Contents
You Are How You Eat
Spring's here, and there's nothing better than being on the Fair Food packing line, humming through orders, surrounded by asparagus and greens; or standing in my neighbours' freshly dug veggie patch, sharing the excitement of newly planted seedlings. It's also time for the annual fight with Merri Creek Market Gardener, Joe Garita (pictured) to get some broad beans for Fair Food, before he sells them all to the stream of bean pilgrims coming to the farm from all over Melbourne.
Though food is the recurring theme, the real story is the sharing, the friendships and the continuing ritual of it all. It is these small things, repeated over and over that make us who we are, make our lives richer and deeper. And for this richness people are willing to make an extra effort. It's what makes Fair Food workers willing to travel across a city to be part of a meaningful, caring workplace. It's what makes my neighbours dig a small veggie plot on a hot Sunday, which will give so much more than a somewhat fitful harvest. And it's what makes the Merri Creek broad bean pilgrims willingly pay $30 a box for Joe's famous broad beans; not just because they taste great but because, each year when they put their money into Joe's dusty hand, they fulfil their part of a tradition that honours a connection to land and culture, to a renewal of friendship and to 70 years of continuous hard work and patient seed saving.
These things, these relationships, these connections, these cultural traditions cost us. They cost us time, effort and money. Our large supermarket chains are experts at stripping relationships, connection and cultural "costs" out of our food chain, while their marketers adeptly convince us that these relationships, connections and traditions still remain. So when we get our supermarket broad beans at an impossibly cheap price, we don't make the connection. We don't make the connection that our supermarket bargains always come at a cost; whether it's a farming family's health or income, the exodus of young people from rural towns, the welfare of animals, the loss of soils or polluted waterways, or the ever-diminishing diversity of our plants and animals. But deep down we know it's not how much we save on this or that product, how convenient or how easy we can make our lives. Deep down we know it is the quality of our relationships, the connections to our community and our natural world that matter most. It's these little yearly rituals we share and pass on that make us rich and happy people.
Enjoy your broad beans and this springtime revival.
Chris Ennis
CERES Fair Food Manager
 
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Christmas Closures
It's hard to believe that it's almost Christmas. Well, it's not really that close, but time has been flying by so quickly, we know it'll be here before we barely have time to say "Berry Xmas!" And this year, for the first time, Fair Food will be shutting its rollerdoors for two weeks from the 24th of December to 7th of January.
What this means is that you will not be able to place orders for delivery during this period. If you already have standing orders in place for these two weeks, please feel free to login, go to My Orders and delete these deliveries. In any case, we'll be contacting people with standing orders closer to the date, to make sure you know we've cancelled all deliveries for those two weeks.
If you have any questions or you're finding it a bit tricky to navigate the ordering system, please feel free to call us on (03) 8673 6288, or email us with your Christmas closure query.
Christmas Hampers
Give the gift of fair food this Christmas by ordering a Fair Food Hamper, and help us give:
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Local farming families a fair and year long income for sustainably grown produce.
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Disadvantaged jobseekers a chance to develop skills & confidence in a supportive workplace.
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CERES Community Environment Park financial support to run their environmental education programs.
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The environment a fairer deal. We sell barely travelled, barely packaged organic food, ensuring we minimise our impact on the environment. We recycle boxes & eskies, turn our green waste into more organic food, and donate leftover produce to charity.
So put your gifts to good work this year andg give the gift of Fair Food.
Home Delivery Update
In September, Fair Food launched its long-anticipated carbon neutral home delivery service. Each Wednesday over 100 customers have been receiving seasonal set boxes, extra fruit and veg and other fair foods on their doorstep for just $6.75. This means lots of people who previously had no access to a Food Host, or had mobility issues, long work hours or child care responsibilities, can now get Fair Food.
It also means people without cars can get the sort of large orders of several food boxes, a bag of juicing carrots and a slab of toilet rolls without a major struggle.
