We are still on a ‘high’ after our first open day late last month on the 24th November, with approximately 1000 people enjoying the Edible Forest, which vastly exceeded our expectations. A beautiful Sunday afternoon was spent exploring the Edible Forest, enjoying live music, food trucks and some kids entertainment.
The atmosphere was electric with people wondering through the Edible Forest and discovering so many varieties of plants they had not seen before or didn’t realise that the plants in their backyards were edible! One engaged visitor mentioned to me ‘I was admiring one particular plant and then discovered so many other interesting plants nearby, I just couldn’t get enough of it’. We are overjoyed with the response from so many guests and hope that those who visited were inspired by what they saw.
The first time we had opened our Edible Forest to the community, the Open Day also saw the launch of our Nursery. The nursery allows guests the opportunity to get their hands on some unique plants they discovered in the Edible Forest, which they can plant into their own gardens and enjoy. What we love is being able to show our visitors what they can achieve in simple ways to create a functional and beautiful edible garden at home. The Edible Forest Nursery is open daily Monday – Saturday from 9am – 11am.
There were strawberries everywhere and the abundance of these and the mulberries in the Edible Forest were a huge hit. Considering the number of visitors who enjoyed picking them straight from the plant, we were surprised that there are still plenty of berries left!
For those who didn’t wonder through the Edible Forest, there were a few market stalls, live music, food trucks, wine tasting, beer tasting and kids activities! It was delightful to see the kids running around making terrarium succulents from plastic soft drink bottles to take home with them. Considering we were only expecting 500 people to come out to see us, we are completely thrilled with the day and thank you for your support.
Thank you to those who also supported Global Gardens of Peace on the day. They had arranged for Global Ballooning to donate a few ‘hot air balloon tethers’ and the dune buggy for fun rides.
We have exciting things planned for the Edible Forest in 2020 including gardening classes, an Edible Forest Gardening Club and another open day so stay tuned! We will continue running our daily ‘tour & taste’ guided tours so come along, bring your friends and hang out with us.
From our team at Edible Forest Yarra Valley we wish you all a Merry Christmas and hope you have some time for some happy gardening in 2020.
Louise Ward
