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Sustainable Wedding

At Harvest, our ethos is naturally sustainable, so simply by choosing us, your wedding day will already be imbued with our everyday conscious practices.

Our kitchen team is deeply passionate about sourcing produce in a mindful manner, taking care to safeguard and celebrate the environment, community, and those who will enjoy the beautifully prepared food.

Everything within our business is planned, as much as possible, to fit into our sustainable circle ethos. This means anything we can’t use in the restaurant can be used either in the deli, garden or bakery, so each part of Harvest supports another in creating a minimal footprint and reducing waste.

There are many ways your Harvest wedding will be automatically sustainable but there are also other options you can choose to ensure your day is as environmentally aware as possible. Read on to find out more…

    The Harvest Ethos

    Our backyard is bountiful

    Our first choice is always to use local producers and farmers, preferably who farm using organic or biodynamic and regenerative practices. Choosing to purchase ingredients locally not only means we’re supporting our community, but our food miles remain low.

    We also grow our own produce where feasible, harvesting directly from our garden for cocktails and other garnishes, and we choose to only serve sustainably sourced seafood. Our historic bakery onsite provides our restaurant, deli and events team with beautiful sourdough breads and sweet treats, meaning there are zero food miles accrued. And on Sourdough weekends locals come to buy our delicious baked goods, rather than having to source them from further afield.

    The Harvest Deli meat room allows us to dry-age our own, locally sourced whole beasts, which we often cook over our handmade fire pit or in our wood-fired oven. Not only does this beautiful, ancient way of cooking meat add another layer of unctuous flavour and respect the source of the whole animal, but it also means there’s no electricity used. Wedding guests absolutely love our fire pit, which becomes a lovely social hub once the main course has been served and the embers remain to provide an ambient glow and warmth.

    If meat isn’t your thing, we also provide vegan and vegetarian plant-based menus to help reduce the environmental impact of unsustainable meat consumption.

    Keep waste low

    Eliminating waste can be difficult on the scale of a commercial kitchen, but we do our best to turn the dial toward zero by cooking the whole animal, nose-to-tail and the whole vegetable, root-to-tip. We’re always looking for creative and delicious ways to use parts of a food that normally would be discarded. This also helps to keep food costs down as well as keeping perfectly good produce out of landfill.

    You’ll notice our meal portions at Harvest aren’t oversize, as not only are we mindful about promoting healthy eating habits but also reducing waste. We feel we’ve found the perfect balance between abundantly satisfying and deliberately sustainable.

    And, as any responsible business does, we use reusable storage containers in our kitchens and cooking utensils. We have no plastic bags or single-use plastics, use eco-friendly cleaning products and pack with biodegradable food containers for any takeaway products.

    Harvest has a rigorous recycling policy, ensuring everything from menus to place cards, glass, cardboard, plastics, bottles and lids are recycled. We use a grey water system for our toilets and our worm farm and compost areas are busy turning trash into nutrient-rich treasure.

    Feed the garden

    Having our own onsite gardens provide us plenty of opportunities to reduce waste and complete the food circle.

    Our luscious garden beds benefit from the nutrients of our used coffee grounds, tea leaves and ash from the wood-fired oven, all naturally organic fertilisers. We keep our own bees to help sustain the bee population and to encourage pollination. We’re lucky enough to be able to harvest their delicious honey, too.

    If you visit our garden, you’ll meet our friendly chickens, who are particularly popular with pint-size guests. While their egg production isn’t enough to sustain our kitchen, their contributions are certainly appreciated. For the restaurant, we supplement our girls’ supply with eggs from a local farm just five minutes down the road in Bangalow.

    How to make your wedding more sustainable

    If sustainability is an important part of your wedding day, apart from our usual Harvest practices, there are certain options you can choose to ensure you begin married life with a conscious footprint and a light touch on the earth.

