Here we go gathering nuts in May
May 8th and May 9th 2010

The 10 th annual Nut Festival will be held in the nut capital of Victoria at Wandiligong on May 8 and 9.

The festival will mix a lot of fun and the arts with important messages about the nutritional value of nuts and how they can be used in gourmet cooking.

The setting for the festival is the breathtaking Wandiligong Valley, a landscape classified by the National Trust for its goldmining heritage and described as being “in the same postcode as paradise” by former Age editor Michael Smith in his book Downsize Me.

In April and May, walnuts and chestnuts fall from the trees in orchards, backyards and along the lanes of Wandiligong where they are gathered by pickers, residents and visitors. The Wandiligong Nut Festival celebrates this harvest by hosting a two-day festival.

Wandiligong is a small, semi-rural settlement of about 400 people located approximately 350 km north-east of Melbourne at the foot of the Victorian Alps.

The festival, begun in 2001, was initially just a low-key, local affair but has now grown to include a market, art, music, and food and wine events.

Highlights this year include the “Not Entirely Nutty” cooking competition judged by Barb Lowery (ABC presenter) and food demonstrations given by Anthony Simone (Simone's), Frank Martinez, (Sole e Luna) and Naomi Ingleton (The Butter Factory) with wine-matching by local vignerons.

The Nut and Chestnut Expo will explain why hazelnuts, walnuts and chestnuts (which are actually a starchy fruit) are such healthy foods. Different varieties of raw and roasted hazelnuts, walnuts and chestnuts will be available for tasting and different ways of preparing and cooking them demonstrated.

Music and art flourish in the rich, tree-clad valleys of Wandiligong and Bright. Local artists feature in the Art Marquee. Amateur and professional musicians perform at the market. And for the children there is art and craft in the Art Marquee, a jumping castle, games and dance.

Many of these events are in beautiful Alpine Park surrounded by mountains and historical pine trees. Listen to music, watch cooking demonstrations, taste chestnut soup, try your hand at still-life sketching, go on a farm walk, ‘hurl' a bra to raise money for breast cancer research or just relax in whimsical Wandiligong.

A feature of this year's festival will be the children's entertainment at Alpine Park on Saturday. Vic Health's Centre for Active Recreation Network ( CARN ) will conduct activities, you can also meet the CARN Croc.

  On Sunday afternoon nutty revellers can end their day at the Wandi Pub for the traditional BRART auction (for entry forms email brart2007@bigpond.com ). All in the name of raising money for Breast Cancer Research, brightly coloured brassieres are auctioned off and tossed high into the elm tree at the pub, with the setting sun heralding the end of another fabulous celebration for the nut harvest season.