Food security - and the absence of it - has been Lolo Houbein's lifelong preoccupation. She regarded every garden where she messed around with plants as a farm to feed her household. Lolo Houbein's great-great-grandfather was a market gardener in North-West Frisia, passing a gardening gene down the generations. Lasting influences were her Uncle Wim's small farm and the famine of 1944-1945 in Western Holland, which she barely survived. She came to Australia in 1958 to escape the Cold War. Lolo had her formal education at the universities of Adelaide and Papua New Guinea and Adelaide Teachers College, in the literatures of Australia, Papua New Guinea, the Pacific and Africa, classical studies, world religions and anthropology. Her novel Walk A Barefoot Road was awarded the Bicentennial/ABC Fiction Award and her autobiography Wrong Face in the Mirror the Dirk Hartog Literary Award.One Magic Square has been an enduring bestseller.
Tori Arbon grew up eating mainly packaged and tinned 'convenience food' but became passionate about exploring flavours, growing food, cooking and cultures began when she discovered Adelaide's Asian food scene. Inspired by Lolo Houbein and her book One Magic Square, she created Magic Harvest, an organisation that connects neighbours as they grow their own food, share gardening and cooking workshops, swap produce and skills.