Forkin' Good Live in Tauranga: Leftovers, Local Heroes and a Packed Room

In this special episode of the Forkin' Good Podcast, Kate Fenwick and Simon Gault take you inside their very first live event in Tauranga.

What started as a big idea turned into a packed room, incredible food, practical leftover inspiration, and a powerful conversation about food waste, community, and local action. This week, Kate and Simon reflect on the night, the sponsors who made it possible, and the amazing panel of guests who shared what is really happening on the ground in Tauranga.

You’ll hear from:

Renee Hanna from Good Neighbour - Supporting whānau through rescued food and practical community connection

Sophie Wolland from Love Food Hate Waste - Sharing simple household habits that can reduce food waste and save money

Jen Long from Misfit Garden - Rescuing imperfect produce and helping more good food get eaten

This episode is full of local insight, useful ideas, and a behind the scenes look at what happens when the Forkin' Good Podcast goes live.

If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe, follow, and share it with someone who loves food, hates waste, and wants to see more good ideas in action.
Follow the podcast on Instagram and Tiktok: @forkingoodpod

Use code FORKINGOOD for 25% off your first Misfit Garden box, at their website here: https://www.misfitgarden.co.nz/

Follow Simon on his channels below:
Instagram: @simon_gault
Facebook: @Officialsimongault
Tiktok: Simonjgault
Youtube: Simon Gault

Follow Waste-ed with Kate here:
Instagram: @wastedwithkate
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wastefreewithkate
Tiktok: wasted.kate
Youtube: Waste-ed with Kate

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:07

Welcome to another episode of the Fork and Good Podcast with Kate Fenwick and Simon Golt. And it's just a whole bunch different this week, isn't it, Kate? We're doing a live event, and we're taking everybody out there listening to the party.

SPEAKER_01 0:26

We certainly are, Simon. It was such a good it was such a good first time event to do live, I reckon. I was it was a lot of work, but man, on the night it I think we pulled we definitely pulled it off. And um there was lots of food, there was lots of people, and it was just yeah, it was just such a great event. And I I still am dreaming about your hot cross bun dessert. That was just outstanding.

SPEAKER_00 0:54

There was a shortage of food, was there? I mean, anybody listening there might want to come to the next live one we do, because everybody came thinking it was just nipples. Well, I shouldn't really say this, should I, Kate? Because now everybody coming to one in the future will think we're gonna feed them like masses, but nobody walked away hungry, did they? Nobody needed to go out for dinner afterwards. I did a whole bunch of ideas with leftovers because the planet has a massive problem with leftovers, so that's what we were focusing on for the night. And getting some tips from me probably resonated with a few people. We turned, you know, what was last night's dinner into something completely different. So I view leftovers as half the work done. Most people view leftovers as oh my god, we're having last night's dinner again, but we don't need to, we can change it. So we you know, I jumped in on that, you jumped on all the stats that were just amazing. I like blows my mind those things you say, and don't say it now, right?

SPEAKER_01 1:59

Because I won't, I won't, I'll save it. Yeah, save it. But I think um yeah, and the and the cool part about it was like that even the leftovers at the end of the night, and there were not much, but there was there was a bit of fritata, there was a few, like we did a there was a fork and talk dish that would had been done by the caterers as well, which had used some of the cafe leftovers. And at the end of the night, the staff who had managed the venue for us, so we packed it all up and gave it to them to take home for their families. So there was zero leftovers at the end of our night, and all your stuff, Simon, there that was there, there was nowhere to be seen. Like everybody gobbled that up like as soon as it came out, which was pretty cool.

SPEAKER_00 2:47

Yeah, it was good fun, wasn't it? So for everybody listening out there, we had a whole big audience. I cooked, Kate spoke, together. We conducted the orchestra of entertaining people. Then we had this really interesting group of people on the panel for the podcast, which we're about to dive into. But shall we give them a couple of snippets so they know what they're in for?

