The year 10 Hunter Valley Grammar School student joined her mother Michelle at a farm in Singleton to pick a crop of radishes that a farmer had generously donated.

They started bright and early, at 6am. 

The radishes were made into small bouquets and given to more than 100 farmers that attended a Christmas dinner in Gundy at the Linga Longa Hotel on Friday night.

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Slow Food Hunter Valley members made the trip up to the town with 35 boxes brimming with fruit and vegetables and other goodies for farming families. The group has been delivering monthly boxes since June.

There was lettuce, tomatoes, beetroot, spinach, honey, and even mango chutney – thanks to group secretary Anne Kelly’s creative use of the crop the city rescued last month. 

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Produce from Maitland veggie gardens, which was donated, added the final touches.

Ms Kelly, and Liz Griffiths, led the plea for donated produce to help fill the boxes amid diminishing funds to buy the food from local farmers.

Backyard growers responded and gave a range of items from their gardens.

They were also given 35 $20 Woolworths vouchers for farmers to spend in their town.

“There’s been a huge amount of generosity from people who are quietly redistributing food where it needs to be for a good outcome,” Ms Griffiths said.

The fresh food box delivery, which started in June, has been supplying farmers around Gundy, Scone, Kar Springs and Moonan Flats.

These farming families haven’t had the rain, or spare water, to grow their own. 

The CWA helped to distribute the boxes.