Cafes' new sources have rich local flavour

Take a closer look next time you pass by the window of your friendly neighbourhood cafe: the traditional hand-written ''help wanted'' sign may have been replaced with an altogether different form of public entreaty.

''I've got a little sign in my window - 'wanted: your home-grown produce','' explains Anna Jacobson, owner of Thornbury's The Red Cat Foot Store and just one of a growing number of Melbourne cafe owners adopting a community trade food model.

Enthusiasts call it kitchen crowd-sourcing, whereby eco-minded cafes appeal to local residents and regulars to participate in a food swap that might see that extra box of home-grown tomatoes or bucket of lemons grown in your own backyard exchanged for a free lunch or a couple of loaves of bread.

The pay-off is twofold, explains Jacobson, allowing cafes access to produce minus the food miles at the same time as rewarding home growers for their gardening efforts. That could mean enjoying feijoa chutney in your cafe-bought sandwich made from the fruit donated from your own tree.

''It's people helping people,'' agrees Hiruni Peiris, owner of the Northcote Bakeshop, who says her eatery accepts all produce, though a rotating notice in the front window expresses the kitchen's specific fruit or vegetable needs on any given day.

Like all cafes following what is a strengthening trend, Peiris says its receipt of goods can be somewhat ad hoc, necessitating that the home-grown offerings supplement rather than determine the menu.

It's for this reason that Andrea Brabazon at Fitzroy North's Loafer Bread finds it impossible to place a percentage figure on the ratio of market-bought to home-grown produce held in the kitchen at any one time.

''It varies quite a bit,'' she says in what is a common story among all those cafe owners spoken to by The Age. ''All our figs are crowd-sourced, but then probably about 50 per cent of our quinces. At the moment we have Jerusalem artichokes from an elderly gentlemen we have built up a relationship with who is a phenomenal gardener.''

Interesting, perhaps, is the word-of-mouth nature of the practice. Forget social media, there is a distinctly old-school vibe to an activity that relies on spreading the word through chats with regular customers.

''It's a way of showing love,'' Brabazon muses on the movement's increasing popularity.

CERES Organic market manager, Kate Mills, agrees. The environment park was undoubtedly the first to wade in to crowd sourcing waters with establishment 11 years ago of its market, precipitating the buying of produce from home growers.

''There has been a disenfranchisement with community and food,'' Mills says, ''so for cafes and restaurants its about social inclusion. About creating a community, and having the cafe not belonging to a single owner but to the area it services.''

FROM GARDEN TO TABLE

Get your backyard produce on the menus of an increasing number of Melbourne cafes falling for the crowd-sourcing food trend.

Northcote Bakeshop 571 High Street, Northcote. The Red Cat Food Store 410 Station Street, Thornbury.
Loafer Bread 146 Scotchmer Street, Fitzroy North.

Kitchen Pantry 128 Mansfield Street, Thornbury. Kitchen Kultcha 43 Glenlyon Road, Brunswick.
Lady Bower Café 1a Marchant Avenue, Reservoir. F

Do you know any cafes that crowd-source produce? Email epicure@theage.com.au or leave your comments at goodfood.com.au.