Calendar of once-off events
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All events All once-off events (Cooking, Everything else, Free) Community gardens Food swaps Free meals Markets Farmers’ markets Garden tours Garden clubs
Free subject to ACFE eligibility. On Fridays, 9.30am-1.30pm, starting 3rd February and ending 31st March.
If you have a balcony, a courtyard or a patio, there are ways you can maximise space to create your own little oasis. In this course, you will learn about how to grow food in pots or containers, what plants to grow and when.
Enrol by either phone (9386 9418) or email (info@bnhc.vic.edu.au).
A behind-the-scenes tour of the 10 step chocolate making process at Ratio Cocoa Roasters. Followed by a guided chocolate tasting.
Tasting plate can be adapted to non dairy / vegan, please advise on arrival.
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 with an expert cooking instructor. Learn about Chinese cuisine, watch some cooking demonstrations, then enjoy eating the food with a complementary drink.
The menu: sichaun wontons; chilli and sesame oil sauce; sichaun eggplant; tofu with chilli bean paste; braised pork belly; and chilli oil.
What you will learn: how to make your own bread; how to make your own handmade pizzas; and more about sourdough.
What you will get: handmade pizzas for lunch; your own bread to take home and some leaven; and recipes.
Presenter: Ken Hercott.
Many of us focus on winter as the best time to prune our fruit trees but some fruit trees benefit much more from summer pruning (e.g. stone fruit). Learn how to best care for your fruit trees for health and to maximise your yield for next season. What you will learn: winter versus summer pruning; and how to shape and improve fruiting with summer pruning.
Facilitated by Justin Calverley. Bring your gardening gloves, a hat and a pair of secateurs.
This workshop is primarily for Whittlesea community and school gardeners but is also open to others who are interested in documenting food stories and cultural practices. It will entail using your smartphone to create a short video. You will learn how to: plan your story; film and gather sound; and edit the film and share it. Facilitated by Digital Storytellers.
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.
Louise Ward will lead you through the techniques of wild fermentation and the importance of incorporating good gut health into your diet. You will sample and learn how to make fermented foods such as pickling, exploring the art of fermenting your own vegetables, and how to easily introduce these and other fermented foods such as miso into your diet for better gut health. After the class, enjoy a guided tour of the Edible Forest.
Please take 3 washed jars to take you made items home, 1 litre jars being ideal.
Italian food. See Rosa’s website for the menus.
What you will learn: bee behaviour; the various major items that make up a bee hive and how to construct them; and the major tasks in hive management.
What you will get: a wooden beehive frame that will have beeswax foundation inserted as part of the workshop; and a $5 discount on the book Bee AgSkills.
There will be live bees and honeycomb to look at in a secure exhibition cabinet and a discussion of bee behaviour and hive management. The major items that make up a hive and their construction will be discussed. The equipment a beekeeper needs to work bees will also be reviewed. The major topics discussed will be: establishing a hive; understanding the tasks to be carried out in Spring; how to go about robbing and extracting honey; and swarm control.
Participants will be limited to 8 to maintain an informal interactive format.
This is a hands-on cooking experience with an expert cooking instructor. Learn about some bush foods, watch some cooking demonstrations, then enjoy eating the food with a complementary drink.
The menu: smoked kangaroo tenderloin or lamb racks; murray cod or barramundi steamed in banana leaf; damper ‘flatbread’ with mountain pepper; and bush pesto and goat’s cheese dip.
This workshop is for those aged 14 to 25 years old who interested to learn more about gardening, cooking, food justice and sustainability. It will explore the challenges with sourcing food that is culturally relevant to us and the food insecurity that results from those challenges. It is the third of six workshops being organised in partnership between the Just Food Collective and Sustain: the Australian Food Network.
This is a hands-on cooking experience with an expert cooking instructor. Learn about Latin American cuisine, watch some cooking demonstrations, then enjoy eating the food with a complementary drink.
The menu: Venezuelan arepas (corn bread pockets with fillings); Argentina chimichurri (churrasco steak); Colombian green plantains or papas bravas; and Mexican jicama and avocado salad.
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.
What you will learn: how to identify edible weeds; and how do use them in your everyday life.
What you will get: detailed handouts; and samples in class of prepared edible weeds.
Presenter: Lauren. Learn about seasonal edible weeds that thrive in Melbourne inner north, and gain knowledge about the plants’ culinary, medicinal and ecological uses.
Italian food. See Rosa’s website for the menus.
Taste around 10 different types of teas and chocolates. Discover how you can pair tea and chocolate according to a flavour tea wheel by contrasting, complementing or enhancing. Match teas with chocolates and brownies from Ratio Cocoa Roasters.
On Tuesdays for 10 weeks, starting on 31st January, midday-4pm.
Learn the foundations of growing plants by working in a fun and relaxed environment.
Wednesdays, from 8th February to 29th March, 1-3pm.
Shabina will teach you how to shop for, and use, whole, nutrient-dense ingredients to create meals that are both good for you and taste good. You will learn how to balance flavours, textures and colours. You will also learn how to read nutrition labels and how to plan meals that are tailored to your dietary needs.
They will show you how to easily incorporate this little SCOBY into your daily routine. You will make some milk kefir and then move onto flavouring, making butter, labneh, catching the whey and then making a naturally fizzy and gut-loving soda. You’ll go home with: a milk kefir SCOBY in a jar and ready to feed when you get home; a whey soda flavoured with fresh fruit of your choice to finish fermenting at home; milk kefir cultured butter; and an illustrated recipe card.
