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Something
to say?
If you have a question, a comment or a suggestion about the co-op click here to email them.

If you have a comment about or a suggestion for the website please click here to email them.

Moving?
When members move house, change phone numbers or email addresses, click here to email them to the co-op.

Passing on
the true cost
of EFTPOS
Businesses that provide an EFTPOS facility are charged a fee for each transaction. While the co-op has always charged a fee on credit card transactions, we haven't applied it to shoppers using debit cards or EFTPOS transactions. However, transaction fees cost the co-op around $500 a month and we need to recoup that cost. So rather than include this cost in our product markups, as other businesses do, the co-op applies a surcharge on both credit card and debit card (e.g., VisaDebit) transactions and on EFTPOS (savings or cheque) transactions. Applying the charge is fairer than extending the cost to cash shoppers. The change was introduced on July 2, 2007.

Fruit+veg availability
on line
We've added what's in stock in fruit and veg to the Products page. Just go to the WHAT WE SELL section. The list also includes fresh herbs and spices and is updated weekly.

Food grants to community groups
Alfalfa House offers monthly food grants to community and activist groups with similar objectives to help them with food costs for special events such as conferences, workshops and public forums. To view details of the scheme, click here.

Organic food sales leap
despite drought
A new report from Australia's key organic certification body, the Biological Farmers of Australia (BFA), has found that organic produce growers have seen an 80 percent growth in farm-gate sales over the last four years, despite the widespread drought. The organic market is now worth around $230 million a year and there are 2750 certified growers in Australia. Australia now boasts the largest area of organic farmland in the world. The BFA's Andrew Monk says while sales of grains and beef have been slightly affected by factors such as drought, sales of fruit and vegetables are growing.
ABC News July 22, 2008

Survey '07: the results are in
After months of collating and recording the data and the many comments, the results of last years' Member Survey are in. The response was beyond what we expected. To view the survey, click here. (File size: 120KB)

The limits to brown rice
Australian-grown organic and biodynamic brown rice (long and short grain) is in short supply at the moment, which has meant Alfalfa House has run out and there won't be any more for now. There are quarantine restrictions on imported organic brown rice. To read more about the global rice shortage, click here.

A guide to apples
It's apple season and with so many varieties it can be difficult to remember when the different ones are available. So we've come up with a guide similar to the one we've done for potatoes. Check them both out on our fruit+veg page by clicking here.

Guerrilla gardener movement
takes root in L.A.
Brimming with lime-hued succulents and a lush collection of agaves, one shooting spiky leaves 10 feet into the air, it's a head-turning garden smack in the middle of Long Beach's asphalt jungle. But the gardener who designed it doesn't want you to know his last name, since his handiwork isn't exactly legit. It's on a traffic island he commandeered. "The city wasn't doing anything with it, and I had a bunch of extra plants," says Scott. Scott is a guerrilla gardener, a member of a burgeoning movement of enthusiasts who plant without approval on land that's not theirs. To read the whole story click here.

Peanut butter crisis
The co-op has run out of Australian organic roasted peanuts to feed the peanut butter making machine. We can't get any more until March 2009. We can get standard (i.e., conventionally-grown) roasted peanuts, but want to be guided by our members whether to or not. So, next time you're in the co-op why not pop your suggestion into the wooden Suggestions Box near the breads or email the Groceries Coordinator by clicking here. There's another option: ditch the peanuts in favour of freshly-ground roasted organic cashew butter, which we currently have in the machine. (The almond butter machine is away for a maintenance overhaul.) Let us know what you think.

New products
Powdered soapnut laundry satchets. More effective than the whole husks and arguably the best natural laundry detergent available.
Organic Ways biodynamic eggs, pre-packaged by the dozen. These eggs have a rich yellow yolk.
Organic amaranth flour. A good gluten-free alternative to rice flour.
Also see Products.

Out of stock or in limited supply
While supplies of Cleopatra's bath milk have improved, stocks are very limited and are only delivered to the shop on Mondays. There is a limit of one bottle (two litres) per member number per day. Unfortunately, no pre-orders can be made.
Organic mung beans have been unavailable since October 2007. We're unsure when stock will next be available.
Australian-grown organic roasted peanuts and peanut butter is unavailable until March 2009.
Only conventionally-grown chickpeas are currently available due to a reduction in the domestic organic harvest due to drought.
Organic red split lentils are currently unavailable. New supplies are being sought. In the meantime we have sourced a supply of whole red lentils.
Organic red kidney beans, white kidney beans, lima beans, navy beans and borlotti beans are currently unavailable. Our supplier isn't impressed with the quality and has chosen not to stock them. We are investigating other possibilities.

