What’s on

12/ WHAT’S ON lifestyle 15/ FOODIE FINDS 17/ WELLNESS 20/ A MILE IN THEIR SHOES

Launnie lights up

Preparations are forging ahead for one of Tasmania’s most vibrant cultural events. Junction Arts Festival is an interactive multi-arts celebration bringing live music, art and performance to unexpected venues across Launceston. First intended as a one-off event, Junction has since proven so popular that it will celebrate its 10th anniversary this year on 1–5 September. The beloved festival marks a joyous start to spring with open-air public events and intimate shows (with COVID-safe plans in place across the board), fuelled by Tasmania’s seemingly endless creative reserves.

P For the latest updates, visit junctionartsfestival.com.au

YOUR NEW TO-DO LIST

6–14 AUGUST A BEAKER FULL

Feed your curiosity at Beaker Street Festival. As well as in-person events at the hub in Hobart’s Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, science and art lovers can catch livestreams of Beaker Street’s statewide roadtrip or take a self-guided audio escape with the digital Sci Art Walks series.

9–15 AUGUST LIQUID GOLD

Celebrate our mastery of the golden spirit and world-class distillers this Tasmanian Whisky Week. Buy a bottle, tune into a virtual tasting or join a ticketed event. Turn to p. 15 to meet two talented local distillers. FROM 26 SEPTEMBER IT’S TULIP TIME

All event details are up to date at time of print, but can change. For updates, consult organisers directly, and support Tassie’s events industry through these challenging times.

Each year a clifftop property in Wynyard bursts into a riot of colour with tulip season. Table Cape Tulip Farm opens its gates to the public on 26 September for a few glorious weeks until late October. If you can’t make it in person, Van Diemen Quality Bulbs ships direct from Table Cape.

3–13 SEPTEMBER VINE AND DINE

Raise a glass to one of our prettiest wine regions at the Great Eastern Wine Week. Join an array of COVIDsafe events such as a long lunch at Twamley Farm, a wine cruise or Freycinet Vineyard tour; or go solo on the East Coast Wine Trail. Stay a while with 25% off accommodation at Freycinet Lodge for RACT members.

7 SEPTEMBER DAY OF THE TIGER

National Threatened Species Day was enshrined to mark the sad day in September 1936 when ‘Benjamin’, the last known thylacine, passed away in a Hobart zoo. It’s a precious reminder of all the species teetering on the brink and an opportunity to reflect on what we can all do to help.

Want to tell us about your event or product? Reach us on journeys@ract.com.au

Made in Tas

Prepare for planting season with Veggie Garden Seeds. This homegrown Hobart business offers veggies, herbs, grasses, flowers and native plants in pretty little packets, including rare seeds. A pastelhued zinnia or summer squash is just the thing to banish winter blues.

Bird is the word

Make a note

It’s not just us humans who look forward to spring – it also signals the start of a flurry of activity for Tasmania’s feathered residents. From September onwards there are plenty of reasons for twitchers to come out of hibernation, binoculars in hand. The endangered swift parrot brings a pop of colour back to the island as they return to breed in Tasmanian blue gum forests. After a long winter getting their burrows in shape for the spring nesting season, male little penguins are joined by the ladies on the north and east coasts. And a few million short-tailed shearwaters complete their mammoth journey from Alaska to settle in for a well-earned summer holiday. Read

With words by Bruny Island-based writer Anne Morgan and illustration by Hobart artist Lois Bury, The Way of the Weedy Seadragon from CSIRO Publishing is as pretty as it is educational.

Listen

Get your literary fix until the biennial Tamar Valley Writers Festival returns in September 2022 with the TVWF podcasts, on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

Download

Inspired to do a spot of birdwatching? Find the Bird in the Hand app by Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service on Google Play.

WHAT’S BLOOMING?

with SADIE CHRESTMAN from Fat Pig Farm Winter is the time to take stock and recuperate. It’s late mornings and early evenings. It’s time to sit by the fire and plan for summer. It’s also time to start the tomato, eggplant and pepper seedlings indoors. Be careful with plants near windows, as they are lovely and sunny during the day but, if not double-glazed, can be super cold at night. By early September, the ground is dry enough to prepare the summer beds with lots of compost, a handful of rock dust, plus a bit of blood and bone or pelleted chicken manure. It’s the hungry patch – we’re eating lots of preserved veg in the form of pickles and making polenta from last summer’s flint corn. We’re harvesting the last of the winter brassicas but waiting on peas. Thank goodness for green garlic, harvested to use the whole small bulb and stem. We’re also getting creative with our greens – harvesting the leafy tips of broad beans and weeds like fat hens. These are delicious sautéed in olive oil with slivers of green garlic.

Sow now tomatoes, eggplant, zucchini

Harvest now green garlic, purple sprouting broccoli