Northern Rivers Food Harvest Food Trail will return in 2021!

The Northern Rivers Food Harvest Food Trail, to be held on the weekend of May 1-2 2021, is guaranteed to be a very Northern Rivers experience, reflecting on and celebrating the distinctive provenance of our region’s food. The Trail will offer lots of wonderful eating and drinking experiences, jammed-packed with our most-acclaimed restaurants, producers, farmers and growers.

The Northern Rivers Food Harvest Festival has run each year since 2016. Due to COVID last year the festival was forced to cancel. This year Northern Rivers Foodhave announced an exciting evolution and have returned to deliver a highly-anticipated Harvest Food Trail self-drive event across the Northern Rivers on the weekend of May 1 – 2.

With 26 food and beverage participants, including two tours, an abundance of seasonal farm-gate produce, three course dining, grower talks, classes, distillery tours, tasting sessions, talks on regenerative farming and demonstrations from the region’s most celebrated chefs, the Northern Rivers Food Trail weekend is packed with both phenomenal food experiences and food for thought.

You can view the map and participant offering online now to plan your Trail over the weekend May 1-2.

Please note ticketed events are expected to sell out quickly so please don’t delay in purchasing tickets to your favourite events. 

Highlights include:

• agroecology tours at The Farm in Byron Bay;
• a farm tour at Brookfarm’s macadamia farm and discussion with Martin Brook, who is a passionate regenerative farmer;
• classes, tours and tastings at Cape Byron Distillery, Husk Distillery and Lord Byron Distillery;
• Sunday long lunch at Harvest Newrybar;
• a Meet the Maker and Pork and Pinot event at Byron at Byron featuring Bangalow Sweet Pork;
• Bay Grocer and Beach Byron Bay will have stalls and samples from their favourite local producers including Salumi, Byron Bay Tea, Byron Bay Mozzarella and more;
• roastery tours at Zentvelds Coffee Plantation Newrybar and Bun Coffee in Byron Bay
• indigenous cooking demonstrations at Karkalla in Byron Bay
• farms across the region, not normally open to the general public, will be opening their farm gate doors with special tours, including: Forage at Myocum; cane farms in Tumbulgum and Mooball; Duck Creek Macadamias at Newrybar; Australian native produce farm Wattle Tree Creek at Numulgi and pecan farm Barefoot Farm at Eltham.
• Stone and Wood Brewery will be open with locally-produced specials, as will be Hotel Illawong at Evans Head, Santos Organics in Byron Bay and Billinudgel’s favourite Doña Cholita with a Mexican BBQ and tortilla making demonstrations.
• there will be a tractor tour at Tropical Fruit World with a local tapas plate and
• music, groovy DJ tunes and picnicking at Rock Chic Eggs, Keith Hall, Ballina

For those without a car or less keen to travel there are two tours. Playing with Fire Native Foods and Explore Byron Bay have joined forces to offer indigenous tours in the Bangalow Parklands. Delta Kay will take guests along the stunning Byron Creek to discover bush tucker plants, as well as plants used for natural medicine, jewellery, fibre, tools and weapons. There are opportunities to learn some Bundjalung language and may be lucky enough to see Binging the river turtle or Junbung the platypus.

Table Under a Tree will also host a small group tour along the Trail, where you’ll be offered special insights into seasonal, local produce, and the people behind it.
 
So keep the weekend free and make plans to enjoy the whole farm-to-plate experience. Select your favourite participants from a food discovery trail of twenty six leading food producers, farms, restaurants, distilleries, breweries and food outlets across the region. Enjoy a leisurely drive at your own pace, choosing your own itinerary over the weekend.

The Harvest Food Trail map is now available online and will soon be available in hard copy for free at tourism bodies, participant locations and venues across the region.

Please follow our Facebook event page for announcements and news.