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Kalorama Chestnut Festival 2014

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by Sue Stevenson (subscribe)

I write essays, short stories and political commentary and believe the colour orange is unfairly discriminated against. Portfolio & Medium

Event: 04/05/2014

Ringing in autumn

For people who love the Dandenong Ranges, autumn is a special time to enjoy the area.

You've got trees changing colour:

Pic by Adrian Mohedano (CC licence)

Asian Street Food Walking Tour

Art of Beer

Chocolate Walking Tour

Intro to Crochet

Mums & Kids Photography Picnic

Cupcake & Dessert Walking Tour

Some days it's misty:

Dandenong Ranges, misty, Jacinta Kilmartin

Pic by Jacinta Kilmartin (CC licence)

And it's chestnut time.

Pic by Randi Hausken (CC licence)

Freshly roasted chestnuts. Chestnut ice cream. Chestnut soap. Chestnut-chocolate cake. Poffertjes with chestnut cream. Chestnut beer!

These are some of the creative ways of eating and using chestnuts that will be on offer at the Kalorama Chestnut Festival, along with gourmet food stalls, locally-produced artisan handcrafts and food, Devonshire tea, coffee and mulled wine.

The adventure space will have camel rides, bungie trampolining, mini golf, a scout climbing wall, wet sponge throwing and games like Guess How Many Chestnuts. There will be fairground rides, story time with the Chestnut Fairy, pony rides, train rides, flying swings, Jurassic jumping castle, a petting zoo and face painting.

The Kalorama Chestnut Festival is a local institution - for 30 years it's been celebrating the yumminess of chestnuts while raising money for the Mount Dandenong Pre-School. Three decades of parents and supporters of the pre-school have spent a day each year collecting - and then peeling - these nuts from a local farm. Chestnuts are abundant in the hills ... and nothing says autumn more than the smell of their roasting.