Calendar of once-off events

What you will learn:

• Experimenting with bread.
• The bread baking process with each step explained.
• How to replicate the process at home.

What you will get:

• 1 kilo of organic flour to take home.
• Pizza for lunch, which you make, eat and take home.
• An embroidered apron made from 100% Fairtrade cotton.

This is a hands-on cooking experience teaching you how to make dumplings from scratch. Sit and eat together at the end with a glass of sparkling wine. The ingredients for the various dumplings will include a wide range of spices, seasonings, vegetables, meats and seafood.

What you will learn: the basics to successfully start fermenting vegetables at home; ideas about creating your own fermented condiments; and how to use fermented products in day to day life.

What you will get: vegetables that you will prepare in class and take home to ferment; samples of fermented products to taste in class; and notes and recipes.

Presenter: Lauren Mueller.

You will learn: how CERES produces certified organic microgreens for wholesale in Preston; how to grow pea shoots, radish, and sunflower sprouts at home; and how to plan for a continuous supply of these.

Presenter: Jess Holland.

For young people in High school.

Gnocchi is on the menu and chefs are welcome to take home any leftovers.

Cristina Chang will show you how to make moon cakes. Think mung bean, red bean and curried pork.

This workshop for children aged 5-8 years and each child must be accompanied by an adult guardian.

Explore Honey Lane Organic Farm and meet some chickens. Make a recycled pot and propagate your own plant to take home.

Aimed at primary and secondary school aged children. Go along and learn how to compost, worm farm and bokashi to help reduce food waste. Learn some of the science behind composting, fun facts about worms and become an expert at indoor composting. Meet some real live worms and learn some tips to boost their breeding and appetite.

In a 45 minute ‘parent-free zone’, children aged 6–12 years can learn from their chocolatiers how to make their very own chocolate creations. Includes personalised badge, chef’s hat and apron, graduation certificate plus take home three chocolate creations to enjoy.

In a 45 minute ‘parent-free zone’, children aged 6–12 years can learn from their chocolatiers how to make their very own chocolate creations. Includes personalised badge, chef’s hat and apron, graduation certificate plus take home three chocolate creations to enjoy.

Nina Trinquet and Jenny Cameron will discuss the role of nutrition in balancing hormones, particularly as it relates to women’s common health conditions such as PCOS, heavy painful periods, endometriosis and menopause.

Organised by Green Karma.

Join them for an educational cooking experience that focuses on simple ways to reduce household food waste. Be inspired to get creative with vegetable scraps, odds and ends and excess seasonal produce, as well as picking up some money-saving tips and tricks.

Presenter: Open Table.

For young people in High school.

Cookies are on the dessert menu and chefs are welcome to take home any leftovers.

This workshop for children aged 3-5 years and each child must be accompanied by an adult guardian.

Explore the CERES market garden and visit the chickens and bees. Learn how to turn food waste into healthy soil for plants with help from worms. Learn how to safely plant seeds into soil and care for them as they grow.

For children aged 3-8. The child will need to be accompanied by a supervising adult.

Through dance, art, observation and play, the children will discover how the honey bees live their busy lives. They will play with props to understand how bees collect nectar, make wax and honey and look after their babies. They will learn the bees’ famous waggle dance and find out how well the bees work together.

For children aged 6-12. Parental supervision is required for 6-9 year olds.

Learn how to make arancini balls with Glen from Glen Cooks Food.

Organised by Lilydale Community House.

This is a hands-on cooking experience teaching you how to make dumplings from scratch. Sit and eat together at the end with a glass of sparkling wine. The ingredients for the various dumplings will include a wide range of spices, seasonings, vegetables, meats and seafood.

What you will learn:

• How to incorporate Australian ingredients into classic Italian dishes.
• How to update traditional Italian dishes for modern living.

What you will get:

• A three-course meal with a complimentary glass of wine, plus finger food before the meal.
• A full set of recipes for all dishes.

Learn how to brew your own kombucha. Plus, receive your own kombucha SCOBY starter kit to create your own brew.

You will indulge in the Italian ‘Aperitivo’ tradition. What exactly is Aperitivo, what can you expect to eat and drink, how did it begin, how did it make its way to Melbourne? You will learn all this and more while sipping on Italian cocktails, prosecco and wines and tasting arancini, cicchetti, pizza, pasta, gelato, salumi and cheese. Walking along Lygon Street, you will visit some foodie venues, meeting the people behind the food.

