WHEN farmer and author Matthew Evans decided to write a book about soil, he knew the topic wasn\u2019t considered the most interesting.<\/p>\n
But as he put it himself, \u201chealthy soil is the key to a healthy world.\u201d<\/p>\n
Evans will bring his insight and experience as a farmer to the Bendigo Writers\u2019 Festival in May.<\/p>\n
\u201cSoil, it\u2019s pretty dry, dusty, not that interesting,\u201d he said. \u201cUntil you find out that it\u2019s so bloody interesting and wonderful. It\u2019s so fascinating.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s what I\u2019m hoping to get across, that soil isn\u2019t as boring as you think.\u201d<\/p>\n
In 2021 – Evans\u2019 book Soil<\/em> sold out all over the world and has been described as a love letter to Mother Earth.<\/p>\n The book provides readers with a deep dive into the history and function of soil and its relationship with food.<\/p>\n \u201cSomeone told me once soil is as sexy as colon cancer, how can you make people interested in it?\u201d said the former chef and food critic.<\/p>\n \u201cBut the book\u2019s been reprinted several times and I\u2019ve been amazed that people are interested in the topic.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI was interested in how you can make better soil, but then I started to realise what soil is, it\u2019s so fundamental.<\/p>\n \u201cBefore we had topsoil, we didn\u2019t have complex life on earth. We had bacteria and fungi but nothing else.<\/p>\n \u201cIf we lose topsoil, it makes it hard for us to live and everything else to exist. Our origins are in soil, and our end will be in soil.\u201d<\/p>\n Returning to Bendigo, Evans said he is pleased to see how much the region cares about its food.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve always loved Bendigo and I always felt it punched above its weight in terms of food, and it\u2019s great to see it\u2019s a City of Gastronomy,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cBendigo needs to work out what grows really well, which they\u2019ve been good at over the years, but also how to get the best out of the land around Bendigo, which is different to Ballarat or Gippsland.<\/p>\n \u201cWine people have known this forever, they talk about terroir or sense of place, that a certain side of a hill grows wine of a certain taste.<\/p>\n \u201cI think food people are just catching up to that and realising what we do with what\u2019s in the ground, the bit you can\u2019t see and don\u2019t want to taste, matters for what we do get to see and taste.\u201d<\/p>\n Evans will be at the festival on Friday, 13 May at the Capital Theatre at 2pm, and appear as part of a panel at the same venue on Saturday, 14 May at 2.15pm.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" WHEN farmer and author Matthew Evans decided to write a book about soil, he knew the topic wasn\u2019t considered the most interesting. But as he put it himself, \u201chealthy soil is the key to a healthy world.\u201d Evans will bring his insight and experience as a farmer to the Bendigo Writers\u2019 Festival in May. \u201cSoil, […]<\/p>\n