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Looking for a delicious autumn adventure? Taste, rate, and celebrate some of the best vegan and vegetarian food across Victoria’s scenic Macedon Ranges for this year’s Edgy Veg Awards – plus help crown this year’s ‘Most Vegelicious’ dish! 🏆
What do you get when you combine mouth-watering plant-based dishes, breathtaking autumn scenery, and a community-wide foodie event? The Edgy Veg Awards, of course!
This April, for the fourth consecutive year, this month-long event celebrates the plant-based creations of incredible chefs and eateries across the Macedon Ranges—including Mount Alexander Shire for the first time!
Mount Alexander Shire Mayor, Rosie Annear, says of the event:
“The Edgy Veg Awards are a fantastic way to celebrate our local food scene while inspiring people to try new things and explore healthier choices …”
“By enjoying fresh, veggie-rich meals, we’re not only supporting our health but also our local cafes, restaurants, and growers.”
What are the Edgy Veg Awards?
In short, the Edgy Veg Awards are the perfect excuse to eat your way through Central Victoria, all while supporting food that’s good for your health, the community, animals, and the planet.
Spanning some of Victoria’s most scenic regions, the Edgy Veg Awards follow Australia’s longest-running food trail dedicated to vegan and vegetarian dishes.
Running for the entirety of April 2025, participating venues are serving up innovative, eco-friendly meals made from 100% (mostly locally grown) plants. In addition to their regular menus, they’re competing for the title of Most Vegelicious Dish – and you get to be part of the fun!
This year’s trail features dishes at 46 venues across 12 charming villages, from Maldon to Gisborne. Picture cosy country cafés, pubs with smoky wood fires blazing, and a whole range of restaurants in between. It’s basically a choose-your-own-adventure food tour!
You’ll get to rate your favourite meals along the way, and at the end of the Macedon Autumn Festival, one plant-based dish will rise above the rest to win the coveted title of ‘Most Vegelicious Dish’.
What sort of dishes are competing on the trail this year? 🍲🌿
There will be a ton of delicious vegan dishes battling it out this year! Maldon Bakery has put forward their comforting Curried Lentil and Vegetable Pie, Holgate’s in Woodend is serving up a hearty Roasted Stuffed Capsicum, and Macedon Ranges Wholefoods in Gisborne has entered its ridiculously indulgent Mushroom Jaffle into the ring.
Other entrants include vibrant salads, hearty soups, and bold, belly-filling creations using only the freshest local produce. Check out the full list of dishes on the Edgy Veg website!
How to join the Edgy Veg Trail in 2025 🗺️🥗
It’s easy: Plan your Edgy Veg Trail, start tasting dishes, and rate them online to enter the prize draw (Yep, there are prizes for us foodies, too!)
Grab a hard-copy Autumn Festival Trail Map at one of the Macedon Ranges tourism outlets and get it stamped at each participating venue to qualify for extra prizes, or go paperless and create your trail route using the venue list online.
The event runs all through April, so you’ll have plenty of time to visit as many participating venues as you like. Simply order their special Edgy Veg dish, do your best impression of a fancy food critic (i.e. furiously debate the nuances of the dish with your pals) and head to the Edgy Veg website to score it based on flavour, innovation, and presentation.
Remember: The more meals you rate, the more chances you have to win one of the fabulous prizes, so hit up as many food spots as possible!
What prizes are up for grabs? 👀
🍽️ $100 voucher for Mort & Pestle
🌿 A cooking workshop at Big Bowl of Happy
🛒 $100 voucher for Green Goes the Grocer
👩🍳 Veggie dinner for 4 at Duang’s Cooking School
Who knows? You might just walk away with something special – plus the warm, fuzzy knowledge that you’ve supported the talented chefs who’ve poured their hearts into crafting the trail’s culinary masterpieces.
Seasonal, snack-filled road-trip, anyone? 🚗🌿
What better way to get more veggies into your diet than exploring some of the most exciting plant-powered meals these scenic regions have to offer?
Consider making April 2025 the month you hit the road to explore new places, flavours, and plant-based favourites. Whether you’re in it for the prizes, the scenery, supporting local businesses, or simply just the food, the Edgy Veg Trail is the perfect autumn adventure.
Ready to start plotting your trail? Visit the Edgy Veg Awards website for all the delicious details. 
The Edgy Veg Awards are proudly delivered by Veg Action of the Macedon Ranges Sustainability group, which promotes plant-based food in the region. The event is also supported by amazing local sponsors: Healthy Loddon Campaspe, Mount Alexander Shire Council, Bendigo Bank Gisborne & District, Snap Fitness Woodend, and Mt Macedon Realty.
Header image: The Shawarma Mushrooms from Verdue, Romsey. © Tiffany Warner Photography
Meet Liv!
Having grown up in a “meat and 3 veg” kind of household, Liv’s embarrassed to admit that she was a bit of a one-note chef until she began exploring the world of plant-based food. Vegan cooking has given her a whole new appreciation for the symphonies of flavours that simple, nourishing wholefood ingredients can create. (Even eggplant, once her greatest nemesis, is now — in a delicious, miso-glazed redemption arc — her all-time favourite veg.)