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Finding a plot of vacant land in the heart of Sydney city’s ever-spreading urban tangle can be trying. And no one knows it better than the small team behind Pocket City Farms. After kick-starting their community farming initiative in 2010, the not-for-profit opened their first site at Camperdown Commons in June 2016.
Collaborating with the Camperdown Project and Acre Eatery, Pocket City Farms are reinventing the way the city crew approach their mealtimes. With community events and gardening classes, the community hub aims to educate on the importance of food production and sustainability. The delicious produce is sold at weekly farm gate stalls and served up to the brunch-goers at Camperdown Common’s Acre.
Sustainability has long been a driving force behind Nespresso‘s global business model. Underpinned by the NespressoAAA Sustainable Quality Program, launched in 2003, the brand’s Positive Cup strategy was formed with an aim of restoring, replenishing and reviving the environmental and human resources that contribute to their coffee production.
Known for bringing café-quality espresso to the home, Nespresso continues to release new coffee capsules, their latest being the Limited Edition BARISTA which comes in three different blends. Nespresso‘s capsules are made from aluminium which is infinitely recyclable. In Australia, the company has nearly 20,000 recycling collection points, with a focus on making it convenient for customers to recycle their Nespresso capsules.
“A mindful approach to sustainability is at the very heart of our business at Nespresso,” says Nespresso Australia and Oceania’s General Manager Loïc Réthoré. “From working with farmers to source the highest quality coffee, to investing in recycling options to make it easy for Australians to give their used aluminium coffee capsules a second life, we work towards ensuring that Nespresso creates a positive impact.”
Wapengo Rocks Wild Organic Oysters
Native oysters have been growing in Wapengo Lake for thousands of years and farmed since the late 1880s. Served seasonally at a selected set of fine-dining spaces within Melbourne, Sydney and regional NSW, Wapengo Rocks Wild Organic Oysters are award-winning.
Over the last six years, owner Shane Buckley has successfully transitioned traditional methods of cultivation to a level of sustainable practice that promotes the restoration of the local ecosystem. Harvesting new sustainable aqua-culture techniques, Shane has set out to improve the water quality and habitat, ensuring customary, more harmful procedures are abolished.
Unique floating ‘dynamic long line’ systems were implemented to replace standard ‘post and rail’ structures that can often damage lake beds and impact grass growth rate, while water quality has seen an improvement thanks to the removal of polluting products and infrastructure. Organically-certified, the oysters possess a unique flavour, delicately creamy and distinctly Wapengo.
Those who flock to Perth’s overflowing Mary Street Bakery in Highgate for an early morning feed can attest to the superior taste biodynamic flour gives to the humble loaf of bread. Along with many of eastern WA’s brunching hotspots, Mary Street Bakery uses Eden Valley Biodynamic Farm flours within their freshly baked loaves. With the café’s Instagram following at 24,000, the acquired taste seems to be growing in popularity.
Since 1994, Terri and Dayle Lloyd have produced flour from the crops on their Dumbleyung farm. Blessed with a natural landscape that allows for water table control and microclimate regulation, the farm is able to practise ecologically sustainable, traditional agriculture. Common additives that are found in supermarket flour ranges (colourings, protein enhances, preservatives) are excluded from the production line. Other than their self-raising variety, Eden Valley flours contain only what is naturally found in the grain. All produce is free of synthetic fertilisers, chemicals and genetic modifications.
Taltarni Vineyards, Winery & Cellar Door
Native plants have played hero at Victoria’s Taltarni Vineyard since 2005. With the aim of reducing pesticide use, owner Adam Torpy planted corridors of banksias, eucalyptus trees and acacias in the hope of attracting predator bugs to carry out the job naturally. Twelve years later and the Pyrenees’ vineyard is a leader in Australian wine-making sustainability, having seen a pesticide reduction of more than 80 per cent.
Sustainability is a Taltarni philosophy that extends to the entire winery and its surrounding bushland. Initiatives include solar panels, restocking damns with native fish, and implementing self-sufficiency programs for power and water usage within the winery itself. It’s the winery’s all-inclusive approach to sustainable production that gives its grapes such distinctive taste, and why the wine crowd are taking note.
This article is presented by Nespresso
