Boy’s favourite food capsicum after joining garden group

During the group’s working bees, the kids run around and pick, wash and eat everything from carrots to corn and cucumbers.

Co-founder Ben Shaw said the garden, called The Dairy because it’s next to an old milking shed, had been a resounding success.

Quality control: Frida Ulph, 2, one of the youngest members of The Dairy vegetable garden. Credit:Paul Jeffers

It will feature in the 2021 National Sustainable Living Festival’s Great Local Lunch.

In past years, creators of backyard and community gardens converged on Federation Square to eat each other’s sustainably sourced food.

But on Sunday, , due to the pandemic, gardening identity Costa Georgiadis will host a “digital banquet”, interviewing groups at their sites via a live stream.

Festival partnerships manager Andrea Kimbrell said The Dairy was a replicable model that could be implemented by other families and communities across the country.

Mr Shaw, an edible garden designer whose wife, Kerryn, and children Maeve, 8, and Clara, 5, are also members of The Dairy, said the idea formed last autumn.

He and some clients discovered a mutual interest in growing nutritious food locally, reducing fossil fuel use for transport and packaging.

Sally Caldwell and Frida Ulph hard at work.Credit:Paul Jeffers

Cattle farmers (and Clancy and Fergus’ grandparents) Jill and Simon Caldwell offered the use of 0.4 hectares, and seven households invested $300 each for equipment such as fencing and irrigation. The first plants went in last July.

Members work as much – and can pick as much produce – as they like.

Kitty Walker, of Point Lonsdale, a member with partner Joeand their two children, said members communicated through a WhatsApp group.

“Someone will say, ‘I’m heading down at 3pm, are there any jobs that need doing?’ ” she said.

“More often than not, everyone turns up and you work really hard for an hour and achieve so much, then you get to have a beer and cook spuds on the coals and it ends up being more about socialising and fun.”

During the pandemic, Ms Walker said it had been good to gather with like-minded people “to create something bigger than ourselves”.

“Mental health-wise, I think for all of us it was an absolute lifeline during a weird period,” she said.

The Great Local Lunch will be live-streamed on Sunday via the National Sustainable Living Festival website.