I look forward to sharing our Homegrown Parkes dates for 2026 in next week’s column!

Thank you to those of you who have already provided feedback through our survey. Keep it going! Initial feedback has been fantastic and it has been great to have feedback from people wanting to know how they can contribute to future events. Thank you! You can find the link here.

Our stallholder survey has also been distributed. Both of the surveys close on Friday, 31 October 2025 at 5pm. We have some lovely Homegrown Parkes gifts for several lucky people drawn from community survey respondents. Coffee, keep-it cups, lucerne hay, a beautiful work from Glenn Sloane and a gift pack from Tumbling Downs Olives.

Our next event will have a multicultural theme, so if you know of someone locally producing something that would fit within that theme, let us know. Our event is there to encourage and support emerging side-hustles or you may know someone who would be perfect providing a demonstration.

We do like to be able to ‘give back’ in some way through Homegrown Parkes, so we are always looking at ways that we can support local organisations as well.

The message that we keep at the heart of our preparation for each Homegrown Parkes event is that our focus is obviously ‘homegrown’. It is about maintaining the ‘homegrown’ concept (which can be broadly interpreted) and maintaining quality. It is important that we focuss on promoting local and regional businesses, not for profits etc….and, of course, local talent!

We try to factor in your suggestions moving forward, particularly around demonstrations, workshops, educational opportunities and stallholder suggestions.

If you have thought about having a stall at Homegrown Parkes and are just starting out, you will need $20 million insurance (which might be easier to get than you expect, so don’t let that put you off). Food vendors also require their Food Safety Supervisor certification and there may be other requirements specific to food vendors that we request when EOI are submitted.

If you attended the tiramisu workshop with Phil and Nadia Donato, I will be sharing their recipe on our social media in the next few days, so keep an eye out for that one.

If you would like to keep up to date with Homegrown Parkes and other Landcare activities, follow our social media or join our newsletter mailing list.

For further information on this article, please go to www.centralwestlachlanlandcare.org, Facebook or Instagram @cwllandcare or contact Marg Applebee on 0418 611 053.