How to start a homegrown fruit and vegetable exchange in your community
Thursday, March 13th, 2008
Friends of the Earth and the Goodwood Goodfood Co-op run a homegrown fruit and vegetable exchange at WOMADelaide World Music Festival 2008.
In November 2007, Friends of the Earth Adelaide and the Goodwood Goodfood Co-op launched a homegrown fruit and vegetable exchange in the inner south-western suburbs of Adelaide. It’s a concept that has been practised formally and informally in communities probably since time began. The basic format of this particular ‘Urban Orchard’ was inspired by the Urban Orchard project initiated by Melbourne’s CERES community environment park.
Since beginning the exchange in Adelaide, Friends of the Earth has received a strong response from others seeking to start a similar project in their own local communities across Australia. While our exchange is very much a work in progress, what follows is a rough guide on how to start an exchange in your community and reflections on the successes and challenges of our experience.
Why a homegrown fruit and vegetable exchange?
The Urban Orchard project was initiated in Adelaide by a group of local community members passionate about gardening, good food and building community. Through providing a central space for community members to come together and share their homegrown or gleaned surpluses, the exchange offers a number of strong social and environmental benefits, including
– reducing waste by redistributing surplus fruit, vegetables, herbs and seeds – cultivating networks within the neighbourhood and building stronger communities – providing healthy, seasonal food for the community – sharing valuable skills in gardening and food preparation – avoiding greenhouse gas emissions by reducing the need for produce transported from outside the local area
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Starting your own Ingredients
Collaborators – others in your area who are passionate about food, gardening and community Venue – public space; kitchen facilities; it could be community centre or a market, Infrastructure – table, chairs, signs, sandwich board, labels for food, banners