That's why the Slow Food Earth Market in The Levee branched into a "how to" demonstration on Thursday to show people how they can make their very own jar of sauerkraut using seasonal ingredients.

At least 20 people took part in the event, which was led by Slow Food Hunter Valley member Marcus Bridges.

"It's part our series that is focusing on wellbeing and it's very easy to make sauerkraut," market chairwoman Amorelle Dempster said.

"It's 1 kilogram of chopped up cabbage to 1 tablespoon of salt and you macerate it really hard and get as much liquid out of it as possible and then you stick it in a jar for three days and the bacteria and air ferments it and in a week's time you can eat it and it has all of these great probiotics in it.

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"There were some young people there with their mothers ... they got their hands in there, they smelt the cabbage and one of them said they didn't even eat cabbage.

Ms Dempster said the demonstration helped to show shoppers how to make the most of seasonal produce and limit food waste.

"It brings food education, it's taking what is the natural product and being able to enhance it and use it as a food source in a different way - in this case to preserve it and to get good gut bacteria. You might eat some with something else or use it in a different way," she said.

"This is a really important skill. As Marcus said, his Polish wife and her mother were in the war time before they migrated and this was how they survived. There were plenty of them so they preserved them so they could eat them all year around.

"There's lots of Polish people around Maitland who would probably say the same thing."

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