5 food & drink stops, 11 food tastings and 2.5 standard drinks.

This is a hands-on cooking experience teaching you how to make dumplings from scratch. Sit and eat together at the end with a glass of sparkling wine. The ingredients for the various dumplings will include a wide range of spices, seasonings, vegetables, meats and seafood.

This is a hands-on cooking experience with an expert cooking instructor. Learn about Sri Lankan cuisine, watch some cooking demonstrations, then enjoy eating the food with a complementary drink.

The menu: fried pea cakes with chutney; chicken curry; dhal lentil vegetarian curry; coconut sambol; and flavoured rice.

Presenter: Julia Laidlaw from Sporadical City Mushrooms.

This hands-on, beginners workshop will cover basic oyster mushroom growing. It will be a skill sharing ‘tips and tricks’ lesson from an experienced commercial mushroom grower who started growing very basically at home in a small space with no technical equipment in the inner city. You will take home your own mushroom growing kit that you prepared during the workshop, plus the materials and instructions needed to prepare a kit at home (re-purposed plastic bucket & lid, oyster mushroom grain spawn, enough straw for a grow kit, bag for pasteurising straw, small bottle of isopropyl alcohol for sterilisation).

This is a hands-on cooking experience with an expert cooking instructor. Learn about Indian cuisine, watch some cooking demonstrations, then enjoy eating the food with a complementary drink.

The menu: chicken tikka masala; naan, mint raita; and palak paneer (cottage cheese and spinach curry).

This is a hands-on cooking experience with an expert cooking instructor. Learn about Japanese cuisine, watch some cooking demonstrations, then enjoy eating the food with a complementary drink.

The menu in odd numbered months: sushi rolls; miso soup; tempura (mixed fried vegetables, prawn and soba noodles); and seaweed salad).

The menu in even numbered months: fish with citrus soy sauce; ramen (noodles); seafood stock; fried chicken; and fried and marinated eggplant.

What you will learn: experimenting with bread; the bread baking process with each step explained; and how to replicate the process at home.

What you will get: 1 kilo of organic flour to take home; a lunchtime walk around the historic Convent buildings; and a Convent Bakery embroidered apron.

This workshop will introduce you to growing better quality, nutrient rich produce at home even if you only have a tiny growing space. It will include: selecting your crops; transforming your soil by focusing on the soil food web; an introduction to soil minerals and going beyond NPK; creating nutrient rich composts; fertilising your plants for maximum nutrition; and harvesting and preparing produce to maintain nutrients.

Presenter: Donna Livermore.

Italian food. See Rosa’s website for the menus.

The two sessions are on Sundays 1st and 8th October, each 11am-2pm.

Learn the art of pickling, both non-fermented (quick-pickle) and fermented. Learn about the history, significance, and health benefits of pickling. Experiment with fresh vegetables, fruits, herbs, and spices, and create unique fermented pickle recipes.

This is a hands-on cooking experience with an expert cooking instructor. Prepare and cook a varied menu, utilising a wide range of techniques along the way. Finish the class by tasting all of your creations with a glass of sparkling wine or beer. Depending on the month, the menu will include street food from Thailand, Vietnam, China or Japan.

Learn about flours and how they interact with other ingredients. Learn a variety of techniques and textures to create many different types of biscuits from shortbreads, to fancy petit fours, wedged with ganache and dipped in chocolate. They will cover shelf life, storage, freezing and nutritional input. They will include gluten free, dairy free and nut free recipes. You will take home 1kg of assorted biscuits made in the class plus their recipes.

What you will learn:

• How to create, mix and match different types of pasta and sauces.
• How to incorporate Australian ingredients into classic Italian dishes.

What you will get:

• A three-course meal with a complementary glass of wine, plus finger food before the meal.
• A full set of recipes for all dishes.

15 minutes before each event (i.e. at 6.15pm), there is a food and seed swap.

2023 events

Jaclyn Crupi’s book Pasta Love is a celebration of pasta and the people who make it. Unlock the secrets of starchy salty pasta cooking water, hear stories of the Italian grandmothers that Jaclyn has made pasta with, and learn their pasta-making ways. Jaclyn will demonstrate how to make a semola rimacinata flour and water pasta dough and then shape it into cavatelli, orecchiette, fusilli al ferretto, lorighittas and more.