In November 2007, the Ethos Foundation, Beaudesert Shire Council, B-Fresh and the Beechmont community kicked off a synergistic pilot project about the growing and distribution of local, nutritious food.

Called “Local Food for Local Folks” the project involved the establishment of a weekly, local, no-spray produce stall called B-Fresh at Beechmont as well as the rollout of regular workshops about sustainable food and farming. The project brings together a loose collective of organisations to build capacity in the Beechmont community around sustainable food and farming.

B-Fresh is now powering along with its sale of mainly local produce each Sunday at the Beechmont Old School Site between 8am and 10am. This community enterprise was created by a team of five women – Lisa Groom, Julia Vincent, Wendi Trulson, Bronwyn Lind and the Ethos Foundation’s Sally MacKinnon – and is currently an offshoot of the Beechmont Business and Enterprise Network (BBEN).

A one-day workshop about the basics of biodynamic farming was held in November 2007 for local and regional growers in a partnership between the Ethos Foundation and local BD farmer Dick Marriott. It was over-subscribed and so popular that we’re running a second workshop at Dick’s Beechmont farm on Saturday March 15.

Since January 29, Tamborine Mountain organic farmers Bev and Geoff Buckley, in partnership with the Ethos Foundation have run a four-week program called Growing Healthy, which is all about growing nutritious food and building healthy soil.

On Saturday April 26, founder of the internationally-acclaimed Seed Savers Network, Jude Fanton, will be running a one-day seed saving workshop at the Ethos Foundation and on May 10 and 11, Wild Mountains Trust and the Foundation will co-host a weekend workshop about local food, farming and energy descent at Wild Mountains.

Beaudesert Shire Council has supported these pilot workshops and activities through their Community Environment Assistance Grant and we thank Council very much for such enlightened support.

For more information or to book upcoming programs, just visit the Foundation’s website: www.ethosfoundation.org or contact our office by phone: (07) 5533 3813 or email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it