When it comes to eating the freshest local food, nothing can beat homegrown. If you're a home gardener, you understand this very well. Most home gardeners also understand the challenge of trying to grow everything you need in the right amount. Very few achieve that balance.
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When the cucumbers decide it's a bumper year, it's an invitation to make pickles and relish, but if that's not an option, there's always donations to friends and neighbours.
But there is another option. When the friends and neighbours have politely declined your gift of yet another pile of cucumbers, a gathering known as a "food swap" is a great way to see your garden's bounty reach more dining tables, rather than become chook food or compost.
Food has been swapped for eons. Someone with too much of one thing and not enough of another would simply make an exchange that the two parties felt was fair.
Since the first decade of this century, food swaps are once again becoming widespread and popular in westernised cultures. People all around Australia are turning up to regular events with fruit and vegetables, fresh or dried herbs, jams and pickles, cut flowers and even seeds, seedlings and bulbs.
Inspired by the success of the Tilba Food Share gatherings, SAGE started up our own monthly food share at the SAGE Garden in Moruya at the end of 2017. The difference in name reflects the slight difference between a "swap" and our gathering.
A swap implies you need to bring something of your own to contribute and follows a process of organised swapping, but at the SAGE Food Share, even people with nothing to bring are welcome to come and take something. It's a very relaxed and convivial hour on a Sunday morning.
The SAGE Food Share is an opportunity to connect with other SAGE members, to ask questions (about anything, not just gardening) and learn something about growing, cooking and eating food.
One of the primary intentions of SAGE is to grow community through food. Meeting other members in a community organisation can be a bit daunting for some people. Coming along to a SAGE Food Share is one of the easiest ways to get to know fellow members and begin to develop that sense of connection to other people who care about our local food system.
SAGE Food Shares are held every fourth Sunday of the month at the SAGE Garden, 110 Queen Street, Moruya from 10am. Morning tea is provided and we encourage the sharing of cakes, too! More information is on the "Events" page of our website: sageproject.org.au.