Our decrepit food factories point
to looming breakdown
For years now, critics have been speaking of modern industrial agriculture as “unsustainable”, though what form the “breakdown” might take or when it might happen has never been certain. Would the aquifers run dry? The pesticides stop working? The soil lose its fertility? All these breakdowns have been predicted and they may yet come to pass. But if a system is unsustainable — if its workings offend the rules of nature — the cracks and signs of breakdown may show up in the most unexpected times and places. Two stories in the news this past year, stories that on their faces would seem to have nothing to do with each other let alone with agriculture, may point to an imminent breakdown in the way we're growing food today. To read the full story, click here.

Famous graffiti graces our wall
Who knows why renowned British graffiti artist Banksy chose our side wall to stencil a metre-high painting of a man wearing an old-fashioned diving helmet. It's believed Banksy visited Sydney about five years ago and left a few wallpieces. Tugi Balog, who founded the curated street art gallery in Mays Lane, St Peters, believes "about three or four" examples of Banksy's work still exist in Sydney. The one on our wall is a reverse of one that appeared in a Melbourne laneway at roughly the same time, suggesting the famously elusive British artist – not even his agent has met him – flipped his paper stencil after soaking one side with paint.

The sale of a Banksy design on a wall in Notting Hill in London for £208,000 ($455,000) mid-January suggests our side wall may be more valuable than the building itself. Unfortunately, we don't own the building. However, if we ever get around to painting a mural on that grey stretch of wall, we'll have to find a way to incorporate Banksy.

Graffiti artists keep the whereabouts of Banksy's other artworks secret because there are fears the rocketing price of his work could see the works removed, walls and all. "He [Banksy] painted with a few people I know and he's kept in touch with them," Balog says. "But within that culture they keep it quiet – they don't want too many to know about it."

P.S. We nearly lost the diver when Marrickville Council's graffiti removers blasted the wall recently. Resilient as he is elusive, Banksy survived, albeit somewhat muted.

Edited from a piece by Richard Jinman Arts Editor
Sydney Morning Herald January 17, 2008

Have your say
in running
the co-op
The Management Committee (MC), which comprises seven members, oversees the co-op's financial management and general policy-making. All members are very welcome to come to the monthly MC meetings and raise proposals and speak to them, although only MC members can vote. The MC meets the fourth Wednesday of the month.

A typical MC meeting agenda would include

1. Attendance, Apologies
2. Confirmation of and business arising from the previous minutes
3. Membership:
   new members, resignations, forfeitures
4. Reports: Finance, Co-op Coordinator, Stock, Staff meeting
5. Current Matters
6. Correspondence
7. Other Matters

The next MC meeting is on Wednesday Sep. 24
from 7.30pm
Black Rose Bookshop
22 Enmore Road, Newtown

Make your
own cleaning products
if you've ever wanted to make your own household cleaners but didn't know what to use and how much, The Watershed has come up with a number of sure-fire recipes to deal with that hard-to-remove stain or to get that filthy stovetop sparkling as new. To view the impressive list of homemade recipes for Laundry Detergent, Oven Cleaner, Gunktion, Fridge+Freezer Cleaner, Spot Remover, All-Round Cleaner, Bathroom Cleaner, and Window+ Mirror Cleaner, click here. The co-op stocks the base ingredients for these recipes.

Cockroach treatments
Here are some simple preventative steps we can take to make our homes less attractive to the cockroach, as well as six remedies that don't involve pesticides. Click here to find out more.

What's that spud good for?
It's one of the most asked questions. And with so many varieties of potato available these days, it's hard to keep track of them all. To ease the burden on your memory, check out our Guide to Potatoes on our fruit+veg page by clicking here.

AH voted best fruit and veg
shop in the
inner west
Alfalfa House has been voted Best Fruit and Vegetable Store in 2007's Inner West Local Business Awards. A big thanks to all those who voted for us.