Eating locally with Laurie May

Central Australia is heavily reliant on fresh produce transported up from Adelaide via the Stuart Highway or Ghan Railway. A small amount of fruit and vegetables come from the north but not much. When there’s been a major road closure, supermarket shelves can be empty in a matter of hours. When this happened in 2022 with the closure of the Stuart Highway following a major traffic accident, you couldn’t get a single onion anywhere in Alice Springs by that evening. A small local produce market ran out of the community garden for a few years, but it’s not happening anymore. Market gardens have come and gone, and it seems incredibly hard to sustain a business growing produce here. Those who are committed to reducing their food miles and eating locally have to become home innovative cooks, determined gardeners and barterers. Laurie May is an Mparntwe based poet and media manager. She is also a great cook and gardener. In this episode we visit Laurie in her beautiful kitchen and garden and find out what it takes to eat local only in Alice Springs.

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