Allie Godfrey
Local school kids proved just how exciting growing and cooking your own food can be at the annual Grow Your Own Lunchbox Challenge, held at Mullumbimby Farmers Market on Friday.
Six local schools showcased what they’ve been growing in their school gardens before transforming their harvests into colourful, and very tasty, lunchboxes.
Each school creates a lunchbox featuring a main, two snacks and a drink, as well as a value-added or preserved product using garden produce.
Food journalist and presenter Magdalena Roze kept the day buzzing as MC, while three Mullumbimby Farmers Market stallholder farmers had the difficult job of judging the gardens and food.
Goonengerry Public School took out Best Native Garden & Innovation, with their wicking bed demonstration a standout. They also claimed Best Lunchbox, making brilliant use of native ingredients in an omelette kebab, potato and beetroot cake and Bundjalung cordial made with lilly pilly, rosella and bush mint.
Brunswick Heads Public School won Best Pest Management, while its noodle salad – with noodles made completely from scratch – earned Best Main.
Eureka Public School received Best New Sustainable Addition for its vertical garden, seedbank, worm farm, composting and recipe book. Their fruit wraps took out Best Snack.
Mullumbimby Public School was named Most Resourceful Garden for its paddock-to-plate philosophy, while their beetroot brownies won the second Best Snack prize.
Ocean Shores Public School won Most Diverse Garden, while their fruit smoothie took out Best Drink.
Shearwater won Best Garden for its integration of garden, nursery, orchard and farm, along with Best Value-Added Product for its sauerkraut and bread.
Every school walked away with prize money from Mullumbimby Farmers Market to put back into their gardens for next year. A hugely successful day – and if these young growers and cooks are anything to go by, the future is looking very bright indeed.
Mullumbimby Farmers Market is on every Friday from 7am to 11am at Mullumbimby Showground.
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
