Ginger set to be star of the show at festival

Ginger along with other local produce will be showcased at an upcoming free festival.

Brenda Bailey and Jacqui Price are pictured promoting the Ginger Flower and Food Festival.

GINGER will again be on show at this year's Ginger Flower and Food Festival.

The three-day program has an impressive list of well-known foodie and gardening presenters as well as some new additions.

The Ginger Factory tourism manager Brenda Bailey said the festival would "demonstrate to the consumers how to use our ginger products".

"This year we've got some new presenters that have never worked at the festival before and we would like for people to enjoy a slightly different angle to our festival and that is our health and wellness," she said.

"We decided to invite a naturopath from a company called make a difference and her presentation is all about ginger healing properties - what ginger's good for, it's great for gut health and it's great for pregnancy and car sickness, so she is going to be talking about a health a wellness slant on ginger."

The new art theme includes an installation made from recycled materials by creator Sophy Blake called To Bee or Not to Bee and a live art installation by Ginger Factory's resident artist Sharon Wood.

Ms Blake will also be holding bee making workshops where you can take home your very own piece of art.

Despite the new additions Ms Bailey said the 3000 locally grown ginger plants available at the festival would be the star of the show.

"It has always been about the ginger flowers and because they flower in January it's the best time to buy them, we have over 3000 amazing ginger flowers for sale so it's one of our primary focuses," she said.

"And we makes sure that we have enough to last the three days … so you can come on Sunday and we will still have beautiful flowering ginger plants."

A theme of locally grown and sourced produce will run through the cooking demonstrations, that will teach visitors how to experiment with ginger.

Going from January 17 to 19 the festivals line-up includes;

•Matt Golinski, Food Ambassador

•Lisa Mahar, Makepeace Island

•Kelly Lord, Spirit House

•Chris Beard, Hungry Feel

•Dan Penfold, Penfolds Catering

•Jodie Williams, Black Ant Gourmet

•Fiona Williams, Fiona's Fancies

•Dylan Campbell, Sum Yung Guys

•Brigid Woolnough, Kokopod Chocolate

•Maria Sturre, Make a Difference

Gardening Talks

•Soil to Supper's Cath Manuel

•Horticulturalist, Paul Plant

•Maureen Simons, Towen Mount Tropicals

•Dr Kevin Redd

•Shane Templeton, Templeton Ginger

•Hive Haven's Ann Ross

•Gayle Currie, Ginger Factory's Head Beekeeper

The Ginger Factory Marketing Manager Jacqui Price said the event the free event held at The Ginger Factory in Yandina provided a rare opportunity.

"You don't get the opportunity very often to come and watch someone like Matt Golinski, you can come and watch him prepare food and that's all free so it's a very good opportunity for people to have an entertaining low cost weekend," she said.

All of the recipes and presentations will be published on The Ginger Factory's website at its conclusion.