SPEAKER_01 3:15

Oh, absolutely, and I think I also need to thank our sponsors for the event, too, Simon. Like, we were very lucky. Totonga City Council fully backed it, which was awesome. So it was a great um community event, and so that's why the whole thing was around the local Todonga community as well. Love, Food, Hate, Waste, which of course the Leftover Legends campaign that's been going all of March. People are logging their leftovers to make, you know, go on the draw to win a year's supply of groceries, which has been an awesome campaign. We've got Sustainable Backyards, which is an event every March in Tonga, where they they support all these different events going around. And also Good Buzz Kombucha. Now they were unbelievable. They gave us, I think it was 160 bottles of kombucha, absolutely free for our guests, so that there was something more than just water to drink. So, you know, those like all these organizations, just amazing. And of course, just have to mention Gold's Dally supplied quite a few prizes on the night there too, Simon, which everybody appreciated. So throw that one in as well.

SPEAKER_00 4:30

Very good. Well, I I was in love with that kombucha, in particular, the mandarin and yuzu. And yuzu is a Japanese line, and it has a unique flavor, and combined with the mandarin, I really enjoyed it. So my thirst was quenched, and I had a buzz on thanks to the good buzz people. A great kombucha, it really was, you know. It was, it was beautiful. And hey, Kate, just quite it was quite nice having a sponsor. Right. So that was that was pretty cool to have a sponsor.

SPEAKER_01 5:14

It was, it was awesome. And going into our panel as well, Simon, and before I forget, make sure you subscribe to Falking Good and hit the little notification button to keep in touch with what we're up to because we actually have some very, very cool interviews coming up in the coming weeks. Um, but our panelists that we had were just outstanding. I felt like they were very like working quite locally to Totonga. So one was Renee Hannah from Good Neighbor, and I love what they're doing, Simon, and there's lots about it in the in the actual panel that we're going to put up that we filmed. But amazing organization feeding people in need with sort of leftover, well not leftovers, but unsold produce from supermarkets and things like that. Um, we also had Jen Long from Misfit Gardens, who we did a podcast with a couple of weeks ago, and they gave a few boxes away on the night as well, but just learning a little bit more from her around the not like the produce, the imperfect produce, and talking to them about like what they're doing. And then also Sophie from Love Food Hate Waste, who you know, she's a legend. We did a podcast with her recently, too. And so those three amazing ladies joined us on the podcast, on the panel, and they they were great. Well, wait, I I mean, I just thought it was awesome.

SPEAKER_00 6:44

Well, it wasn't bad for me. I was just surrounded by all these great ladies. I was the only boy, it was great.

SPEAKER_01 6:56

You all know we've called it forking good because Simon and I do this podcast together. So Simon said to me, You better make sure you tell everybody to subscribe. So we do YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and all the different platforms.

SPEAKER_00 7:13

Yeah, so it's a podcast. If you don't watch or listen to podcasts, I mean you can go on to Spotify or just use the podcast app on your iPhone and listen to some really interesting people, probably more interesting people than Kate and I actually. They're the people that are with us on the podcast. And it's called Fork and Good, F-O-R-K-I-N. Good. And then it'll every Tuesday it comes up. So you should have a look this Tuesday because it's going to be you lot. So we're getting footage of you, so don't forget to smile.

SPEAKER_01 7:48

If if the camera, the the only camera that's working is Brodie. So if he turns it around and you don't want to be on camera, just go like that. But otherwise, thank you so much. Well, how was the food, guys? Yeah. So that was from Oscar and Otto's, and we had asked them to put it together with a flavour of leftovers. So they did the re five refried fried rice, they'd say that ten times. They did some of the like the fritatas, sort of like leftovers and all that sort of stuff. So that was the idea of the food. There is a bit left at the end, so please do make sure you take if you're when you're going, take some home, because we don't want any leftovers. That's the whole point.

SPEAKER_02 8:34

Log them tomorrow. Oh, and log them tomorrow.

SPEAKER_01 8:36

Yes. And the leftovers. So just for tonight, we thought we'd make it as part of tonight's sort of whole theme. So Simon is one of my guests tonight on my panel. But I'm going to introduce the panel. So we've got Renee Hanna, who's from Good Neighbor. And Good Neighbor is an amazing organization locally here in Todonga. They're providing practical opportunities for people to connect with and support with one uh one another. And basically they're they're collecting food from supermarkets and organisations all over Toronga and bringing them into this fantastic warehouse out in Gate. It's not Gateway.

SPEAKER_04 9:28

Just just up here. Just in the city.

