Food
Silvergreen's food supply will come from a combination of permaculture, aquaculture and poultry farming. All food will be organically grown, without the use of herbicides or pesticides.
Like energy and water, food will be provided on-site by the community, for the community. Of course, residents will have the freedom to purchase food from other places if they want, but this will not be necessary. Ample food for the entire community will be grown on site.
While vegetarianism and veganism is growing in popularity, and a good case can be made for the environmental and health benefits of this type of diet, after considerable research we have come to accept that many people need and/or desire a certain amount of animal protein in their diet. Within the ecovillage this will be provided from eggs, chicken and fish.
The permaculture gardens will include herbs, vegetables, fruits, nuts, and grains. Instead of wheat, which many people cannot digest, we will grow oats and corn, and make our own bread from these grains.
Chickens in the poultry farm will be fed a healthy diet of food scraps and grains, and will of course be free ranging. The aquaculture facility will initially grow barramundi, with other fish species added as required. Nutrient-dense water from the fish tanks will be used on the permaculture gardens.
Ideally, residents will choose to maintain the permaculture gardens, aquaculture tanks and poultry themselves, something which could be done with relatively little effort. However, if no-one wants to or has time then staff will be required, the cost of which will have to be included in rates.
Storage and preparation
The community centre will include a coldroom and pantries for food storage, where residents can store the harvests and collect their food supplies as required. The food storage area will be adjacent to a commercial kitchen and café/restaurant. This café will be spacious, modern and multi-purpose, with AV equipment installed, and can be used by residents for community feasts, meetings, presentations, seminars, parties, games nights, movie nights or whatever.
It would be a pleasant feature if this café was preparing meals and beverages much like a regular café, however, this would require staff that would need to be paid. Whether or not this is a worthwhile option needs to be decided by the residents, e.g. if the ecovillage is mostly populated by working people who have little time to cook, then having a restaurant on-site would be extremely handy, and these residents probably would not mind paying for their meals. In any case, the cost of meals at the ecovillage café would be less than regular prices, since only the cost of wages would need to be covered - the cost of the actual food, water and electricity is already covered by rates.
