February 24th, 2020Permaculture food forest hope for Kyneton
KERRYN Wildenburg is a smart woman with an amazing dream.
Her determination, her compassion and her incredible work ethic in pursuing that dream have come together to see her become one of four finalists for the Victorian Agrifutures Rural Women’s Award.
Kerryn’s idea is to create a permaculture food forest in Kyneton that, among other things, will help supply the Kyneton Caring Community Foodbank.
She already works part-time at the Foodbank, which helps out about 1800 people every month across the Macedon Ranges – but in reality, between it and the food forest farm, she’s happily putting more than 40 hours a week into her passions.
“We’re almost finished our Foodbank expansion, we’ve been working on this for over 12 months – to see it actually come to life is amazing,” she says.
It’s set up like a mini-supermarket, except it’s free because it offers emergency food relief to those who need it. It’s also set up right next door to the IGA in Kyneton – and far from being unhappy about that, the IGA is supportive.
“They let us borrow their forklift and use their trolleys – IGA is a big supporter of us, and so is Woolworths, we have donation bins inside their stores as well as in Coles in Woodend,” Kerryn explains.
Foodbank? Done. Community support? Done. Fresh fruit and vegetables? Not so much. But it was working at the Foodbank that gave Kerryn the vision for the project. If she wins the upcoming award, she’ll put the $10,000 bursary towards developing it.
“Some weeks at the Foodbank we have heaps of fresh fruit and vegies, and other weeks not much at all and we know that everybody should have access to fresh fruit and vegetables and when your budget’s tight, it’s one of the things that you’re not going to invest in because it’s quite expensive.
“So my project is to create a permaculture food forest. We’ll teach people skills – we’ll teach them how to garden, we’ll teach them permaculture, we’ll teach them how to cook the food, we’ll teach them how to preserve the food using old-school methods. Simple things. And then they can potentially take the food to market, create their own small businesses – but the bulk of the food will come back to the Foodbank so that people have access to fresh food all year round.”
It’s a fabulous idea. And Kerryn is taking it even further.
“We’ll offer a mentoring program, with people coming out to the farm, with a little drop-in centre and it won’t just be for people who are going through tough times, it can be open to schools with kids and community groups coming to do workshops.
“We can bring different groups in, we want it to be a space where the whole community is welcome. And what better way to unite people than with food? The idea is there will be something for everybody, just a safe space where you can come as you are and you’ll be welcome, warts and all, because we understand that sometimes life throws a curve ball and it’s hard to deal with it but together, we can support each other.”
The four-acre farm already has a small orchard and if Kerryn wins the bursary, she will put it towards education and do a certificate in permaculture design, a plan for the food forest and then, find people who want to get involved with donations of time, machinery or plants.
“Whatever that’s going to look like, one step at a time. Because then I want to create a template, food forests that can be replicated throughout Victoria and eventually, Australia – complete with mentoring programs as well – a plan that can be replicated on a small or large scale.”
The Victorian winner will be announced at a ceremony on March 24 and will receive $10,000 to implement their project.
“I want to create a template, food forests that can be replicated throughout Victoria and eventually, Australia – complete with mentoring programs as well.”
Words: Kate Taylor | Image: Contributed
