Likeminded Brisbane locals are creating small farms in their backyards and sharing their spoils in an attempt to live more sustainable lifestyles.
Brisbane Local Food began five years ago as a website, encouraging people to live more sustainably by eating locally produced food.
The website also acted as a digital noticeboard to notify readers about "garden visits".
On these visits, advice on an array of topics including seeds, cheesemaking and fermenting were shared, as well as food.
Organiser Andy Cumberland said he was motivated to start living sustainably after a visit to a friend's place in Kilcoy, north of Brisbane.
"We were eating cheese on crackers and it was some of the best cheese I had ever had — and he had made it himself," Mr Cumberland said.
"He was living in a shed at the time and didn't really have a kitchen.
"I thought if he can make cheese in a shed, then I could make it in the kitchen."
Less trips to the grocery store needed
Mr Cumberland lives in a self-sustainable household in the suburb of McDowell.
There he rears chickens, raises fish, collects recycled rainwater and grows as much as he can on his 400-square-metre property.
"Our group is such a diverse mix of people, from old ladies in their 80s right down to young families," he said.
"When we meet we each bring along spare produce, jams and drinks we make and then we swap.
"It's a great lifestyle and I often make jokes about sitting in the backyard cuddling a chicken with a glass of homemade beer in my hand."
By having a sustainable garden, Mr Cumberland said visits to the grocery store had become few and far between.
"How often I go changes from week to week," he said.
"For example, this week we had a glut of eggs so we had a vegetarian quiche — and if I bought [the ingredients] it would have cost me $15 to $20."
Helping others through video tutorials
Through the website, the group also shares video tutorials about how to build compost gardens, look after a beehive, and also give virtual tours of their own gardens.
"One lady we visited turned an in-ground pool into a water storage facility," Mr Cumberland said.
"That's now a 40,000-litre rainwater tank with a concrete lid on top and we had a meeting right on top of it."
People are also encouraged to share their recipes for successful jams and chutneys.
"It allows us to have discussions and help each other by answering local food questions," Mr Cumberland said.
Interested members are invited to contact the group via the website Brisbane Local Food.
