SET-CommunityGardens – SET & De Buurt

On Saturday, during the wet and windy garden work day, Barbara gave an introductory workshop about growing mushrooms.

Below you will find her report:

During the introduction I explained how you can grow mushrooms and what is needed for this.
The media suitable for growing mushrooms.
The room temperature and amount of light required, and where you can grow them.
How you can grow mushrooms on a small scale at home and what you might need for this.
I also discussed different mushroom species and their special features.
Questions were asked and tips were exchanged.

Next time we will meet to prepare the media for the mushrooms. We will select a dry, sunny day in April for this, so that we can do odd jobs in the garden. The exact day will be announced at a later date, in the Community Gardens group and in the new mushroom app group. The workshop participants are keen to learn more.

It was a short but sweet, fun meeting.

Introduction to growing mushrooms

By SET-CommunityGardensPosted on 3 April 20233 April 2023Posted in Community GardensTagged community gardens, join in, mushrooms, workshop

Leo tried his hand at car repairs this evening, at the Repair Café.

The electric Mercedes C63 belonging to 5-year-old Shiv refused to move forwards or backwards. After 4 years and 888.88 km the car suddenly stopped moving. Leo first tested the battery and (as you no doubt will have guessed) the voltage was too low. In order to drive the car a voltage of 13.5 is required. The old battery couldn’t generate more than 7.7 volts.

Other succesful repairs were:

– an electric oven that wouldn’t close properly following a fall from a kitchen worktop (a special mastic silicon kit was used, one that hardens once heat is applied)

– an adjustable stool that kept sinking (a new gas spring cylinder was mounted)

– a wifi printer that wouldn’t print (the settings were adjusted)

– three bikes with, amongst other things, a flat tyre, and a broken dynamo.

We also received an old coffee machine to patch up and find a good home for. Life is full of surprises at the Repair Café. You never know what people will bring in to be repaired!

Car mechanic at the Repair Café

By SET-CommunityGardensPosted on 16 February 202316 February 2023Posted in Repair CaféTagged repair café, repairs

We have really enthousiastic volunteers at the Repair Café.

In one week, Ian managed to repair the following items:

2 Nespressos
1 toaster
1 record player
2 fans
1 blender
2 voice recorders
1 hairdryer
1 lamp
1 wooden plaque
(The last two items are missing from the photo!)

What would that cost to buy new??

One man, one week

By SET-CommunityGardensPosted on 25 November 202225 November 2022Posted in UncategorizedTagged reducing waste repairs, repair café

Jokes great aunt has a collection of music boxes. Two of the twenty boxes needed some help from the Repair Café. Last month Joke brought along a Father Christmas with glitter in his belly and this week a Merry-go-round.

At home, Joke did her best to fix the Merry-go-round (twisting it to the right, to the left, thoroughly cleaning it up), all to no avail. The music box kept wobbling on its platform. Joke wasn’t sure whether gluing the box was wise, so she sought some advice from the Repair Café.

Twisting to the right, to the left, adding some cotton thread to the pin, adding a slither of wood.. at the Repair Café it seemed that nothing was going to solve the problem. Then Ian, very carefully, millimeter by millimiter, tried twisting the Merry-go-round to the left. It worked!

A happy Joke explained that the music box belonged to her great aunt (87 years old) who had avoided celebrating Christmas for two years. Following the death of her husband and her sister she had begun to feel more and more lonely. This year she finally felt ready to start celebrating Christmas again. The collection of music boxes now holds pride of place in her living room.

Tales from the Repair Café – music boxes

By SET-CommunityGardensPosted on 25 November 202225 November 2022Posted in Uncategorized