We have tomato growers in Victoria, we have food processors in Melbourne.  Why can’t we just put them together to can or bottle organic tomatoes here in Australian instead of importing them from Italy?  I mean how hard can it be? This is a conversation we’ve been having at Fair Food for a long time now.  We decided we’d find out if we could can or bottle Fair Food’s most popular canned item right here in our own country.  Josh our produce buyer did some searching – he found an organic farmer willing to do the growing but when it came to the processor he hit a  giant wall – a fifty pallets of canned tomatoes wall – which was the minimum amount we’d need to process in a commercial canning run.

At the same time there was this other conversation running at Fair Food that went something along the lines of ….We’ve got Food Hosts who want to contribute more to their local food system than simply being a pick-up point.  But what’s something simple and effective we can do?
Hmmm, nope – I’ve got nothing.  No, me neither.  Fancy a vanilla rooibos?  Yeah okay, that sounds really good actually…..

Left to float around in the Fair Food zeitgeist it was only a matter of time before these two problems somehow coalesced eventually presenting themselves to the collective warehouse consciousness no longer difficult issues to solved but as a fully formed community food celebration event.  And so Crowdsaucing was born.  Yes, that’s right, Crowdsaucing.

Okay so what is it you ask, Crowdsaucing?   Well, it’s a tomato saucing day in your neighbourhood – where Fair Food organises saucing tomatoes grown by a local organic farmer to be delivered to you and a few friends or you and a few strangers or a combination of the two together at a kitchen local to you.  Where, with instruction and guidance, you sauce and bottle some of the tomatoes that you’d otherwise be importing in cans. And then you take the sauce home and make pastas and similar dishes at your leisure.

So what we want to know now is could you, would you, be into a Crowdsaucing day next April (not at Easter though), so we can give the farmer the thumbs up to go ahead and plant out the paddock?  You don’t have to be a customer and you’re welcome to do it with a family, school or community group you are part of.  It’s not a commitment we’re just gauging interest.  So if you are keen to be in on a Crowdsaucing next April email us here.Read more …