SPEAKER_01 9:30

Yeah, in the city, and then they are they send them out to families and people in need. So it's a great way for the supermarkets who haven't sold food, they go to good neighbor, they put them out into the community. That's amazing. We've got Sophie from Love Food Hate Waste. And so we should be clapping. And we've got a clap for Renee as well. Please clap for Renee. I forget because normally it's just me up here. And then so Sophie, Love Food, Hate Waste has been around in New Zealand since 2016. And it's been a fantastic organization. I've been working with them for that long. I'm currently the spokesperson sometimes. But they're basically on a mission to empower New Zealanders to take action on household food waste. And I think that's where like it's it's great to have such an organization who has a great central point, lots of information, lots of recipes, working with lots of chefs, lots of just even influences all over the place, just to really highlight the issue that's food waste, but also help people use it up. So thanks for being here, Sophie. Now you can clap. There we go. We'll put it all in. We've also got Jen Long, who I met recently from Miss Fit Garden. So Miss Fit Garden source seasonal fruit and veggies from growers directly, and they put them into boxes like this that get sent out all over the North Island, and you've just recently started in the South Island as well. And basically they get all these like random things. Like the when I was there a couple of weeks ago, there were leaks that were just mini, not mega leaks, and so they were too small for the supermarkets, so they put them in the misfit boxes. Apples and things like that. I'll pick this one up and hopefully not tumble everything. But apples, that one's got a little bit of a brown stripe around it, and the the sort of the middle parts come out. So that's no good for the supermarkets to sell, but it can go in misfit gardens, and I guarantee you that's fresher than anything you'll get in the supermarket. And there's even like purple potatoes, and they have some quite neat, unusual fruits and vegetables that they send out every week. So they're here to talk to us tonight. I'll have your questions for you. So there you go for Jen. Big round of applause. And then, of course, we've got Simon Golt. I didn't write these notes, so yeah. So Simon opened his first restaurant at age 22. He's the former master here, master chef, New Zealand judge. He's a very successful businessman, great podcaster. He's got his name on stocks and seasonings and cookware and cocktails. We're starting to work through, he's taught me all about stocks. Now we're starting to work through the cocktails. But that's not the first full story. And Simon's been absolutely influential on me learning how to change my ways of cooking, and I'm cooking more than what I ever have before. So thanks, Simon, for being here. So round of applause here for Simon. Okay, so the really cool thing here is that I'm not asking them 10 questions each. So it's not gonna be a long time, all right? They've been given one question to ask for tonight. And we're gonna start with Renee from Good Night Neighbor. You've got the microphone. These questions are all obviously around food waste. So, Renee, when food is rescued here in Todonga, what actually happens to it and who does it help?

SPEAKER_04 13:07

Absolutely. We are rescuing about 2.8 tonnes on average every day. And that's coming from mainly surplus from supermarkets, but we are connected with local growers and basically wherever there is food that possibly could go to waste, we try and strike up a partnership. The food comes into Good Neighbor, and a lot of it obviously we're sort of heading towards dated stock, so we need to get it out the same day. And that would also be a lot of food to try and store. So to do that, we're partnered with over 82 charities, I think it's 84 now, in our community to make sure that we're able to get the food right to where it's most needed. So we're on a mission of reducing waste, but we're also on a mission of combating food insecurity. And so that's why we partner with the charities, so we can make sure that we're dealing with people on the front line so that we're truly filling empty pantries. So that's where it goes pretty much every day. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:08

That's fantastic. Oh, yeah, that's so cool. Have you got anything you want to say to that song?

SPEAKER_00 14:14

You know, without people like you guys, what you're doing, we're not in the same place and we don't have the same future. So keep going. I know it's hard work, but what you're doing slowly but surely makes a difference. Just keep slowly catching that monkey.

SPEAKER_01 14:32

Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 14:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:33

And I think that's the the biggest thing around food waste is it's happening at every level. And one of the things I've learned over my time as well is like, yes, you're feeding people who even can't afford to buy food, which is so that's such a big need. And it's and that's where I love how it's it's so community connected and that's driven to it stays here in Toronto and it's really helping. You guys have an amazing like how many people do you actually have who are working for you at the moment?

SPEAKER_04 15:03

We have we have 13 staff, but we have 350 active volunteers that are volunteering every week across all of our services. So just in food rescue, we have 120 volunteers between the truck drivers that are going and doing all the rescuing, the sorters, and the people that are distributing the food. So it's a it's a bit of an operation. Yeah, and then we've also got a kitchen team that it basically the food that's not quite fit for us to be able to put in the box going to a charity, we might need to, I don't know, cut some bits off it, goes into our kitchen. So we also have a kitchen team doing that and turning it into nutritious meals, so yeah.

