A word from Rees Campbell, author of Eat More Wild — Tasmanian, about ‘Flavours of Launceston’ recipe project, July 2023
Gardens and gardeners speak a common language. It is a language of home, of food and company, of tables and larders. It is a love song to and from those it feeds.
Each garden speaks a dialect — a dialect of those who turn the soil and plant the seeds. Perhaps it speaks of the lush green of Fiji, the snowy peaks of Nepal and Tibet or the dry African plains. My garden speaks of Tasmania before there were fences, my neighbour’s garden has dahlias held in place with wooden stakes. Both give us hours of work and pleasure.
A community garden speaks the strongest language of all because it speaks of belonging — sometimes to a new home, or new people, or a new life, and sometimes of giving back to a community that has nourished you. From a community garden, you might eat lasagne or momos, palusami or nachos. These will hold the stories of the home countries mixed with the stories of the new, just as the palusami may hold warrigal greens in place of taro. The plants give flavour to the smells from the kitchen and the plates that adorn a table.
Community gardens also bring biodiversity to the increasingly depauperate world we occupy, providing habitat and nutrition for a diverse array of creatures from earthworms and butterflies to the gardeners and their children.
This recipe book, Flavours of Launceston cookbook, has been lovingly created from the ground to the table and inspires all of us who belong to the global community.