Wine, winter vegies, and growing our community

Community events …

words by Isabella Donatelli

We recently welcomed back ReWine Wine Merchants for our second sustainable wine tasting event.

Changing the wine game, ReWine offers a wide range of sustainably and locally sourced wines and offers a refill service on all products. This means that your wine bottle lives to see another day and helps to close the loop on the product life cycle.

We also got to see their delivery van in action, and a demonstration of their on-the-go refill service.

If you can’t make it to one of ReWine’s locations around Melbourne, they are happy to come to you, taking the hassle out of the process, while reducing your wine environmental footprint by 80 per cent on average.

With an amazing turn-out we saw many people return, as well as lots of new faces, to learn all about the local and sustainable wines on offer, while building a sense of community once more.

If we are being truly honest, it felt less like learning and a lot more like fun, with wine, food, new friends, and old, how could it not.

As a group, we often think about engaging and entertaining ways to educate about sustainability and low-footprint solutions in Southbank, and we were so happy to see how the community enjoyed and connected with this event.

Don’t worry if you missed out, we hope to see ReWine again soon.

Our community members also participated in the Southbank Community Builders event which encouraged attendees to think about the connections they’ve made here in Southbank, the skills and knowledge they can offer others, and asked them to think about how they would action change in Southbank to build a stronger community.

We had a fantastic time meeting members from other community groups around Southbank and growing our connections within the community.

Community garden

We know it’s getting colder, but our gardening team and community volunteers are still working hard to get our winter crops off to a great start.

If you’ve been thinking about getting your hands dirty in the garden, now is a great time as we start our new round of gardening. This month we are also hoping to empty and refresh some of the green planters out the back of Boyd and get started on some new planting, so it’s a very busy month.

For those unable to attend we are also always looking for more watering volunteers. Just because it’s winter doesn’t mean our plants don’t need a little drink, so if you’re interested get in touch so we can send you more information.

Also, keep an eye out for lots of winter plants and vegies as harvest times shouldn’t be too far away. Are we missing something? Maybe your favourite winter herb or roast vegetable? We are always looking for garden suggestions and love experimenting with new plants. If you have something in mind, please get in touch.

For those wondering, we meet every fortnight on Saturdays at 10am to 12pm. Our next two meetups are on Saturdays May 7 and 21 at Boyd’s front yard. As always, we invite everyone to join regardless of gardening or climate action interest or experience.

About the group

A solutions-focused group of Southbankers working to bring positive change in sustainability practices and education to our neighbourhood, while building a wonderful community. Free to join. 2019 Environment Melbourne Award and KVB 2020 Sustainable Cities Environment Award winner. Reach us at [email protected] or facebook.com/SouthbankSustainabilityGroup •