Calendar of once-off events

8 sessions on consecutive Wednesdays starting 21st April, each 9.30am-midday.

This introductory course will provide the practical skills and knowledge in a broad range of tasks in gardening work including safe handling and use of pesticides, general workplace safety, skills in propagation, compost making, tending plants, treating weeds and irrigation.

Join Alice Zaslavsky in conversation about her new book In Praise of Veg, which comprises plant-based recipes. Alice will talk about the joy of cooking and eating veggies, share some plant-based cooking tips and tricks, reveal some of her favourite plant-based restaurants and cafes, and importantly, talk about why eating more plants is one way we can take action on the climate emergency.

What you will learn:

• How to prepare authentic authentic Roman dishes.
• How to adapt Australian ingredients to Italian dishes.

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.

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 get started with keeping chickens in a suburban backyard.
• How to house and protect chooks from predators.
• How chooks can be used to improve your garden and soil.

Presented by Tess Gosling. Keeping a few chooks in the backyard used to be a staple of Australian suburban life, and their eggs made up a healthy part of our diet. But even though our house blocks might be shrinking, a smaller backyard doesn’t necessarily mean an end to raising or enjoying them. In this class, you will find out just how easy it is to keep a few hens as pets and as the ultimate garden recyclers, as well as everything you need to know about housing, protecting and feeding them, and lots of practical ideas on how to live harmoniously with them in your garden. Suitable for those who have never kept chooks before.

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.

Learn to craft your own pizza dough from scratch. Taste a variety of topping combinations. Eat together at the end with a couple of glasses of wine.

Learn about the flavours of Middle Eastern cooking. Try out recipes and cooking methods while preparing a three course menu. Stay and share your freshly prepared dinner with the group.

This is a hands-on cooking experience with an expert cooking instructor. Explore the fundamentals of cooking ingredients, spices and flavour profile, then enjoy with complimentary wine or beer. The menu: chicken tikka masala, prawn curry masala, naan, mint raita and palak paneer.

Learn how to grow high profit crops with Farmer Ben including: bed preparation; farm toolkit; how to build a polytunnel; working with a BCS walk behind tractor; choosing crops; and pest control.

Organised by Australian Plants Society – Yarra Yarra, there will be sales of native and indigenous plants plus books.

The plant sellers will include: APS Yarra Yarra growers; La Trobe Wildlife Sanctuary nursery; Natural Plantscape Nursery; Sunvalley Plants Nursery; and Vaughan’s Australian Plants.

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.

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.

Collingwood Children’s Farm have organised a series of three live workshops to be held on the farm over the course of the day:

Discovery walk with Glenn Clapton (11:30am): a sensory discovery walk introducing indigenous and native medicinal and edible plants. Learn how insects, birds, marsupials and other wildlife, fungi and plants and waterways are all interdependent and why these ecosystems are essential to growing food and supporting agriculture and urban agriculture. Learn about the work the Narrap Rangers do caring for Country and restoring these essential ecosystems on Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung country.

Market garden tour with Simeon Ash and Rachel Freeman (1:00pm): tour their new market garden. Learn growing tips to take home to your own patch of sun plus growing principles for productivity, garden design and discuss some concepts of regenerative agriculture. Explore ideas such as: seedlings versus direct seeded crops; weed management; irrigation set-ups;and crop timing and rotations for Melbourne based city gardens.

Novel crops with Chris Williams (2:30pm): learn about a range of perennial or unusual edibles, including sweet potatoes, New Zealand yams, taro, bitter melon and water chestnuts. Chris will explain how to propagate and grow these species successfully in Melbourne. Participants will receive sweet potato cuttings to prepare for growing next spring.

Join The Perma Pixie on an outdoor adventure that will focus on identifying edible and medicinal weeds and wild food. Discover the properties and actions these plants have to nourish and heal, and discuss recipes and ways to prepare these plants for palatability and practicality.

This is a hands-on cooking experience with an expert cooking instructor. Explore the fundamentals of cooking ingredients, spices and flavour profile, then enjoy with complimentary beer and wine. The menu: chao shuo, ganbian sijidou, mapo tofu, dong po rou and la yu.

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.

This masterclass will feature the lesser know regions on Euro-asia. Included in the ticket price, you get to try 6 amazing wines, a grazing platter at intermission and drink specials after the event.

