Places ~ PeoPle ~ Produce
Issue THree suMMer 2oo8
It’s summer and we’re sizzling Discovering the
Fleurieu Peninsula more than Mclaren Vale
Gold Coast Hinterland surprising!
Blue Mountains Get off the road
WIN Füri Knife aus $8.95 inc. GsT nz $9.95 inc. GsT
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New wines, fresh cheeses, virgin oils and heritage almonds, local heroes, romantics and poetry, PLUS new regular sections Talk & Cheese, Back Paddock and Plate – all tasty and seasonal. 24/1/08 5:14:10 PM
PUBLICATIONS: Master Artwork
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Verynatural. Fancy a trek through the lush green rainforests of Springbrook National Park? Or maybe a little dip in one of the crystal clear mountain streams. Just us. You’ll find over 100,000 hectares of World Heritage nature reserve on the Gold Coast – it’s the green behind the gold. Book your holiday now at VeryGC.com
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“Mist tumbles over precipices and boils down the gullies� T
he Megalong p94
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“the warmth of the burnt butter, the cool surprise as you bite through the fresh pasta and the goat curd flows into your mouth� Front of House p88
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It would be a tragedy if these varieties were lost – they are a part of the genetic bio-diversity of our district� JudiTh McBain p26
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“I’m absolutely obsessed about food, the quality of it, the delivery of it” Pip Forrester – Pride of Place p33
Mark Lloyd, Warren Parfoot and Pip Forester under the Coriole mulberry tree.
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con t e nt s
Issue 3
The Fleurieu Peninsula, Gold Coast Hinterland and Blue Mountains
fleurieu Peninsula
Be caught up in the romance
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A place in the sun At Coriole, Mark Lloyd makes fine wine, but that’s not enough. He found it meshes perfectly with the region’s history of olive growing.
Shaking the tree The McBains are keeping up Willunga’s almond reputation with unique Australian heritage varieties. But it means keeping ahead of the birds.
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Fleur de Fleurieu Denise Riches is being very particular about making sure you like her goats’ milk cheeses. That’s why she only uses that morning’s milk. Eat up.
24 An invitation to dinner Samuel’s Gorge winery provides a perfect setting for a McLaren Vale meal. 30 Wine of the times Operated by the Johnston family since 1892, Pirramimma has adapted to changing tastes. 33 Pride of Place You can’t cover Fleurieu food without mentioning Pip Forrester ok? 38 Good dirt, good life For this Fleurieu couple, not knowing how their food business will unfold is just part of the fun. 40 The Region’s Restaurants There are heaps but learn your classics d’Arrys Verandah, The Salopian Inn and the Star of Greece. 46 Honk if you love RedHeads If you’re just a cellar rat in a big winery, how do you take on the world? Ta Da! Book the studio at RedHeads. 51 Willunga Farmer’s Markets One of the first and so successful it looks like it will be here forever. We think we’ve worked out why. 58 25 things we know about the Fleurieu Crazy regattas, old steam trains, cafés, fine food, bright lights and loud noises.
blue mountains
92 Jannei Goat Dairy They did it for a change of pace, and life’s never been busier. 100 Special Delivery A distribution company that only carries Australian products? Now that’s special. 106 Cittàslow Katoomba Blue Mountains joins Montefalco, Mold, Schwarzenbruck and Goolwa in resisting the ‘fast-lane, homogenised world’. 107 25 things we know about the Blue Mountains Guest houses and grand hotels, tall chimneys, tall cliffs and even a little midwinter madness.
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On Our Cover
Chef Nigel Rich from d’Arrys Verandah cooked this pan grilled sausage with grapes to go with parmesan cheese polenta at one of Tori and David’s Producers of McLaren Vale events. See our website for recipe and video.
70 Growing local On Mount Tambourine the setting is remote and peaceful but the restaurant experience is sophisticated. With a local twist. 76 Ferry Rd Market If you’re going to knock down a brickworks, please build something like this. Slick, modern and tasty. 78 Witches Chase Cheese How the villages of Spain inspired two seafarers to make a ‘cheese change’. 81 25 things we know about the Gold Coast Lamingtons, sorbets, cane
Front of house A lucky chef cooks in an amazing restaurant with beautiful views. And he gets to talk to the customers as well.
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juice (with ginger) and a vertically challenged newspaper seller.
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The Megalong
Fellini has long been a classic on the Coast. The restaurant, that is. Then, of course, there’s the pasta that rolls from the factory out the back.
There’s only one way in to this dramatically beautiful valley. And the small producers that live there never want to come out.
goldcoast
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A regional bloke
The good loaf Hominy Bakery are true believers when it comes to sourdough, and they’re not happy about the bakers who are less culturally sensitive.
Lights. Roll Pasta. Action!
Queenslanders have already met chef Andrew Mirosch. Now it’s your turn.
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Regular Sections 112 Talk & cheese Cheese judge Russell Smith does the rounds.
120 Plate Michelin starred chef Jan Gundlach tells you “avo nice day”
how to cook this issues produce.
plus Harvest (126), Back Paddock (136), The Old Foodie (140), Refrigerate After Opening (143) and Last Writes (144). R egional F ood a ustRalia
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CONTENTS
Online contents Pretty much all the magazine print content is online either as a PDF or expanded into photo stories, video and audio. That’s how we planned the magazine from the beginning, now let’s see how it works. This symbol means there is more content online at www.regionalfood.com.au
The Fleurieu A Fleurieu Peninsula Photodiary I could live here, and here’s why. A place in the sun If you need to know the wine part of the Coriole story, Mark Lloyd tells it here. And we’ve got a short interview with Libby Lloyd about wineries and the arts, and the first poet in the Coriole Poet Series, Jude Aquilina. An invitation to dinner Samuel’s Gorge winery provides a perfect setting for a McLaren Vale meal. There’s video, and a photodiary of a magic night. The Producers of McLaren Vale We’ve covered one of Tori and David’s producer events in video and photographs, see our cover dish being made and cooked. The ‘Other’ Restaurants There are heaps more in such a foodie region and here’s a roundup. Willunga Farmers’ Market The extended stories, more
photos and some video of a market day. Fleurieu video While we’ve been visiting, we covered CheeseFest 07 and 08, the Culinary Competition. Watch them here. and 25 more things we know about the Fleurieu. How can we do just 25!
Blue Mountains Front of house Hugh Waterhouse’s story in full. The Megalong A Photodiary. Jannei Goat Dairy Janette had never taken a range shot. We did and she talks about each cheese with Russell Smith. The makers we didn’t have room for Whisk & Pin and Josephans stories. Blue Mountains entrepreneurs do things differently.
Gold Coast Hinterland
Regular Sections
Roll Pasta Tony Percuoco has an infectious laugh, and here he tells the Fellini pasta and balsamic story. A regional bloke The full interview with chef Andrew Mirosch. You’ll like him. Growing local Of course there’s more to Philip Howard’s story before he got to Songbirds, here’s the full story.
Talk & cheese Cheese judge Russell Smith has an ocassional podcast about cheese related issues and people. Plate Our teacher, Chef Jan Gundlach adds some tips and recipes that didn’t fit. Back Paddock Our Producer’s news and gossip is a regular online section.
Thank you also to Zoe Gershbach-Smith for her ‘local’s take’ on the 25 things we know about the Blue Mountains. We knew a few things but she knew a lot more. And Barbara Santich, who wrote the book about McLaren Vale history, has shared some of her knowledge with us.
Thank you
Contributors We first started having food conversations with Russell Smith when he was the proprietor of The Mart Deli, at Canberra’s Fyshwick Markets. Now he and Sally have sold the deli, and Russell is keeping more civilised hours exercising the palate he developed during his years in the food business. Russell judges at various shows around Australia and joins us in a new, regular ‘Talk & Cheese’ section. Readers of our previous edition will have met Jan Gundlach, formerly a Michelin-starred chef, whose globe-trotting has brought him to Canberra. He runs cooking courses and food events from his business Flavours, also at Fyshwick Markets (as well as operating the café at The Glasshouse gallery). In our new section, Plate, Jan will talk about the produce we feature in the magazine, cooking techniques, ideas and, yes, there will be the occasional recipe. Janet Clarkson’s ‘The Old Foodie’ blog, www.theoldfoodie.blogspot.com is a wonderful fiveday-a-week labour of love writing about food history. We offered her our usual pittance to contribute a regular column and she agreed. In this issue, we’ll find out that sorbets weren’t always frozen, and why.
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If you want to write for us or contribute photographs, there are details in the About Us section of the Regional Food website.
Photographs Part of doing a magazine more for love than money is doing almost everything yourself. So most of the photographs are Fred Harden originals (and some are Aurore Harden originals. Yes they are related). However, Zoe Gershbach-Smith provided some of the Blue Mountains pics and Kerryn Sylvia contributed most of the photos for Jackie Cooper’s Redheads and Star of Greece stories. Thanks to Randy Larcombe for the Chef Competition photos in Pip’s story. In our last issue, we were also very remiss in failing to credit Jeremy Rozdarz for the food photography in the story about Grazing at Gundaroo.
