Fermenting Fun 2022

Welcome to 2022…hope you all managed to raise a fermented beverage or two to say farewell to the challenges that 2021 brought us!  What this year will bring is still so uncertain with so much beyond our control, may it be a bit kinder to us all.

What we do know is we need a good food supply, we need great new jobs and businesses to help feed the population and we need those legacy economic development drivers of agribusiness and food production which will continue to grow our economy, locally and nationally….for the foreseeable future!

With the success of our Federal BBRF grant, FermenTasmania goes into 2022 preparing build the infrastructure, the Fermentation Hub Incubator, which will help address these needs.

Like ducks on a pond, while it may look like things are just sailing along smoothly we are paddling madly to ensure we get everything done…will share just a few of the projects we have in store for early 2022!

THE COOL…AND THE ESSENTIAL - EQUIPMENT LIST

Respected guru of all things fermented...and all things stainless, Matt Lowe is out talking to industry right now as he pulls together a list of equipment needed for the fermentation hub.  If you have a specific need or would like to talk to Matt about what would be useful to you please just email: info@fermentasmania.com (mailto:info@fermentasmania.com)  as the more we can use our collective brains and experience the better the facility will be and more importantly…much more useful to you!

NEXT ABLED KITCHEN SESSIONS

With the huge success of the pilot program late last year, LT from Avocado Moon Kombucha and Josh from Sandy’s Sourdough (see photo) are pulling the next sessions together for our collaboration with St Giles on the 22-25 February 2022.  If you know anyone with a sensory disability, on the autism spectrum or a high functioning intellectual disability who might be interested in learning to make sourdough products or just having a great experience in a commercial kitchen environment, please just email danielleblewett@stgiles.org.au (mailto:danielleblewett@stgiles.org.au)  to register

Funded through the Tasmanian Community fund this is a FREE 4-day program and will not deduct from any NDIS entitlements. We have also started talking to TasTAFE to see if we can credential this program so the participants can use them to gain long term employment…much like fermentation transforms our food, meaningful work transforms lives!

NOTHING BORING ABOUT THIS BOARD…

With a massive couple of years ahead for us, the FermenTas Board have our skates on and held our first ‘alfresco’ board meeting in early January early February putting an update to our Strategy, pulling together our budget for the remainder of 2022, securing the funding for the hub build and understanding the capacity and the focus of FermenTas as an organisation while the build is underway will be at the forefront for our illustrious board…not to mention overseeing the build of the Fermentation Hub incubator and getting everyone excited about playing in the sandpit with us!

If you have any queries or a spare $3.4m in your back pocket please feel free to get in touch…

Kim Seagram AM
Chair I Fermentation Tasmania Ltd.
chair@fermentasmania.com (mailto:chair@fermentasmania.com)

Photo acknowledgement:  The Examiner