Project Description

Grow, Feed, Heal with tropical foods

Who am I?



I am Clare Richards, the author and publisher of the world's first comprehensive tropical cookbook and encyclopaedia of tropical produce, tropical cuisine: cooking in clare's kitchen. I also have a previous career of 20+ years working in community development, counselling and health. I live in Far North QLD, currently in Cairns.

The Project

I am seeking project funding to allow me to conduct research in South East Asia between December 2011 and March 2012 on the traditional uses of tropical produce. As a recipe developer, I want to know how traditional cooks use their indigenous produce in their cooking. I want to know the medicinal and nutritional benefits of produce. And I want to experiment and cook alongside traditional cooks, and bring that experience and knowledge back here to Australia.



Next year I will be commencing a project with at least one Aboriginal community in Far North QLD, developing healthy gardens and recipes with community members using tropical plants, produce that thrives in our part of the world.



Health issues in this community are severe, with high levels of cardiovascular disease and diabetes. I will be developing healthy recipes with community members. Being a recipe developer and cookbook writer, I will also be focusing on making sure these recipes are full of flavour and appeal.



I am also an advocate for the strengthening of local food economies in tropical Australia, and link farmers, retailers, chefs and restaurateurs together. My aim is to support the feasibility of local farmers, turn 'consumers' on to the rich array of locally grown tropical produce available, and link farmers to wholesalers and restaurants who will pay sustainable prices for quality and unusual produce. Many of the recipes I discover and develop go onto my website to promote the use of tropical produce.



All the rich array of herbs, spices, vegetables, fruits and other produce indigenous to SE Asian countries also grow abundantly in Far North QLD. We have an opportunity, locally here in FNQ and more broadly as a nation, to have a far richer array of ingredients on our grocer's shelves and on our tables.



I intend to feed (excuse the pun) the knowledge and experience gained through this research back into the recipes I develop here in Australia with community members in the remote Aboriginal community.

The health and wellbeing of young mothers and their babies is of particular concern to community members, and I will be seeking to learn the plants, recipes and medicinal knowledge used by traditional cooks in SE Asia to give their young mothers optimal health. We will be integrating this produce and knowledge with the use of Australian produce indigenous to the rainforests surrounding the community.



Why seek funding?

Being a self-published author, like other creative projects, is not the high road to millionaire-hood.  So although I have a wonderful cookbook and reference for tropical foods out there, I'm not yet sitting pretty.

Secondly, the area of my work doesn't fix any established boxes.  Authors of fiction, or poets, whether starting out or highly established, can apply for a range of grants and awards to fund their work.  Scientists, agricultural researchers, nutritionists can likewise access funding through a range of government, professional body, research institute and philanthropic sources.

That is why it is brilliant that Pozible includes food as a category in their funding, because there are very few other options for someone building a project such as I am.  Although I will be conducting research, it will be aimed at collecting hands-on, practical information on the recipes and healing uses of foods in SE Asia that can be utilised here in ordinary kitchens.  Thus, it is applied research rather than academic research and so also doesn't fit that funding box.  So thanks, Pozible, and all the people who support this approach to getting great projects off the ground!

Funding goal and rewards...

I am aiming to raise $4,000 through Pozible to fund this research trip.  That is my baseline minimum needed to get me on the plane and into the research.

I am offering the wonderful people who donate a signed handwritten memento of my research, travels and recipes (see rewards in the column to the right for the different offerings). I am a typing addict, so I can guarantee it will be the only handwritten copy in existence!

Spreading the word...

I will track the progress of my travels and research on my website, www.tropicalcuisine.com, so that everyone can dip into the riches I'll be exploring.

Think rainforests shrouded in drifts of misty cloud...exotic healing gingers tucked under the sprawling undergrowth...villagers still utilising the culinary and healing knowledge held by their people for hundreds of years...we still have this right here in the rainforests of Australia, it is still there in the rainforests of SE Asia, and I want to bring the riches of both together.

My website is linked to Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook so information and discussions are linked across these platforms. At the end of these travels I also plan to publish a magazine style journal cookbook of my travels, but that will be another Pozible project, let’s get me over there first!

Everything you are able to do, from tweeting, blogging, adding the widget to your webpage, liking me on Facebook, getting the word out to others about my project, through to donating all helps enormously.

Thanks for reading, thanks for supporting me, and may it bring us all many exciting, luscious, healing, aromatic delights...

Clare