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.

Labels for your swaps

Hi swappers,

We're looking forward to the next Crop & Swap on Saturday!

If you want to fill out the labels for your swapping goods before we meet, drop us a line at cropandswap.bluemountains@gmail.com and we'll email the template to you.

Happy growing.