SPEAKER_01 15:41

That's so cool. Thank you so much. Can we just have a oh yeah, you want to get a quick question?

SPEAKER_00 15:46

Just one quick question for you. If anybody in our audience here wanted to help and get involved, whether it's in the kitchen doing deliveries, can they do that?

SPEAKER_04 15:58

Absolutely. I can tell you that we always find a space. One of our missions for Good Neighbor is actually to bring the city together. So we're always looking for more volunteer opportunities because we want space for everyone to be able to help the community. So you can jump on our website because you'll see a little volunteer button or a support us button, and it's a whole lot of different ways that you can be a part of what Good Neighbour's doing. Yeah, so there's something for everyone. We have a lot of different services that we offer, uh, whether it's gardening, um, care support, we we have a whole lot of different things. So there's usually something for everybody, which is great.

SPEAKER_01 16:34

Yeah, that is so cool. Thank you. Thank you so much for doing what you guys do. Okay, moving on to Sophie. Okay, so Sophie, your question. What is the single habit households could start tomorrow that would reduce food waste the most?

SPEAKER_02 16:52

Wow, there's so many different options that everyone can take. So I'm gonna start with something really, really simple. It might not be the most, but it's probably the easiest thing that you could implement as soon as you get home. When you sat down tonight, you all have any first sticker on your chair. And there's a proof that helped households reduce food waste. So in busy households, we're seeing busy families reduced food waste up to 40%. So we're wasting around$1,200 of food every year in Kiwi Home. And so it can all add up. So basically, you just use the sticker to set aside or create an easy first shelf within your fridge or in your pantry or in your freezer, and you put all the items that need to be eaten next on in that area. Now, many of you might have really busy fridges and they've really chalk blocks, so you might want to pop it on a train that you can move around so you can got lots of stuff coming in and you can move it around. The other is a sticker that, but they're both reusable. So if you don't want to send a whole tray or a whole shelf, you can just have a container and you can peel it off and stick it on to the next container as a cupboard. So we know that when there's when items that need to be used up next, a kind of frontline center, you're more likely to reach for them when you're having a bathroom night. So we could go to make a little bit of pizza at the end of the week. Or they're really great for busy households with kids where you can just basically say you're allowed to eat anything out of school from the eating breast shop. Or you know, it's a really great communication device. Again, for young families, kids only drink the milk as the EVR. Don't open next bottle of milk or butt with go. Um really, really simple. And yeah, it's starting tonight.

SPEAKER_01 18:39

Awesome. Thank you so much, Safe. Do you have any questions for Safe?

SPEAKER_00 18:45

Well, I just want to say, you know, congratulations because I know that you are such a small team. We were talking about it on the podcast with and what you achieve with that small team is incredible. And this nationwide promotion you're doing that everybody goes in the drawer to win potentially groceries for a year. I really hope that people tonight jump in, even if they do one entry, it costs you nothing, but it helps your cause, and that's how we're going to make a difference to New Zealand. So, you know, one photo of your leftover meal, your leftover, and a photo of your meal, pop it online. It will take you no more than three minutes. But these guys are working hard. How many is on your team?

SPEAKER_02 19:38

We got just under three. So just under three.

SPEAKER_00 19:42

So what you achieve for just under three is truly incredible. So, congratulations, and I hope you get some support from the people here tonight.

SPEAKER_02 19:53

Yeah, thanks. Thanks so much for having you. And I think this guy gives me a round of applause as well.

SPEAKER_01 20:02

Oh, thank you, David. Right, okay. So next one is Jen from Miss Fit Garden. So we meet we met these guys, um, we did a podcast with them a few weeks ago. Hey, gosh, time's just gone. And amazing organisation. I'm so excited. I I just loved coming in and seeing it, and the the plums were amazing, I just have to say. But question for you, Jen. So, how much good food never reaches supermarkets simply because it doesn't look perfect?

