The 2020 Home Harvest Picnic
In December 2019, Ann Stanley interviewed Pam Jenkins, Sabi Buehler and Tracey Bjorksten about the 2020 Nillumbik and Banyule Home Harvest Picnic.
Pam, Sabi and Tracey are volunteers at the Edible Hub, Hurstbridge. They are planning to participate as a group at the 2020 Nillumbik and Banyule Home Harvest Picnic for the first time, contributing food grown at the garden.
The Home Harvest Picnic started around eight years ago at Edendale Farm and it’s a combined picnic with Nillumbik and Banyule Councils. Pam Jenkins, who has attended all but one of them, thinks that it was originally a council initiative, supported by Local Food Connect and Sustainable Gardens Australia. The aim of it is simply to get home growers together to enjoy the food they have produced once it has been combined and cooked into different dishes by a professional chef.
Tracey believes that the home harvest picnic is a great initiative to celebrate the home vegetable harvest. She points out that people can donate honey and eggs as well as fruit and vegetables. Last year was the first year that Tracey was involved. She explains, “I found it really daunting being confronted with the requirement to say what you’re going to contribute, and it was quite late last year, so I actually bought a basket and volunteered, because volunteers were needed“.
Pam explains that the home gardener who wants to participate registers and says what they think they will be harvesting when February comes. It just needs to be enough to feed themselves and their guests and if they think they will only have tomatoes, they can just offer tomatoes. At the end of the season, they receive an email checking what they have to offer and if they find they have lots of cucumbers but no tomatoes after all they can just change their offer. If their crops fail completely, they can go as a volunteer or just buy a basket.
Sabi, an erstwhile teacher, says that she likes that students studying hospitality at Eltham High are involved, under the supervision of the chef, with a lot of the preparation being done in the School’s kitchen. She says, “I know about that because that’s my main input, chopping potatoes and other vegetables, because I usually don’t have much to offer in terms of produce“.
In recent years, the Home Harvest Picnic has expanded to allow the participation of groups, schools and community gardens. Registering as a group entitles the group to eight tickets. Says Pam, “this is first year we have reached out to schools. Although school gardens may die off over summer, the kids could still grow some-thing to contribute at home“.
Pam points out that, “frozen, dried or bottled, any produce that is properly pre-served is accepted and if people have something like cherries that are not in sea-son in February, they can freeze some in advance to bring along“.
As Pam says, “it’s amazing what you can grow. And it’s amazing what the chef can produce with all sorts of things“.
Pam, Tracey and Sabi hope to see you all at the Home Harvest Picnic on Sunday, 1st March, 3.30-7pm at Edendale Farm.