AREA 1 (SOUTHERN SECTION OF GARDEN)
The handbags and jeans on the fence, turn on tap that waters the shrubs at rear of garden, the planter box on the men’s toilets, the large sleeper beds, the mulberry tree and the fig tree, the plants behind the stand up sleepers near the fire pit, the rosemary path and turn on the reticulation beds.
AREA 2 (NORTHERN SECTION OF GARDEN)
Plants around the nature play area in the pots, beds and path, the plants behind the stand up sleepers and along the fence between garden and nature play area, the succulents in the bath tubs, the planter box on ladies toilet, the pot plants under the kiosk, the planter boxes under the kiosk and turn on the reticulation beds.
Gourmet in the Garden 2021
The Kondinin Community Garden was abuzz on the evening of Friday 26th March 2021, with around 120 people enjoying the lovely night to start their weekend amongst a beautiful set up done by our local volunteers. The three course meal was professionally prepared by chefs Sophie Budd and Chris Chong, and complimented by the Kombi Keg Bar and the lovely musical accompaniment from Laine Wolf.
Thank you very much to everyone who came along and supported the event; those in our generous community who provided donations, and everyone who was involved in making this such a successful event, thank you so much. We look forward to see you again next year.
A special mention to our volunteers, who put in many hours to make sure the event looked as amazing as it was. Helen & Sienne for the gorgeous table settings and Marquee lighting. Jo, Jen Henderer and Tammy who put together an amazing and glamorous entrance. Shaun, Ann, Mia, Silke and Sue for spending the entire day in the Kitchen prepping the delicious food with Sophie & Chris. Allen, Bruce, Steve, Brenden, Sam & Tully for taking down the marquee from the burnouts weekend & putting it back up again at the Garden - huge effort, thank you boys, and to Steve, Sacha, Mick, Tory, Liam, Beau and Ayu for your muscle and hours to putting the event together behind the scenes, without volunteers we wouldn't be able to host such incredible events in our community. Thank you everyone.
Gourmet in the Garden 2020
Gourmet in the Garden’s Enchanted Garden Party 2020 was an amazing success! Sophie Budd returned to cook for a record number of 136 this year. Using our new pizza oven a meal of lamb kebabs, rosemary pork chops, falafel and flatbreads was followed up by delicious lemon and orange desserts. We were lucky to welcome back Simone Lockyer and her beautiful caravan bar and the band, Rhyme & Reason, who kept us entertained with their music.
The garden looked great and this was down to a massive volunteer effort from community members in the lead up to the night. A massive thank you and well done to Rachel, Marissa, Vaughn, Jo, Helen, Kelly,
Taylor, Danielle, Carla, all the people who helped in the kitchen during the day, all those who came to help set up the marquee and the festoon lights, Toni who prepared the quiz and all the staff at the Shire who helped in so many ways.
Also a huge thank you to Matt and Helen Crane and Shaun and Ann Franich who helped Tory with the clean up over the weekend.
Last Friday evening the Shire of Kondinin hosted its second Gourmet in the Garden event at the Kondinin Community Garden. The 102 guests arrived from across the district to mingle in the garden which had been beautifully decorated by locals Jo McCubbing and Helen Crane with pre-dinner drinks served by Charlie & Collette Vintage Caravan, aka Simone Lockyer with assistance from Mum Heather, live acoustic music by Denise and Rene of Rhyme and Reason and some lovely canapes .
Guests then moved into the marquee which looked amazing orchestrated by Rachel Andrews and her team with ivy and festoon lights hanging from the roof tops, timber barrels adorned with fairy lights and each table decorated to perfection with gorgeous flowers from The Flower Farmacy. The meal was cooked by Sophie Budd of Taste Budd Studios and comprised a delicious entrée of boiled potato Gnocchi with tomato source, yabbies caught from local dams, parmesan and fresh basil served with Sophie’s special home made focaccia. This was followed by a main meal of slow cooked lamb with salad and vegetables from the community garden with a scrumptious dessert of cold lemon souffle made from local lemons. The souffle was an old favourite of Sophie’s which won her first prize in a cooking competition at 16 in the UK!
During the evening each table was asked to vote on naming the ‘Community Garden Chook’ from a list of 40 nominations which were submitted to the Shire prior to the event. This was no easy task from a list of very creative suggestions, however the most votes went to ‘Princess Layer’, which was nominated by Hanusia Holland.
The winners of the raffles were also announced with the $150 Garden Treasures going to Tammy Wilkins, the Gourmet Delights going to Pauline from Corrigin and the $50 voucher from CC’s Café going to Minnie Lucchesi. It is intended that the money raised in the raffles will be going towards the purchase of a community marquee.
The running of these type of events is not possible without the assistance of volunteers. I would especially like to thank Rachel Andrews and her team in the amazing job they did on decorating the marquee and to Jo McCubbing who continues to be a stalwart in developing the community garden and Helen Crane who with Jo decorated the entrance and the garden and prepared the canapes. A shout out also to everyone that helped at the busy bee, to Alan, Heather and Ellen who caught and peeled the yabbies and did the registration, to Graeme Robertson and his crew from the Kulin Bush Races and Steve and Sacha who put up and took done the marquee and to all the Shire staff who assisted during the week to prepare for the event. Thank you also to Kristo and Jenny for taking some fabulous photos on the night.
A huge thank you also Mia and Ann Franich, Janet Repacholi, Jan Wilkins, Carla Waters and her friend for helping with the prepping in the kitchen before the event, and to local school children Indigo and Maddi Collard, Zali Smeed, Jude and Eli Ackesson-Werth, Albert Eades, Deacon Blurton and Jorja Dohnt for helping Sophie on the night.
