sporting a few purple carrots, a boot load of cucumbers and fingers crossed, there may even be a few tomatoes and blackberries if this warm weather holds up. Jo is baking some loaves as well.

Looking forward to seeing you there.

Jo and Joe

Collaborative Consumption

HI everyone, I have been reading a great book called "What's Mine is Yours; the rise of collaborative consumption" by Rachel Botsman and Roo Rogers.

In a nutshell the book explores trends towards sharing and lending resources that we may no longer need or have an excess of, instead of throwing it away. Likewise, if you need something, borrow it instead of buying something new. People are networking together and sharing cars, bikes, clothes, you name it, instead of buying more and more.

This is something that we are already doing at the Crop and Swap by sharing our homegrown produce, but we can expand on this idea of collaborative sharing within our community. For example, many of us make jams, and may need jars. others may have chooks and might appreciate old egg shells to grind into shell grit. Someone else may be in need of bricks for garden beds while someone has loads sitting behind the house at home.

If you have something you want to get rid of or are in need of something else, we will be leaving as register on the resource library table. Simply fill in your "wants" or "have's" and we will post in in the next Share Barrow newsletter.

What do you think? let us know if you have any other ideas about this and how we could initiate it at the Crop and Swap.

Our 2nd Swap

Thanks again to all who came to the second swap on Saturday. Despite the dreary weather, around 50 swappers came along with wonderful December bounties. This month proved to be even more diverse in produce, with Alexander's highly anticipated Camembert cheese, Mitti's mouth watering wholemeal loaves, Edwardo and Grants crisp rhubarb stalks, Jane and Peters dried mushrooms, foraged from the Blackheath forests, and Cathy's Giant comfery plants. Miriams Christmas themed swap display was simply worth the visit alone.

Thanks also to Margaret for her suggestion about the share barrow, that everyone has to put at least one item into the share barrow before swapping begins. We think this is a great suggestion, as it is a good way to remember that the Crop and Swap is first and foremost about sharing with your neighbour.

Don't forget that the next swap is a little earlier than usual, being held on the 7th of January. It will be bumper crop season, and sett to be one of our best swap meets yet. New swappers are always welcome, so spread the word and tell your neighbours and friends.

We hope you all have a very Merry Christmas and look forward to seeing you on January 7th with arm fulls of home grown and made goodies.