    Flowers

    The ‘slow flower movement’ favours local florists supplying organic, pesticide-, chemical- and herbicide-free flowers from healthy farms with nutrient-dense organic soil. These flowers are grown outside in the sunshine rather than in energy-consuming, temperature-controlled greenhouses and use sustainable irrigation systems. Harvest is able to recommend four sustainable local florists, if you choose to go this way.

    Ideas for your own sustainable flowers

    f you’d like to do your own flowers, here are some tips for keeping your bouquets as planet friendly as possible.
    • Choose hand-picked flowers from the garden
    • Create arrangements from recycled paper flower
    • Place potted succulents or herbs on the tables
    • Wash and re-use vases and allow guests to take the flowers home
    • Compost or dry the flowers for everlasting memories

    Beverages

    Beverages don’t always come to mind when thinking about sustainability, but if you’re keen to keep a lid on waste and reduce environmental impacts, there are a few options open to you. While Harvest has many sustainable practices in place already, it’s good to keep the following in mind when planning your wedding.

    • Make sure the glassware you use is re-usable, that means no single-use plastics and make sure the bottles can be recycled. If serving cocktails and soft drinks, consider using glass or bio straws
    • Ensure any detergents you supply, such as hand washes and dishwashing liquids are organic and eco-friendly
    • For cocktails, be sure to choose pesticide-free citrus and organic garnishes and herbs or use homemade elixirs and tonics
    • Support local artisans, breweries and winemakers, in our area, we recommend Brookies, Jilly Wine, Lord Byron Distillery, Stone & Wood and Husk
    • Choose beverage packages with lo-fi biodynamic wine and Australian wine lists, which supports and explores small wine makers and lesser-known varietals. The focus is on passionate and innovative vineyard practices, which produce wines using techniques like organic and biodynamic farming, minimal intervention, chemical and sulphur-free, and minimal refining and filtering
    • Be mindful when ordering drinks, and try not to over-order

    Wedding invitations, place names, table plans and menus

    Wedding invitations are a beautiful way to create excitement for your impending nuptials, while the little details of place names, table plan and the menu are often where your unique style shines through. There are plenty of ways to imbue your day with magic in a way that is mindful of our limited resources, which by the way, also says a lot about you on your special day. Harvest can recommend two sustainable printers in the area, just ask us for their details.

    Ideas for your own sustainable place names and other items
    • The obvious solution for sustainable invites and other paper items on your wedding day is to use recycled materials. Look for companies that print on recycled paper, wood, cardboard and linen
    • You could also get creative and write placenames on found objects and natural materials, such as leaves, pebbles and shells
    • Rather than use new paper or cardboard, find a friend with lovely handwriting to write your table plan and menu on a blackboard or piece of recycled wood or glass mirror
    • Shed the paper altogether and create paperless, digital invitations

    Wedding favours, gifts and wishing well

    It’s lovely to leave your guests a thoughtful token of gratitude at their place setting, but these little wedding favours needn’t cost the earth, try the below ideas.
    • Harvest is happy to suggest local Byron Bay artisans who can deliver directly to Harvest. This means your wedding favours have low miles, support local industry, can promote sustainable living and may educate your guests
    • Give guests beautifully wrapped, biodegradable seed envelopes to plant at home
    • Instead of a physical gift, give a donation to a local charity on your behalf of your guests
    • Eco candles make lovely favours as do local, organic and fair-trade chocolates. Or consider homemade jams and pickles stored in recycled glass jars
    For your own wishing well, rather than amassing more goods, which you probably don’t need, consider asking your guests to donate to a charity of your choice. Not only does this help others, guests will appreciate the opportunity to make a meaningful contribution to a worthy cause, consider:
    • Environmental charities, such as those that plant trees, donate to a local community garden or local regeneration programmes
    • Charities who help resolve issues in the garment industry
    • Animal welfare

    Transport

    Given our beautiful geography, both at Harvest and throughout the area, public transport isn’t an option. But one way to ensure a lighter footprint is to organise a bus to transport all your guests to and from the wedding. You can also suggest accommodation closer to Harvest or your offsite wedding venue, to reduce travel distances and emission.