And most importantly it was wonderful to see locals and visitors from across the district enjoying the evening in an amazing setting with good company, good food, drinks served with a smile from Simone’s gorgeous caravan, lots of laughter, fantastic music, and the fires burning into the night.
Tory Young
Gourmet in the Garden - 23rd March 2018
Kondinin was fortunate to have chef Sophie Budd from Taste Budd Studios come back to Kon-dinin last Friday to prepare a delicious banquet for us from local produce. The day started at 10am where it was all go at the Kondinin Aquatic Centre kitchen with Sophie and her helpers Ann and Mia Franich, Chris and Lisa Thompson and Judy Giltrap preparing the meal. In be-tween visits back to the community garden to pick some more produce (now we know what parsnip leaves look like!), Sophie and her apprentices had everything sorted for the evening meal.
Back at the community garden Rachel Andrews had her helpers Taylor and Sienne under con-trol setting up the marquee to perfection and Jo McCubbing with the help of Helen Crane put their creative skills to the test to create a wonderful entrance to the garden.
The evening wait staff, Jude, Eli, Maddi, Lakeisha and Zali looking very smart in their black and whites arrived at 5.00pm to assist Sophie, of which they did a fantastic job.
By 5.30pm the 72 guests arrived for pre-dinner drinks in the garden which was then followed by the meal in the marquee. On the menu was the now infamous yabbie and saltbush risotto with the yabbies provided by Sonia Aggiss from Karlgarin who cooked, peeled and delivered 250 yabbies; and roasted hogget provided by Tammy and Warren Garlick with mint and shallots from the community garden, all served with Sophie's special focaccia. This was followed by a rhubarb pick from the community garden.
For those of us that have spent sometime in the garden over the last few years it was wonderful to be able to get to this stage and hold this sort of event and see so many people enjoying themselves. A big thanks to everyone who came along. It was nice to receive some feedback from one of our guests too "Kondinin your community garden is fantastic? and Sophie Budd eating the yabbie risotto was an experience in itself. It had to be one of the best dishes I have every had!"
As we know these events don't happen without the help of volunteers. A shout out to everyone who helped out in the tidying and cleaning up of the garden at the bush bee, assisting in the setting up (and packing away), taking the bookings, sewing the table runners, serving at the bar (a huge thanks to Rowena Butler), donating produce and items and assisting Sophie in prepping the meal - it all helped in making the night a great success. Whilst there was lots of people to thank, I would like to make special mention to Jo McCubbbing who has for a long time continued to contribute her time and ideas towards improving the community garden, to Rachel Andrews who did a fantastic job in organising the finer details of the event and to Steve and Sacha who did much of the heavy lifting and running around.
Stay tuned as Sophie is keen to come back and we hope to run a similar event at the
Community Garden this time next year!
Twilight Markets - Saturday 7th October 2017
Since our inaugural Twilight Markets held in 2016, the Kondinin Community Garden has continued to develop and grow into a fantastic and inviting public place. Despite the weather, it was again great to see lots of people come and support the event. This year we were fortunate to have chefs Anna Gare and Sophie Budd undertake cooking demonstrations with veggies from the Community Garden and local Capolinga Lamb, Aggiss Yabbies and local Kangaroo. Thank you to Tammy Garlick, Sonia Aggiss and Vaughan Andrews for arranging the meat. By all accounts the Persian Spiced Kangaroo, Yabbie Salad, Yabbie Risotto and Saltbush Lamb Cutlets were all delicious.
We had a great variety of stalls this year, together with some very tasty food vendors. A big thank you to all those stall holders and food vendors who came to sell their wares and foods. We also had a number of craft activities for the kids - a big thank you to Toni Smeed who coordinated this, in addition to the very successful ’Kondinin Through the Lens’. Thank you also to Greg Gleeson for setting up his bouncy castle which always seems to be a hit with the kids.
This year we again hosted the Curtin University Volunteers Program. We were fortunate to have a fantastic group of volunteers who assisted in the art show, set up and pack away at the markets, collected manure from the Young’s shearing shed and help man a number of stalls at the markets - selling all the show bags too!
Local musicians John Read and Shaun Franich did a great job in keeping us all entertained into the evening.
These events don’t happen without the help of local volunteers. I would especially like to thank Jo McCubbing, Margi Pool and Steph Baldwin who continue to be great supporters of the Community Garden and did a great job in coordinating the chefs, running the bar and doing the flower arrangements respectively. A shout out this year to Sue Pegrum who did a fantastic job in being the MC for the day and to Don Pegrum who cooked and manned the lamb on a spit. Thank you to our Shire staff who all assisted in the coming together of the day. Thank you also to everyone who came down the community garden last Friday to help tidy up prior to the event.
Twilight Markets - Saturday 8th October 2016
Keeping in the art and garden theme for the weekend the Shire in conjunction with the hard working volunteers from the Kondinin Community Garden Working Group worked together and put on a great afternoon and evening at the Kondinin Community Garden Twilight Markets. It was fantastic to see so many people come to the markets and enjoy themselves. Whilst the rainy day wasn’t ideal, it did provide perfect conditions for the mud kitchen for the children in the new nature play area!
It was great to have Sabrina Hahn visit Kondinin, and by all reports thoroughly enjoyed her stay and would quite happily come back again. Thank you also to all the stall holders who despite the weather turned up and braved the windy and wet conditions as did our local musicians, John Read CEO, Peter Turner and Shaun Franich.
The students staying for the weekend through the John Curtin Weekend program also reported to enjoy their time in Kondinin and helping out at the Art Show, the Community Garden, collecting manure from the Young’s farm and the Tennis Club busy bee.
The Shire has received lots of constructive feedback from the event which we will take on board to run the event again next year. A huge thank you to all the volunteers and everyone who came along to support this event.
Community Garden Photos