Ahead of his time, again.

Four years ago this past week Joe Garita, our market garden mentor, passed away (that’s Joe above with his John Deere tractor).  Beginning in 1945 with his father and then later with Jean, his wife, Joe farmed his two and a half acre market garden on the Merri Creek feeding his community and raising seven children.  The city slowly surrounded Joe’s market garden, squeezing out the neighbouring farms until his was the last one left on the Merri Creek.  People coming across Joe out in the field on his tractor would do a double-take pointing him out to kids or partners as if to say – Oh look, how old fashioned, a farm in the city.

The great disconnection of nature and our modern lives that once rendered Joe old fashioned has foundered and today Joe would be tickled to be thought of as ahead of his time.  Because today more than ever we need Joe’s farming skills; his ability to feed many families from a small patch of land, his seed saving, his food preserving.  We need Joe’s persistence and insight; the intimate knowledge built up over decades to care for a single piece of land.  We need Joe’s frugality;  Joe always maintained things. When he put his 30 year old truck up for sale, he’d looked after it so well he quite seriously considered it near-new.  And we need Joe’s acceptance: Joe, who’s Italian father had been interned during World War Two, never judged a person on what they looked like or where they came from, only how they treated others.

Joe would smile to know that all these skills and qualities are the things we celebrate each year at CERES Harvest Festival.  The focus is on giving thanks for the harvest, sustainable living skills and celebrating all our food cultures.  This year at the Festival there’ll be food and sustainability workshops, the giant veggie growing competition,  and food culture performances.  There’ll also be kids’ activities live music food and craft stalls from our most loved local and organic makers and designers.

Harvest Festival is CERES’ biggest most joyous day – when we give thanks to the good earth, our farmers and the cycle of the seasons.

Entry is $5 and kids are free – all proceeds go towards keeping CERES awesome.

Meet – Previous Orders – déjà vu all over again.

If you’ve been taken by our new and improved Favourites webshop feature then you’ll quite possibly also love our new Previously Ordered feature too.

Maikel, web-coder from the Open Food Network, has made a thing where you can bring up one of your previous orders and put any item straight into your cart – cool huh?

Here’s how it works…

1.     Login to the Fair Food webshop

2.     Click on the My Orders button at the top right of the page

2.     Find a past order and click the green trolley icon

3.     Click Add on any item you’d like to put in your cart

(And while you’re there you could also click on the heart to put any item on your “Favourites List”).

If you need assistance making it happen call Andrew or Laura on 8673 6288 they’re really good at helping with things like this.

Have a great week

Chris