After what has been a MASSIVE year, we’ve really learnt to value our local community and the businesses in it who have faced unprecedented challenges to stay afloat. With the year coming to a close we just wanted to write this blog to remind you to support local this Christmas by not only purchasing your gifts from local creatives, small businesses and charities, but also supporting the local food and drink suppliers in the Illawarra who appreciate and benefit from your money more than the big chains.
Shopping local not only supports our local community members, but it reduces the miles our food has to travel to reach our table, greatly reducing our carbon footprint.
Here’s a round up of our favourites!
Food
Green Connect
Green Connect is a social enterprise that recovers waste and grows sustainable food, all the while employing former refugees and young people. You can order seasonal produce boxes filled with goodies!
Flame Tree Community Co-op, Thirroul
Flame Tree is a member-owned & volunteer-run community co-op where you can buy dry whole foods, preserves, locally-grown produce and sustainable goods!
Two Brothers
Two local brothers delivering fresh fruit and veg to your door! These boys created a thriving business right in the middle of the pandemic and often donate produce to Hidden Harvest! They will be delivering right up until Christmas Eve this year, so get your orders in quick!
Port Grocer
A new local on the block is Port Grocer! On a mission to provide your plastic-free food supplies from their shop in Post Kembla,
Drink
Benson and the mooch
Hailing from Stanwell Park, Benson Brown and Joel Mucci create delicious, minimal intervention wine made from 100% grapes with nothing else added. They’re selling Chrissie packs online now but get in quick because they tend to sell out quickly.
Illawarra Brewing Co.
The Illawarra’s iconic micro brewery & tasting bar in North Wollongong is open for takeaways up until Christmas. You can find their brews in lots of bottle shops in the area too.
Reub Goldberg Brewing Machine, Tarrawanna
Tarrawanna’s secret spot! Fresh, local & independent craft beer. Get your hands on one of their legendary Growlers for Chrissy!
BAked Goods
Egg & Flour Bakery
A lovely, homely bakery in Woonona, Egg & Flour offer lots of traditional pastries, bread and other baked goods.
Gwynneville Bakery
We love Gwynneville Bakery for their great range of bread and vegan pastries! Taking us back to the good old uni days when you’d swing by for a pie on the way home.
coffee roasters
Delano Specialty Coffee
Friends of Hidden Harvest and long time go-to for local coffee, Delano roast their beans in-house and sell bags straight from the source in North Wollongong!
Swell coffee
Grab some beans roasted by locals Swell Coffee! You can visit their online store to buy up for the holiday period.
To find more excellent local, fair businesses, take a look at the Food Fairness Illawarra directory here.
Happy shopping and happy holidays!
HH