We'd also like to give all the folk from Melbourne Express Couriers - a small family owned business from Thomastown - a big thanks for helping make our delivery service a success. With a bit of logistical working out, Melbourne Express Couriers are now happily taking back Fair Food boxes and eskies for reuse! So with Food Hosts closed this Melbourne Cup Tuesday, it's the ideal time to give home delivery a try. Just shop as usual, and change your delivery details at checkout to home delivery.
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Why the Long Face? Melbourne Cup Lucky Draw!
If you have an order placed for next week, you could be the lucky winner of a $20 Fair Food store credit. To celebrate Melbourne Cup, two Fair Food customers (one getting home delivery on Weds & one picking up from a Food Host on Thurs) will be randomly selected, and a little horse figurine planted in their box. Make sure you have an order placed for next week to be in the running.
Remember, we're closed and not delivering on Tuesday November 6, Melbourne Cup Day. For more details, click here.
Winners will be personally contacted and announced in our next newsletter.
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The Marthas Got Green
On Saturday the 20th of October, three beautiful ladies (a.k.a Martha Goes Green) fronted a wonderful class of fourteen and together our troop took the CERES Community Kitchen by storm. A fruit & veg reconnaissance session passed into a crumble, dressing & dip making demonstration, which then became a menu planning brainstorm. The aim of the game was to make a delicious meal for eighteen people, using only what was on hand in two Fair Food boxes and some basic staples.
Working in small groups, a grand pile of fair foods were whipped, chopped, grated and baked into a delicious carrot & kohlrabi slaw, veggie fritters, pumpkin pasta, broad bean & goat's feta mash, kale salad, and the best oven-baked onion & potato salad you've ever eaten. And for the most important course of the meal, an apple crumble and zucchini brownie cake.
Out in the courtyard, under a warm & welcoming sun, we dined... enjoying the fruits and vegetables of our labours.
The day was such a success, we plan to have more members' only cooking classes. Watch this space!
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A Very Merri Picnic
At the breaking dawn of Spring, The Merri Table & Bar made organic picnic food baskets for us to take onto the CERES Village Green, where we basked in the warm glory of a winter well-kept, but thankfully over. On Sunday 16th September, we joined the wider CERES community to devour the more-than-ample contents of our gourmet picnic baskets.
What was on the menu you ask? Mungbean salad, borscht soup, lamb & goat's cheese baguette, salmon rillette with crostini, mini quiche lorraines, delectible little almondine friands, and fresh strawberries. Oh and I almost forgot, freshly popped popcorn and homemade organic lemonade to keep the kids (extra) happy.
And all this organic, local, free range goodness, was packaged and served in compostable picnicware. Like an environmentalists version of Heston's Feast, even the knives and forks will break down! (Did you ever see the Heston's Feast episode where everything on the table could be eaten, including the cutlery?)
Thanks to Kieran and the team from The Merri Table & Bar for such an amazing degustation. You showed our local producers wares off beautifully.
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News From Our Farmers
One farmer's door closes, and another one opens...
The other day, a smiling Ian Cuming from Beenak Farm dropped the last of his kiwi's off to the Fair Food Warehouse before heading off on a well earned holiday. In the same week I saw Liz Burns, from Trewhella Farm near Daylesford, who tells me it's looking like a great blueberry season - that is, if it doesn't rain too much, there isn't a late frost, or a freak hailstorm. You really do have to have nerves-of-steel to be a berry farmer.
You may have seen Liz's 500 gram bulk blueberry packs at CERES Market in previous years. Large and well-priced enough for the true blueberry lover who wants to go to town on smoothies, pies or just an all-out fresh berry frenzy. Although blueberries are the main crop, Liz also grows loganberries, gooseberries, raspberries, silvanberries, boysenberries, blackberries, and red, white & black currants. Liz also sells frozen berries and jams through the winter.