We usually pay for our own transport, accommodation and meals. However, we must acknowledge the support of the organisations and people who helped us get this issue together. Fleurieu Food and Chapel Hill helped with accommodation and some lovely meals in McLaren Vale and the McLaren Vale Grape Wine & Tourism Association also provided assistance. Tori Moreton and David Arbon very generously shared their houses on a number of occasions. We flew to Queensland courtesy of Gold Coast Tourism and were guests of Song Birds, the Mantra Phoenician and Watermark, and Fellini, Abysnthe and Oskars restaurants. We would loved to have stayed longer than for that stunning entrée at Lurleens. Darren and Zoe of Gershgoods lent us their sofa bed during one of our trips to the Blue Mountains, but on other occasions we were guests of Lillianfels and the York Fairmont Resort. To all the producers, chefs, restaurateurs and foodies who were happy to share part of their lives with us – thank you very much. We hope we’ve given something worth while back to you with this issue. And to our advertisers – gee, we really appreciate your support.
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editorial
Making a name for ourselves When we started this magazine, everyone said we needed a one word name, like the hugely successful delicious, or Sumptuous. I pointed to the folly of copying (italianicious?) and stood my ground. People will get used to a name and Regional Food Australia draws a firm line where we see our content. Not overseas stories, not fashion spreads or social pages. We added the banner that says People ~ Places ~ Produce which we thought would further explain the concept. That means it’s a magazine about travelling to places, meeting the people who grow, cook, and create the produce of the region.
If you haven’t worked out that we’re serious about what’s in our name by the time you get to the back cover, can I suggest that you have a look at our next issue, the Regional Food 100. And the one after. You’ll get the idea. We’re back. rf Fred Harden Get a coffee and a slice of Market 190 Fleurieu fig tart, relax and explore Issue 3.
“What about wine?,” we were asked. ‘You’d get more advertising if you had Wine in the name. Shouldn’t it be Regional Food and Wine Australia?” No, I argued, I’m sure the readers will get the idea that regions have wine without adding anything else. Would you add ‘and Beer’ to the masthead? As you can see it’s staying that way, and you’ve got the latest version of our concept in your hands. The title was the last thing we were concerned about between Issue 2 and this one. In that time we found a publisher, who then chased enough ad revenue to print it, we left the publisher, found a small investor, and chased enough ads ourselves to send this to the printer. None of that has anything to do with the Regional Food (and wine and beer) content that we hope you’ll enjoy in the next 144 pages.
Regional food Management | Marketing Mark Kelly John Borger Editors | Content Fred Harden Jan O’Connell Contributing Editors Jackie Cooper Russell Smith Advertising | Sales John Bushell Designer | Art Director Sam Behr | Lovedesign Group Project Manager Carley Swan Lovedesign Group www.lovedesigngroup.com
Original design and deep conceptual thinking Christopher Waller Diagram www.diagram.com.au Illustration Tiffanie Brown www.tiffaniebrown.com Photo source library www.istockphoto.com Online Video Greg Sneddon Website Producer Joh O’Dell Finance Linda Vrckovski
Email | Addresses Editorial editors@regionalfood.com.au Advertising advertising@regionalfood.com.au
Subscriptions Email: subscriptions@regionalfood.com.au Phone: 02 8252 0854 Toll-free: 1300 795 054 Fax: 02 8221 9814 Mail: PO. Box 317, Bungendore NSW 2621 Regional Food Australia magazine is published by Regional Food Communications Pty. Ltd. ABN: 25 113 738 079 Print: Webstar Offset
Directors Fred Harden and Mark Kelly Registered office 47 Rutledge Street, Bungendore NSW 2621. Our websites www.regionalfood.com.au www.farmersmarkets.com.au All photographs and text are copyright and the property of Regional Food Communications P/L. They are not to be reprinted or used in any media without permission. While we always try to clear all editorial copy and photographs before publication, we welcome the opportunity to correct any errors and omissions.
The opinions of our columnists are not necessarily those of the publisher, otherwise it would be boring. We welcome your feedback. Single issue price in Australia is $8.95. We’re happy to mail one to you at that price if you send a cheque or enter your credit card details on the secure form online. Subscription rates 1 year (4 issues) $35.80, 2 years (8 issues) $71.60 inc GST. and postage. For overseas subscriptions send us an email or see our website. This is Vol. 1 No.3 (Looks like we have more returns than Nellie Melba!). ISSN 1832-6782
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I nt r o du c tI o n
fleurieu peninsula MORe THAN MCLAReN VALe
if you start from adelaide, getting to the fleurieu is easy. leaving is a lot harder.
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t’s that ‘vine romance’ thing. The strip of fertile soil that runs between the eroded furrows of Sellicks Hill Range and the sea, from a few minutes south of Adelaide to where you jump off Cape Jervis and head to Kangaroo Island, has all the physical properties required to attract the kind of lady writer who would otherwise head off for Tuscany. And not just lady writers. Poet Mike Ladd describes the range as… those dry hills, the crinkled hide of an impossible beast1
The hills are always a part of the landscape. You face them driving one of the many roads that end abruptly against someone’s vineyard fence, or you see them in the rear view mirror as you go over a rise at dusk, purple furrows flashing between dark trees. The only way to escape their presence is to explore them. Take the winding roads, with enough roadside floral tributes taped to trees to make you slow down on blind bends. Vines and olives define the landscape between hills and coast. Harvest time has the biggest buzz: one of the young winemakers told us that it was due to the influx of overseas students and travellers who appear for grape picking. “Oh, those Scandinavian girls!” (he was specific). At harvest time, though, you need to pick your B&B carefully. The trucks rumble to the big wineries until after midnight and you’ll pass harvesters in a pool of light and shredded vine leaves, working to pick while the fruit is at its peak. I’d thought I’d chosen my accommodation away from the road, but it was a stone’s throw downwind from Wirra Wirra, who were working late. The clanking of trucks and reversing beeps from forklifts sent me fitfully to sleep, but I woke to the sound of magpies in a quiet vineyard. There are other noises. You could be forgiven for thinking it’s a war zone, but those are bird scarers. From first light, LPG cannons echo in the background. I made a comment about them to someone whose neighbour had them set a minute apart. He raised an eyebrow and tilted a head towards the paddock, hearing them for the first time. “Yeah that’s a bit excessive.”
Beaches, sandy inlets and eroded cliffs. The water’s edge to the Fleurieu Peninsula rewards today’s explorers.
Then you start to become inured to them, as apparently do the birds. “Three minutes is about the time they’re effective,” one winemaker said, “I do have some success though with the tapes (of distress calls) scaring off the parrots”. Those screeches, the whistles of hawks mixed with some parrot being strangled in a synthesiser, accompany the large cloth hawks that swing and swoop on poles looking like tethered eagles. That’s when they aren’t hanging motionless in warm air, looking like harmless painted toys. Being a peninsula, the Fleurieu has a great deal of coastline. It has long been a place where South Australians spend summer holidays. Uncovering the best beaches in those alcoves, with steep cliffs stopping all but the determined or knowledgeable, could take weeks of persistent activity. That coastline with hidden bays allowed more than one smuggler to bring things ashore that would have attracted duty in the time of petty disputes across state borders.
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I drove from Port Willunga, being frustrated by roads that looked like they’d go to the coast and ended in bush. Or state parks. Giving up I took a walk into the Aldinga Scrub Conservation Park, imagining what this fertile country was like when the Kaurna and the Ramadjeri, the local aboriginal people lived there. They would have found easy access as they moved along the Peninsula, following seasonal food. There were huge mulloway that were speared in the shallow waters, emu, kangaroo and possums.
Further south is Yankalilla, where the first wheat farms brought wealth to the Fleurieu. The shipments went via the wharf at Normanville, a bustling seaport in the late 1800s. Now, looking past the short jetty towards Rapid Bay (Cape Jervis is hidden around the point) you can’t help but see the Starfish Hill windmills. With no Sancho Panza around to help, I gave up the idea of pushing them into the sea and headed over Mount Compass, arriving in dairy country that stretches down to the southern coast. You can follow the road all the way to Goolwa and beyond, and mourn at the parlous state of the Murray mouth. A railway used to carry cargo from Goolwa to Port Elliot, a picturesque town overlooking the wild harbour where many a ship met its end. Victor Harbour was developed as a safer haven. And apparently it still is, being identified by Good Living as one of the top destinations for sea-changers. The atmosphere is slightly Blackpoolish but retains its charm. (A mooted new development by Mirvac could soon put an end to that!)
1 End of Summer, Port Willunga. Mike Ladd. From McLaren Vale - Sea & Vines by Barbara Santich Wakefield Press.
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Victor Harbour is located on Encounter Bay, where anti-clockwise sailing Frenchman Nicholas Baudin met clockwise-sailing Matthew Flinders while charting the Australian Coast in 1802. Baudin named the peninsula after the Comte de Fleurieu, Charles Claret, who was the principal geographer in France at that time. Claret… Fleurieu – quite prescient really. rf Fred Harden
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Fl e u r i eu P e n i n s u l a
To Adelaide (40km)
Aldinga Bay
Mt Barker (25km)
McLaren Vale Willunga
Wellington (32km)
Yankalilla Bay
Goolwa Victor Harbor Cape Jervis Kangaroo Island
Murray Mouth Encounter Bay
0
10 km
Illustration. www.tiffaniebrown.com
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The Coriole Olives
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F IT’S POSSIBLE to talk about the ‘the face of a business,’ for McLaren Vale’s Coriole that face is Mark Lloyd. While the reputation of Coriole and Lloyd Reserve wines had gone before them, it was a surprise when Mark first introduced me to the other Coriole ‘fattoria’ products. That was at an event in Canberra but he’s just as likely to be promoting the Coriole wines to London or New York. He does that promotion well, and I think he likes it.
A place in the sun THe
Coriole Olives “it’s
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a l l t o d o w i t h t h e ta b l e ” MARK LLOYD
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The Coriole Olives
Fattoria - (fat-or-ee-ah.) A vineyard and winery where other food products may be grown and produced .
