A Fantastic Day of Landcare Events with Indigenous Chef, Mindy Woods
In February of 2026, indigenous Chef, Mindy Woods spoke at four events across the Forbes and Parkes Shires
Capacity building - LEP23-005-CWLL-01_LLC_011
The issue
Many in our communities don't know about the native resources that we already have growing in our local area and how they can be incorporated into our everyday cooking.
We had several projects and events to kick off at the start of 2026 and we saw the opportunity to host Landcare NSW Ambassador Mindy Woods, at four events in one day.
We knew that this would be the perfect way to bring a fantastic, knowledgeable speaker to our area to share her knowledge of native foods and inspire our communities.
The solution
Working with Landcare NSW, we engaged Mindy Woods to join us at four events and share her knowledge of native foods.
We kicked off with Crop Swap at Forbes to increase engagement at the Forbes Riverside Garden, with a BBQ breakfast and an opportunity for people to bring their excess produce, preserves, cooking and seedlings to swap.
Then we moved on to Trundle Children's Centre, to share a delicious morning tea and be inspired by Mindy's enthusiasm for native foods.
Travelling the back roads, we headed on to Peak Hill where the Peak Hill Community Garden hosted their first Crop Swap and that evening, we held a dinner at the historic Carrington building.
Mindy Spoke at each event, sharing her knowledge of native foods. Her enthusiasm for sharing culture and food to encourage, build up and inspire others was 100% contagious!
The impact
Mindy spoke at every event and shared her enthusiasm for native foods and encouraged people to be using them in their own cooking.
She brought and shared native foods so that everyone could smell and feel them and envisage how they could be incorporated into their own cooking.
Copies of Mindy's book, Karkalla at Home, were given to several lucky participants and her recipes were also used as inspiration for our celebration dinner at the Carrington, so that attendees could taste how native foods could be easily incorporated in our cooking.
These presentations have had ongoing impacts on discussions around native food and inspired propagation workshops for saltbush and quandongs at the Peak Hill Community Garden.