Tanya Steele
In a celebration of the autumn equinox, Healesville garden lovers were showered in a lunch of freshly harvested produce on Thursday 23 March.
Despite grim and overcast weather, Healesville Library was able to go ahead with the Dine and Shine community lunch seeing quite a number of people attend.
With the entire community invited along for the luncheon followed by themed activities, 31 community members attended and enjoyed seasonal produce for lunch.
Attendee Rina has lived in Healesville for a number of years and thoroughly enjoyed the event, having been to them a couple of times before.
“There’s always a good time, I love it,” she said.
The library was transformed with attendees sitting along three large dining hall style tables, decorated with seasonal flowers.
The community lunch used ingredients from the Garden Gossip group’s harvest for the day and included lettuce and basil along with the homemade pumpkin ricotta rotolo.
One of Garden Gossip’s members Heather donated tomatoes from her own garden at home for the meal.
MC Suni Red Shoes brought some entertainment, performing stand up comedy and music for the gathered group.
She also helped run the events during the luncheon, including a word basket which was handed around to all the patrons.
“I’m glad everyone came because the weather was so grim this morning,” she said.
Dessert was a must and a nectarine, blueberry or raspberry fruit galette was served up with ice-cream and pastry made by volunteers for the feast.
Nancy, another attendee, said the galette was delicious.
The word she pulled from the word basket was “Gratitude”.
