What this country needs... / When the feijoa comes

What this country needs… / When the feijoa comes

30th April 2017

What this country needs….

This weekend coming Mathees, Fair Food’s Production Supervisor, moves his young family into their own new house. Mathees has worked at Fair Food since the first veggie box rolled off the conveyor almost seven years ago. Mathees is a Tamil, he fled civil war in Sri Lanka and came to Australia as a refugee.

Mathees started at Fair Food picking grocery orders and now runs the packing floor. Mathees is a natural leader: on the line he pre-empts problems, he plugs gaps and he motivates everyone with his signature call-out, “Pushing please!”

But there’s another side to Mathees; he remembers birthdays and always brings something he’s cooked at home, he organises staff lotto, he dances at parties and gets people laughing and dancing with him. At Christmas he dresses as Santa and gives out the presents.

I know we’re lucky to have Mathees at Fair Food. So when I read yet another news story this week stirring up fears of refugees coming to Australia. Yes, I think about the tragedy of Mathees not being here, but also I think about how much poorer we’d be for not knowing Mathees and how much our fearful country could really do with a lot more Mathees’s.

When the feijoa comes

I always feel nervous when feijoas are in. The moment feijoa grower, Paul Haar, drops off his first load from his Archies Creek farm there’s a flurry of Facebook postings around the feijoa community (yes, I’m convinced this is a thing) and whooosh -they’ll be gone!

People get so passionate about these passion-fruit sized, guavas. Which is funny given they’re nothing special to look at and have a slightly gritty texture. Still, there’s something really moreish about them and going through a bowlful in a sitting is disconcertingly easy. They’re only around for a few weeks so if you get the chance….

Talk of feijoas reminds me about…..The CERES Food Forest Working Bee

To celebrate International Permaculture Day there’s going to be a community working bee in the CERES Food Forest. If you’re into getting your hands dirty, learning about a working Food Forest and helping plant over 500 trees then you’ll feel right at home.

CERES horticulturalist Belinda Kennedy and Organic Farm Manager, Meg Stewart are leading the day’s activities and have a mission to increase the number of productive plants and shade for the CERES chooks who graze on four rotational terraces beneath the forest.

While you’re there you can also check out the newly built Honey Lane display hives.

Tickets: $10/$8 which includes a light lunch and short tour of CERES Organic Farm

Bookings essential.

Have a great week