Events support bush food knowledge sharing
The region’s bush food industry businesses had an opportunity to network, collaborate and share knowledge as part of the Quorn Quandong Festival in October.
The Quorn Community Landcare Group's activities, with support from SA Arid Lands Landscape Board staff, aimed to promote the sustainable future in native food plant production in the SAAL region.
In collaboration with local industry contacts, an itinerary was planned to share knowledge about growing, harvesting and marketing bush food crops to the ‘next generation’ of growers and supply chain contacts in the region.
While the events focused on the Quandong (Santalum acuminatum) supply chain, there was an acknowledgement that other industry crops such as Wattleseed (Acacia victoriae) and Muntries (Kunzea pomifera) are also an important component of this industry collective.
A tag-a-long field tour visited private plantings, with guest speakers Bob and Sue Tulloch and Ian and Robyn Powell talking about plantation design and management, host plant selection, irrigation, fertiliser, yield, provenance, plant selection, grafting, harvest logistics, fruit preparation, marketing sales, technology, and research potential. It was attended by 34 people.
An Industry Networking event held at Flinders Gin Distillery focused on local bush food produce. Guests heard about the Flinders Gin Journey – a regionally-based business value adding with local produce. Guests also heard about fruit quality and purchasing power, the backgrounds of other people in the industry and supply chain requirements.
About 65 people were involved in the events, which included growers, potential growers, researchers, people in manufacturing or retail, and extension and industry support workers.
The Quorn Community Landcare Group events were supported by the FRRR, through funding from the Australian Government’s Future Drought Fund.
