Joe Tabone believes there’s nothing better than fresh, organic vegetables.
He’s part of the Blue Mountains Urban Growers Co-op, which has a stall at the monthly Magpie Markets at Lawson.
The six growers between Warrimoo and Medlow Bath have turned their backyard or frontyards into veggie gardens, and use a range of organic and biodynamic principles.
“Our aim is to revive a truly local food economy and provide organic produce that is harvested within 24 hours or less before the market,” Mr Tabone said.
“It’s a small but inspiring step towards an alternative to the dominant mass consumer system.”
The co-op was launched last year, and evolved out of Crop and Swap, a community event that Mr Tabone helped run from 2012 -2016.
“It was a great opportunity to network with local foodie enthusiasts and veggie growers throughout the Mountains,” he said.
All co-op growers try to keep everything as local as possible.
“We try to make use of local resources, such as coffee from local cafes, horse manure from nearby stables and woodchip to build our soil health, and healthy vegetables too. We have even begun saving our own seed, so our veggies are local from the ground up, and that’s what makes them so special,” Mr Tabone said.