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oriole is a second generation family business in a very close family. Although several of the family members don’t work in the business, they are on the board and help make decisions. But Mark explains it operates a little differently from a private company. “As long as the lease pays its way and it makes a little bit of money, all the family get a lot of pleasure out of all the things we do. It’s a bit of an indulgence in one sense I suppose and it will probably need to change in another generation, but…”
“I said ‘I don’t like the French, why don’t we have Italian varieties? Why don’t we plant just two acres?We can afford to do away with a couple of acres of Shiraz’.”
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Leaving the thought hanging in a late summer afternoon’s conversation seemed to fit. I offered the observation that when family businesses do work, they often have all the right values, something most private companies lack. Mark nodded; he knows how lucky he is in the business world of wine-making. There are age lines in his weather-beaten face, but there are signs of a lot of pleasure and joy in life that show there as well. One of those pleasures is olives and their oil. Mark’s parents, Hugh and Molly Lloyd started Coriole in the sixties. Hugh, an Adelaide doctor had always had a love of agriculture, and owned an irrigated dairy farm on the Murray. It was there that the boys Mark and his four siblings spent their weekends, “farming trees or shipping cattle”. Molly Lloyd came from the Parsons family who grew almonds and grapes and other fruit on the deep soil along the Sturt River (now swallowed up in the Adelaide suburb of Oaklands Park where rich soil doesn’t matter much). Together they spent time growing almonds in Willunga and ended up in the wine business via a 1960s vineyard purchase that became Coriole.
Mark worked briefly at Coriole after going to university, then became a teacher, and after trying various jobs ended up in production in a wine and drinks business in England where he married his late wife Anne. He returned in 1979 to McLaren Vale to a company with a growing reputation. The Coriole vintages of 1974 and 1975 had both been awardwinning under winemaker Graham Stevens. “I was a manager and a wine maker. I was really out there working and selling and got involved not long before my father died.” “The Eighties was a bit of a doldrums in terms of wine sales and wine styles and there wasn’t a lot happening. And that’s when we started to do a few other things. Like interests in olives and other grape varieties.” He and Anne also started a family – they had three boys, Andrew, Peter and Duncan. “We didn’t really think about it as diversifying. There was just this excitement about olives and nobody did it. It wasn’t that we planned to be huge in the olive oil business. And I guess it was in the eighties, after we’d planted Sangiovese and that was completely theoretical. I said ‘I don’t like the French, why don’t we have Italian varieties? Why don’t we plant just two acres? The wine industry isn’t booming — we can afford to do away with a couple of acres of Shiraz’. This was just before we’d bottled our first olive oil, but we were experimenting making vinegar. Then in 1988 when the kids were young, we went to Italy for two weeks. We went around Tuscany to learn about Sangiovese. “What happened was we would go to these wineries and they had their fattoria – their olive oil and their vinegar and it’s all quality stuff. It’s all to do with the table and we realised that we had the opportunity to do it! So that led in 1989 to us first producing a labelled olive oil and vinegar.”
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Mark remarried in 2005 and Libby Raupach brought three daughters into the clan. Libby has been a driving force in Coriole’s music events held in the winery and grounds. More
Clockwise from top left. Part of the Coriole cellar door courtyard; Libby brings a basket of fresh picked summer tomatoes to cook Warren Parfoot’s kitchen; another batch of Coriole olives; the cheese cabinet with cellar door manager Rachael Whitrow; and centre, one of the Woodside cheeses escapes the tasting plate.
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The Coriole Olives “Our olives were this huge diversion when I should have been out there beating the wine drum!” Pressing matters
Coriole Shiraz and keeping control, Paul Lloyd in the Coriole office.
Mark had some real world experience to draw on, working in olive oil factories in Greece in the seventies when he was travelling, “So I was very interested in olive oil. And there was an olive oil factory here and I got to know Emmanuel Giakoumis who was like the senior Greek olive man of South Australia and a wonderful character. “He died recently aged 80 but he was an amazing character. He was an engineer and an electrician and he arrived in South Australia in 1951 or 1952 with two shillings in his pocket. He set up an olive press and had an arrangement where you had to order your oil and he’d tell you which Sunday of the month in June or July to come, and Sunday was like party time when everybody collected their oil. They picked olives through the week, they made oils on Saturdays, and on Sundays you turned up and he was out there with the barbeque, toasting bread and pouring the fresh oil and the lemon juice on it. You’d see the cars lined up, and you’d peek inside and he’d invite you in. My memory is there were always lots of flagons of d’Arenberg Red Stripe. “My brother and sister-in-law bought an olive grove eventually. We took the olives from there but apart from some of them the olives were not very good. They were an odd variety. I went to the University when we were doing fatty acid profiles and things on what the different varieties were; it turned out that the dominant variety there had an acid content of barely fifty five percent. If it’s below fifty five percent in Europe then it’s not officially olive oil. So we were at the wrong end of the fatty acids spectrum to really even be an olive oil! So you had to learn those sorts of lessons.” Wild harvest
As Mark explained, it was just a poor variety, not unproductive trees so they had to be replaced. An alternative source was, however, all around them. If you’ve travelled the Fleurieu Peninsula you would know how common roadside olive trees are, even to being labelled a noxious weed.
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“We headed towards feral olives and we did our first bottling with them. We would pick them from all the trees that you see around. And then we bought this property next door and that had five acres of olives on it. “The food stuff just pulled us along because it was the excitement of this new product. For me it was the excitement of going to the South Australian Library and finding that the last recorded reference to olive oil here in Australia was 1893 or something. And that there were old books on how to do olive oil that showed wonderful understanding of freshness, of cleanliness. That’s typical of the interests of the nineteenth century. “And that real connection was like we were rediscovering something, and that it was not to do with Southern Europeans, it was to do with the early settlers that came here who had these wonderful Mediterranean visions that said ‘Olives and vines. We love these things and we’re going to plant them and trying to make industries out of them’. And then they were defeated by the problems of the lack of markets or the lack of water. It was all there, it had all happened, it had all been done, it was all understood and just as the wine saw a rebirth in the late fifties, there was a rebirth of olives in the eighties. “The same movement had existed in every State in the nineteenth century. Every state did their investigation of the potential for Mediterranean crops like olives. There are little manifestos that you can still find in the libraries; we saw one from the Queensland Government. So it was like we were in a period of history which seemed closed and yet going back a hundred years it was actually very open. “Because we’d been in Italy and really seen great oil, we knew our oil wasn’t great, but once the new press machinery arrived it we knew we couldn’t go back to the traditional methods. We can now be proud of it. One of the great things we did in 1993 was to be part of the International Olive Oil Council. We got involved because they were throwing resources to establish a person to act for them here, and they were throwing a few
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The Coriole Olives “We sent a load of olives up to the new plant. And the tins came back, I opened the tin, put my nose in and went ‘This is it, finally! Forget about mat pressing it, never again!”
1stO is a the first sessions oil pressing, very pungent, EVO (extra Virgin), Diva is pure Koroniki oil. The oils all proudly display the pressing date.
resources into Australia to promote olive oil. When they wanted to do something in South Australia they asked us to do it. “So at the Salopian Inn, we invited four chefs from Adelaide to do four different dishes based on olive oil. Then various local people were invited and the International Olive Oil Council were there. And there was the olive oil cake and there was the olive oil dish that Kate Sparrow did, and they picked up on Claudia Roden’s traditional Egyptian recipe Duha, which became Dukkah in English.
“Their olive oil was basically rancid because of the equipment that it was made on, you needed spicy nuts, roasted, dry roasted mix to make the olive oil very palatable (like in double roasted coffee). It was a great event, it wasn’t very big but out of that came a lot of things. Russell Jeavons was the chef at Salopian Inn and they started to serve dukkah. We would go to Sydney to do a trade show and we would have the new olive oil and we would have dukkah and all the chefs around the table were going ‘Wow what is this’.” That excitement led Mark to be involved in the first Australian Olive Oil Assessment Panel. For an olive oil to be labelled as extra virgin it has to go through assessment. There were Italian representatives bought in to train the group and it was quite rigorous. Mark smiles when admitting “It was probably not great for the wine business because it was this huge diversion. I should have been out there beating the wine drum!” That hasn’t meant that olives will stop being part of the Coriole ‘table’ offering. In fact, Mark says the table olives have become more important than producing fruit for oil, and they plan to increase production. The Coriole range of oils and vinegars are all available around the country. See www.coriole.com for a full list of suppliers. You can buy them at the Coriole Cellar Door, but the best way to taste them is on a warm sunny McLaren Vale day, served as part of the tasting platters, under the mulberry tree at Coriole. rf Fred Harden
Above. Coriole’s salted semidried Kalamata olives. Coriole RWV (red wine vinegar), ASV (aged sweet vinegar barrel aged for five to seven years) and Verjuice
“In 1998 Claudia Roden came to Tasting Australia and I had to pick her up and bring her to a big event that was on. She was so excited because she’d arrived in Adelaide and it’s the first time ever in her life that she’d seen commercial preparations of something that she wrote a recipe for in the 1960s.” R egional F ood A ustralia
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Samuel’s Gorge
An invitation to dinner
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Peter, Janine and Justin preparing just another McLaren Vale winemaker’s dinner. Stuffed garfish on a strawberry and mango salsa on grilled watermelon, then veal sweetbreads, Rosshill snails with morelles, chanterelles, porcini and all things fungal. Then a desert of mulberries and meringues. Samuel’s Gorge wines... and serious coffee.
