Food growers turn early settlement property into tour for Nannup Flower and Garden Festival

Captivated by the local spirit at the Nannup Flower and Garden Festival seven years ago, one husband-and-wife duo never dreamt of co-running events with some of the country’s leading experts in farming and gardening. Jono Outred said even before to moving to the South West from Perth with his wife Sarah, he had always wanted land to grow vegetables. But he never imagined running his own events at the Nannup Flower and Garden Festival as a resident in the town. Mr Outred said the pair were so impressed by the locals and the lifestyle on their visit to the town during the festival some seven years ago that they bought a property in Nannup called Hillbrook Farm — a name they decided to keep from early settlement days. “The farm is about 110 years old. It’s had a few different lives over the years and was most recently a nursery, which is obviously no longer there. Before that, it was a tulip farm,” he told the Times. “The previous owners were some of the first to jump on the Nannup garden festival and get that going and organised. “These days, it’s our home and we grow as much produce as we can. We like to grow what we can, as sustainably as we can, using recycling principles.” Hillbrook Farm has been the catalyst for Mr and Mrs Outred’s involvement in the festival for the second year, hosting events side-by-side with garden and farming experts. “We had so much fun last year, we thought we’d go again,” Mr Outred said. The pair will host four events during the festival. The first one will be The Gardener and The Chef with Matthew Evans on August 10. Matthew Evans is a farmer-food activist from Tasmania with a passion for soil, growing produce and eating food. He has a regenerative farm called Fat Pig Farm. “Matthew has been someone I’ve always looked up to. We’ve had a similar journey in a way I believe — he started life out as a chef and then went to food writing, and then farming,” Mr Outred said “We’ll be cooking together and chatting about growing your own produce, food waste, and food systems.” For the second event, called Turn Your Waste into Taste also on August 10, Mr Outred and his wife will help attendees put together a dish using ingredients from the garden. A celebrity garden tour with TV presenter, author, landscape architect and environmental educator Costa Georgiadis will be hosted at the couple’s property August 11. Together, they will lead a group around the garden talking about growing food, as well as no-waste principles and recycling compost. They will also teach the group how to integrate chickens and ducks into a gardening system. The final event is a Garden to Plate experience on August 17. “The last event is similar to what we did last year, where (we) effectively run a tour around the property in the garden, and everyone gets involved in a bit of harvesting,” Mr Outred “Then we take all the stuff we’ve harvested and create a dish on site. “I would just encourage anyone who’s thinking about it to get along (to the festival) even if you haven’t booked in an event — just come and check out what’s happening over the month.