Fresh food of a high quality shouldn’t have to travel far and it should be affordable, no matter where you live… and it should taste amazing!

Have you noticed that ‘fresh’ food from a supermarket doesn’t always taste ‘farm fresh’? It might look fresh and vibrant but its bland taste just doesn’t live up to the promise of its looks. What’s worse, we have become so conditioned we hardly notice – until we taste the real thing. If you’ve been lucky enough to travel to Italy you’ll know what we mean – taste a Tuscan tomato and you will be forever making comparisons.

So why don’t our supermarket tomatoes pack the flavour punch of their Italian cousins? The answer is simple and it’s not about the soils or the type of tomato grown. The tomatoes you’ll taste in Italy are grown where you buy them and almost straight after they’ve been picked – local and in season. It wasn’t long ago that most Australian towns were able to largely feed themselves. Market gardens were an essential part of everyday life and much of our food was grown locally and eaten seasonally.

Today, except in a few highly productive and diverse regions, we have become so specialised in our food production that even our very basic foods often travel hundreds of kilometres and sometimes from the other side of the world. Our supermarket tomato tastes of not much at all because it needs to survive the journey and look fresh and be ready to eat when it arrives. For it to survive its long journey to the supermarket shelf it needs to be picked unripe, before the essential mineralisation has taken place within its tissues that give our Tuscan tomato such memorable qualities. As consumers, particularly in rural or isolated areas, we are incredibly exposed if there is a disruption to the distribution networks that control our food supply. And food just doesn’t taste as good as it should.

Hidden Garden puts the flavour back into fruit and vegetables. Vital, nutritious food shouldn’t cost the earth. We can help your community develop complete organic food systems tailored to your environment and your taste buds.