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F YOU REACH THE TOP of the Chaffeys Road hill, you have to make a choice. There’s Chapel Hill Winery in front of you and the road turns abruptly right, but what you’re looking for is the sign to the left that says Samuel’s Gorge Winery. Stay on the ridge, and follow the dirt road to a group of small stone buildings beautifully sited on the edge of the Onkaparinga River National Park. If you came to visit just for the view on a summer’s evening you’d be rewarded, and of course the cellar door
welcomes you during the day, but we’d come for dinner at the invitation of winemaker Justin McNamee. In a warm evening light that seemed to stay there on the hilltop for hours, we enjoyed the hospitality of Justin, assisted by his partner, Janine Francisco and neighbouring Chapel Hill chef Peter Hogg. The dinner was just as bold as the strong fruit driven wines Justin crafts, but the warmth, conversation and local anecdotes made it feel special. Do winemakers here in
McLaren Vale share these kind of occasions often? I’m afraid to say, the answer is yes. Online at the Regional Food website we’ve a full photodiary of the dinner, the recipes and some video. The Samuel’s Gorge wine labels say ‘To smell is to see, to taste is to know’. I know we’ve captured a special evening, and this time you are MoRE invited. rf Samuel’s Gorge Winery Cellar door open for tasting, seven days, 11.00 am to 5.00 pm. Otherwise by appointment T. 08 8323 8651. www.gorge.com.au
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P R odU c e R s
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J u d i t h a n d I a n M c B a i n like growing almonds because the crop is so forgiving. Unlike soft fruit, there’s less pressure to do things at exactly the right time.
Shaking
the
“C
ome early” Jude recommends,
“It’s going to be a hot day tomorrow and we want to finish before we melt”. That meant a 6.30am drive to the end of the appropriately named Almond Grove Road and approaching the McBain’s house as the sun rose. Stepping onto the verandah it was clear the household was just starting for the day, teenagers pulling on socks and boots. Jude welcomed me and said that the forecast wasn’t to be as hot after all, so they were taking it a bit slower. I was invited to breakfast on the back porch. “That’s one of the nice things about being your own boss” she said, “you can set the timetable”. It’s also one of the nice things about growing almonds. Even with harvesting, instead of two days or two weeks, you have five or six weeks. And unlike olives, when the almonds are down and dry and in the shed, Jude explained, “Your problems are over. You don’t have to get them to the press in 24 hours or you lose the oil. They’re a wonderful crop to grow. Gives you time to do other things.” For Jude, one of those other things was spending a day a week for four years helping with the Willunga Farmers’ Market. She was one of the foundation growers and the success of the McBains’ sea change enterprise has a lot to do with the market’s success. It allows small growers to make a reasonable income.
Tree
“We’re retailing,” Ian said. “We’ve cut out all the middle people. Previously in this district there were at least two to three middle people between the almond grower and the customer, because they all went to the co-op and then the co-op on-sold them to wholesalers, and then the wholesalers on-sold them to shops, so by the time they all had their cut, the growers got...well...not very much.” When the McBain’s bought their Willunga orchard in 1993, there were more
than 70 almond growers in the district. Now few remain, and just a few neighbours are still growing. Pushed out by the grape industry and water restrictions, many have moved north, to larger holdings in the Riverland. “They’re huge properties,” Jude said. “I mean, they do bird scaring with aeroplanes. We do bird scaring with a wooden spoon and a big silver bowl.” Birds are clearly The Enemy, particularly white corellas that attack in flocks of several thousand. “If they land you’re in big trouble,” Jude continued. “It’s not that they eat so much, it’s that they shred the trees. I actually went and did my gun licence. I never thought I would do such a thing, but I did. They just mustn’t land... and some of those bangs have to have a bit of lead attached to make that happen.” Before they bought the orchard, Jude was the mail-order office manager for Oxfam in Adelaide. Ian still commutes to his job as Associate Librarian at Flinders University. They had always agreed that if they moved to the country they wouldn’t just buy a big garden, they’d buy land that was ‘doing something’. Ian’s grandfather had been an almond-grower on the Gawler River north of Adelaide until the 1960’s, so when they spotted the almond orchard it seemed a natural choice. It didn’t stop them making mistakes, however.
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The story goes that the Somerton almond was originally discovered by a grower called Eric Lacey whose family now have very substantial almond orchards in the Riverland. Eric had a prolific tree in his ,then, Somerton Park orchard that seemed to be different from the rest of the row. He went into Charlesworth Nuts – an Adelaide institution – with a few kernels to see what the buyer thought. ‘Excellent’ was the response so Eric began growing more of them! Somerton almonds are quite smooth skinned and have a very creamy texture and a delicious flavour. They are our most popular almond and we sell most of them as natural almonds to people who regularly eat raw almonds as part of their diet.
Heritage
(and australian) These three varieties have all been determined to be actual separate varieties by genetic mapping undertaken by the Waite Institute, Adelaide University. They originate from European hardshell varieties rather than the smaller American papershell varieties which are most commonly grown and sold here. These varieties make up about 1% of the total almond plantings in Australia. It would be a tragedy if these varieties were lost – they are part of the genetic bio-diversity of our district – not to mention the history! Judith McBain Blue cottage almonds
The Parkinson almond is a very recent addition to the known local Willunga varieties and was discovered in much the same way as the Somerton – growing by itself in the Parkinson’s orchard! It is a prolific tree – hard to establish but worth the effort. Parkinson almonds have a very hard almost white shell. The kernels are long and cylindrical in shape with a sweet milky kernel. They are wonderful for confectionery almonds – sugared, cinnamon etc. but also great just raw.
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Johnston almonds were originally grown as a variety by the Johnstons of Pirramimma Wines fame. Like many McLaren Vale vignerons the Johnston family were originally almond growers in the district in the early part of last century. Johnstons have a very hard cream coloured shell with a large coarse almost corrugated brownskin kernel. Because of the skin the almond has great flavour especially when roasted or used in baking. The kernels also blanch very readily and the blanched kernel divides easily into the classic almond halves so beloved of cooks to put on top of Christmas cakes.
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A
p e rf e c t
M e d i t e rr a n e a n
c l i m at e ,
w i t h t h e s e a to m o d e r at e t e m p e r at u r e s , m a k e s g r ow i ng c o n d i t i o n s c l o s e to i d e a l
“N
obody sells you an orchard that’s in good condition,” Ian admitted ruefully. “We battled for two years, then we decided, no these trees really weren’t going to come back. And we thought, right, we’re going to replant the whole thing.” “We had to investigate what would grow in this soil, both in terms of varieties and rootstock,” Jude recalled. “We had about 2/3 of the new trees grown to order, then the other 1/3 we bought the rootstocks ourselves and planted them in big pots and then got a guy in to bud them to the varieties that we wanted. We’ve learned how to do it ourselves now.” “But to get good almond trees on this scale takes about three years from the time you first think about it,” Ian added. “You can’t just wander down to the nursery and get stock.” The McBains grow three brown skin varieties of almonds, known as the Johnston, Somerton and Parkinson, all of which were developed in the district (see opposite). A perfect Mediterranean climate, with the sea to moderate temperature, makes growing conditions close to ideal. “We could possibly get a teeny bit colder in the winter, because they need about 100 hours below 7 degrees, you know, but not frosts,” Jude said. They don’t spray much — just a copper spray at pink bud time and, if it’s a very wet spring, a manganese spray to clean up any fungus. By sharing equipment with neighbours, they keep operating costs down. “It’s a shame, the almond industry going, isn’t it?” Jude mused. “Because we got to meet so many characters and they always shared their information. Like our neighbour Tim Parkinson, for example. The day we were replanting, he turned up at 8 o’clock here, and I’m just
about to put the first tree in the hole and he’s going ‘Nup’. And I’m going ‘What’s wrong with that, I’m just about to put the tree in the hole’. He’s going “No, where’s the prevailing wind? Which way are you putting the graft in, Jude? Like, face it toward the prevailing wind, so when the tree’s laden it’s not going to split.’ He said ‘I think I’d better stay and help for a bit’. So he stayed all day.” We laughed, imagining the conversation around the Parkinson breakfast table — something like “I’d better get over there before they stuff it up”. Jude agreed: “Yeah, I think there was a lot of that. Graham Giles drove up the road the first year I was out pruning and he actually got off his tractor and he went ‘No! No, you can’t do that!’”
“We battled for two years, then we decided, no these trees really weren’t going to come back. And we thought, right, we’re going to replant the whole thing.” “There were lots of almond-growing field days in those days,” Ian said. “And Judith went to all of them and looked at all the orchards she possibly could, picked the best one and copied that.” “It was a big process but we’ve had a lot of fun doing it,” Jude responded. “And now it’s all coming to fruition, because the last 300 down the back this year, they’re seven years old, and that’s when they really start kicking in. So now for 15 years, hopefully, they’ll grow bigger and go really well.”
After an overnight rain shower Ian and Judith McBain check the first crop of drying almonds. They’re ok.
