[wa] community gardening and vegie good times

On a really quick visit to Perth last week, and the highlight was probably visiting the community garden at my childhood church.

This used to be a whole lot of junky, empty land out behind the church. Pat, a member of the congregation, went to a Living Smart course - a course I used to facilitate (!!!), Living Smart is a series of workshops about living sustainably in your community in WA, and was designed by Earth Carers and is totally excellent. ANYWAY, during the course of the course, they all agreed that 'community gardens' was an essential component of supporting and growing one's community. And Pat was all 'we have this empty land, it could totally hold a garden', and this community garden was born.

I love this garden so much! It's maintained in conjunction with the Swan View Community Association, and uses this unused space, and builds community. The produce goes to another local church, who have a soup kitchen twice a week (though of course people working in the garden take some bits and pieces home). It has pushed this aging church community out into the wider community, and also brought some of the wider community into the church community. There's also some involvement with the local high school (Swan View Senior High). And it's so adorable, to see these people (and this building) that I've known since I was a wee penguin in a different light.

This photo to the right is my mum harvesting kale, a vegetable she's never before cooked. On the day I visited, they were having a sustainability fair as a part of Sustainable Open House Day. I'm actually having a word with them, because their sausage sizzle was Classic Bunnings (white bread, cheap meat sausages), and their crochet was Classic Church Fete (crocheted coat hangers and crocheted tissue boxes) and their apple pies were only $3, and I may not believe in their God but they are adorable and I definitely want them to make crochets that the hipsters would want to buy. ANYWAY, way adorable.

If you're a Perthie in the Greenmount/Swanview/Midland area, you can visit the garden on Tuesday mornings (and the church, Uniting, on Sundays at 9:30, if that's your jam).

**

The rest of my trip to Perth was mostly food. Visited Mt Lawley staple Veggie Mama for a delicious plate of curries and salads, and took myself out to breakfast at Swan Valley Cafe. Both are exclusively vegetarian. Swan Valley Cafe has always specialised in teas but has recently branched out to include matcha lattes, and it was a lovely one. My breakfast there was beans on toast - their bread is all gluten free, and really lovely, and the beans were EXCELLENT. There was zucchini and capsicum in them, and they were served on one trillion cherry tomatoes and spinach leaves, with lots of avocado. My only complaint was how quickly it went cold.



At Veggie Mama I always get the 'Mama's Curry' as one of my curries, with a beautiful creamy potato and fried tofu mix of amazingness, as well as whatever other curries catch my eye. Veggie Mama specialises in fresh juices and fantastic salads, and always has something interesting going on in the sweets department.

Good Perth times, except for the rain, what is UP with that. (Ans: climate change)

Veggie Mama
Cnr Beaufort + Vincent
Mount Lawley
Get there on any bus going along Beaufort Street to the city
There's a seated area that's accessible, but ordering takes place at a counter that's up a half-flight of stairs. Takes CC. Never been there at night but during the day it's so well lit.

Swan Valley Vegetarian Cafe
990 Great Northern Highway
Millendon
Get there in your automobile, and drink at some wineries on your way out again. Lots of ramp access, both into the restaurant and around to the garden in the back. CC available. Well lit and very quiet. Includes an attached tea shop and nursery.

[wa] veggie mama, mt lawley

On a cycle up to my beloved Mt Lawley for a compulsory visit to Planet Books and Fresh Provs, I spotted a new face on the Beaufort Street landscape: Veggie Mama, next to the adult shop on Vincent Street (where no veggie restaurant had been before).

I returned the next day for lunch with my friend V, ready to be delighted. And delighted I was! Clearly labeled (egg free, dairy free, gluten free), there was an array of baked sweets, baked savouries, fresh salads and made to order juices, and I was overwhelmed for choice.


For about $20 I got this filling plate of filo and salads, and a fresh juice of apple, orange and ginger. The quinoa salad in particular was lovely, and the filo, filled with potato, spinach and pine nuts, was delicious and filling. Despite it being a warm and busy Autumn (Easter) public holiday, service was fast, friendly and helpful. And afterwards, I was too full for a muffin, which disappointed me mightily.

Well located and with early opening hours, Veggie Mama is almost certainly a place I will return to on a future visit home.


Veggie Mama 
Cnr Beaufort and Vincent Streets
Mt Lawley

Get there on any bus that goes up Beaufort Street
Entry to the shop is a wide door, but ordering happens at the counter, which is accessible only by a two-step flight of stairs. Credit card available.

brunch at source foods, highgate

My favourite place to have brunch in Perth is Source Foods. They know what vegan means (they call it 'NAP' - No Animal Products), which is rare enough in Perth; and they serve tempeh, which is also pretty unusual.

Anyway, it's my favourite, so Alexa and I went there on Saturday morning.

We took advantage of the lovely Perth weather to sit outside. Usually in winter I find it too cold to sit outside in Perth, but one winter in Melbourne and suddenly it is glorious! I didn't even have to wear a scarf! Or a coat! It was amazing!



I ordered, as I have many times before, the vegan heaven: tomato, two (two!) types of mushrooms, wilted spinach and baked beans, served on crisp bread with hommus. I also ordered it with a side of soy-marinated tempeh. It was so amazing. SO AMAZING. I ate it all up.

Alexa ordered the mushroom crostini, mushrooms with wilted spinach on hommus and crisp breadishness. She was indulging in mushrooms in her mushroom-hating housemate's absence.

Not pictured: our juices. Alexa ordered orange + ginger, and I ordered the 'zinger,' which contains orange and ginger and asomething else that I can never remember, maybe apple.

After brunch we went adventuring: to North Perth, where we visited Little Design Horse; and then in to Mount Lawley, where we visited Planet, primarily so we could visit the greatest bookstore in the world. I know some people prefer Oxford St Books in Leederville, but I can never go past Planet.




Previous visit: here.


Source Foods
289 Beaufort St
Highgate

gf available (this post is tagged gf because the menu can be very gf)

diva cafe, mt lawley

Met up with Christine for a mid-morning breakfast yesterday, at Diva Cafe. We all had the vegetarian breakfast, no eggs, no ricotta, and D and I ordered some tomatoes to go with the marinated capsicum, spinach, mushrooms, avocado and toast. I love fresh avocado on toast for breakfast, so fantastic. The meal was tasty, the capsicum quite good and the mushies also. They do fresh orange juice, which I always appreciate. Service was okay, our meals and drinks were quite prompt, but our empty plates sat in front of us for about an hour before someone came to take them away, and though we sat there for three hours, chatting in the morning sun, nobody offered us anything extra to drink, which I thought was a bit odd, given they didn't seem super busy.

I would eat there for breakfast again, but probably not before I try some of the other places along that end of Beaufort Street.

Diva Cafe
49 Beaufort St
Mount Lawley