NORTHERN RIVERS FOOD HARVEST FOOD TRAIL - WHAT

Held over the weekend of May 6-7 this year, with a special taster event on Friday 5th, the NRF Harvest Food Trail is guaranteed to be a very Northern Rivers experience, refecting on and celebrating the distinctive provenance of our region’s food.

AFTER having spent much of my adult life reflecting on the concept of simplicity, time and time again I’ve come to the conclusion that there is nothing simple whatsoever about being simple. Right throughout history I think we humans have struggled with fathoming what constitutes simplicity in our own lives, let alone putting anything that resembles it into practice. The Romans had an expression that perhaps touched on the essence, albeit aim of simplicity; their phrase was ‘simplex munditiis’, or ‘be simple in one’s sophistication’, as opposed to being basically rough, unpolished or rude. “Simplicity,” aptly said American technologist John Maeda, “is about subtracting the obvious and adding the meaningful.” Swap the word obvious for superfluous, and you have a definition that more aptly covers each base in the everyday game of being simple.

While lived simplicity is generally noticeable from up close as it is from afar, one fascinating quirk relating to this notion presents in Scandinavia. In three of the four nations (Denmark, Norway and Sweden) that comprise this highly progressive region of the world; simplicity is referred to in each language as ‘enkelhed’, and yet when it comes to their northern neighbour Finland, their word for simplicity is the anything but simple ‘yksinkertaisuus’.

While words for simplicity are one thing, actions for this ultimate of inclinations are quite another. As such, there have been figures in world history that have vied for supremacy when it comes to outright personifying the simple life. First was an ancient Greek philosopher called Diogenes, who