Sunshine Coast Hinterland Times

Sabine Wienand seldom thinks small. Her firm, Basically Wild, has enjoyed steady growth over the
last 15 years but her plans for the next phase involve a novel leap onto the world stage.
“Export to Europe, most especially to Germany, has always been a significant part of my business, but promotion and education are an important part of entering this market”, says Sabine.
That got her thinking about a mini festival concept.
“The idea is to showcase the best of Australia - not just our native foods but also our inventions, our music, arts and crafts and great produce in general.
“We’ve called it ‘Ingenious Australia’ - a chance to show the world there’s more than kangaroos and nice beaches here,” Sabine adds.
Developed in conjunction with a German events firm, ‘Ingenious Australia’ will mount 40 shows over two years in major shopping centres throughout Germany.
“We’re calling this Cultural Exchange Alive,” Sabine told the Hinterland Times. “We’ll have German artists and celebrities working with us and sharing ideas. There’ll be improvisation theatre, dancing, the didge, drums, kids games, quizzes, prizes - we’re putting together the best, the funniest and sometimes the most bizarre”, says Sabine with enthusiasm.
Maleny’s own Steve Langton with his famous sprocket will be a major attraction. Another significant appeal of the festival is that it will give small firms and operators the chance to promote themselves to this lucrative market.
“We’ll have the major displays and activities and then around 20 smaller stalls for firms that ordinarily wouldn’t be able to afford this sort of exposure,” Sabine explains.
Sabine will be travelling to Germany early next year to finalise the details of this mammoth tour.
Late last year, Sabine made the decision to revamp her range of native food products. The decision came about, in part, because she was so busy.
“I found I didn’t have time to cook and so I started looking at ready-made, easy meals. I really wanted to find the perfect pasta and I couldn’t, so I created it myself.”
Her Eat me I’m Wild range includes a rich tomato and cumin Moroccan style sauce, a wild wattleseed Australian style satay and, of course, the perfect pasta - roast vegetable and a wild tomato Mediterranean style sauce.
“I wanted to keep my range small and high quality.The sort of thing I would look forward to having when I haven’t the time to make it from scratch.”
Firms interested in joining the Ingenious Australia tour should contact Sabine on info@wild-foods.com