Saturday, December 08, 2012

Dov Cafe + the Urban Food Safari, Potts Point

I've never really gotten into Sydney's CRAVE food festival. In fact until a few years ago I didn't even know that it existed. I thought the Night Noodle Markets in Hyde Park were just a "thing" that happened every year for my eating pleasure. And now I know about the event I've found a lot of the CRAVE events quite pricey - other than the free events like Parramatta Lanes that is.

One event caught my eye this year though - the Urban Food Safari which offered a visit to some of Potts Points urban edible gardens. The event was being organised by Tim Petersen from Cafe Dov in Potts Point and my balcony gardening hero, Indira Naidoo. And even better is that most of the proceeds of our tour went to the Wayside Chapel.


The tour began at Cafe Dov, which seemed fortuitous as I've wanted to go there for brunch since well, since forever! I was a regular at their old location in Darlinghurst but hadn't been for brunch in their new Potts Point Digs.

I meet up with fellow tour goers and twitter friends @foodsasmedicine (Gabi) and @thefrenchwench (Sandra) - and our brunch kicks off with a glass of bubbles (a gal could get used to this at brunch) followed by coffees all round.


My brunch buddy Gabi orders a lovely looking lentil + beetroot salad with apple, goats cheese and walnut praline ($12.50 for a small plate).  It looks so fresh and hearty...something I'm keen to try on my next visit.  This time I was swayed by the slow braised lamb with beetroot, mint, roasted potatoes ($16.00).  This was a rich and warming dish with strong flavour of the lamb offset by the freshness of the zesty beetroot.


The French Wench sticks to her Frenchy roots and orders a big bowl of Kinkawooka mussels in white wine and garlic broth ($18 for a large bowl).  We all take advantage of her side plate of crusty bread - which is perfect for sopping up the juices of my lamb dish.


I know I sound a bit fan girl when I talk about Indira, but without her blog +  book - I'd still be sitting on my butt looking at a stark, ugly and inedible balcony. She inspired me to take an interest in something that was achievable, attainable, interesting, challenging + fun. I feel like my balcony garden has opened up a whole new world of interest and learning - which is a wonderful way to feel after sitting in an office job for 18 years wondering what it was all about. I finally have a hobby that I LOVE (besides food blogging and eating of course).


The first thing I notice about Indira’s balcony (apart from the KILLER VIEW) is that it’s really pretty small – much smaller than I thought actually. This makes the fact that last she harvested 70kgs of food from the space last year even more impressive. It just goes to show you can grow food anywhere...from a window sill to a small inner-city balcony.



I also noticed that Indira’s balcony was so well PLANNED. Everything seemed to have a home – unlike my garden where I just keep adding stuff. So much stuff in fact that it’s almost impossible to get out to our clothes line. I’ve tended to add things higgledy-piggledy and the pots +  plants just keep growing. Indira has managed to fit a HUGE Curryleaf Tree onto her tiny balcony – impressive considering I can hardly fit a bucket on mine these days.


After the tour of Indira's balcony our little group heads over to the Wayside Chapel to check out their AMAZING AMAZING AMAZING rooftop garden. This garden is an inspiration...a truly beautiful urban green space!


Our group is the 2nd to arrive so we have about an hour to explore and chat to the garden workers here. The rooftop is like a garden wonderland - so much to see, touch smell. So much to learn (if only my brain was bigger to retain all this new information). What's been done with what is essentially a boring old city rooftop is really outstanding and aspirational and just goes to show (again) that everyone can create a little bit of edible green in their world.

Photo on the left from Indira at Saucy Onion

I've become a bit obsessed with bees lately.  Since my zucchini growing escapades I fully understand that we NEED bees to pollinate our plants, I mean I can't be out there with a paintbrush each morning helping the zucchinis have sex! So I was VERY excited to get up close and personal with some of the bees in the Wayside hive. They are fascinating to watch and so important to our food security too. The beekeeper here was VERY knowledgeable and happily answered all our buzzy-bee questions.


The Wayside Chapel also have quite a few worm farms on their rooftop. I'd love have a worm farm on my balcony but a) I don't have any room left and b) it's just a bit hot for them on our north facing balcony.  It just seems like such a good way to dispose of kitchen scraps and reduce our landfill at the same time. And the output...worm wee is GREAT for gardens.


After our hour or so on the Wayside Chapel rooftop we collect our bounty of fresh fruit + veggies and head back to the Dov garden for a feast!


The kitchen crew at Dov whip up some pretty impressive treats for our edible garden afternoon tea. My favourite is probably a lovely fluffy white-bread sandwich of edible greens.  So simple yet so flavoursome and the greens are just so crunchy and so fresh!! I'm also pretty fond of the lemon cupcakes - the recipe is from Indira's book - that are sprinkled with candied lemons from Indira's balcony.