    Confetti
    There’s something so magical about a celebratory shower of confetti once the ‘I dos’ have been said and that first kiss has been shared. We’d never want to discourage anyone from that beautiful moment, but we can recommend some more sustainable ways to enjoy it by choosing the following:
    • Pesticide-free, organic flower petals
    • Recycled biodegradable paper love hearts
    • Hole-punched gum leaf love hearts
    • Biodegradable ‘seed’ paper love hearts
    • Dried herbs and leaves

    Make-up artist and hair stylist

    This is your day in the spotlight and it’s important to find a stylist who will bring out your natural beauty. If you need help finding a local make-up artist and hair stylist who uses cruelty-free, organic and sustainable cosmetics and products, we have four ‘friends of Harvest’ we’d be happy to recommend.

    Candles

    Candles bring a beautiful ambient glow to the evening. If you’re after a more sustainable choice, look for paraffin-free candles with reusable glass vessels that are non-toxic and made with soy or beeswax. We’re happy to suggest local candlemakers who are aligned with Harvest’s ethics. For a fun hen’s day, you could even gather friends for a sustainable, eco candle-making workshop in the Harvest bakery.

    ROOTS program @ Harvest

    For a wedding activity that will long be remembered for its sense of fun and beautiful intent, donate $5 per guest to our Roots program, which plants trees on behalf of you and your guests.

    The cost includes tube stock, us planting the trees for you, and photos of your special plot on the property, as well as ongoing maintenance and a handmade recycled wooden note marking your spot with your name, date and how many trees were planted. It feels so special to know that, long after your wedding day, a forest will continue to grow in honour of your love.
    Learn More

    The wedding cake

    You can make more sustainable choices by choosing us to bake a cake here in our beautiful old bakery using local organic ingredients and no food miles or searching for local cake makers who also use local and organic ingredients and recycled and reusable decorative elements.

    Keep the theme going

    From commissioning local suppliers, to using handmade, local tableware made from natural ceramics, choosing sustainable fabric napkins and banning single-use plastic, you can easily adopt an earth-aware wedding policy for your big day. It’s a small effort for a brilliant cause.

    Before the big day

    Help your guests’ bond and discover a greater appreciation for the planet with our Harvest Wedding sustainability workshops. They’re a lovely way for friends and family to meet before the big day and also make for a fun hen’s day activity. Our workshops are below, but if you have a specific idea in mind, we’d love to hear it.

    • Candle-making workshops
    • Indigo dying workshops for linen table runners, cloths, napkins
    • Sustainable workshops on ‘how to create a sustainable wedding’
    • Local florist workshops using organic, hand-picked, pesticide-free flowers
    • Confetti-making workshops (leaves, petals, biodegradable paper)
    • Making your own guest book using recycled, bio paper, print material and bio ink
    • Foraging local wild foods from the land and sea with Pete our forager that will feature on your menu
    • Flower- and herb-picking from our kitchen garden that will feature in your cocktails on the day

    The Details

    How does Harvest quote for off-site catering?

    Do you help with all catering hire requirements?

    Can we use Harvest as the wedding planner or on the day coordinator?

    Does Harvest work with other local businesses and coordinators?

    HARVEST_logo_black
    The Harvest wedding team would be delighted to help create your perfect day.

    Get in Touch to begin your ever after
    ENQUIRECALL (02) 6687 2644
    The Harvest wedding team would be delighted to help create your perfect day
    Give us a call on 02 6687 2644 or send an enquiry here to begin your ever after.
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    LUNCH 
    Wednesday - Sunday
    12 pm - 2.30 pm

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    5.30 pm - 8.30 pm

    7 days | 7.30 am - 2 pm

    7 days | 6.30 am - 2 pm

    18-22 Old Pacific Highway
    Newrybar Village NSW 2479
    Byron Bay Hinterland
    Australia

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    18-22 Old Pacific Highway
    Newrybar Village NSW 2479
    Byron Bay Hinterland
    Australia

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