PEPPERMINT PITCH: HIDDEN HARVEST
- Words by Peppermint
Illawarra-based group Hidden Harvest is on a mission to tackle food waste, one tasty plate at a time. Formed in 2015, the team holds pop-up events that spark lively conversation – transforming food that would have gone to waste into delicious feasts, and literally bringing the topic of discarded food to the table. Their new Pickle Pals project sees them training and educating young people in the art of pickling and preserving – and as the winners of our Sydney PepTalks Peppermint Pitch, they’re now sharing their wisdom here.
Tell us about your new pickling project.
The Pickle Pals collective brings together young people from all over the Illawarra to learn how to reduce their food waste through pickling and preserving all sorts of wacky – and normal – food items. This is important because Australia’s food waste is getting out of hand, with the average household throwing away a staggering $1,036 worth of food every year. This not only hurts our pockets – it also has a detrimental impact on our environment.
Currently there’s nothing quite like Pickle Pals in the Illawarra – it teaches young people valuable cooking and food prep skills, and has a positive environmental impact in reducing food waste. Pickle Pals will be self-sustaining – becoming an ongoing initiative as we use discarded food (so free of cost), and partner with local cafes and venues to host our monthly sessions.
What inspired you to get started?
We saw the need for a more hands-on approach to helping people reduce their food waste. In the past we’ve held numerous events to ignite the food waste conversation, and now we’re ready to start teaching skills for people to take back and practice in their homes. We hope to not only teach young people food preparation skills and give them confidence in the kitchen, but also have a collective environmental impact on reducing participants’ ‘food print’ – saving tonnes of food waste from ending up in landfill.
What have you achieved so far?
In our previous campaign, ‘More Taste Less Waste’, we diverted a collective amount of 4,344kg of food from landfill. This was a combination of using Hidden Harvest food at events, as well as participants recording what they had saved at home after events. This shows the impact we can have with only small tips and resources. In passing on skills, we think we can have an even greater impact.
What excites you most about the project?
We already have such a wonderfully supportive and engaged community. This new project let’s us share our skills with them, whereas before we could only share food waste tips, facts and the delicious food we’d prepared. This also lets us potentially start producing food waste products to sell within our local community – making Hidden Harvest a more sustainable social enterprise, as we can then funnel money into developing future food waste initiatives.
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“My piece of advice for makers and designers? Run your own race… make sure your key decisions stay anchored in your brand’s core beliefs.”
- Bec Bligh
Quick show of hands: who’s opened a water bottle expecting a refreshing sip… and instead been greeted by the unmistakable whiff of uh-oh?
Because for something that follows us everywhere (desk, car, hikes, yoga…), the humble drink bottle is strangely prone to becoming a science experiment. Hard-to-clean corners and gaskets. Mystery smells. Bec Bligh and her husband Tim know it well. A six-month sailing trip along the Queensland coast left them with a lifetime of memories and one stubborn annoyance: mouldy water bottles they couldn’t properly clean.
So they did something about it.
Enter @EverVessel. Thoughtfully designed borosilicate glass and stainless steel bottles that keep things beautifully simple: durable materials, wide openings, easy-to-clean parts and none of the techy gimmicks that tend to age badly. Turns out simplicity, done well, is pretty powerful stuff. (Their many design awards agree!)
And lately they’ve added a little extra delight: the Artist Series, where creatives like Paola Castro, Ben Miners and Martin Thompson transform these everyday companions into tiny travelling artworks. There are more colabs in the works, too: hydration, but make it joyful! 🎨💧
We chatted with Bec about the sailing trip that started it all, the philosophy behind Ever Vessel, and why the most sustainable product is often just the one you keep using.
Tap the link in our bio to read the full conversation. 🚰
#EverVessel #ReusableWaterBottle
Pull up a chair… there’s room at this table!
For the first time, Feast for Freedom is bringing people together for a spectacular long-table dinner as part of the Melbourne Food & Wine Festival.
A Longer Table is exactly what it sounds like: one beautiful shared table inside the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre (@Asrc1), piled with generous dishes inspired by this year’s hero cooks, Noha and Nige.
From 6 to 9pm on Wednesday, 25 March, this is what you can expect:
🍽 A three-course shared feast
🍷 Matched drinks
🎶 Live entertainment
✨ A room full of good humans
Your ticket doesn’t just buy you a delicious dinner. It supports the ASRC’s vital work and helps create a fairer future for people seeking asylum.
Seats are limited, and long tables have a way of filling up quickly – head to @MelbFoodAndWine’s website to book now: feastforfreedom.org.au/mfwf
#FeastForFreedom #MelbourneFoodAndWineFestival #LongTableDinner #FoodForChange
Sew versatile! 🪡
Another great make from Lisa from @SunnySewsEveryday:
My #PeppermintWaratahWrapDress is finished and I’m so proud of it. It has been designed not to flap open and flash your pants in the wind, so I feel confident it will be a great wheelchair or standing dress in English weather.
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Frame your face with the Peppermint Bucket Hat!
Stay safe and stylish in the sun with your very own self-sewn and self-drafted wide-brimmed bucket hat. This beginner-friendly sew is perfect for a sunny day. Get out your pencils – this pattern is created using equations and maths!
This DIY project was featured in Issue 53 and now you can access it for the lovely low price of only $5.
Sun-safe chic is always in style. ☀️
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Myrtle cuts above the knee with options to customise the length. Don’t think she’s reserved for hot weather either: try a heavier-weight fabric to turn your Myrtle into a pinafore-style garment for layering.
For our fabrics we chose two from our lovely sewing partner @Karmme_Apparel – the bold Rottnest Stripes in a lightweight, soft-drape cotton, and the quality linen in the handpainted Mexico Collection.
Get making the Myrtle – the only question is, can you stop at just one?
Link in bio 🪡
Fabric: @Karmme_Apparel
Sewist: @Laura_The_Maker
Photos: @KelleySheenan
Models: @SerahSews and @Pins_And_Tonic
Location: @ShareTheDignityAustralia
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It’s time to Feast!
Some recipes travel a long way before they land on your table to delight your taste buds. This year’s Feast for Freedom invites us to gather our friends, cook something delectable and raise funds for the incredible work of the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre (@Asrc1) while we’re at it.
The 2026 Feast features recipes shared by two remarkable cooks: Noha, who brought the flavours of Palestine with her when she arrived in Australia, and Nige, a Sri-Lankan Tamil cook whose journey with food began in the most unexpected of places.
You can host your own Feast up until 30 April – simply register online and get planning! Host a dinner, organise a workplace lunch, or gather your community… However you do it, the idea is simple: cook, connect and celebrate the cultures and stories that shape Australia.
Want to find out more? Head to the link in bio to meet Noha and Nige, learn more about their stories, and discover a delicious recipe to try.
#FeastForFreedom #PeppermintMagazine #FoodForGood #ASRC