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elling at the Farmers’ Market and through email orders, the McBains get through the crop in about 8 to 10 months, providing cash flow over most of the year. They supply some Sydney restaurateurs who have special requirements, like green almonds in Spring or Johnstons for patisserie. There’s even talk of having the Johnston almond nominated for the Slow Food movement’s Ark of Taste, as a unique Australian regional food. “It took us a while but it’s actually a good income. Work for yourself, very nice conditions. So we’re very happy with that, we can’t complain.” rf Fred Harden
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Pirramimma A P at c h o f M c L a r e n V a l e H i s t o ry
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oday, Johnston Road stops the McLaren Vale township’s cream brick veneers creeping into the valley. From here, Alexander Campbell Johnston would have seen few houses – just an expanse of moon and stars that the aborigines knew as Pirramimma. The Johnston family arrived in South Australia in 1839 and in 1892 Alec, as he called himself, the tenth of thirteen children, purchased 97 hectares (240 acres) of rich McLaren Vale farmland, gently sloping to the south east. It has been in the family ever since, and like most of the those started by new Vale settlers was a mixed farm, with grain, sheep and the obligatory fruit and nut trees. And like their neighbours, the Johnstons planted grapes. The varieties were suited to fortified winemaking, and Pirramimma still makes a Vintage Fortified Grenache from vines that are over sixty years old, and a Liqueur and a Tawny Port. Winemaker Geoff Johnston is a Charles Sturt University graduate and while on a study group in Bordeaux became interested the grape variety Petit Verdot. A test planting in 1983 has now grown to over 10 hectares of mature vines and his Petit Verdot vintages are winning awards. This has reinforced the Pirramimma maxim that producing wines from grapes grown in their own estate vineyards gives them ultimate control over quality. It also ensures they maintain the unique regional characteristics of McLaren Vale. If you visit the cellar door to sample the range, you’ll drive past the lovely old Johnston homestead building with its tennis court and
Historical photos from the wall of Pirramimma Cellar Door
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air of a gracious country life. The cellar door area is barely changed from that time, and still has expressively-worn brick floors that the company is anxious to maintain in any future renovations. You can walk across them into the modern barrel room which has thick rammed earth walls that have cut Pirramimma’s cooling energy needs. Further up the hill towards the town, is the small patch of low and aging almond trees that gave the Valley a new almond. In the five acres of almonds, one tree produced free-shelling almonds with a good kernel that the experts could not identify. Alec modestly named it ‘Johnston Prolific’ (see story P28). However this isn’t a winery that’s locked into its traditions. Just as the fortifieds gave way to elegant red wines, the recent marketing of their Pirra range is aimed at that new under 30’s market who refuse to sit down and drink their wine. It features a fresh label design with flavoursome styles, all with sensibly lower alcohol. On a warm evening, I tried a cold glass (or two) of the Sparkling 2006 Chardonnay which had a creaminess that belies the 9.5% alcohol level and similarly the Pirra Grenache Shiraz Merlot blend, and Sauvignon Blanc Semillon need no apologies. Geoff is also producing a unique varietal, the Pirramimma McLaren Vale Tannat. From the variety’s name you could guess that Tannat and tannin have correspondences, and this is a strong and mouth gripping wine. Tannat is a black thick-skinned grape, originally grown in French Basque country and one that Geoff has found is quite suited to their region. A big part of the marketing of the Pirramimma wines overseas is based on the strength of the McLaren Vale ‘regional brand’. The big Shiraz and Cabernet Sauvignon and Grenache are better known overseas than the vineyard’s equally sophisticated whites. Geoff has created a premium wine from Cabernet Sauvignon and Shiraz with some of his beloved Petit Verdot, and he’s called it simply A.C.J. With his lack of false modesty, Alexander C. Johnston would surely have found this an acceptable tribute. r f Fred Harden
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Geoff Johnston Pirramimma’s wine maker is the grandson of its founder ‘Alec’ Johnston. On an aerial map, the tiny square that is the almond orchard; a glass of the Pirra Sauvignon Blanc Semillon and the almond trees sit in the midst of old bush vines, against a misty Sellicks Range.
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FLEURIEU PENINSULA Food Dine at a regional breakfast
Picnic on a regional platter
Experience the flavours of the Fleurieu Peninsula
Dine at a regional restaurant
Email: info@fleurieufood.com.au
www.fleurieufood.com.au
Traditional McLaren Vale Passion & Innovation Shiraz, Sangiovese, Chenin Blanc Chaffeys Road, McLaren Vale, South Australia 5171 T: 08 8323 8305 F: 08 8323 9136 E: contact@coriole.com
www.coriole.com
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Pride Place of
Pip Forrester’s energy and pride in the local produce has led her to become an ambassador for Fleurieu food.
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he word doyenne might have been invented for Pip Forrester. It’s French, for a start, and Pip grew up in France. And if ever there was a senior member of the food fraternity, an ambassador for good eating, it’s Pip. We talk on the balcony at sunset at her Port Willunga (Port Willie to the locals) home. It sits just down the hill from the Star of Greece restaurant, and also has a great view to the beach and ocean. Pip and her partner Tony Washington’s two dogs jump up and growl every so often, as rowdy possums decimate the ripe figs in the tree in the garden. Those fresh picked figs feature on the plate at the end of a pleasant dinner, as the night turns chill. “I’m absolutely obsessed about food, I’m obsessed about the quality of it, the delivery of it, the purity of it,” she says with complete sincerity. “Food is important, food is integral to our life. It facilitates family; it facilitates friendships, the essence of what it’s about.” It’s an obsession that keeps her really, really busy. She’s on the board of Fleurieu Peninsula Biennale which is about art, food and wine. She’s also on the executive of McLaren Vale Grape, Wine &
Tourism and ‘various other little committees’. Pip became Chair of the local food group, Fleurieu Peninsula Food, then Chair of the Chairs of the 12 food groups funded by the State Government. As a result, she’s also on the Premier’s Food Council. With Tony she markets a range of local products under the McLaren Vale Food Company brand. Of course, being busy isn’t new for Pip. For 16 years, she ran one of McLaren Vale’s iconic restaurants, The Salopian Inn. Pip was Cordon Bleu trained and had worked in restaurants in Paris, but this was something different. “When I bought it in ’88, it was a pretty mediocre kind of a place and I just thought ‘ok, if I’m going to this, I’m going to do this properly’. “I wanted it to be a place where the food’s good, it’s not fashionable, it’s not following the latest trend. It’s just doing good food and it’s buying the best ingredients and the best ingredients are local ingredients.” The Salopian became a focus for local produce as she sought out suppliers. It took ingenuity and effort – for example, buying the entire catch of squid from a local fisherman and on-selling what she couldn’t use.
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L o c a l He r o
The word doyenne might have been invented for Pip Forrester. Part of the philosophy at the Salopian was to serve great produce as simply as possible. Pip mentions beautiful organic tomatoes, sliced and served on a plate just with olive oil. And figs. “We’re clever enough to know where all the fig trees are in this area,” Pip says with a grin, “so we’re getting 15 freshly picked figs in every day. We’re not going to do anything with them. We might put a bit of crème fraîche with them, because that’s delicious with figs. We actually just think these figs are great as they are and they’re only around for four weeks.” “The Salopian was, and is to a degree, a really successful restaurant,” she continues, “and it was partly its timing and partly the relationship I had with the community. The relationship I made sure I had with the community. This is where the pushy personality comes in to it. I basically nagged the locals into understanding that good food was important, that wine and food go together. “Some days were better than others and over the years I had my ups and downs with staff. If you want to be realistic about it, the reason Salopian was so successful, it was good food. And there was a genuine sense of hospitality. I made it my business for Salopian to be the heart of the community: ‘come and have drinks, come and have coffee, do your business here’, I joined every group in the community I could to make sure they knew who I was, I was in everyone’s face all the time.” As well as running the Salopian Inn on her own for 16 years, Pip took on all the catering at Hardy’s at Reynella. As part of the deal she also ran a café for Hardy’s 300 staff. Eventually burn out set in, leading to Pip’s brother, Michael, taking over the restaurant. But, being Pip, she wasn’t out of the food business for long. “A friend of mine was CEO at (local winery) Chapel Hill,” Pip explains, “and she and came up with this idea of a residential cooking school. I thought this would be a fantastic opportunity to stay involved with regional food and still be in the region.” Pip now manages this innovative venture, Chapel Hill Retreat. As the business has grown, the emphasis has moved away from cooking classes and is more directed to corporate groups.
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“The good things for corporate groups are the facility, the location and the quality of the food and wine that they get. “Although the corporates don’t think they care about food and wine, they do – they’re people. And they know they’ve eaten a good meal, and they know they’ve drunk a good glass of wine. They know they’ve had a really good regional experience and they’re out of the city looking out the window at these olive trees and vines, and it’s just kind of good for the soul.” Corporate groups also have the option to use the cooking school as a means of team building or for incentive programs. The Retreat has a fully equipped demonstration and teaching kitchen and the classes, guided by Chapel Hill’s executive chef Peter Hogg, can be challenging. “We might bring in a whole side of venison,” Pip says “And the class works from there.” The venue is also a focus for local food events, to showcase the region’s produce. Chapel Hill sponsors the annual culinary competition for Fleurieu chefs and the exciting cook-off is held in their light-filled kitchen, complete with wildly barracking crowds. They also host the judging of the Fiesta! Olive Awards, have staged a two-day event with chefs from around Adelaide cooking venison, and provided the training venue for the local team who were off to the Culinary Olympics. At Chapel Hill, the vineyard setting, with its views to the ocean, is spectacular, the accommodation up-market and the idea is still evolving. “The business plan said it would take three or four years to really hit its stride,” Pip says. “We’re a few years into it now, and new things are happening all the time.” Knowing Pip Forrester, that’s not at all surprising. r f Jan O’Connell
Previous page. Chapel Hill Gourmet Retreat building; Pip and Tony and dogs. (Since we did this interview one of the beloved dogs has died, and they’ve sold the house) Below. Chapel Hill cellar door. Right. Montage of Pip doing what she does best with top, the Chefs Competition and audience; Executive Chef Peter Hogg below, accommodation details; and huge local Fleurieu figs. www.chapelhillwine.com.au
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Fleur de Fleurieu D e n i s e R i c h e s wants people who don’t like goats’ milk cheese to try hers.
