As part of Sovereign Hill's inaugural Heritage Harvest Weekend, Future Food System chef Jo Barrett will conduct cooking demonstrations with 'non traditional' proteins including crickets and tiger nut - a tuber that grows at the base of nut grass which is high in fat and protein.

They are both heritage and future foods - with miners known to cook both on the goldfields and being considered sustainable proteins of the future.

She will also host a cheese-making workshop inside the Victoria Theatre, creating a delicious feta which is marinated in oil to preserve it.

Ms Barrett said considering heritage foods, growing your own food and preserving were ways to lead a more sustainable life that are as applicable now as they were during the gold rush.

"If you go back in time there were not things like plastic and convenience foods around. People preserved seasonal food and eat seasonally so we are going full circle now with our concerns about issues like climate change, our bodies and good health."

She said more people were interested in learning traditional techniques, particularly since the COVID pandemic began, as a way of having more control over what they put in to their bodies.

"I think people are becoming more aware of their food systems - getting involved in or growing their own food, investing in their skills ... we saw it in the sourdough boom and it has trickled down from there."

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Joining Ms Barrett at Sovereign Hill's Heritage Harvest Festival on Saturday and Sunday are Jung Eun Chae from Chae who will take participants through the art of Korean ferments with soy sauce, sake and kimchi making classes, and Ballarat chef Derek Boath from Underbar who will lead workshops on classic French cooking skills brought to Australia during the gold rush but with an Australian flavour.

During the workshops, restaurant critic Gemima Cody will interview each chef while they cook to discover what they love about in-season autumn produce and why it's important to keep sustainable practices like fermenting, drying, salting, curing, pickling and distilling alive.

The Heritage Harvest Weekend is a full foodie take-over of Sovereign Hill and will also feature pop-up produce and market stalls, a Botanical Bar featuring sips by Kilderkin Distillery and Mrs Baker's Still House, an animal farm, damper, butter and cheese-making classes, a line-up of feature events and masterclasses, and much more.

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