What Does It Mean To Know Your Food?
It could mean going out to meet the very people who grow the food that you eat. Sometimes it means working alongside others to get more local food onto more plates. Other times it means taking a back seat and lettings others drive the conversation, particularly people who don't often get the chance to be heard.
The point being, at the Melbourne Food Hub our goal is work with you to get to know your food system any and every way you can. As always, we're grateful to you for growing with us!
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Meet Your Farmers
Valuing the food that we eat starts from knowing where it came from. That means knowing who grew it, how it was grown, and what it takes to get it from paddock to plate.
At this farm tour on May 22, we'll take you out to Willowmavin, about an hour north of Melbourne, to meet the farmers behind Dalhousie Farm & Remi's Patch. We're big fans of both farmers because they work hard to not only produce fresh, nutrient-rich food, but also because they use farming practices that sow care and kindness back into the soil.
You'll get a hands-on intro to bio-intensive farming from Remi of Remi's Patch, complete with the chance to harvest your own organic veg to take home.
Annemaree of Dalhousie Farms will introduce you to her hundreds of happy hens, explaining her chooks' give-and-take relationship with the land. She'll also have tea and cake available for everyone, and a fire pit burning if it's cold.
Tickets are inclusive of transportation between Melbourne and the farms. Discounted tickets are available to Willowmavin locals, Sustain members, and Grow / Source / Eat subscribers.
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Listen In: Farming, Food & Feminism
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The theme of the recently concluded Urban Agriculture Forum was Care Farming and Gardening in the Climate Emergency, a topic we felt we couldn't talk about without highlighting the food system's best carers: Women.
Over dinner and drinks at Jamsheed Urban Winery, we held a panel discussion with five women in the food space who've carved out successful spaces for themselves and others: Clare Harvey of the Melbourne Food Hub, Sophia Bagatsing of Landcare, Kate Sutton of Farmer Incubator, Isabelle Kember from Growing Farmers and Mama Queyea of The United African Farm.
We chose our panelists in the hopes of bringing together a range of women who actively participate in food and farming through different avenues, whether it be sowing the seeds, communicating a vision or managing a team.
We thought this was a discussion worth sharing, so we're making the recording available to to you here.
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We've found that nothing brings people together like a shared appreciation for local food.
Last month, we struck up a new partnership with Chef Josh Nicholson, who'll now be cooking our sustainably-sourced produce into his dishes at Josie at Jamsheed. Josh is the sort of chef who has been known to forage for his own mushrooms, and his restaurant is housed in the Jamsheed Urban Winery--a fully functional winery located in the heart of Preston--so this partnership is the stuff of our dreams.
This is the first in what we hope will be a series of institutional partnerships with values-aligned restaurants, cafes, schools and offices. We're looking for organisations and companies who'd like to source fresh and local produce, become a collection point for produce parcels, or link up for corporate volunteering activities at the Melbourne Food Hub Farm.
If you're keen to work with us, get in touch!
Pictured above are edible flowers sourced from the Melbourne Food Hub Farm, served at the Urban Agriculture Forum dinner.
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Introducing: Cardinia Community Food Hub
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This May we launched the pilot program of our new initiative, the Cardinia Community Food Hub (CCFH)!
Located at the Limebox Cafe in Pakenham, CCFH aims to be a valuable space for the community of eaters to engage with food through locally grown fruit and vegetables. Together, we are building an ethical, healthy, just and equitable food system in Cardinia.
At the moment, CCFH is running a Local Food Box pilot program that sources from small- and medium-scale farmers in the greater Cardinia region where possible, and wider Victoria when required. In partnership with Hopeworks Community Solutions, the pilot also provides workplace training to young people. This means that the produce is packed with care by Cardinia's youth community.
The program is made possible by Working for Victoria grant funding. It is being developed by Sustain: The Australian Food Network, in partnership with Hopeworks. It is informed by the Cardinia Shire Council through the Cardinia Food Circles project.
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