From the producers to the consumers, this ones’ for you
I grew up in this part of the world. Beautiful country. Beautiful and wonderfully productive country. Country that has fed locals for thousands of years and supported intensive horticulture for well over a century. There’s a reason why the food grown down here is so good. The secret is in the ground beneath your feet and above you in the sky.
The earth you are standing on is perfect for growing food. Across large swathes of the Mornington Peninsula is soil that is deep reddish brown and profoundly fertile. It runs under places like Red Hill and Main Ridge and grows some of the best stone fruit and apples in the country. Here, cool winters help develop and form the cherry, pear and apple flowers and long summer days help ripen the fruit. Along the coast, down towards Bass Strait and in belts near Frankston the soil is thinner but free-draining. Good farmers know how to work with this soil to grow great crops of carrots, potatoes and leafy greens. Around Flinders, on
the gently undulating folds of land, grows rich pasture that has fed countless herds of cattle. But not even the best farmer on Earth can grow a blade of grass without water. When it rains on the Peninsula, it rains hard. The average rainfall for some parts of the Peninsula is almost a metre. Melbourne has about two-thirds of that rainfall. Perched between the bays and jutting out into Bass Strait, the Peninsula has its own microclimate that is warmer in winter and cooler in summer than metro Melbourne. And when clouds come in on those prevailing westerlies, laden with water evaporated from the Southern Ocean, they hit Arthurs Seat. That great mound of granite pushes those clouds up where the air is cooler. The clouds then drop their rain on Red Hill, Main Ridge and Shoreham. Our great soil and reliable rainfall makes this region one of the best parts of the country to grow food. It is also one of the best parts of the world to enjoy food. And wine. With the renaissance of the Mornington Peninsula wine industry in the 1970s and ‘80s came a new wave of places to eat. Back in the 1980s when I was growing up there wasn’t a lot of choice of places to dine out. A counter meal at the Flinders Pub where a seafood basket, deep-fried from imported frozen
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