E
verything in Denise Riches past seems to have predestined her for the craft of cheese making. For a start, her parents are Swiss. Then there’s her farming background in New Zealand, her university degrees in microbiology and engineering and many years working in and consulting to the packaging and food industries. On a trip to Adelaide, she met her husband James Keirnan, and decided not to go back to New Zealand. It was the start of a new adventure. After looking for small ‘hobby farm’ blocks, they found 100 acres near Victor Harbour. Denise says they had two alpacas at that stage,
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then added a small flock of angora goats for mohair production. They then moved more into the food side with some meat goats for the restaurant trade. While wary of the long hours and hard work, in mid-2004 they purchased an existing goat dairy business on Bob and Carole Pennington’s ‘Flagstaff Hill’ farm, and this is also where Denise has her cheese-making facilities. A move to a new facility with a roadside shop front is planned for 2008. “As Hindmarsh Valley Dairy we produce a range of dairy products, including unpasteurised milk, which goes into the health food and organic market. I think we’re the only state in Australia that lets us do that; for the cheese we have to pasteurise everything. We were making a range of yoghurts, cottage cheeses and other sorts of dairy products and about two years ago we started making traditional Swiss, French and Italian-style cheeses. All from goats ‘milk produced on the property.” Denise contends that when most Australians hear ‘goat cheese’ they have a vision of a smelly old buck in the paddock. She explains: “Goat milk has very, very small fat molecules. It’s naturally homogenized and the molecules break down almost immediately. So the gamey flavour that you get in a lot of milk, and very strong flavours, is actually the fat molecules breaking down. So our cheeses are made from that morning’s milking. “I want my cheeses quite clean on the palate, so you’re getting the flavour of the moulds and things coming through as well as the natural flavour. It’s farm-house cheese.” Her cheeses are finding a ready market. “I tend to release things to places that I know will think about it, or restaurants that I know will look after them. We’ve got about 40 outlets that stock and supply our various products, but with the cheeses it’s more down to more gourmet-type places.” The lower regions of the Fleurieu Peninsula region have a long dairy tradition but the number of abandoned dairies tell a story of how tough times are. If the new producers like Denise can revive any of those small farms with value-added produce, no-one will mind if it’s a goat or a cow in the paddocks. Denise has a regular stall at the Willunga Farmers Market and there is a complete list of Hindmarsh Valley Dairy produce on www.fleurieufood.com.au (where Denise is an active Board member.) For stockists call 08 8552 6704. r f
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Wrapped in gold foil, the Fleur de Bleu name is a cheesemaker’s joke. Blue mould is called the ‘blue flower’ in France.
Clockwise from top left. Denise’s fetta served with pesto in a tasting plate from The Shingleback Cafe at McLarenvale Visitors Centre; baked zucchini flowers stuffed with fresh curd drizzled with olive oil; the Fleur de Bleu;‘Comisard’ whole small goat cheese wrapped in Willunga’s, Hamlet Meats pancetta, baked for 15 mins.; ‘caprino fresco’ fresh curd with coarse pepper and drizzled with local olive oil; the ivory centre of a beautifully runny goats’ milk brie.
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P R OD U CE R S
Good dirt, good life T o r i M o r e t o n and her husband David Arbon combine their love of growing and making food and wine with the fun of sharing McLaren Vale with guests.
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All you could want. A few chooks in the yard and 60 acres of really good grapes.
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e first met Tori (Victoria) Moreton when she worked for Fleurieu Food, promoting the produce of the Fleurieu Peninsula. She was inspired to take the job by Pip Forrester, then the proprietor of McLaren Vale’s Salopian Inn. “Pip is still my mentor,” insists Tori. “Her feel for food is addictive.” Tori still actively promotes the region. She started the Fleurieu Peninsula Slow Food Convivium and was invited onto the Board of McLaren Vale Grape Wine Tourism in 2007 to work on wine tourism in the region. But now she and David have their own venture, called Producers of McLaren Vale. Tory says it grew naturally from their interests and experience. “David was getting more serious about wanting to make the best quality wine, he was getting a bit of a following with locals who wanted to learn how to make wine, and from there he had already decided to build a dedicated ‘making’ space,” says Tori. “He’s like a mad professor in his element when making; his joy at the presentation of a fresh batch of vinegar, olive oil, verjuice, cheese or apple cider needs to be seen.” The concept of Producers is partly based on the couple’s European travel experiences, particularly in France and Spain. The French Bienvenue a la ferme (Welcome to the Farm) system, where on-farm accommodation includes an evening meal based around ingredients grown and preserved on the farm, was their favourite way to travel in Europe. “We’ve been an ‘open house’ to travellers from around the world for many years and always enjoyed that stimulation” Tori continues. Melding this with David’s plans for a ‘hands-on’ making space led to the business that allows them “innovation, creativity,
education and the fun of sharing this region with guests”. Day tour and retreat packages let guests participate in winemaking, olive oil processing, pickling, preserving the fruits from the farm – whatever the season has to offer. The building on their 32ha property was planned by David to be ‘like the back shed’, that is, exceptionally functional but with a few luxuries. “We had to have a cellar – needed to age wine,” says Tori. “I could spend a lifetime with just cheese and wine so the cellar needed to be a cheese cave and also home to overflow produce, preserves, cool storage for our ever-growing olive oil harvest. I had outgrown my kitchen and pantry – we already had chutney, pickles and relish in the walk-in robe.” Architect Max Pritchard brought the dream to life in his design of a luxurious space set to inspire making and enjoying food and wine in a processing room, commercial kitchen, cellar and dining room wrapped around a Spanish style courtyard. Accommodation is provided in guest suites on the property. If Producers at McLaren Vale sounds like your kind of experience, Tori and David’s website at www. producers.net.au will whet your appetite, particularly the Producers’ Calendar. We like the comments on the weather and wildlife: March – herons grazing amongst the vines; warm days and cool nights. “We’d like to be known as a different kind of retreat for travellers, back to the earth and table pleasures,” Tori says. “We don’t know how the business will evolve. Let’s see how it unfolds; not knowing is part of the fun.” She laughs. “Doesn’t sound like a bankable business plan does it? But as long as we enjoy the journey and tastes along the way, that is success.” r f
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Top. Tori and David in the courtyard of their architect (and David) designed building. Below. Winemaker Chester Osborn talks ‘structure’; Nigel Rich preparing lunch of Roast Lamb with cherry tomatoes; Pip Forrester prompts a panel discussion with Fleurieu producers. See www.producers.net.au for accommodation and course schedules.
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R E S TA U R A NT S
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Nigel Rich and Peter Reschke, co-head chefs of d’Arrys Verandah Restaurant, with manager Jo Reschke d’Arrys Verandah
HE VIEW from this enclosed hill-top verandah is your best introduction to McLaren Vale: a sunlit panorama of vines stretching away towards the sea. Busy chickens forage in the garden on the other side of the glass. Inside, the atmosphere is less rustic. On elegantly clothed tables, the procession of dishes is a paean to the local produce. Depending on the season, there are freshwater yabbies and trout, wild rabbits and hare, raised pigeons, quails and kangaroo. Locally caught fish can include kingfish (gloriously fresh as a carpaccio in the main picture at right), saltwater whiting, garfish, flathead and red mullet. You can order wines as a ‘flight’ – tasting-size glasses of reds or whites – or choose a very special old vintage from the d’Arenberg cellar. rf d’Arrys Verandah Open for lunch only, seven days a week. You need to book T. 08 9329 4848. www.darenberg.com.au
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R e s ta U R a nt s
d’Arrys VeRANDAH
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Natural Selection
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hen you step onto its old slate floors, you feel that the Salopian Inn has always been here. And since 1851, when Grumprs Hostelry catered to travellers on this cross road, it has been, and mostly serving food. In more recent years, Chef Russell Jeavons built a strong reputation here and Pip Forrester owned and managed it for sixteen years. Under Pip’s care the food came to represent the best in local produce, simply presented and beautifully prepared. It became a place much loved by locals and where visitors can still feel like they belong. It is now run by Pip’s brother Michael Ewers (whose business card titles him as the ‘proprietor’ and that slight formality suits him). He is the perfect host to this eclectic mix of patrons who know the place as just ‘the Salopian’. With a seat by the ivy-framed windows you have a view of the surrounding vines
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and the bustle of passing wine industry traffic. Inside the actual winemakers are just as likely to have brought just-corked bottles of their new vintage to share and argue over, but you can select from the extensive range of McLaren Vale wines in the Salopian’s cellars. Michael will always suggest an intelligent match with your food. Trust him, he’s a proprietor. The restaurant shares this lovely old building with the Dowie Doole and Gemtree Vineyards cellar door. And if you’re interested in the origin of the name Salopian Inn, people from Shropshire, midway between the city of Birmingham and the Welsh Border in England, are called Salopians. Charles Darwin was its most famous son. r f Fred Harden Corner McMurtrie and Main Roads, McLaren Vale SA. T: 08 8323 8769. See www.salopianinn.com.au for opening times and menus.
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R E S TA U R A NT S
Fleurieu lamb cutlets with seasonal vegetables and that view
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R ESTA U R ANTS
Star of Greece J a c k i e C o o p e r snatches a taste of summer.
