People all around the world have had a long history of using local plants for food and medicine but with the ease and convenience of having everything at our fingertips at the local supermarket, are we loosing this knowledge?

Watershed Landcare have invited Diego Bonetto to share his knowledge of useful plants in the public domain.

Come along and find out how to forage wild plants in your local area for food and medicine.

The Foraging Workshop with Diego Bonetto will be held in Mudgee on Sunday 17 July.

Diego Bonetto is an Italian artist, father, forager, speaker, keen naturalist and award winning cultural worker based in Sydney.

Diego works with chefs, scientists, architects, academics, herbalists, brewers, soap makers, producers, educators and land owners, providing programs, workshops, tours, community engagement strategies and exhibitions.

You can read more about Diego on his website: http://www.diegobonetto.com.

The Foraging Workshop will be held on Sunday 17 July, from 9-11am at a central venue in Mudgee. We will go for a wonder to discover what wild food and medicinal plants are on offer right on our doorstep.

Attendance to the workshop is $15 for members and $25 for non-members.

Tickets are available from the Central Tablelands LLS office, 112 Market St. But get in quick, numbers are strictly limited.

Diego will also be one of our speakers at the Watershed Landcare lecture series at the Mudgee Small Farm Field Days.

In his talk, Diego will challenge growers not to curse the weeds but rather to embrace the benefits of pioneer species. This talk will look at a number of common pesky plants that while you spend effort and time to eradicate, might just as well go a step further: harvest and sell.

The 'Weeds as a money making venture.' talk will be held in the Straw Bale Lecture Room (L8) at 4pm, Friday 15 and 11:30am, Saturday 16 July.

We have a great 2 days of lectures on diverse topics lined up, including: backyard beekeeping; basics of stockmanship; solar passive house design and how it saves you money and much more!

We will also be hosting workshops on understanding grasses and seed collection, germination and broad-acre tree planting.

Come along to our Waterwise Garden display site (L9) to check out some beautiful, waterwise and salt tolerant plants for the Mudgee district, including a native Microlaena lawn sample.

We can also help with plant identification. If you would like to have something from your paddock/bushland identified, bring along a specimen to the Watershed Landcare botanist/grazier Christine McRae. If possible, bring a sample which has leaves, roots, stems, flowers, and seeds.

Need help picking Serrated Tussock out from the innocent native bystanders? Learn how to spot the difference with our display plants.

We will have plenty of other information and displays. So come along for a chat with other Watershed Landcare members, warm up by the fire, find out about our projects and how to become a member.

These events are supported by Watershed Landcare through partial funding from the Central Tablelands Local Land Services and is part of the NSW Government’s Local Landcare Coordinators Initiative, supported through the partnership of Local Land Services and Landcare NSW.