Community
1 February, 2023
"Gazza´s Goss: Mossman’s Land of Plenty!"
I’VE covered Mossman Support Services in the ‘Goss’ on a few occasions before and this is hardly surprising considering the energy of the team that runs it, the amazing volunteers involved and the many activities that occur within the grounds of this great local asset.
The latest idea is one of my favourites so far, in the form of a Community Resilience Garden.
To further explain, it is an urban tropical garden showcasing an ever-growing array of seasonal and perennial edible fruits, nuts, herbs, spices and vegetables, nestled right in the heart of Mossman. Yes, that’s what you’ll now find at the Mossman Support Services Mill Street headquarters, where the perimeters have been recently planted out with over 50 different varieties of tropical edible plants.
It gets better though as now there are plans to triple that edible footprint with the idea to transform the remaining onsite ornamental gardens into tropical edible spaces.
The team told me their aim is to create a dynamic learning space which not only showcases, ‘in real time’, all aspects of edible gardening in the tropics, but which also encourages and grows connection to their broader community through the sharing of local knowledge in the growing, preparing and cooking of both exotic tropical and native plants which thrive in the Douglas Shire.
The Community Resilience Garden will do this by hosting regular cook and share workshops where they showcase selected tropical edibles and by also hosting regular deep dive workshops into topics like soil building, composting, organic pest management, seed saving and propagation all while further developing the edible garden spaces onsite.
The Community Resilience Garden will even host a monthly ‘community kitchen takeover’ where volunteer participants spend a morning harvesting and preparing locally-grown produce for the community lunch program, operated by Mossman Support Services Community Centre.
It is, indeed, a fantastic opportunity for them to connect the garden to the kitchen, in an impactful way, whilst sharing a little more about how to utilise herbs, spices, tropical carbs and greens which grow up here in our unique environment, whilst feeding our community.
It is in this way, Mossman Support Services hope to encourage greater food resilience for the community through both the sharing of culinary and gardening skills and ideas, plus showing people how to grow and to produce in their back gardens or community gardens and then use them in everyday cooking.
Not only does this reduce food miles, but it promotes healthy eating and encourages community members to share their own knowledge, cross culturally, both face to face and online through the Community Resilience Garden Facebook Community.
Pop in to Mossman Support Services in Mill Street, Mossman and find out first hand what is going on.
I’m off to water my veggies, so for now it’s Gazza signing out!
Please send your stories to gazza@cairnslocalnews.com.au