Photo in the middle from Indira at Saucy Onion
This was a WONDERFUL afternoon. I learnt so much and met so many like minded people. I really enjoyed the community spirit around the communtiy gardens in Potts Point and would love for a like-minded community to develop in my suburb.  One day.

And I even (briefly) got to meet Claudia Karvan who is an ambassador for the Wayside Chapel AND the lucky owner of FOUR beehives! Jealous.

Photos on the right from Indira at Saucy Onion.
Top right: Claudia Karvan, Tim Petersen (Cafe Dov) and Indira Naidoo.
Bottom right: our big happy tour group on the Wayside rooftop.

Cafe Dove is at 130 Victoria Street, Potts Point. Phone them on 9368 0600.

café DOV on Urbanspoon

23 comments:

  1. What a fascinating experience. I loved this post and admire your garden.

    SSG xxx

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    1. It was the BEST Crave event...the proceeds went to the Wayside too (which I forget to mention) so it was all for a good cause.

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  2. This looks like it would have been the best day ever! I am so excited for you that you got to visit Indira's balcony! I am also really interested in the Wayside Chapels roof garden as I have organised a fundraising exercise at work leading up to Christmas next week. GREAT POST!!

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    1. It was a fantastic day & I'm so proud of myself that I did go all fan-girl at Indira's place and embarrass myself!

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  3. This sounds like the most fun, and makes me miss my old neighbourhood. Especially Wayside Chapel - I got to visit their lovely garden during their official opening and I'm pleased to see how much they've done with it since then :)

    --xo.

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    1. The Wayside Rooftop was AMAZING...bees, worms - the works. Amazing.

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  4. Indira's balcony garden is truly inspiring. Love those raised garden beds at Wayside Chapels garden. A worm farm is a great thing to have. If your balcony gets too hot, maybe you could consider some sort of shelter/cover/screen on the balcony, although this may look a bit weird if your balcony is the only one on your building with a cover, lol.

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    1. Lovely post Mel. It was such a special day and you've captured the wonderful community spirit that develops through community gardening. I'm currently filming rooftop farms in Hong Kong and will post a story when I am back ! Indira

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    2. I thought I could sway my neighbour into hosing my worm farm on his shady balcony but he's not so keen. Ours is literally in FULL sun...it's like an oven out there...I'd have crispy worms in under a day!

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    3. Thanks for stopping by Indira and thanks for letting us all invade your home & your balcony garden - it was really inspirational for me. And the Wayside rooftop is just AMAZING! Cannot wait to see your show on HK...it sounds really interesting.

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  5. I am feeling the good vibes and community spirit from here Mel! This sounds and looks like a fantastic day out. Indira's balcony is impressive, as is the Wayside Chapel roof garden. I am so happy that you have discovered the world of balcony gardening...growing food is rewarding in so many ways! Awesome post.

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    1. It is fun & seeing Indira's balcony was amazing...she's done such a great job.

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  6. What a great way to start the day with bubbles and coffee. I love the look of Indira's balcony garden. I have plenty of room but need to regain my motivation to grow after battles lost with the elements and family pets! I will keep looking at your pictures and maybe start again small...a pot of basil?

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    1. Yes, something little like Basil sounds great. I often think that if I had a big yard I'd not do any gardening at all as it's so overwhelming.

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  7. omg you visited a beehive! I've always wanted to visit one and see it in person!

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  8. What an amazing post! To see Indira Naidoo's balcony garden would have been amazing! More people should get into balcony gardening. It is so rewarding growing your own crops.

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  9. This looked like a fab event! I wish I had more sun out in my courtyard, everything I'm growing seems to look sad these days (except for the corn!) Indira's balcony garden is very impressive!

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  10. What a great experience and for such a great cause. I wish I had time to grow things. It s really encouraging to see that you can grow so much food in such a small space

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  11. I couldn't make this event, but loved the sound of it. I hope they repeat it next year. It'll be top of my "to-do" list, if they do. Thanks for sharing. It sounds like you had a great time.

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  12. So impressed you got to see Indira's balcony garden. What a wonderful day and very inspiring Mel. We had a couple of lovely veggie plots going in our backyard a while ago and made some fabulous dishes with the produce but have let it all go. Will have to resurrect soon.

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  13. Great to see how many people are growing their own food in the city. I feel I need to catch up with this trend.

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  14. As much as I love the idea of Crave, really is an expensive exercise, specially when you are timing by 3.

    I did see this event and thought it sounded fantastic. Sadly I was unable to go. So glad you wrote about it, really was a great event. I have garden envy now, sigh!

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  15. What an AWESOME experience! I heard about the worm wee recently and was stunned lol. Who knew??

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