A diminutive woman in glasses and a burly farmer wander through a field, two very different characters with an unlikely friendship forged by one thing in common: vegetables.

Matt Dennis has been growing them for 30 years, and Amorelle Dempster is a chef who likes cooking them the Slow Food way.

But there is nothing slow about the way she gets things done in her adopted town of Maitland in New South Wales.

Amorelle is the driving force behind a local renaissance in the way food is grown, sold and eaten.

Amorelle Dempster with vegetable farmer Matt Dennis and his son Liam on their Maitland farm. ( ABC: Cathy Jacobs )

She has reconnected local producers with local customers, as well as helping to provide meals for disadvantaged people in the community.

"The Slow Food philosophy is about protecting food biodiversity and working with small-scale farmers to provide good, clean and fair food for everyone," Amorelle says.

To understand what that looks like, go to the Earth Market at the Levee shopping precinct in the heart of Maitland every second Thursday.

You can buy fresh seasonal produce, picked that day by farmers like Matt, and stick around for a yarn and some culinary advice as well.

Matt used to grow two major crops for wholesale "and hope to God they were worth something", but now he has taken Amorelle's advice to diversify and sells a wider range of vegetables in lower quantities direct to consumers.

"It's 10 times better," Matt says.

"The big supermarkets have got us in a bad situation. Unless the produce is shiny and perfect they won't take it, and we just can't rely on getting a fair price from wholesalers."

It started with pumpkins

It all began a couple of years ago, when Amorelle heard that Matt was going to have to plough thousands of slightly mud-damaged pumpkins into the ground.

She organised a pop-up stall and a publicity campaign and the result was a pumpkin buying frenzy as thousands turned out to support her campaign to stop the produce from going to waste.

"Amorelle got me on the news, she got me everywhere," Matt says.

"She's good at what she does and she helps people out. She's got drive and motivation. If she sees something that needs to happen she doesn't just talk about it, she does it."

Matt is now part of a community of local producers and Slow Food volunteers who gather for the Maitland Earth Market, which Amorelle helped to establish after the now legendary pumpkin-mania episode.

Pumpkin grower Austin Breiner at the Maitland Earth Market. ( ABC: Cathy Jacobs )

There is an infectious feel-good factor at play, whether you are buying organic turmeric for its anti-inflammatory qualities, free range eggs from happy chooks, fresh greens that have never been in cold storage, or rare varieties of pumpkins grown from Austin Breiner's seed collection which he can trace back to a century ago.

A shift in the community

"We are losing an awful lot of genetic diversity as crops become more and more monocultured," says Austin, who grew nearly 40 varieties of pumpkin last year.

"Once they are gone, they are gone forever."

He credits Amorelle's vision and energy with a shift in thinking in the community.

"There's a much greater air of optimism amongst the few small farmers that are left in the lower Hunter," he says. "They are all talking about Amorelle.

"It seems to be a thought now that small farms can go back into production and there is a future for young people on the land.

"It's a spark we have to blow into a flame if we can."

'Amorelle really galvanises people'

Turmeric grower Liz Griffiths describes the Maitland Earth Market as a gathering place where people with the same beliefs feed off each other.

"I think Amorelle really galvanises people," Liz says.

"She's able to get an idea and connect people around that idea who can make it happen. There are a lot of incredibly talented people in the Slow Food group with the most diverse set of skills. It's absolutely amazing."

Turmeric grower Liz Griffiths at the Maitland Earth Market. ( ABC: Cathy Jacobs )

Amorelle may seem like an agronomy consultant — but she's actually a former marketing professional, who left Sydney with her husband Andrew and their two children to live on a biodynamic farm before opening their Maitland cafe.

She cannot bear to see anything go to waste, and has made the cafe kitchen available to Slow Food volunteers who help her cook community meals for the disadvantaged, using donated excess produce.

"I grew up in Sri Lanka and while my family wasn't well off, we had more than others so we always shared what we had," she says.

"I guess it laid the platform for the person that I've always been.

"Rescuing food and taking it to the community is no different to my heritage really."

Each week, around 25 volunteer hours are clocked up creating around 200 nutritious meals from fresh food brought into the cafe by farmers.

The meals are boxed up for distribution by Oz Harvest to five community support charities.

"Not wasting any food and giving value to the work that farmers do, if we can get that food from the farm to disadvantaged people, it's all the good things about life," Amorelle says.

Hungry mouths

Volunteer Margaret Kavanagh dishing up meals for the disadvantaged in Amorelle's cafe kitchen ( ABC: Cathy Jacobs )

Maitland Neighbourhood Centre manager Naomi Rees says dozens of families count on the meals every week.

"Whilst we are a lucky country to have a welfare system, that doesn't mean it is an amount that people can live on; they survive," she says.

"There are times when we see people in tears from gratitude, from humiliation, and tears of joy that they can take something home and sit around the table to eat with their family.

"That all comes from Amorelle, but she doesn't get to see that."

Even though Naomi has never met Amorelle, she feels like she knows her.

"We are almost like her ambassadors in some ways," Naomi says.

"We finish off her week. Amorelle begins it, maybe the farmers begin it, I don't know. But we are part of that chain and we are the ones who end up giving the food to the people. So yeah, I know her, she's a good mate of mine."

Simple solutions

Amorelle and husband Andrew Dempster beside Maitland's iconic farm shed ( ABC: Cathy Jacobs )

Andrew Dempster estimates his wife devotes hundreds of unpaid hours to her role as the leader of Slow Food Hunter Valley — but she is quick to point out that it is a team effort by all the volunteers.

"I don't think recognition is important," Amorelle says.

"What you do to benefit the grassroots, somebody at the end of the process, is much more important. I just take that message out there to people.

"You can solve problems without a lot of resources, without a lot of notoriety, just by simply wanting to do something good."