SPEAKER_03 20:36

A surprising amount. One thing that we've learned over the last six years we've been running is just the volume of food that does not make it off a farm, purely for cosmetic reasons. So sometimes up to 60% of a crop will not make it off the farm, just if it's not the right shape, size, or colour. It can also be other things like market trends. So supermarkets can cancel orders last minute, which says a farmer with a surplus stock. Um cost of fuel, it can cost more for a farmer to harvest the crop than they'll make from it, so they're changes to plow it back into the ground again. So there's heaps of factors that you know determine how much waste there is. But for example, the carrot farm when we work with the Nowakuni, they can have up to 60% of their crop not be market standard purely because it's the carrot's not quite straight enough. It's got a slight slit in the end of it, or it's just missing the tip up the bottom. So yeah, it's insane.

SPEAKER_01 21:30

How do you split carrots? And that's a bit sad. That that's actually shocking, and I've seen it over the years. Like everything now, and I've talked about it in my sessions for many years. Perfect produce. All we see at the supermarket now is perfection. All the apples are exactly the same size. The bananas, I had no idea that bananas have to have a specific bend. If they go slightly straight, they're not bent enough. If they're too bent, they're too bent. It has to have a particular bend. And even things like Like when we were there, there were what were the other things we saw, Simon, that surprised you at the Misfit Gardens?

SPEAKER_00 22:06

Well, it was all I I mean, I've got to say, I thought I was going along to watch paint dry when we were going there. I was You didn't even want to come with me. I was like, okay, we're going to do a podcast with a garden place. How exciting is this gonna be? I was like a kid in a candy store. I mean, this was unbelievable. Lions, mane, mushrooms, egg plants that look way better than I've ever seen delivered to me in my restaurants. Roulette of watermelon. You know, we did that she had the watermelons at Misfit Gardens, but they didn't know what colour they'd be inside. So you should watch the podcast and watch us cut this roulette watermelon. And also, just by the way, and you're not gonna say it tonight, there's a discount code on the podcast. So it's worth watching. And it's I think it was how many good. It's 30% now. Don't tell them the funny words. They're gonna watch it. How do you think we get subscribers if we don't play that game? I'm not gonna get a good slide. I think it's 30% off your first order. If I had known about misfit gardens when I have restaurants, because they have another arm to their business called the chef's garden, where they are talking to the suppliers who grows the little butternut, and they say, We've got this chef in Auckland, he's really annoying, and he wants the butternuts all the same size. They make it happen. And for a chef to get a baby leak, oh my god, that is just like heaven, because you can braise them, put them on the plate perfectly. These guys are incredible what they're doing. And just picking up the apple, and you know, I want to grab that cauliflower there, the pine cone cauliflower. Oh yeah. I mean, just look at that.

SPEAKER_03 24:03

So these are really cool. So we actually one of the big things that we do is we work with small market gardeners, and they're a dying breed. It's very hard for a grower to commercially make it possible to grow enough produce that makes it commercially viable, but also harvest it and also sell it at the door. So most of the growers that we work with now are small market gardeners who really are struggling. And so we tell them, we don't mind what size or shape, you basically tell us what you want to harvest. And so they might say, I've got heaps of broccoli that I just need to pick because then next week it might start bolting. And so we plan around then. So they might say, Look, yeah. A thousand broccolies and 300 lomanesco, and we'll take them all. And so these are a really cool, they're a variety of broccoli slash cauliflower, but they're the beautiful repeating spirals that just go around and round and round. Um yeah, I don't know where I'm secret filing, to be honest.

SPEAKER_00 24:52

I used to call them pine cone broccoli on my menu. Yeah, we call it. But you know, you guys can go on Miss Fit Garden's website and go, well, I just want a small box because there's only two of us at home. Or maybe you've got the family, maybe you just want vegetables, maybe you want vegetables and fruit. But then you can go, I want to add extra fruit on. It's a good deal. It's cheaper than the supermarket, it's way fresher than the supermarket. Sorry, the supermarket, um, but I hope there's nobody from here because I won't be selling stocks or seasonings in there as long at the rate I'm going.

SPEAKER_01 25:26

Give me the microphone, Grokey. Save you, save it, save yourself something. But I think that that's where, like, in in amongst all of this, we've got somebody who's working like locally and doing like recovery of all of the perfect produce that's still coming out of the supermarkets. Then you've got an organization who's actually purposely taking the produce that is not perfect, boxing it up and sending it to people. And then also like Love Food Hate Waste, there's an a national organisation who's just hard out trying to teach people how to save money and not waste food. And then we come to Simon. Yeah, we learn something every week from you, Simon. It's fantastic. Um, but I took him on a just on off off on a tangent, took him for a tour of the recycling plant in Auckland last week, and he was just about gagging, so looking forward to that podcast coming out in a couple of weeks. But Simon, question for you. What is something that most people like in their household would throw away, but a chef would never waste because it's just pure genius.

