Charmaine’s Chat
Was it a book launch or a Rotary meeting last week? We had 32 attendees, 26 of whom were guests invited by Laurelle, Chris and Ange. They came to hear about Jody Vassallo’s new recipe book called Farmer – Recipes and Stories. It was so inspiring to hear how handfeeding her eight sheep on her small property at Central Tilba led to her thinking of the difficulties farmers faced trying to feed thousands of sheep through the drought. This led to her mammoth undertaking of putting together a book to raise money for our farmers doing it very tough. I had no idea so much planning and organising was involved in writing a recipe book. (Please see more below)
All our tertiary scholarship holders have done extremely well last semester. Congratulations to them all.
Yes, the market is on this coming Sunday 28 July.
Also, please mark in your diary that Thursday 8 August is the visit of our DG Peter Ford, so therefore a partners’ night.
Rod Walker has kindly stepped up to be Treasurer while Lynn is away.
Please remember to check the jobs’ roster for each meeting and please get a replacement to fill in if you are unavailable.
See you this Thursday. Another top speaker.
THIS WEEK
Our guest speaker is Narooma Chamber of Commerce President Matt Deveson who will speak about ‘Narooma Dreaming – Jobs for the Future’. He will outline developing a strategic plan for Narooma to benefit everyone, how they will engage with the business and wider community to produce it, collect data, and the process involved.
THE WEEK THAT WAS
What a fascinating presentation last week by Jody Vassallo who is a prolific recipe and cookbook writer and food stylist, now living at Central Tilba. It’s interesting that after working on River Cottage, she sold up in the Byron Bay area and moved to Tilba because she loved the area so much. (Interesting Kelly Eastwood of Eastwood’s Deli and Cooking School at Bermagui also moved to the area after working on River Cottage.)
This is Jody’s 40th book but it’s very different to her previous projects. When she decided about a year ago she wanted to raise funds for farmers, she put something up on a food industry Facebook page and within 24 hours had over 200 expressions of interest in helping her.
To produce it required recipes, food stylists, photographers, writers, plate and equipment hire, someone to drive a social media campaign, marketing and PR people and a crowd funding page. She praised everyone involved 10 writers, 12 food editors, 15 photographers, stylists, and home economist most of whom gave their services free. Recipes were contributed by celebrity chefs as well as farmers featured in the book in stories about them and their families.
Jody was impressed with the resilience and optimism of the farmers she met – “one day it’s going to rain”. Farmers didn’t want her to focus on the problems but just wanted people to know what was going on. “Meanwhile,” she said, “the drought is not going away, if anything it’s getting worse. There’s just so much going on out there.”
She said crowd funding got off to a slow start but in January it started to take off, one impetus being an interview by ABC South East presenter Sophie Longden (also a farmer and former ABC rural reporter).
Given all that, it is remarkable that the book took only about a year from conception in her Tilba paddock to print. Jody wanted to print it in Australia because it was about Australian farmers, and so special arrangements were made with the printers.
She said producing this book has been “an absolute honour”, and in amongst all the stress it has brought her so much joy. Interesting Jody refers to all of her cook books as ‘she’. “She’s a big girl and she’s beautiful, with images by some of Australia’s best photographers,” she said.
All proceeds go to the Country Women’s Association, which she described as “the eyes and ears of the country”, to distribute to farming families in need across Australia in a way that tries to keep the money circulating in country towns. The book costs $30.
Out and About
Joint Baby Book Project at Moruya Hospital
Each year our Club contributes to a joint literacy project with Batemans Bay and Moruya Clubs to provide books to all babies born at Moruya Hospital. The project is managed by Moruya Club. Established in 2005 by then Moruya President Steve Young, this wonderful program is still going strong. About 300 babies are born at Moruya Hospital each year so that equates to a lot of books.
Centenary of Rotary Down Under 2021
In 2021 we will celebrate the centenary of Rotary in Australia and New Zealand. There’s a host of ideas being developed on both sides of the Tasman about how best to celebrate it, everything from tree plantings, to grand events with various dignitaries, to a Peace Building Symposium, to a baton relay.
This milestone is seen as a great opportunity to raise awareness of Rotary in our region and to showcase the work Rotary and each club does in our communities and around the world. Facebook is going gangbusters with updates, stories and videos; http://www.facebook.com/Rotary100downunder.
RI Pres Mark Maloney not visiting Narooma
RI President Mark Maloney and his wife Gay will visit Australia briefly in September following the Christchurch Zone 8 Conference. He will be in Sydney 23rd September before flying to Melbourne on Tuesday 24th. Rotarians are invited to attend a dinner with him at Woolwich (300 people maximum so you will need to book ASAP).
On a lighter note – more paraprosdokians
(Try saying that!)
- If I agreed with you, we’d both be wrong.
- War does not determine who is right, only who is left.
- A diplomat is someone who can tell you to go to hell in such a way that you will look forward to the trip.
- You’re never too old to learn something stupid.
NEXT WEEK:
Renewable Energy Expo committee meeting at 5pm at the Golf Club followed by a dinner meeting