Michele Harvey and a team of Breazers from the Local Food action group, put together a wonderful display at the 2008 Ballarat Royal Agricultural Show.

The theme of the display was Local Food: Growing your own, and eating it!

To see all the photos, go to the News and Events tab, and look at the Photo Gallery.

Growing

All of the Organic Home-Grown Vegetable Competition entries were displayed, demonstrating what could be grown at home in the Ballarat region running up to October/November.  Look below (or click on the 'read more' link) to see a full list of these foods.

Show goers saw an informative demonstration of how to grow food at home using every day items (even an old bath!), no dig garden method, buckets showing how much water, tanks (provided by Tankster), fruit trees (provided by Formosa Gardens Nursery) with plenty of encouraging signs, and information sheets available to take home.

Eating

The Ballarat Slow Food group put together a poster display and had brochures available.

First prize:

Wendouree Primary School Kitchen Garden

• Veggies - Artichokes, beetroots, coloured chard, leek, pumpkin, broadbeans, golden and purple peas, lettuce, rhubarb, strawberries
• Herbs - mint, chives, parsley, sweetpea
• Photos of vegetebles growing in their garden provided.

Second prize:

Clarke and Duggan family

• Veggies - rhubarb, spring onions, garlic, carrots
• Edible flowers - viola tricolour, nasturtium, borage
• Companion plants - borage, calendula, nasturtium, comfrey
• Herbs - mint
• Decoration - cornflowers
• Photos of vegetebles growing in their garden provided.

Third prize:

Paul Briody

• Veggies - Cabbage, broccoli, silverbeet, spinach, onions, rhubarb, lime, lemon, rocket
• Herbs - borage, rosemary, coriander, parsley, oregano, chicory

Highly commended:

Delacombe Primary School

Deb Ramsey

Yvonne Barrett

Conner MacDonald (age 10) and family

Other veggies that were in arrangements brought in:

Spinach, kale, wheat, parsnips, bok choy

This showed the huge range of vegetables that are seasonal to Ballarat and the surrounding region, and organic, that can be grown at this time of year.  (Pumpkin from Autumn was able to be included in the arrangements).  The display at the show also gave people an opportunity to see how cheap and simple it can be to grow your own veggies at home, and to talk to volunteers who are passionate about growing veggies locally.

>> see all the photos <<<