SPEAKER_00 26:41

I have a confession. I was at Kate's earlier and I said, What's the question you're going to ask me? So she told me the question, and I just had that blank moment of I can't think of anything. And then she said, Well, I've got an idea for you, but it's from another chef. So she told I'm going to share the idea because it is a very good one, and I'm sure you'll all like it. So you keep the skins from don't worry, I've got my own idea too. I've had time to think about it. But she keeps the skins off the garlic and the or the skins off the onions, dries them out, then puts it into her neutral bullet once they're dry, and boom, you've got garlic powder or onion powder.

SPEAKER_01 27:30

Oh. It's quite a clever idea, isn't it? You can steal my idea now.

SPEAKER_00 27:37

I know, it's genius. It's genius.

SPEAKER_01 27:39

So then I was I wasn't even on the panel.

SPEAKER_00 27:41

I went for a walk and I thought, you know, what'll what do we have at work? So the thing I use, I have a Delhi in Oakham where I do cooking classes, and I love Parmigiana Rajana, Parmesan cheese. I've already talked to you earlier tonight about Parmesan. I love the cheese, but I've always got all the rinds left. And you know, I grate it right down to the rind. Well, the rind doesn't have any plastic on it, so it's just genius. You keep them, and then when I heat my chicken stock up or my making a risotto, I put all the cheese rinds that I've been saving, and then they melt in there. I think back to my restaurant days, the one thing that we'd used to love keeping was all the potato peelings. Wash them, dry them, fry them, and then sprinkle over your favorite salt or your favorite Mexican seasoning. And then you've got your own chips, right? Because trust me, when you're buying the chips from packets in the supermarket, there are so many e-numbers and preservatives in there, they're rubbish. Maybe there was a potato associated with them once upon a time. But keeping your potato skins, and the other thing that I love keeping, especially in the restaurant days, was the bacon fat. Assuming you buy bacon that isn't fully injected with water and all the water comes out when you cook it. But keep bacon fat that is then genius for cooking your potatoes, frying your mushrooms, even an egg, or anything that you want to get some flavor, baby. Is that enough? That's great. So that's great. Was that of any use? Yeah, very good. Happy days.

SPEAKER_01 29:25

Right. So can I can I get a round of applause, of course, for all of our panelists? Thank you so much. And we need to sort of wrap it up now because the venue guys are gonna be ready and we've got dinner reservations because you guys ate all the food. So but I really would like to thank you guys for coming along tonight.

SPEAKER_00 29:51

It's time to smile.

SPEAKER_01 29:54

Really appreciate Simon and our the doing the podcast together has been probably one of the funnest parts of my career so far. Just sort of meeting meeting a friend, talk like you know, we talk business, we talk all sorts of stuff on a hard day. It's like but it's been great, like, and the friendships that we've created even with Sophie over the last few years. Looking forward to having more friendships with these guys as well, with Renee and Jen.

SPEAKER_00 30:30

That was just such an awesome group of people, wasn't it, Kate? And I I thoroughly enjoyed the night. And I guess people might be thinking, I'd like to go to one of those. So, I mean, what would they do? It'd be pretty easy, right?

SPEAKER_01 30:52

Just start harassing people. Um, I I think I did that.

SPEAKER_00 30:59

That's all right. Let's just we've we've been having a bit of a laugh together. We've been counting ums through this, and it's because Apparently I've got an um issue. Well, I got all sorts of issues, so I think you're ahead on that game.

SPEAKER_01 31:19

Oh, if that's all it is, then that is fine. So I'm gonna change it to so. The the big thing like with Johoka City Council funded this one, and we are looking at other areas. See, I've still got the R's going on. It's because my brain works faster than my mouth, Simon. That's what I'm realizing. The You know what?

