It's springtime: nourish to flourish

Published on 21 August 2020

From sauerkraut to sourdough (with Lydia Irving pictured here) to getting your hands dirty in the garden, there’s something for everyone online during the Libraries’ Nourish to Flourish Festival.

MidCoast Libraries have launched the Nourish to Flourish Festival as we head into spring, with free and fun livestreamed events to prepare homes and help out our environment for the warmer months.

“The Nourish to Flourish Festival aims to inspire us all to make small steps towards living more sustainably – starting in our own home garden and kitchen,” said Council’s Manager of Libraries, Chris Jones.

The free online events provide fun and interesting ways to make easy and small tweaks to our lives, that together can have big benefits for personal health and our environment.

Director of Garden to Table Permaculture, Megan Cooke will lead the Garden to Table workshops – with the first one focussing on preparation of your spring garden on Saturday 29 August from 11am.

Megan will show you how to prepare for and plant your spring garden, with tips to reduce household waste through worm farms, composting and chickens. It doesn’t matter if you have a balcony garden, a suburban block or acres there’s something everyone can do on their sustainable journey.

Lydia Irving from Internal Instinct will lead a demonstration on how to make your own sourdough on Thursday 3 September from 6pm. Lydia will teach you how to make a starter from scratch and how to keep it alive, followed by the kneading process, theory of the fermentation process and finally the baking. Find out all the benefits of sourdough for gut health.

Beetroot and cabbages are two very easy vegetables to grow yourself – but what do you do with large harvests?

Join Lydia Irving on Saturday 5 September from 10.30am in a simple demonstration on  to learn to make a natural probiotic -  beetroot kvass. In the same workshop, Lydia will also take you on a sauerkraut-making journey.

Sauerkraut is the perfect condiment to add thrilling flavours. You can make Sauerkraut as simple or complex as your culinary skills extend. The base ingredients are just cabbage and salt.

And then, in the Festival finale on Saturday 19 September from 11am, Megan Cooke returns to harvest some produce from the spring garden and share some great simple recipes for you to try at home.

There’s more information on each workshop on the Libraries events page, where you can book your free place - check the link above.