Those interested in Australian native and wild foods, such as those featuring on the menu at Harvest now, and featured on these pages, may be interested in a new book being launched on Thursday 30 June 5.30pm at the Byron Bay Library.
Gay Bilson will be in conversation with John Newton, the author of The Oldest Food on Earth – history of Australian native foods with recipes.
‘We celebrate cultural and culinary diversity, yet shun foods that grew here before white settlers arrived. We love “superfoods” from exotic locations, yet reject those that grow here. We say we revere sustainable local produce, yet ignore Australian native plants and animals that are better for the land than those European ones’, say the publishers New South Books.
‘In this book, John Newton boils down these paradoxes by arguing that if you are what you eat, we need to eat different foods, foods that will help to reconcile us with the land and its first inhabitants.
‘European Australians are beginning to accept and relish the flavours of Australia, everything from kangaroo to quandongs, from fresh muntries to magpie geese.
‘The book includes recipes from chefs such as Peter Gilmore, Maggie Beer and René Redzepi’s sous chef Beau Clugston. The Oldest Foods on Earth may just convince you that this is one food revolution that really matters’.
Further Details:
Thursday 30 June 5.30pm. Byron Bay Library. Food on arrival by I Love Bushfoods. Drinks by Byron Bay Wild Cider. Tickets available at www.byronbayfol.com or at Bookworms & Papermites 6687 1396.
John Newton is a freelance writer, journalist and novelist. He writes on food, eating, travel, farming and associated environmental issues. His most recent books are Grazing: The Ramblings and Recipes of a Man Who Gets Paid to Eat (2010) and A Savage History: Whaling in the Pacific and Southern Oceans (2013). In 2005 he won the Gold Ladle for Best Food Journalist in the World Food Media Awards.
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