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.
Linh and June will show you have to make both laksa and Hanoi spring rolls. You will also get to take home a sample of their laksa paste.
The Fermented Mumma will discuss ingredient selection, starter care, and the processes of sourdough fermentation and baking. At the end, you will take your fermenting dough home to bake in the morning.
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.
Awareaway, I Am Flora and Brunswick Daily have teamed up to bring you a workshop where you will learn about sustainability, regenerative products and circular processes. You will craft your own hanging planter or pair of earrings from a locally grown gourd whilst chatting about sustainability. Wine, kombucha and light snacks will be served.
This is a hands-on cooking experience with an expert cooking instructor. Learn about Korean cuisine, watch some cooking demonstrations, then enjoy eating the food with a complementary drink.
The menu: kimchi, Korean style spicy chicken; haejanggguk (beef, cabbage and spice paste stew); and spicy dipping sauce.
The course will comprise a combination of Wednesday evenings (6.30-9.30pm) and weekend days (9.30am-4.30pm). It is a classroom-based, theoretical course with site visits, not a gardening course.
Participants will develop: an appreciation of the fundamentals of permaculture and the historical context in which it was developed; an ability to incorporate ecological and energy literacy/understanding in the design process; an ability to read patterns in landscapes and understand how they influence design choices; an understanding of the design processes and the conceptual design tools used in permaculture, as background for later application topics; an ability to design food production and other agricultural systems in appropriate landscapes; an understanding of how communities function and how permaculture concepts can be used to build functional communities; an understanding of how trading functions and how permaculture concepts can be used to build more equitable economic systems; an understanding of how settlements can be designed to meet human needs on a sustainable basis; an understanding of how buildings can be designed to meet human needs on a sustainable basis; an appreciation of the technologies that are available to assist in building sustainable lifestyles – renewable energies and conservation of non-renewable resources; and a confidence in one’s ability to make a difference at the individual level.
Trainers: Beck Lowe, Ian Lillington, Joel Meadows, Kat Lavers, Monique Miller and Taj Scicluna.
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.
Learn how to identify edible weeds and wild medicines with Taj Scicluna (aka The Perma Pixie).
Maria Ciavarella, from My Green Garden, will tell you all you need to know to start keeping backyard chickens, including: what is needed to keep chooks; how to keep them safe from pests and foxes; which varieties are suitable for different purposes; and council requirements.
Nadine will demonstrate the technique of sourdough bread making and baking. Take a container to take home your dough to bake at home. This class is best suited to those who have some experience with bread making, however it is not essential.
Anna, the Urban Nanna, will help you find and identify a range of edible fruits, greens and flowers found in ‘wild’ urban spaces across Victoria. You will learn about the basic principles and protocols of foraging, and then move on to plant specifics. You will observe and interact with many types of fruit trees, edible green weeds and useful flowers. You will examine examples of trees bearing late summer fruit, and also be shown the physical features you can use to correctly identify useful trees even when they’re not fruiting. You will discuss the types of locations where you can hunt for wild edibles in the future, and finally how to safely prepare and enjoy eating many of the foods we find.
Overall, there will be around 1-2km of walking over grassy terrain involved.
Visit a local urban permaculture garden and see a grey water demonstration.
This is a self-guided wine tasting experience, where you choose the order in which you visit the various venues. The ticket includes 30 complementary tastings, a $10 food voucher, a $25 voucher for wine orders and a tasting glass.
The participating venues and winemakers:
- Attria Wine Bar with Hither & Yon.
- The Blacksmith with Innocent Bystander.
- Corner Hotel with MoBo Vino.
- Klae with Pizzini Wines.
- Richmond Club Hotel with Rob Dolan Wines.
- South of the Wall with Quiet Mutiny.
- The Precinct Hotel with Zonzo Estate.
- Ugly Duckling with Vinteloper .
- Waygood with Valentine Wines.
- Maeve Fox with TBC.
This is a hands-on cooking experience with an expert cooking instructor. Learn about Thai cuisine, watch some cooking demonstrations, then enjoy eating the food with a complementary drink.
The menu: fish sauce dressing; green or red curry paste; fried corn fritters; green papaya salad; and green curry chicken or red curry duck.
A behind-the-scenes tour of the 10 step chocolate making process at Ratio Cocoa Roasters. Followed by a guided chocolate tasting.
Tasting plate can be adapted to non dairy / vegan, please advise on arrival.
They will take you through the basics of wine, from how to taste to the processes behind your favourite drop. The session will include 8 very different wines to demonstrate the difference in grapes and wine making techniques.
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.
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.
Italian food. See Rosa’s website for the menus.
Anna, the Urban Nanna, will help you find and identify a range of edible fruits, greens and flowers found in ‘wild’ urban spaces across Victoria. You will learn about the basic principles and protocols of foraging, and then move on to plant specifics. You will observe and interact with many types of fruit trees, edible green weeds and useful flowers. You will examine examples of trees bearing late summer fruit, and also be shown the physical features you can use to correctly identify useful trees even when they’re not fruiting. You will discuss the types of locations where you can hunt for wild edibles in the future, and finally how to safely prepare and enjoy eating many of the foods we find.
Overall, there will be around 1-2km of walking over grassy terrain involved.
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