SPEAKER_00 31:44

When I was doing my apprenticeship, that we used to have to take the seeds out of bell peppers, and if you left one in, you had to put a pound into the jar. So I reckon every time you say um, you'll have to put a pound into a jar and we'll uh spend it on drinks after we do podcasts. So we we will have so much money for drinks, it's just gonna be incredible. We'll have to have quite something.

SPEAKER_01 32:14

That's a goal. That's such a goal. But the the way that I I think for us now, like I'd love to take this more nationally. I think so. We've got some great opportunities. They've already got some councils who are really keen and we'll look into that. But it would be really cool if people who were keen for us to come to their town put a comment below and tell us where where you're based, and we can definitely have a look at it. It's this it was so fun. I mean, what a night. The like we had over a hundred people, we had food, we had laughs, we had prizes, we had some amazing cooking demonstrations from you, Simon, and they were everybody really enjoyed it. The way that you used up certain things like leftover onions and pumpkins. I'm not giving away the recipes, but the the the whole night was such a success. And I think moving forward, we want to do more of like we want to keep doing our podcast where we're interviewing people and doing all those fun things, but I think there's some great opportunities to roll this out nationally if people are keen. Because sure and even in you know, I don't know, do you want to cook for the nation, Simon? What are your thoughts?

SPEAKER_00 33:33

Well, just seeing people's jaws drop when you told them the snippets that nobody thinks about, and we do need to think about it. So it makes a difference. And being live, you see that reaction, you see them go, the whole room, their jaw drop when you tell them, and I'm not gonna say, well, they just hurt, right? But you know, it's really cool. It's it's really cool. I really enjoyed it. It was it was a great event, and people can you know make some comments and hopefully we can do some more of these and go to wherever our listeners are.

SPEAKER_01 34:16

Yeah, yeah, that would be awesome. And that's I think from the night, my learnings from the night, which was like doing that first live thing together. Like you do your things and your cooking classes and your talks. I do my things and my I don't cook for anybody, but I talk, you know, a lot. But the I think for me what was really fun was finally being on stage with somebody else, and it was a first time, and I think we did really well from from that side of things. The team, my team was amazing. Brody was filming, and that was one of the best things was he was running around with the camera so you could see the everything that was going on from the back. Charlotte was in the kitchen, she missed most of the night because she was preparing food and putting out food and doing the dishes. Uh, Aaron and the kids, Hazel and Lewis were awesome. They were our little prize runners. Like, I think like from it was at the end of the night, I felt like my cup was really full from a like a family standpoint, like we've like we're just like this big family that have found ourselves all together. And we just had such a an experience as a first time doing it. And for me, I just felt like it was yeah, it was really fun. I I I really yeah, I I just felt it was a really good time. And I'd love to do more of them.

SPEAKER_00 35:42

Yeah, me too. Hats off to the entire team, which stretched from our 12-year-olds to the whole team, and you know, Charlotte in the kitchen was head down, bum up, and you know, I saw her at the end of the night, and she looked like she'd been dragged through a washing machine and hadn't gone on the dry cycle afterwards, did a fantastic job of getting all that food out, doing all the dishes, and none of this happens without all of those things, the lighting, the sound, the getting that film. So it was a fantastic night to be able to take the Falking Good Podcast to to the people, and that's what we're here for is the people. And there's nothing nicer than getting a reaction from an audience. And you can have good audiences and average audiences, right? But seeing seeing the look on their face when they saw the different food and heard the different things about leftovers was was a great night. So I'd love to do another one. And I'm looking forward to our podcast next week, too.

SPEAKER_01 36:47

It's gonna be good. I think that next week we're gonna be touring the Recycling Center Simon. So it's a bit of a function.

SPEAKER_00 36:56

I wonder what you think about that, you know. I'd love to hear in the comments because I it's great when people join the chat because I'm going to a recycling plant with Kate. And how am I feeling about that? I don't know how I'm feeling about that because I know that Kate's telling me I'm just gonna be blown away by what I see, and so I'm slightly terrified, slightly looking forward to it. Let's wait and see what happens next week. Until then, thanks for hanging with us today.

SPEAKER_01 37:33

Yep. Make sure you subscribe and tell us what you want to, like any people you want us to interview, people you want to learn from. That's what we're here for. And it's it's uh, you know, it's the beginning of a very cool journey, Simon.

SPEAKER_00 37:49

Love it. Happy days, bring it on until next week. That's it from Simon and Kate on the Falk and Good Podcast. See you next week.