Date(s) - February 17, 2018
Time - 9:00 am - 5:30 pm

This is a third-party event not organised by Permablitz. We've added it because we reckon it looks pretty good!

Whole day coach tour in conjunction with the Urban Agriculture Forum 2018

Led by productive garden designer/urban food farmer and ‘guru’ Karen Sutherland from Edible Eden Design, this fascinating tour looks at many aspects of food growing and production in inner Melbourne.

The tour is being held as part of the 2018 Urban Agriculture Conference From Resilience to Livability: Edible Cities for a Thriving Future. The tour is also part of the national Sustainable Living Festival 2018 – Australia’s flagship sustainability event – which runs for the whole month of February. (See below for links)

The coach tour will visit five very different destinations which will explore a variety of ways of growing food and examine how local communities are working to lower food miles in delivering produce to the kitchens of our city.

Across these diverse sites you will:

• hear about the challenges of establishing and growing food in the urban environment;
• learn how growing food is being incorporated in the curriculum of educational institutions;
• see creative solutions to sourcing and growing food to provide for those in need;
• listen to and see how local government is engaging and supporting communities to grow their own produce; and
• visit a site where young farmers are being mentored on an urban farm to provide low mileage food for the markets of Melbourne.

Site visit details:

The tour commences at William Angliss Institute, where Karen will discuss the model productive garden she has designed to assist in teaching students how to grow, harvest and use a variety of plants in their catering.

The next location is Fare Share in Abbotsford where visitors will learn how this voluntary organisation grows and collects fresh food for supply to those in need. The tour then proceeds to Brunswick to explore the community gardens and ‘food forest’ of a vibrant and very active local community of gardeners. The focus at the next stop, Days Walk Farm, is on training young people how to become food farmers, with a view to increasing production in the inner city and reducing food miles.

The final site will be Karen’s own garden ‘Gunyah’ where almost every plant on her suburban block is both attractive and productive, and you will see how a diverse range of food plants can be grown on a small urban plot to enhance the food served in your own kitchen.

Open Gardens Victoria will make a substantial donation from the proceeds of the tour to support each of the venues in their ongoing work and the urban agriculture network.

Whole day coach tour in conjunction with the Urban Agriculture Forum 2018

Get your tickets here!