Birrarung Marr on theYarraRiver in Melbourne was transformed over the weekend into a festival of awesomeness – 2 long rows of marquees displaying unimaginable goodies, winding along the river, and tantalising with the aromas of local, healthy food.

The happens every year in February, and is jam-packed full of fantastic events, speakers, information-sharing and workshops, all well as stalls stocked with new and innovative products and services and people just bursting to share the love.

During the course of 3 hours we saw Perma Pete giving a talk on how to make your own cider, learned that we can plant complimentary herbs around our citrus trees from the folk at http://www.VeryEdibleGardens.com, saw the gorgeous Joyce from http://cyclestyle.com.au/ with her glamorous array of bike accessories, and fell in love with the most stunning Bachhara www.bachhara.com silk kaftans made in Bangladesh from the ladies at http://sevencanaries.com.au/marketplace/sevencanaries/ .

I tried locally-made, cruelty free mineral make up from http://www.adornmineralcosmetics.com.au/ (it was excellent), found sweat-shop-free organic fair-trade undies from Etiko http://www.etiko.com (they were funky!) and got some fantastic solar energy information for our home, as well as beautiful raingarden inspiration from Melbourne Water http://raingardens.melbournewater.com.au/, and picked up my much coveted copy of the Field Guide to Victorian Produce from the Locavore Edition http://www.locavored.com/field-guides/. Make sure you check out their beautiful website!

I also grabbed a rad bumper sticker from the rock chicks Victorian Farmers Market Association at the which is now proudly proclaiming from the rear of my car that ‘I don’t buy food from strangers’. Classic. (photo credit for this particular image goes to VFMA) . We topped this off with a chat to the lovely ladies at making sensational curry mixes right here in Melbourne at No Worries Curries which are going straight into my slow cooker!

And to keep our strength up we visited http://www.misterniceguy.com.au for a spectacular coconut and lime creation, and the lovely folk at AllPress made us a cranking piccolo late, no mean feat considering they were making it in a tent.

We came home energised and excited about all the cool stuff we saw and sampled and inspired by the passion and creativity of all the exhibitors and participants. Mission accomplished!