In this episode of The Hungry Gardener we speak to Morgan Koegel from 3000 acres. 3000 acres is an organisation that has been set up to help empower communities with the skills and knowledge to grow fresh healthy food. Essentially 3000 acres wants to see more people, grow more food, in more places. We spoke to Morgan the general manager in the garden at their office at the Melbourne Food hub. They have been working on some great projects, including a community oil press. Hope you enjoy this episode.

On this episode of The Hungry Gardener we spoke to Julie Bennett, a favourite gardener of mine, with my dream job. Julie is the kitchen gardener for Montalto Estate on the Mornington Peninsula in Victoria. The estate is over 50 acres, with 30 acres under vine, and 3 acres of produce gardens. It has a fabulous restaurant and an incredible amount of open space, trees, gardens and artworks spread over the beautiful property. We recorded on the fly during a slow roving tour of the grounds, so expect some wildlife interruptions, wind gusts, tractors, and gravelly footsteps throughout, hopefully it adds some spice to the ‘in the moment' energy of our warm and wide ranging conversation.

In this episode we interview Matt Donovan co-founder and director of Food for Change, a not-for-profit organisation with a mission to alleviate food insecurity in Australia. According to stats on the website, 1 in 10 Australians seek food relief annually and over ¼ of these are turned away. Food for change grows fresh food, rescues small scale food not currently catered for, and supports established local relief agencies to deliver more food to those in need.

EP 22 THE HUNGRY GARDENER This is the second podcast we recorded on our road trip to Ballarat in Central Victoria. We met and spoke with Lou Ridsdale the founder of the FOOD IS FREE not fo profit initiative in Ballarat. We spoke to her in the laneway beside her house which is the official hub for local and community engagement. It’s such a simple and fantastic idea...People can leave excess food for others to share, anyone can pick up seeds to use to grow food, people can drop off compost to be managed and shared. It is a really interesting idea with community at its heart. Lou has also been instrumental in setting up further community garden initiatives as well. We discussed what motivates her and how the FOOD IS FREE idea came to be. For more information go to foodisfree.com.au or visit the hungrygardener.com.au Enjoy the conversation.