Liz, a trained herbalist, has been working her Sustainability Award-winning property for 26 years. Certified biodynamic, Trewhella Farm applies permaculture principles in its design, with a strong emphasis on maintaining a diversity of crops. This means there's something to harvest most of the year; herbs in Spring & Summer; berries from November to May; Nashi pears in March, followed by herb and vegetable seeds in Autumn; and then root herbs, mountain pepper berries, apples, feijoas and kiwi fruit are harvested over Winter.
This not only provides a regular income but also a buffer from adverse weather conditions, such as the severe late Spring frosts a couple of years ago that destroyed 90% of the blueberry crop - the difference being made up by a bumper bramble berry crop. Trewhella also works with the culturally diverse, recruiting Willing Workers through the WWOOF scheme, an international volunteer service matching workers and organic farms. Starting in December, keep a lookout for Liz's berries in our Extra Fruit and Veg section and also in selected boxes.
Schulz Milk & Yoghurt
Grea t news for milk and yoghurt lovers! Fair Food customers have been drinking and eating so much of Simon Schulz's organic milk and yoghurt that they are now delivering to Fair Food twice a week on Mondays and Thursdays just to keep up with the demand.
So if you get your milk or yoghurt on a Thursday, it'll be even fresher and have a longer used by date.
In case you haven't been introduced to Simon Schulz yet, he's a 3rd generation Timboon dairy farmer, grandson of Hermann Schulz, founder of the famous Timboon Farmhouse Cheese Company. Teaming up with Herman in 2005 to produce milk, yoghurt and quark for small retailers and cafes from an unused farm shed, the business has grown rapidly.
Today, Simon with his 450 friesian and jersey cows and a team of 4 workers, produce and process over 5,000 litres of milk per week on the farm. To preserve the good bacteria, Simon pasteurises his milk at lower temperatures. Bottling their milk on-farm means the Schulz's get the full price for their milk and aren't beholden to the poor returns paid by the large processors. You can find Simon's milk and yoghurt in our Fridge Section.
Fair Food is always on the look out for new organic farmers to supply to us - email chris@ceres.org.au
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News From Our Food Hosts
Food Host Feature: From The Grove and The Vine
Sherri Dickinson and Roger Duncan, owners of Grove and Vine Providore in South Yarra, are the proud proprietors of a business that not only Food Hosts, but one that also shares the CERES Fair & Fine Food ethos.
Chockers full of local and imported gourmet delicacies, Grove & Vine stocks an impressive range of organic & biodynamic wines. If you can't find something truly good & sustainable to tantalise your tastebuds, then you could simply turn up for a Supreme Coffee, listen to a little jazz and generally bliss out. But expect to cave in left-right-and-centre, on account of some pretty interesting & delicious deli goods.
Though their wares aren't exclusively local, Grove & Vine pride themselves on "supporting farmers & artisans who make real food with pure flavours that express natural locations," no matter where in the world they may be. In short, this place will make you go into culinary overdrive, but with the calm lull of fine wine, food and music.
Grove & Vine Providore
Open Mon-Fri 8am-7pm
Sat/Sun Closed
Food Host Hours Thurs 4-7pm
Shop 3/9 Yarra Street, South Yarra
www.groveandvine.com.au
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Events
RMIT Conference: Global Shifts
On the 13th of December, Eleonore (our Marketing & Community Engagement Manager) will be speaking at RMIT's Global Shifts Conference on the forum topic Paddock to Plate: we are what we eat. The conference, which brings together leading thinkers and do-ers from the fourth sector (that is, social enterprises), not only aims to discuss and debate topical issues. It's a hands on, brains on, jammed packed three days, where the interested and interesting will learn & share their knowledge about how ethical business models can and are transforming consumption into care, and creating real and lasting positive social change.
Fair Food and other CERES Social Food Enterprises are all about harnessing a growing preference for truly good, local & fairly traded food to develop a healthier, happier and more sustainable food system. But before we go off and share our experience of running an ethical food delivery service in Melbourne, we'd like to know what you think?
