Last week we hosted the first Chittering Chamber of Commerce event for 2023 at the Northern Valleys Locavore Store, welcoming approximately 30 representatives from the local business community to sample our range of regional produce, and hear about about my motives for starting a grocery store!
After being welcomed with Araluen’s aforementioned wattleseed cocktail, guests enjoyed tasting delicious Tanamerah Beef and Lamb, cooked and served by Mat Preston himself (the farmer not the chef!), as well as antipasto platters with Borrello cheeses and Mondo’s salamis, fresh fruit and our new in-house salads range.
To finish, Dave McCormick introduced his new McCormick Honey Honey-Lovers Ice Cream – a delicious value-added product he developed with the store, using his locally sourced honey. We also calculated that Dave has sold over a tonne of honey with us since he started! Producers like Dave use the store to add to their sales volume with out having to man a stall or farm gate – keeping costs low.
We also heard how other artisan producers like Araluen from 14K Brewery use the store as a testing ground for new flavours and products, and how local Wealth Manager Amanda Oversby uses the store as a learning opportunity for her entrepreneurial kids, who grow a range of veggies to sell! It was a fantastic evening and a wonderful chance to showcase all the excellent produce we make and share at the Locavore Store.
It was also a good reminder for me to refocus on my motives for starting the Locavore Store in the first place. Making sure we all have access to the amazing produce grown in our region and investing in our future food security are both important priorities for me – and it’s never been more relevant.
From my viewpoint – running the store and also writing for the Northern Valleys News – I see more and more local growers either giving up and going out of business or, on the flip side, becoming so big that they no longer care about supplying their local region, instead shipping their products (like almonds) straight over east or even overseas! Both scenarios are worrisome.
Local tomatoes are great example of a local supply issue. We have barely a few local growers putting in a crop (and available only for a short season), while tomato giant Trandos, based just 65 kilometres away, now has exclusive arrangements, meaning they will no longer be able to sell to us. That means the supermarket giants actually control tomato supply in our state!
It’s the same story for many big vegetable growers in the region, who claim supply shortages or even weather incidents as reasons why we are unable to buy from them. In reality I suspect they have signed exclusivity agreements with Coles or Woolworths which precludes them from selling to anyone else! My conspiracy theories about this were recently confirmed upon reading Supermarket Monsters by Malcolm Knox – an exciting book which shines a light on Australia’s twin mega-retailers, exploring how they have built and exploited their market power. Malcom argues, “In return for cheap milk and bread, we as consumers are risking much more: quality, diversity and community.” Definitely worth a read if you are interested in finding out who controls our food system. It’s full of intriguing secrets and ugly facts which will certainly make you think twice about why you would want to make these companies even richer by loading up your trolleys with their ‘bargains’!
If, like me, you’d like producers and co-producers (a better way to describe consumers) to be the ones calling the shots – then make sure you vote with your weekly grocery spend! Support local, support independent, and buy direct from growers and farmers markets whenever you can!
