Festival offers food-growing ideas

THE Sri Lankan Tamil festival of Thai Pongal celebrates the harvest and the sun.

An initiative of Neil Para, the local Multicultural Harvest Festival will return in January, modelled on this Tamil tradition.

To be held at the Garibaldi Hall, committee member Talia Barrett said the event will champion and promote the different ways people grow food in the Ballarat region.

“It’s evolved into not just celebrating but educating the community around the various ways we can grow our own food, sustain ourselves, be kind to the environment around us,” she said.

“There will be stalls by a number of organisations and groups that we’ve invited that promote growing your own food.

“There will be workshops and demonstrations, kids activities, and there will be food vans.”

A Sri Lankan Tamil tribute to the sun will also acknowledge the Multicultural Harvest Festival’s roots in the traditions of Thai Pongal.

“There probably will be people selling some produce there, but the day is more of an information and sharing kind of event, rather than a market,” Ms Barrett said.

The Multicultural Harvest Festival will be hosted by its committee at the Garibaldi Hall on Hardies Hill Road, Garibaldi on Saturday, 22 January, from 10am to 2pm.

The Golden Plains Shire is supporting the event, and may run a free community bus to-and-from the Festival for Shire residents. For updates and more information visit mhfaustralia.org.

Head to the same site if you would like to participate in the Festival as a stallholder with a food-growing focus.