RECENTLY RELEASED:FORAGING TOUR WITH PETER HARDWICK @10am (1)

Peter Hardwick started foraging when he was four years old at South West Rocks, near Kempsey, inspired by his mothers stories of eating lillypillys.

When he was 18 years old (1977) he decided to make bushfoods his career path to highlight the value of rainforest and regeneration. He studied horticulture in Sydney to be able identify native food plants and found many edible rainforest fruit trees planted as street and park trees. He made his first observations of riberry, Davidson’s plum, lemon myrtle, plum pine and bunya nut.

In the early 1980’s Peter returned to set-up a native foods industry in Northern NSW. He worked on researching the cultivation of wild foods and set up a nursery that specialised in selecting improved varieties of native fruits.

In the late 1980's Peter was part of the emerging bushfood industry and worked on selecting the best subtropical species for restaurants and processing.

In the 1990’s Peter ran courses on regenerating bushland with native foods and was involved in establishing native food plantations. When foraging became part of the modern native food movement Peter’s experience enabled him to assist chefs wanting to use a broader range of wild ingredients on their menus. He worked for the award winning Adelaide restaurant restaurant, Orana, and then in 2016 started working with Harvest at Newrybar.

Peter also has a decade of experience with native food fermenting, and has developed emerging products like: pandanus vinegar, pickled Moretan Bay fig shoots and char kelp vinegar.