Kristina you have a very interesting childhood, living all over the world really, tell me a little about where growing up and where you spent your early years? 

I was born to a Norwegian mother and an American father - although I was born in Scotland, I left before I even learned to speak English as we spoke Norwegian at home, so I don’t have that really cute Scottish accent. In terms of growing up, we lived in the UK, I’ve lived on the continent, all of our holidays were back in Norway with family or back in America with family… we were very international. 

Your family first came to Australia in 1991, how did that come about?

My father was offered two jobs. He was offered a promotion to Michigan in the USA, a move which would have been great for his career. And he was offered what would have been a ‘step down’ professionally to Australia…I was living in Austria at the time and said if he goes to Michigan that’s fine I will just stay here but if you go to Australia - which I had heard is just one big beach, the whole coastline - I will come with you. So after consulting with the family he turned down the Michigan posting and moved here and with the parents moving here, my sister also here, Australia has become quite the family hub…I’ve always come back here, even though I’ve gone and lived in Norway, lived in the USA, I’ve always come back here because now my family is settled here.

You would have interacted with so many different cultures through food in your international life, it is interesting that for many Australians especially, food is the first way we experience different cultures. I’m interested in how you experienced Australia first through food? 

It’s a delicious way to interact (food), a delicious way to relate. And of course for me coming here, one of the first things I did was hiking in National Parks and wondering what does Lemon Myrtle taste like? Can I grow Anise Myrtle and wanting my own desert lime tree. So actually tasting what is unique to Australia because you can’t have that anywhere else in the world. 

That must have been strange to lose that connection to the community when the shop closed for a full year - but you found a way to re-open your own version of the store in the same location? 

I would be walking down the street and people would ask ‘Kristina when are you going to feed us again?’. So after some negotiating with the landlord and with council I was able to re-open the organic store as my own business… It is very important to me to make health promoting food accessible to people who may not otherwise have access. There aresome very beautiful and trendy suburbs on the central coast but they are hard to access without a car, so I think here in Woy Woy we have the rail, we have Centrelink, so some of those barriers to access are removed for people. We have a really diverse demographic here, we have people who are fortunate to come and retire in a nice house on the water and we also have people who are trying to work things out and make ends meet - I really like that mix… It’s really eclectic. 

I’m interested about your first impressions of this area on the Central Coast? 

I was living at Lake Macquarie at the time and I was visiting the area on a day trip. I came into this space and it was an organic shop, I heard a very familiar voice say ‘Hello, how can I help you?’ - it was actually my former neighbour, we hadn’t seen each other for five years, so we have a big hug and a big reunion…At the time I was going through a huge change, my old neighbour ended up asking me to work for her and just cook one meal a day in exchange for living in the office for free. I thought this was a good idea, a chance to do something different for a little while. Over time I became so fond of the people and my role grew but my friends business did eventually close down. 

What do you think drives you to get up and serve your community day in and day out? 

One of the things that keeps me going, is considering the state of the world, there is still something sacred and there is still life that sustains us in fresh produce. I think because I have beliefs in a creator, when I unpack a box of capsicum I think “oh for me? You shouldn’t have”- or we had this red curly kale come in, it is so exquisitely architectural, it’s sacred geometry , it’s all of these things, just having a bouquet of those in a vase on the table is a privilege and a joy and a delight… I think so many conversations just emerge naturally from admiring an apple - or I might offer someone something and they may burst into tears or burst into laughter and share what’s behind that for them…You know sharing those stories and those victories, somehow that exchange around food makes it safe to talk about.