Australian Food Sovereignty Alliance

Fair food for all Australians

Harvest the market for fresh food in Tasmania’s north

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...by Russ Grayson, December 2013

harvest-launceston

A Tasmanian journey...

THE OTHER NIGHT, we ate local... Tasmanian local, that is.

Doing that was the result of shopping for food at Harvest, Launceston's weekly growers' market. It's located conveniently in the CBD where it's been for more than a year. Here, it brings together fruit and vegetable growers, bakers, olive oil brewers, meat producers and the agricultural panoply of the northern region of this island state.

The market meets Jane Adam's (who set up the Australian Farmers' Market Association) prescription for farmers' market authenticity of no resellers, stalls staffed by producers or family or staff, a central, accessible venue and regular high frequency — weekly on Saturday mornings for Harvest.

It also supplies basic foods such as fruit, vegetables and breads as well as gourmet foods. Those basic foods are the mainstay of growers' markets. The specialty and gourmet lines are really add-ons. Were they and not basic foods the mainstay, then we would have substantially different types of markets catering mainly for foodies and an affluent clientele.

Back to dinner which Fiona made, my culinary expertise expiring after more than a single saucepan of frypan is needed. Here's what went into it, all but the Tasmanian cherry tomatoes and olive oil derived from Harvest:

  • olive oil for cooking from Glendale Olives in White Hills
  • organic haloumi cheese from Elgaar farm
  • scapes from Tasmanian Natural Garlic (scapes are garlic stems with the bulbils from which new garlic plants are grown — they've a strong garlic taste and if you haven't tried them I recommend you do)
  • greens of tatsu, spinach, matzuma and asparagus from the market gardeners at Harvest
  • Tasmanian cherry tomatoes procured elsewhere
  • regional market gardener carrot
  • sunflower seed roasted in soy and sweet chilli sauce from Coronea Grove.

Thankfully, Fiona knew how to put these together to produce a culinarily coherent and tasty meal of regional produce. I volunteered to wash up as my contribution.

THE PHOTO

The photo shows our haul from Harvest farmers' market:

  • fresh and succulent Tasmanian cherries and asparagus at top left pumpkin seed roasted in extra virgin olive oil and rock salt at top right
  • multigrain sourdough bread from Manubread at centre
  • fresh Tasmanian raspberries (Tasmania is the berry fruit capital of the southern hemisphere) at right
  • fresh and crunchy Tasmanian-grown golden delicious apples at lower right
  • garlic scapes at lower right
  • organic haloumi cheese lower centre, which we were told can be fried or eaten raw with salad
  • Tasmanian gala apple and sunflower seed roasted in soy and sweet chilli sauce at lower right.

[button link="http://harvestmarket.org.au" size="small" target="self"]Visit Harvest Growers' Market's website[/button]

 

Goulburn Valley Food Co-op Launch

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Food Fight! New Australian food sovereignty campaign launched

By Claire Parfitt

On 16th May, 2012, in the small Victorian town of Kyabram, the Goulburn Valley Food Cooperative launched its inspiring campaign for food sovereignty.

The campaign launch saw hundreds of people from the local community coming together with supporters from around Australia to watch the film Food Fight.  Produced by the campaigners themselves, Food Fight tells their story and locates this battle in the context of ever-increasing corporate control of our food. After the film, workers, growers and many others from the local community spoke about why they are supporting the cooperative, before enjoying a supper of sausage sandwiches, accompanied by the very same tomato sauce the GV Food Coop will soon be making available around the country.

The GV Food Coop comes out of a long battle by the workers and community in this area, since the decision of major employer and a multinational giant, Heinz, to close its factory last year.  The workers responded to the closure decision by getting together with other stakeholders in the community, including growers, and attempting to buy the factory for themselves.

Heinz knocked back the community's offer to buy the site, despite having received substantial corporate welfare from the government and financial support from the community over the years.

Refusing to be deterred by this set-back, the GV Food Coop has found another site for its project, which will involve not only food processing, but extensive training for workers, innovative distribution arrangements and stable relationships with local growers, creating a wholly sustainable 'food-hub' system for food production and consumption.  The project is based on a foundation of democratic decision-making, and strong financial and other support from people in the region and across Australia.  You can join the GV Food Coop and be a part of the future of Australian food by visiting their website : http://goulburnvalleyfoodcoop.com/

The GV Food Coop, like other exciting food-hub projects now in planning phases around the country, model a new vision for Australia's agrifood system.

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