Local produce and projects shine at Perth Hills Festival

The festival, in its 35th year, was run on Saturday the 13th of October at the Karragullen Oval in the Perth Hills.

Despite the forecast for stormy weather, community and growers turned out in their droves to discover more about our local Orchardists and the businesses and organisations that support them.

The Perth NRM Sustainable Agriculture team provided information on the RegenWA program to many attendees. The program is an inclusive, diverse and dispersed network of farmers who are willing to investigate alternative farming practises and systems and share their learnings through on-farm demonstrations, workshops and case studies.

“These events allow us to network with growers and supporters of WA produce one-on-one, helping to educate them on the research and education programs that inform our growers around the state” said Shay Crouch, Perth NRM’s Regional Agriculture Landcare Facilitator and Value Chain Facilitator for the WA Stone Fruit Industry.

“It also provides an opportunity to share information on extension programs that benefit agricultural businesses locally”.

Sharon Munro, Perth NRM’s Community Engagement Coordinator, talked with festival goers about our Cultural Heritage School Program, sharing worksheets on Noongar language and discussing traditional bush foods and their place in sustainable agriculture in WA.

Perth NRM’s kid’s activity packs focussing on the Swan and Canning Rivers also proved popular, with Perth NRM’s Jason Pitman helping visitors to understand the effects of human activity on our catchment systems.

With locally grown Perth Hills apples available for passes by, it was a great opportunity to start the conversation about supporting local growers and seasonality. The Perth Hills is a major growing region for stone fruit and apples, amongst other commodities, and the event provided a great opportunity to highlight the region to visitors.

Identifying WA grown produce has sometimes been difficult when shopping but with new technology most fruit, including apples, peaches, nectarines and plums will have barcoded stickers with “WA Grown” or a WA logo on them to indicate their origin. Keep and eye out for this in store to make sure you buy WA produce.