Ep 43 | Rebecca Sullivan
In this episode Charlie chats to Rebecca Sullivan. Rebecca Sullivan grew up in a family with conventional attitude to food, and a life changing incident at an Italian feast rocked her appreciation and reverence for food culture and tradition, setting her on a trajectory of championing the rights of farmers, rediscovering long forgotten food traditions and the creation of a co-culture indigenous food production business.
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Episode Takeaways
Rebecca and her partner Damien Coulthard live on a small farm near Clare in South Australia near where she grew up | Their farm represents a project of regeneration | Rebecca grew up in a very conventional food culture | She travelled to London for 6 weeks after school and stayed for 10 years| She worked in sports journalism and PR in the UK | A significant turning point in her life was eating a traditional ‘live maggot’ Italian cheese called Casa Marzu in Italy, when she realized the importance of food culture and tradition to the strength of a community | She became a activist for farmers almost immediately and worked on many food festivals and initiatives before realizing her activis was too preachy | She worked with many legends of the emerging food world, such as Jamie Oliver Hugh Fearnley -Whittingstall, Michael Pollan, Dan Barber and Alice Waters | Closer to home she has worked with Maggie Beer, Stephanie Alexander, Rodney Dunn & Séverine Demanet, Costa Georgiadis, Bruce Pascoe, Charlie Massy, Palisa Anderson | She was inspired by her great grandmother who was an award winning baker in UK in the 1930s, and created Granny Skills when she returned to Australia | Met Damien and felt fraudulent in her appreciation and understanding of really ‘traditional’ foods | Created Warndu, a ‘co-culture’ business growing, supporting and selling indigenous products | Plants are a great way to reset and engage in a relationship with indigenous culture | She is irate that government hasn’t been more proactive re bushfires and indigenous use of fire | A Climate Resilient Community Project and development of Warndu Co-operative are her next big projects
Episode Links
Warndu Mai – The Cookbook – Damian Coulthard & Melissa Sullivan
Granny Skills link and link to her books
Jamie Oliver – British chef
Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall – Award winning writer & broadcaster. Founder of River Cottage
Michael Pollan – author
Dan Barber – American chef & restaurateur
Alice Waters – American chef & restauranteur
Rodney Dunn & Séverine Demanet – chefs & founders / owners of the Regrarian Kitchen, TAS
Costa Georgiadis – Australian landscape architect & broadcaster
Bruce Pascoe – Australia author of Dark Emu
Charles Massy – regenerative farmer and author of Call of the Reed Warbler
Palisa Anderson – author of Boon Luck Farm (IG-her and Book Luck Farm)
Collaboration w/ Haigh’s Chocolate
Show Promo – The Nutrition Academy – quote CHARLIE100 at checkout to receive $100 off Functional Nutrition Course