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aking the most of what could be the last hot Sunday at the end of a blistering summer on the Fleurieu Peninsula, people-full cars begin to stream into the Port Willunga cliff-side carpark on The Esplanade. Under the midday sun, busy families carry towels and assorted beach accessories down the narrow path to the safe but pretty beach, while well-dressed Adelaide couples and all-age local families make their way into the Star of Greece restaurant. The simple navy blue and white-trimmed corrugated iron shack fills quickly — it seats 50 people inside and 25 outside. The casuallydressed young and mostly local staff quietly prepare the restaurant for lunch-time service. Some, maybe all, are possibly a little hungover after 21st birthday celebrations and dancing in Adelaide the night before. Owner Zanny Twopenny – dressed in white YSL thongs, white pants and a white tank top which reveals a stretch of lean, fit and tanned torso – arrives to replenish the restaurant alcohol supplies. The previous night’s function, a cocktail party, drained the Star of Greece dry. Zanny (a nickname, pronounced as you would ‘Danny’), with chef and ex-husband John Garcia, opened the Star of Greece in November 1997. “I’ve actually spent every summer of my life here,” says the husky-voiced former gift and home-wares designer. “One weekend, we turned the corner and John said ‘here we are, our little beach bar’. The area really needed it. It was the first of its kind.” Named after a century-old shipwreck located down the hill, the restaurant evolved into an institution for locals, a ‘must go’ popular seaside experience for Adelaide day-trippers, and an out-of-the way haven for visiting celebrities. The last time Brian and Robyn from Adelaide came to the Star of Greece was via limousine for dinner with half a dozen of their best friends. “You hear that Kylie Minogue was here once, and then you turn up and think ‘oh, it’s just a tin shed’,” Robyn muses. Inside, this ‘tin shed’ with the fabulous seaside view contains a garage sale worth of old 1970s lampshades, ship ornaments, an Italian Cinzano poster, a plaster-cast orange ram in a 1950s cake display counter and a Buddha overlooking the bar. Chairs and cups are suitably candy-striped. The Star of Greece has undergone a number of necessary renovations over recent years. A new kitchen was added. There are
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now indoor toilets, alleviating the need to navigate down beachside steps to the red-brick toilet block when ‘nature calls’. Despite the restaurant’s quirky appearance, the food is relatively upmarket and the vibe on the cusp of aloof. With entrees priced from $15-$20, and mains priced from $25 to $35, the Star of Greece may be today out of reach for a number of the producer locals. One food-loving young local mourns the days before the arrival of the Star’s white linen and more expensive mains, but is pleased to see new beachside spots emerge to fill the laid-back café void the Star of Greece left behind. Acknowledging the emergence of copycat cafes, Zanny believes that variety of choice is good for the area, and recognises the unique position of seaside shanty experience combined with upmarket dining the Star of Greece holds in the increasingly popular tourist area of Port Willunga. Not all produce on the adventurous Star of Greece menu is peninsula-grown, but what is local is very good. Today ‘young Harley’ brought in local snapper, which is beautifully steamed in banana leaves and served with a lemongrass sliced vegetable salad. The signature Star of Greece dish is the squid, which is regularly supplied fresh by ‘70-ish’ Jeff How, whose 120 year-old Port Willunga fishing family first discovered the Star of Greece shipwreck many, many decades ago “The squid is often still changing colour when it’s brought in – it’s so fresh,” Zanny enthuses. “He’ll come in and say ‘I’ve got some squid – how much do you want?’. In season, he’ll come in every one or two weeks. “We keep the skin on to keep the flavour, hence the pinker colour. The squid is dusted in flour, the excess is shaken off, and it is then snap-fried to retain the tenderness, the juiciness. Ah, it’s like the taste of summer.” Yes, Kylie did eat here. So did Australian rock band Silverchair. Merrick, from comedy duo Merrick and Rosso, held his wedding reception here. “I don’t say anything to anyone because the stars like their anonymity,” Zanny says, brushing her windswept blonde hair from her eyes and returning her sunglasses to her face. “So people don’t know about it until they all leave here well-fed and happy. r f Star of Greece The Esplanade Port Willunga SA 5173 T. 08 8557 7420
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Left. Zanny Twopenny. Above. It’s squid, it’s local and it’s good. Photographs by Kerryn Sylvia
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P R od U c e R s
if you love Justin Lane, ‘rockstar’ winemaker
Jackie Cooper says that “Sweat lodges, hot cups, insomnia and scary monsters under the bed – these are just a few of the topics McLaren Vale-based winemaker Justin Lane covered monologuestyle during the first 52 seconds of a late Friday night phone call.”
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“I build up as the day goes on. I build up from Defcon 4 to Defcon 1, or is it the other way around?”
Some of the RedHeads family posing naturally, and hiding their stained hands from photographer.
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’m fairly wired most of the time,” he confessed. “I do a lot of coffee. But I’m a fairly healthy dude. I go to the sweat lodge once a month. I get the hot cups and suck all the alcohol (and coffee?) out. You can come along with us if you want?” Although attracted to the idea of interviewing a coffee and alcohol-free Justin, I declined the sweat lodge offer, pointing out that I am just not a fan of public nudity. My excuse caused Justin to pause and ponder for roughly half a second before charging the conversation on to my needing to read the “Justin Lane Lonely Planet Handbook” before I arrive to have a look at his ‘puppies’ (wines). “I promise I won’t drink any coffee the day you are to arrive,” he promised. “I’m trustable. I come from a good, sensible Catholic upbringing. Come and have a look at the show. We’re in vintage. You’re going to turn up right in the middle of the mayhem. You might even get to see me wrestle a big, old Italian grower. It will be just like a Country Practice.” The feeling of exhaustion has replaced any apprehension as we pull up next to a battered Kermit-green combi van in the RedHeads Wine Studio car-park. The anticipated five hour road-trip from Mildura to McLaren Vale took us seven hours, due to a dislodged weight on the tailpipe which was thankfully removed by Gawler’s Gomer Pyle look-alike mobile mechanic. The entrance to the two-story RedHeads mudbrick corner-block building says ‘closed’, so I walk around to the tall sheds at the back of the building. I approach a 30-something man who is covered head-to-toe in red wine pulp and stains. “Justin?” I ask. No, not Justin, but Adam Hooper, RedHeads’ newly acquired in-house winemaker. Adam points behind him to a shed filled with tubs and tubs of leaky red grapes. Justin, also covered head to toe in red wine pulp and stains, emerges from the shed and walks towards me with an outstretched hand.
I hesitate to return the handshake. His hand is purple. I tentatively place my hand in his and find that it is dry, not wet as I had expected, and extremely rough and worn. I look at the purple hands of the other five winemakers busily making their wine during the out-of-work hours on this sunny Saturday — the occupational hazard of independent winemaking. Justin leads the way inside to the RedHeads bar with the promise of good coffee. But first, he shows his visiting parents through the building. Lyn and John Lane arrived this morning from Kangaroo Island, and will soon make their way back home to the Hunter Valley via Mildura. Returning to the bar area, Justin swings eldest son Oscar over his shoulder. His youngest, Noah and Fergus are at home with Justin’s “adorable wife” Emma. “She’s a vintage widow at the moment,” Justin says, swinging cute and blonde Oscar back to the floor. Justin’s father John offered some background on Justin’s journey from a Hunter Valley boy to McLaren Vale winemaking entrepreneur. “He was working for me in retail, in my menswear shop,” John begins. “He’s a great salesman. He had a friend at McGuigan Wines and was offered a job working as a (cellar door) salesman one day a week on Sunday. He was so good at it that they offered him full-time. Then they asked him to help out with the winemaking. He drove the tractor, did the harvesting and delivered the grapes to the winery. “I said ‘Go to South Australia. That’s where all the jobs are’. He went, and rang me and said ‘I’ve got a job!’ I asked ‘with who?’ and he said ‘Hardy’s’. Well I said ‘you can’t get bigger than that!’.”
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R EFR IGER ATE AFTER OP ENING
Beautiful Bulgarian winemaker Elena Golakova holds up her tiny, purple hands, and claims that “they are not so bad today as I went to the beach this morning”. But very little can be done to completely remove the stain. “Napi San works a little bit, as do those chemical peels used in salons.”
