Cooking, learning and connection at Village Dreaming

At Village Dreaming, a regenerative permaculture farm and cooking school on Dja Dja Wurrung land, in the central highlands of Victoria, food is the glue that binds people together. For founder Mara Ripani, the school is the natural outcome of a lifelong passion for shared meals and the connections they create.

Growing up in Ballarat in the 1980s, Mara and her sister would always go home for lunch from primary school as they lived really close by. “My parents, having only recently migrated from Italy, asked for permission for my sister and I to go home for lunch every day…My parents made it really clear how important it was to them and our culture to eat together. It became such an important ritual for me and a symbol of wellbeing, community and togetherness.”

That tradition shaped how she viewed living with others. In Melbourne, she struggled with the standard share-house model of separate ingredients and solitary meals. “The idea of a fridge compartmentalised into ‘my’ ingredients and ‘your’ ingredients was demoralising and did not feel like togetherness at all,” she recalls.

After years of searching, she found housemates who valued communal cooking as much as she did. “Thirty years on when we visit each other across states we always cook together and the meals made and conversations had bring us enormous joy. So Village Dreaming…our cooking school…was born from these experiences, and my need to bring people together. A place to share the cooking skills I have learned, and to bring people close.”

Her cooking school now offers workshops that immerse guests in everything from salami and bread making to fermentation, foraging, and harvesting. Participants might knead wild-yeasted dough, braid garlic freshly pulled from the garden, stomp chestnuts under gumboots, or mix vegetables into a spicy summer ferment.

Mara’s classes take place in a home that reflects her values. It is made from straw using passive solar design with a large garden designed around organic and biodiversity principles. “I love welcoming people to this beautiful space and sharing all the design ideas that make this a fantastic place to live. Ideas that help everyone create dynamic comfortable and nurturing homes and homes that nurture wildlife too.”

Village Dreaming also offers a place to stay, unwind, and experience the rhythms of life on the farm for a little while longer. Hand-built from straw and clay, their eco farmhouse is inspired by Mara and her partner Ralf’s travels to Italy and Germany and reflects the same values of sustainability and togetherness that define every part of Village Dreaming. It offers two independent guest bedrooms, each with its own ensuite, alongside a shared kitchen where guests can join a cooking class or simply relax with a book.

Visitors, she explains, connect with the whole atmosphere: “The kitchen is theatre and song, conversations and warmth, pots simmering, vegetables fermenting, salami curing, garlic crushed and mixed through everything!”

For Mara, hospitality is never secondary to the work of the farm, it is central. The reward is in the connections that unfold. “I am always so moved by the deep connections that can be made over a four-hour cooking class.”

To find out more about Village Dreaming visit www.villagedreaming.com.au.