The Bungendore Harvest Festival is a celebration of food and farming. Photo: Southern Harvest.
The local community is again gearing up for another Bungendore Harvest Festival: an annual celebration of food and farming in the region. Southern Harvest Co-operative, which operates the weekly Bungendore Farmers Market and a multi-farm produce box scheme around the Canberra region, runs the festival.
First celebrated in 2017, the Bungendore Harvest Festival has become an annual autumn event, encouraging thousands of visitors to the picturesque town near Lake George.
The festival will run across three days starting on Friday 11 April with the launch dinner at Scrumpers Kitchen in Bungendore, which will feature a three-course feast of local food matched with new release Sapling Yard wines.
Looking to share the tastes of the season with more visitors, the menu will also be available across the weekend according to Southern Harvest manager and Scrumpers Kitchen owner Ruth Gaha Morris.
“We would normally do separate events for the launch and long lunch but this year we’re doing an all-weekend extravaganza. It’s a little more casual than previous years and accessible over the whole weekend.”
The Festival Market will feature heaps of stallholders selling locally grown produce, arts and crafts and ready-to-eat food. Photo: Southern Harvest.
Saturday 12 April will be the highlight for many as the Festival Market takes over the streets of central Bungendore with stalls selling locally grown fruit, vegetables, pasture-raised meat and eggs, olive oil, preserves, soaps, arts, crafts and more, as well as plenty of ready-to-eat food.
“Harvest Festival gives people the opportunity to engage with the local food system, meet the farmers, sample local foods and wines that are specific to our region,” Ruth said.
“It’s a chance for people to get excited about local food and farming.”
Visitors on Sunday 13 April can enjoy a range of farm tours and workshops around the region to engage more closely with how local producers are growing food. It’s your chance to ask questions and get up close and personal with where the food comes from.
“We have a lot of really passionate local growers in our community and this is a chance for them to share what they’re doing with customers,” Ruth said.
“It’s also an opportunity for local growers to make new connections with each other and learn from what others are doing.”
Family-run Millpost Permaculture Farm will host a farm tour on Sunday 13 April. Photo: Southern Harvest.
Tickets are available now for farm tours and even a garlic tasting workshop!
The wider region, well known for growing high-quality garlic, is home to specialists in rare garlic varieties Garlic Kingdom Australia. Farmer Vele Civijovski will be providing a garlic tasting to show off the variety you can get from this staple ingredient, as well as offering planting information for small-scale and backyard growers.
Millpost Permaculture Farm is also offering a tour of its diverse family farm which produces high-quality merino wool. David Watson will talk about his family’s efforts over 46 years in shaping a sustainable landscape by testing the theories and following the strategies of permaculture, landcare, holistic management and regenerative agriculture.
Gilgooly Hazelnuts and Jerrabatt Farm will also host tours and more events will be added.
Bungendore Harvest Festival will run from Friday 11 to Sunday 13 April with a range of events in Bungendore and the surrounding region. For more information and to book a farm tour, workshop or meal, visit the Southern Harvest website or follow Bungendore Harvest Festival on Facebook and Southern Harvest Association on Facebook or Instagram.
Lucy Ridge is also an employee of Southern Harvest Co-operative.
