Forage and Grind Leongatha

Hello! I am currently on holidays – camping and exploring our way through the Flinders Ranges and outback NSW…with a crawling baby…in Winter. Did I mention we’re camping? Yes, we’re quite mad! Anywho, here is a post I’ve prepared for you to enjoy while I’m away, so pop the kettle on and settle in…

Living back in Gippsland, one of the many delights we’re lucky to have are the little local businesses which pop up in our neck of the woods – cafes, shops, markets, we’re a bit spoiled, and it was a definite drawcard to living in a vibrant yet small, rural community again. In South Gippsland especially I’m seeing a handmade appreciation and artisan scene emerging, as we saw at the recent Choo Choo Markets in Mirboo North (which you can read about here).

When we lived interstate but would come home to visit, I’d always like to drop into The Rusty Windmill in Leongatha for a coffee (or three) with my friend Amy. The Rusty Windmill is a local cafe, but it seemed so much more than that. Its core values seemed to speak volumes of a whole well being, supporting local producers, serving simple but delicious food often from the little back kitchen garden alongside a cracking latte. Now a few years later, Amy told me that the brains behind The Rusty Windmill, Shareena, had birthed a new creative business baby. From my love of her beautifully executed previous work (which still exists in new owners hands), I of course had to travel through the hills to Leongatha to experience for myself ‘Forage and Grind’…

Amy and her little poppet Savannah were our happy coffee dates, hunkering from the icy South Gippy winds whipping outside on one of the coldest days. Lattes and babycinos all round whilst I explored the little store, an espresso bar cum provedore cum quaint country store ready to supply you with teas, sauces, local delicacies and assorted scrumptiousness. Shareena describes Forage and Grind as “a space with a focus on quality – quality service and quality goods that will nourish the health and well being of our community, a retail outlet for locals to collaborate on a new level and to breathe new life into our CBD, offering sustainable job opportunities for local townsfolk and putting back to our community by way of donation and support.” It seems Forage and Grind has been embraced by the Leongatha community, and it is, after all, what the stores ethos seems to centre around: community. “A welcoming space for the community to seek nourishment” is how Shareena sees her new venture. It seems the creative cogs never stop turning either, saying that as soon as one business has been launched and succeeds she turns her hand to another. This isn’t a deliberate move often though, Shareena says the evolution from The Rusty Windmill to Forage and Grind was one of fluidity, evolving organically and feeling natural. Originally she saw Forage and Grind as a ‘hand-in-hand’ experience to sit with her existing cafe, to complement each other. But to fully commit to her new endeavour, inevitably the reigns of The Rusty Windmill were taken on by new owners, allowing Shareena to fully immerse herself to the launch of Forage and Grind.

My friend Amy is a regular at the little store in the heart of Leongatha, but I must admit I’m not a regular Leongatha shopper myself. Now knowing that this little gem is tucked inconspicuously away from those South Gippy winds (and there’s a little wool shop nearby!) I might have to find some more excuses to head down this way for a coffee or three more often…