Join Diego 'The Weedy One' Bonetto for dinner

Foraging guru Diego Bonetto will visit the Illawarra next week for the I Am Not Making This Up festival, a collaboration by the South Coast Writers Centre, journalist Caroline Baum and The Illawarra Flame.

Diego will lead a Wild Weeds Workshop, exploring the foraging potential of our coastline. After the field trip, he will be in conversation with podcast producer Jennifer Macey at a buffet-style dinner at Earth Walker in Coledale.

While the foraging trip is booked out, tickets are still available for the dinner with Diego.

'The Weedy One' – the name of a short documentary about his journey and his Instagram handle – grew up on a dairy farm in northern Italy, where he learnt the ancient craft of gathering resources from the fields and woods.

Diego moved to Australia in the mid-90s and worked at garden centres and orchards. He soon realised that his foraging knowledge was rare in his adopted country, where indigenous knowledge had been largely ignored and there was mistrust of wild produce.

Meanwhile, Diego followed his other passion for the arts and graduated with a bachelor's degree. He began to share his knowledge through workshops and events, and now collaborates with cultural workers, chefs, herbalists and environmentalists.

He has recently released his first book, a field guide called Eat Weeds.

Also out this year is The Weedy One, a doco that tells how a farm boy from Italy became a wild food forager in Australia. It premiered at a film festival in New York in July.

As Diego says, there is more to his story, so join him at Earth Walker on Saturday, 26 November to hear it.

Tickets are $60, available here