We cooked 1.5 tonnes of potatoes, 700 kg of carrots and 120 cabbages. Each day we made sixty trays of salad, prepared 500L lemon and ginger drink, 2000 litres subji, 400kg rice, 500L chutney, 900 litres halava, 1000 sago cups and 55-60,000 kofta balls, selling altogether some 10,000 plates of prasadam.
The Govindas tent at this year’s Woodford Festival
We were fortunate to have Minister for Book Distribution Vijaya prabhu with us, who sold 240 Bhagavad-gitas in five days. The festival concluded with the ecstatic performance of Harinama sankirtana on New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day.
For many years catering events have financially maintained ISKCON New Govardhana. Nearly every weekend the Hare Krishnas here supply sanctified food at special happenings throughout Australia, sometimes twice in a weekend. Devotees from as far away as the USA have come to study New Govardhana’s sophisticated and proven techniques of selling prasadam throughout the country.
It has even been said that no festival in this “down under” region, is complete unless the “Hares” are there with their food. Kofta balls are the major favourite at all these gatherings.
Annually, the Hare Krishnas operate one of their portable restaurants at the year-end Woodford Folk Festival.
Traditionally, this has been the largest and most successful of Hare Krishna catering event of the year. Other successful venues have included “Splendour in the Grass”, “Big Day Out”, and the “Byron Bay BluesFest”.
by Mukunda Goswami (SOURCE: Conch Newsletter, Feb 2012)
