Scenic sights, food-filled days and nights, a jam-packed program teeming with event highlights: that's how winter starts each year in the Scenic Rim. For the month of June, this world-renowned southeast Queensland region gets into festival mode, celebrating the eating and drinking options that the area is known for. When you're not touring farms, for instance, you're tucking into farm-to-table feasts. When you're not settling in for long lunches and fire-cooked meals, too, you're learning how to make cheese, saying cheers to spirits, meeting camels or picking edible flowers.

That's the Scenic Rim Eat Local Month way, as attendees can enjoy from Friday, May 30–Sunday, June 29 in 2025. By the numbers, this year's fest is going big, with more than 100 food events on the itinerary — and almost 40 of them newcomers to the program. Among that total figure, there's also over 40 long lunches, dinners and degustations; 64 on-farm activities; and 25 workshops and classes.

As Scenic Rim Regional Council Mayor Tom Sharp explains it, "Eat Local Month provides the opportunity for our local community, visitors and people from all ages and backgrounds to enjoy an authentic paddock-to-plate experience, and to renew their connection with our natural environment and agricultural production."

"Traditionally, growers have taken their product to market; however, we are seeing an increase in consumers wanting to connect with where their food comes from and buy direct from the producers and growers in region. People are not only tasting the freshness and quality of the product, but gain an understanding of the farmers' experience, their lifestyle and their dedication to quality produce," Sharp continues.

"From its modest beginnings in 2011, this event has provided a boost to our rural sector, helping to create jobs and drive our region's prosperity. However, it also increases the appreciation for those who put food on our tables and where our food comes from."

It falls at the end of 2025's Scenic Rim Eat Local Month, but the fest-within-a-fest celebration that is the Winter Harvest Festival remains one of the event's standouts, taking over Kalbar for three days. Beforehand, across a region that spans from Beaudesert, Kerry and Mount Alford to Beechmont and Tamborine Mountain, too, camel tours, vodka tastings, becoming a brewmaster for a day, high tea and cocktails in a rainforest, a market put on by Towri Sheep Cheeses and learning to make citrus liqueur are among the month's offerings. Also included: a fest dedicated to fermented food, taking to the sky in a hot-air balloon, crafting your own rum, picnicking and walking with alpacas, meandering along an edible garden trail and marking the winter solstice with a camping cookout.

If you've ever tasted carrot ice cream, that's likely because you've hit up Scenic Rim Eat Local Month before — or Scenic Rim Eat Local Week, as it was known until 2022. This is the only time of the year that Moffatt's Fresh Produce whip up the unique dessert. The event's annual Kalfresh Carrot Day is also on the agenda, and is always popular. This is a part of the world where 600 million of the orange vegetables are grown each year, after all.

For extra motivation to attend, 12 big culinary names have given 2025's festival their tick of approval, with Scenic Rim Eat Local Month's ambassador chefs starting with Alison Alexander, Brenda Fawdon (Picnic Real Food Bar), Cameron Matthews (Mapleton Public House), Caroline Jones (Three Girls Skipping), Daniel Groneberg (Kooroomba Vineyard and Restaurant) and Elliot Platz (Monte Land Wine Bar).

Pastry chef Glen Barratt is also among the figures getting behind this treat for lovers of food, drink and gorgeous surroundings, as are Jack Stuart (Blume Restaurant), Javier Codina (Moda), Josh Lopez (Lopez at Home), Olivier Boudon (Roastbeef and The Frog at The Overflow Estate 1895) and Richard Ousby (Cru Bar & Sixes and Sevens).

Scenic Rim Eat Local Month 2025 runs from Friday, May 30–Sunday, June 29 at various locations in the Scenic Rim. Head to the festival's website for more information and tickets.