annecto David House are hosting a Crowd Saucing day on the 30 April 2016.
Crowd Saucing day is a Centre of Education and Research in Environment (CERES) initiative that encourages people to register as a Crowd Saucing host and invite family and friends to their homes to enjoy the communal experience of making tomato sauce together.
“Sauce making day is traditionally Italian, where families would come together and make a year’s supply of ‘sugo’, and share the bottles of sauce among family members,” explains Helen Kowalyk, annecto’s Coordinator of Community Inclusion.
“Coming together to wash, press, bottle and seal tomato sauce gives families and communities the chance to support local farmers, work together to produce sauce that is fresh, and healthy and supply themselves with enough sauce to form the basis of the meals they’ll eat together for the coming year,” explains Helen.
Monique Miller, Crowd Saucing Event Coordinator at CERES says the idea came from not being able to source organic tinned tomatoes in Australia. “There are no Australian grown organic tinned tomatoes available, so we thought it would be great to have one of the local Victorian farmers grow the tomatoes, and then have groups of people bottle their own organic tomatoes for use throughout the year.”
Monique talks about the Open Food Network philosophy and hopes that Crowd Saucing will one day grow in nature, “so that individuals and communities are being linked directly to local producers for their food, whether it be to preserve tomatoes, jams or any other food.”
How it works
- As a registered Crowd Saucing event, CERES will source the organic tomatoes we need to make the tomato sauce.
- annecto David House is the cooking location, and food will be prepared on the day to keep the sauce making teams sustained.
- The process will see the tomatoes blanched in hot water, cut and quartered, drained, pressed and bottled then sealed in large boiling pots.
MediQuest is annecto David House’s training partner, who provide transition style training to participants. “A community activity such as making sauce together, gives people the chance to practice real life activities,” explains Erin from MediQuest. “Our training focuses on preparing people for more independent living, this event is ideal, because they will have to decide how many tomatoes are needed, how many jars, which is the best way to cut the tomatoes, what size bucket is needed for the peeled tomatoes and the discarded bits. It’s also a brilliant opportunity for people to learn to socialise with people in the community they may not have had a chance to meet before,” explains Erin.
What we need
- Responsible and capable people to lead groups on the day
- Jars and bottles with lids
- Plastic buckets or bins
- Sharp knives
- Chopping boards
- Ladles and funnels
- Colanders and slotted spoons
- Tea towels
- Large, high saucepans
- Portable cook top stoves.
annecto David House Learning Hub in Yarraville offers a cross section of activities and courses, designed to assist people with disability to get involved in their community and to increase learning and independence.
Crowd Saucing at annecto David House was initiated by MediQuest, our education partner. Currently MediQuest are delivering training programs in Work Education, Transition Education and Initial Adult Literacy and Numeracy to annecto David House attendees.
CERES is a non-profit sustainability centre in Merri Creek, East Brunswick, Melbourne. As an organisation that supports organic farming in a community setting, CERES could think of no better opportunity to encourage people to get together, and produce something they’ll think fondly of every time they cook with it.
For further information about the broader CERES Crowd Saucing program visit the CERES website.
If you have any jars or equipment in the list above call Helen Kowalyk on phone: 03 9314 0988 or email Helen Kowalyk on helen.kowalyk@annecto.org.au.
This year’s event is a closed event, as we test the waters and see how things go. With any luck next year’s Crowd Saucing event will be open to the public and we hope you can all join us.
