As most of you know, I’m a yank living on the Sunshine Coast of Australia.  I’ve lived here since 1996 after meeting my now husband through an ad on a local bulletin board system when I lived in Orlando.  yes, THAT long ago.

I lived in the southern part of Australia up until a few years ago but left the winter chill down south and came up north where it’s warm all year.  (If you’re in the states, it does your head in to say going north to get warm, doesn’t it?)

This is the best part of Australia – I’m convinced of it.  It’s a tourist destination but it’s not filled with high rise hotels and resorts nor is it filled with crime or other nasties.  It’s not perfect but it’s really close.  This does remind me of Florida where I moved from but without the hoopla.

The Sunshine Coast region is a food lovers paradise with almost everything grown here.  I really enjoy food events.  This weekend is the Eumundi Food Fest and I can’t wait to go. Food lovers like me will find heaps of food products to taste at only $6 — and entry is free!

Orgasmic food is important but honestly, it’s time we looked at the quality of the food we eat.  Are the additives and preservatives really doing us any good?  I’m one who much prefers to prepare her own food from fresh, local ingredients but not everyone has hopped on that train.  Festivals like the Eumundi Food Fest help to inform us about what’s good and why we should embrace fresh.

This is the tenth year of the food fest that claims to be fabulous food, family and farm-acy.  They focus on local, fresh food with sustainability in mind.

I’m looking forward to the Tucker Tent demonstration by school students who will be cooking culinary delights from their school garden.  There’s also going to be gluten free cooking demonstrations and a cooking demonstration by Jamie Milverton’s Kitchen Boot Camp participants.  The Kitchen Boot Camp is an initiative for long term unemployed youth who spend 4 weeks in Jamie’s course to learn the skills to gain employment in the food industry. He also makes damn fine jam.

New to the “fest” this year is Farm-acy they will present homemade breakfast, lunch and dinner with their commonsense approach to what we eat and how simply we can grow, produce and source good food for our families.  Also in the Farm-acy is my new friend Cath Manual who owns Soil to Supper.  She and her young son will be inspiring people to grow, harvest and cook their own food in order to nourish and nurture themselves and loved ones.

I won’t leave without stopping by Strawberry Lane.  It’s strawberry season up here now and there will be jams, cakes, scones and pavlovas that I won’t want to miss.

Old, slow food is the new wellbeing.  The quality of our food determines the quality of our health.  Look around, we have a lot of work to do.

Hope to see you in Eumundi on Sunday!