In 1788, over 1300 people from the other side of the world sailed into a cove on the east coast of Australia and set about clearing the land to grow and husband food from the seeds and livestock they had brought with them.
The local people who had lived for thousands of years on the bounty of the cove they called Wogganmagule must have wondered at the invaders’ bizarre behaviour that took them to the brink of starvation, only prevented by the arrival of emergency food supplies from Cape Town.
But it’s not too late to get it right. On Sunday 18 October, Wogganmagule, the site of the disastrous First Fleet Farm in the Royal Botanic Gardens, will be the site of the first Slow Food Bush Tucker Picnic of the Sydney International Food Festival.
Hosted jointly by Slow Food Sydney and the Botanic Gardens Trust, it will be an occasion to relax on the lawn and enjoy some of our land’s unique taste sensations including emu, kangaroo, bush tomato, wattleseed, macadamia, Davidson plum and quandong.
The picnic will be produced and prepared according to the three Slow Food principles of good, clean and fair. Slow Food founder and international president Carlo Petrini, who is visiting from Italy, said, “Slow Food should taste good, be produced in a clean way that does not harm the environment, animal welfare or our health, and provide fair remuneration to food producers for their work."
Mr Petrini and NSW State Botanist and Botanic Gardens Trust Executive Director Dr Tim Entwisle will both speak at the Bush Tucker Picnic.
The morning will also include a presentation by Botanic Gardens Aboriginal Education Officer Clarence Slockee on how the native ingredients in the menu were used sustainably by the original inhabitants of the region.
“Aboriginal people were the orginal slow foodies and the ultimate environmentalists. Our native flora and fauna are health super foods that once fed people without chemicals or waste. Food was harvested according to traditional laws with communal sharing and an emphasis on what we now know as sustainability,” Mr Slockee said.
Picnickers will be invited to round off the event with a stroll through Cadi Jam Ora, the First Encounters Garden which includes plantings of Wogganmagule’s original vegetation, a recreated First Fleet Farm with the added benefit of organic fertilisers, and a display about the history of European settlement of Aboriginal lands.
As part of the Sydney International Food Festival, every Wednesday in October, the Botanic Gardens Restaurant will serve a bush food lunch that will be followed by a tour with a Botanic Gardens Trust Aboriginal education officers.
When: Sunday 18th October, 10 am -12.30 pm
Where: Rathborne Lodge Lawn (via Woolloomooloo Gates), Royal Botanic Gardens, Sydney
Cost: $45 adult, $12 child
Bookings: 02 9960 8598 or www.bushtucker.eventbrite.com
The three-course menu which will be prepared by Alison Drover of Slow Food Australia was created by Australian native food chef and 2009 Gourmand Award winner Jean-Paul Bruneteau whose book Tukka, Real Australian Food won the international Best of the Best Award for culinary history.
Bush Food and Sustainability Speaker: Botanic Gardens Trust Aboriginal Education Officer Clarence Slockee.
Guest Speaker: International Founder of the Slow Food Movement Carlo Petrini.
Founded in Italy by Carlo Petrini in1990, Slow Food International has 2000 food communities and 100,000 members in 150 countries.
In 2004, Mr Petrini was named European Hero by Time magazine, and in 2008 he was listed in the UK’s Guardian newspaper as one of 50 People Who Could Save the Planet.
Slow Food has been active in Australia since 1995 and has almost 2000 members with 41 convivia across the country who develop local projects and activities and stage regional events such as Barossa Slow and A Taste of Slow.
For more information about Slow Food go to www.slowfood.com, email info@slowfoodsydney.com.au or contact Alison Drover on 0404 304 458
When: Wednesdays 7, 14, 21 & 28 October, 1-3 pm
Where: Botanic Gardens Restaurant, Royal Botanic Gardens, Sydney
Cost: $50
Bookings: 9241 2419 or botanic@trippaswhite.com.au
1 pm Lunch: Barramundi in paperbark, beans, macadamia nuts, kipfler potato and wild lime sweet chilli sauce. Served with a glass of wine, beer or mineral water. Includes tea or coffee.
2 pm Gardens Bush Food Tour: Learn where the flavours of your lunch originated
For more information about the Royal Botanic Gardens and its Aboriginal education programs phone 9231 8134.
Kerry Brown, ph. 02 9231 8004, mob 0427 482 477