Some questions you might like to consider:
Do you think most people's good food choices represent a conscious decision to live by progressive social and environmental values?
Or are social entrepreneurs & enterprises simply getting better at harnessing the market opportunities presented by our changing food culture (or fetish?) to make a positive social contribution?
Do you think the current food culture revolution is being driven mostly by a moral panic about our modern diet and lifestyle; or is there evidence of a general social and environmental awakening afoot? Does it matter?
Do you feel like you're part of a Fair Food Movement?
We'd love to hear from you. Please feel free to post your thoughts and comments on our blog. Or email us, if you'd prefer your comments to remain private.
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Being Climate Positive
On Wednesday 10th of October, Fair Foodsters and other vollies from across Melbourne donned their gumboots and got into some hard yakka at Braeside Park in Melbourne's southeast. The aim of the day? Plant as many native trees, grasses and other carbon loving things as possible.
You may have heard that our new carbon neutral home delivery service has been carbon offset (we invested in a wind farm). Climate Positive were our carbon brokers, making sure we got high quality credits for a project that conformed to international social and environmental standards. As a voluntary supplement to their program for climate action, we decided to get on board with Climate Positive & Parks Victoria, and get our hands dirty - lending a helping hand to create carbon sinks right here at home too.
It's funny, although we work for CERES Community Environment Park, and Fair Food is all about giving us urbanites a direct line to the local food systems that keep us in good food, it's so easy to get caught up in the business of life. We can forget how the choices we make each day help us prevent and better meet environmental & social challenges. Just by buying sustainably grown, fairly traded, local organic food, we are all making a committment to being more responsible consumers. So yay to us!
But if you ever feel your fortitude wane, or that your choice to live a little lighter on the earth is not having a real impact, consider volunteering with a local environmental group. It's amazingly cathartic to be out in the open, working with others and doing something direct and tangible about offsetting the more unavoidable environmental impacts of modern life.
If you're looking to get involved, consider volunteering with Conservation Volunteers. You can search for up-and-coming conservation projects here.
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A Mixed Dozen Dazzle
I didn't know what to expect. I simply signed up, then received a letter in the mail inviting me to the CERES Community Kitchen for a bit of a mystery meal with strangers. It's not like I wasn't prepared. Part of the fun for me (a relative newcomer to this great city) was to meet people in a setting that would draw us out of our shells, and make us go beyond the traditional, "Hi, I'm such-and-such, what do you do?"
I'm a bit of an oddball who squirms at the idea of attending group activities with strangers, even though I always have fun when I make the effort. I think it can be difficult to relax when the goal of such occasions is simply to 'mingle.' So why on earth did someone like me sign up for Mixed Dozen Meals? The promise of getting to know new people in the disarming context of a platonic blind date was hard to resist.
Plus, I read a book. Yeah I know. Here comes trouble. But this book made me think once more about the pitfalls of modern secular culture and, in particular, the role of structured feasts in creating community and reaffirming shared values. I won't go into too much boring detail, suffice to say that we could use more commonplace opportunities for people to meet in a safe environment; where the rules of the game establish wholesome goals, requiring cooperative action, but without crushing people's creativity or sense of spontaneity.
It's a tall order, garnished with a sprinkle of mystery, and that's how The Baker of Mixed Dozen Meals wants to keep it. I'm not about to ruin his elaborately kept secret, but I will say that the four and a bit hours I spent with a random bunch of CERES locals were seriously well spent. It's amazing how quickly people get comfy with one another when there are fun tasks to be done.
So, if you're interested in creating playful and intimate environments with other guests, and rediscovering the fun and enjoyment of knowing your locals, sign up to Mixed Dozen.
You can expect dessert.
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Save your box & save the world - and your esky too!
Look out for our 33% more attractive new kraft brown boxes and remember t0 flatten your box and leave it at your Food Host or front porch for collection. And don't forget your eskies. We reuse or recycle these too!
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