This is a hands-on cooking experience with an expert cooking instructor. Make a 3 course meal using local and native ingredients, including ,learning their health benefits, and then enjoy with complimentary wine or beer. The prepared dishes will have an Asian them and will include the ingredients quandong, lemon myrtle, mountain pepper, native thyme and kakadu plum.

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.
• Savory calzone for lunch, which you make, eat and take home.

The focus will be on ciabatta and turkish breads.

Join Miranda Sharp to meet a range of growers, producers and community organisations all playing a role in supporting urban agriculture and a local food system. Enjoy a behind the scenes tour of site partners The Mushroomery, Farmwall and 3000Acres.

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.

Angelo Eliades from Deep Green Permaculture will explain how to sow seeds, raise seedlings, and transplant them to the garden or into pots, where they can continue growing happily and produce seeds of their own. You’ll also learn how to save seeds from various plants, how to best store them, and how long different seeds can be kept.

Registration essential.

What you will learn:

• How to prepare seafood as an entrée, main course or as finger food.
• Techniques for cooking seafood successfully.

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 make sourdough at home. Taught by Sandy Bennett. Participants will learn step-by-step, have the opportunity to ask questions and receive take-home notes.

In this class for beginners, The Fermented Mumma will teach you how to create your own tough-crusted and dense sourdough. Introduce yourself to a sourdough starter and explore its mechanics and proper care. This workshop will cover ingredient selection, starter care, and the processes of sourdough fermentation and baking. You will also take your fermenting dough home to bake in the morning.

Learn how to create handmade chocolates from start to finish using your creative influences to make unique flavours and shapes. They will cover flavour combinations, ganache based flavours, nut pralines, enrobing methods and finishes. You will take home all you make in the workshop along with the recipes and an instruction booklet.

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:

• Vegetarian recipes with simple ingredients.
• How to use leftovers to prepare creative and ingenious dishes.
• How to cook delicious meals on a budget.

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.

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.

This is a hands-on cooking experience with an expert cooking instructor. Explore the fundamentals of cooking ingredients, spices and flavour profile, then enjoy with complimentary winer. The menu: makizushi, dashi, ramen and okonomiyaki.

This is a hands-on cooking experience with an expert cooking instructor. Explore the fundamentals of cooking ingredients, spices and flavour profile, then enjoy with complimentary beer and wine. The menu: chao shuo, ganbian sijidou, mapo tofu, dong po rou and la yu.

This is a hands-on cooking experience with an expert cooking instructor. Explore the fundamentals of cooking ingredients, spices and flavour profile, then enjoy with complimentary winer. The menu: makizushi, dashi, ramen and okonomiyaki.

Visitors welcome. Please register your planned attendance via email at info@amateurwine.org.au.

What you will learn:

• Ways to create and look after your own Sourdough starter culture, flour to use for the best nutrition and results.
• Ways to knead sticky high hydration dough for a more authentic sourdough loaf, equipment needed to produce a great looking and tasting sourdough tin loaf at home.
• Ways to bake sourdough bread using a bread tin in a home oven, bread dough looks and feels like at its various stages of preparation and development.

What you will get:

• Comprehensive workshop notes.
• Sourdough starter culture.
• A discount on a professional quality bread tin.

Join Rick Lavender of The Life We Want as he demonstrates this age old process and introduces you to the equipment and skills required to get started baking at home.

Participants will be limited to 8 to maintain an informal interactive format.

What you will learn:

• Which produce plants are suitable to grow in small areas.
• Coping with shade and sun for produce growing.
• How to make the most of any available space for growing produce.

Presented by Angelo Eliades. Do you only have a small garden or no garden at all? Would you still like to grow your own food? This class will inspire you to get started. Topics will include fruit, vegetables and berries for small spaces, growing produce in pots and containers, maximising productivity in any size space and plant selection.

Learn how to make ricotta, feta and halloumi cheese. You will make enough to take some home, and also to taste test at lunch. Take along an apron, a glass jar, and several plastic containers to take your cheese home.

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:

• Indian cooking.
• Improved culinary skills.

What you will get:

• An Indian feast
• Recipes to take home.

Presenter: Aditi Daware.

Louise Ward will lead you through the techniques and 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 Edible Forest tour.