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by Jan O’Connell, illustration by Phil Selby
Now 33, Justin was in his mid-20s when he arrived in McLaren Vale in October 1998. Text. Text Being a talker has helped the aspirational winemaker achieve a great deal in a short time. During the three years working at ext, Text! rf Tatachilla Winery, Justin manoeuvred his way into a Flying Winemaking team based in the U.K. working at a southern Italian winery in 2000. “I wanted to go to southern Italy. I didn’t care who it was with. I applied everywhere. It was hard because I didn’t have a degree in winemaking. Then Michael Fragos, the chief winemaker for Chapel Hill (McLaren Vale), introduced me to Jean Marc Sauboua who employed me as an assistant winemaker.” The Italy leg-in was leveraged by the informal flying winemaker scheme started in the ‘80s by industry stalwart Tony Laithwaite, who runs the mega UK-based mail-order company, Direct Wines. Justin then convinced Direct Wines’ owner into funding the RedHeads concept:
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a micro winery to utilise small producers “Elio Altare is a controversial winemaker,” in the region, and foster the burgeoning Justin enthuses, squinting his right eye winemaker talents of independents or those for dramatic emphasis. “In terms of style employed at the larger wineries. he is a modernist. La Villa — masculine and flamboyant, is a good example of this The RedHeads co-operative of winemakers stream in one by one while Justin brews modern style of winemaking. I am inspired espresso after espresso using the industrial- by such works however he looks nothing sized La San Marco coffee machine. Bottles like me. He’s a lot older.” materialise from all around until there are Guided past the indoor vats of fermenting well over a dozen lining the bar, all waiting grapes and back out to the sheds, I wonder to be acknowledged. what the possibly conservative McLaren But first, the winemakers. The man Vale community of around 5,000 people behind the Longwood label, Phil Christiansen, thought of this young-ish and eager band walks behind the three metre-long red gum of progressive winemakers when they first bar and rests on his elbow. Regarded by came together in 2003. The night before RedHeads as ‘the godfather of garage’, his I arrived, they worked feverishly until 1am, Longwood Shiraz with the unique minty no doubt with music pumping through the scent of river gums is a best seller. wine and cellar sheds. Nat McMurtrie joins Phil behind the Today, reggae blares from the RedHeads bar, turns to the four-door fridge and speakers. I hate reggae. The dishevelled grabs a Cooper’s Pale Ale. His wine label is winemakers stand around arguing the Pikkara, made from the fruit harvested from benefits of reggae for a few minutes before his property on McMurtrie Road. Various heading off to busily tend to their wines. Vale McMurtries still produce wine grapes The area between the RedHeads building from family vineyards, but the impressive and the sheds is polka dotted with purple federation family home is now the upsplodges. The musky smell of the oak market Salopian Inn restaurant. barrels fills the air. Phil materialises a notBulgarian Elena Golakova sits on the so-clean wine glass, scoops some lumpy stool to my right and offers me an easy, fluid from one of the rainwater tanks and beautiful smile – I finally feel at ease. Elena holds it out for me to smell. “Smell that and fiancé Adam, are the talent behind the – it’s grenache. It smells like raspberry jam. La Curio premium reds in sexy bottles. Yesterday, it smelt like musk sticks.” Adam places another bottle on the bar. This is old-school wine-making. “This is one that I made earlier. What’s particularly unique to this region are the Standing by his tank of juice and pulp with plunger in hand, Adam explains. “The old grenache and shiraz vines. They’re old crusher we have here doesn’t have the old style of vines without the trellis that grow up like a candelabra, with no rollers. So the whole berries go through and ferment, so it’s sweeter. It’s called irrigation. McLaren Vale has some of the carbonic maceration. In France they get oldest vines in the world.” whole berries, let them ferment and then The Viottolo Senteiro 2004 is Justin’s (flagship) wine. Robert M Parker Jr. not stamp them.” Adam pushes the top-layer of skin down only gave Viottolo 95 Parker Points (yes, a high ranking) but compared its winemaker with the plunger to allow the fluid to rise to have a food aversion story or ahe taste you abhor? Justin Lane to the exciting northern Italian Do theyou surface. “This is shiraz,” informs me. Write and tell me: fridge@regionalfood.com.au winemaker, Elio Altare. “I love shiraz,” I say. His easy-going manner
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P R ODU C E R S
Wash your hands dinner’s ready!
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is replaced by near-Justin enthusiasm. Sauvignon, its not just about money,” “Do you?” he says before running off and he explains. quickly returning with a glass of the newly He wants to talk about other projects, mixed shiraz. “We’ve just blended our the TV miniseries script based on a merry shiraz. Do you want to taste?” band of mad winemakers (sound familiar?), I take the grape pulp-covered glass from and the RedHeads magazine, but my head the now-enthusiastic winemaker and take is full and I’ve had too much coffee (three a sip of the smooth wine. “We are calling mighty strong espressos). “Ok, sum it up in a the blend ‘nubile’, like ‘nubile young sentence,” I say in response to his pleading. nymph’,” he says, watching my face for the Justin’s one sentence becomes a taste reaction. paragraph, then two, then three. “Shhh,” Nearby, Justin finishes calling around to I command, resting my forehead into my find us somewhere for us to go for dinner. hands. He pauses and leans forward onto “He’s a talented little bugger,” Justin says his forearms, then continues his story in a as he reaches my side, watching Adam walk whisper. “Justin!” I say with exasperation. back to the latest shiraz. The two young “Whispering won’t help me take in anymore winemakers worked together for three years more information!” at Tatachilla. Adam worked for Maxwells Out in the car-park, past Adam’s until Justin convinced him to be the full- ‘Chlamydia Jane’ Kermit-green combi (“it’s time RedHeads winemaker. been around the block a few times”), we say We meet back at RedHeads early the next our goodbyes. Justin holds my shoulders in morning. He is already dishevelled and a tight best-friend bear-hug. He wants to wine-stained, but his energy is still running keep me and photographer Kerryn here, to hot. Holding up a bottle with a mock-up be part of his RedHeads empire, to help out ‘Whiphand’-art label, he makes it clear that with world winemaking domination plans. we are now to talk about his projects. “We’ll be back,” I hear myself promising Only 00 cases of the premium Whiphand as he donned a rally-car suit for a final Cabernet Sauvignon were produced. “This farewell photo session. He smiles – placated project is about recognising a sleeping giant – then runs back into the RedHeads building in Mclaren Vale and its name is Cabernet to tackle the next project. r f Jackie Cooper
“It looks like a game of chess,” Justin Lane says of the bottles he has placed in groups on the red gum bar to illustrate the RedHeads tiered rating system. “My Whiphand Cabernet Sauvignon takes your shiraz!”
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how it works at the Redheads Wine studio
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inemakers rent space at the McLaren Vale-based RedHeads Wine studio to make and store their own wines. Around 1 people produce wine at the RedHeads Wine Studio, 10 of which have labels. Winemakers are obliged to initially offer their wines through the Direct Wines lists. The saleable wines are assessed by a taster. RedHeads uses a three-tier category system – gold, silver and bronze. RedHeads wines such as the Viotollo, La Curio, Pikkara and Lazy Ballerina are allocated the gold RedHeads stickers. “I have 1 winemakers who are at the top of the pyramid,” says Justin Lane, the RedHeads Wine Studio’s wine geek founder and manager. The silver category of RedHeads wines includes Back Shed, Rack One and the kooky Barrel Monkey label. These are the wines he calls “the RedHeads Army”. “This is our cash cow, the bulk wine,” he says while holding onto the Yard Dog bronze wine. “Following the Fosters fallout I was commissioned by a bunch of Canadians to do a petit verdot. I said ‘oh man! That’s a tough sell’. Justin hosted mass blending sessions to create a wine that seriously over delivers for money. “It’s like ‘pimp my wine. We did , 00 cases, which is a big volume for us.” www.redheadswine.com
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FAR M E R S ’ MA R K ETS
Market Leader
‘Somebody’ should write a history of the Willunga Farmers’ Market
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hy? This was the first Farmers’ Market in South Australia and is now one of the most continually successful weekly markets. Grasping the secrets of that success could certainly help others. While it could really be a book on its own, all we have is these few pages.* We go to lots of Farmers’ Markets, but in the two years now I’ve been visiting the Fleurieu region, I’ve been to the Willunga market every time. I’ve spoken to many of the people who were involved in the market’s birth and growth and I’ve watched its impact and influence. Unlike some markets, this is basically a volunteer-run organisation. A paid market manager helps with administrative pressure, but the strength of this market comes from a real community involvement. To me that makes it special. Of course, it’s a special community. Adelaide is just nearby – a city where arts, culture and dining have a strong influence. And then it’s in a wine region. People who make wine like good food to eat with it, so the local restaurants respond. Good regional restaurants need regional produce and encourage small growers to supply it, and there was a history of diverse agriculture here before the vines took centre stage. To the local food lovers all it needed was a produce market. One with integrity and quality, run for the love of good food and not for the profit of an individual. It needed a true Farmers’ Market. So in early 2002 Zannie Flanagan organised the first meeting of stakeholders at a local restaurant. The farmers’ market concept was explained and one of the people present was Janice Blair, the Economic Development Officer from the City of Onkaparinga. She immediately understood what they were trying to do, and offered funding for a community workshop.
The workshop was run by consultant and Australian Farmers’ Markets Association head Jane Adams. Although fewer attended than they had hoped, there were enough people to form an interim committee. The committee had the parallel tasks of finding a space to hold the market, enough local producers willing to give a market a try and enough visitors to make sure stall-holders had sufficient return to want to do it again. Willunga’s population is only about 1500 but about 15,000 people live within ten minutes’ drive. Then there are those visitors from Adelaide – sightseers and the ones who could shop every Saturday on the way to their weekenders on the coast. The potential was good. Most of the work was done by a group of just three or four people. In July 2002 they began a ‘no-budget communication campaign’ aimed at raising interest, targeting the local publications, TV and radio stations. Zannie had tapped into her extensive contacts and was the spokesperson. Willunga was always going to be the market location, but where in the town area? Closing roads and other options were investigated and dismissed and the car park of the Alma Hotel, empty on a Saturday morning was eventually selected. They sought development approval, and while today you could easily tell the neighbours what having a Farmers’ Market next door would entail, as the first one it took some explaining. Temporary council approval was received, a
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date set and they were ready to arrange the stall holders. Zannie tells how “We figured that there would be some people who would not be able to come to an information session but who would be interested in having a stall, so we posted a copy of our Producers’ Kit to all the producers on our database. Just as well – the meeting turnout was dismal! We were feeling desperate – one week to go and we had only eight potential stalls. “But now that we had set a date and publicised it there was no turning back. We’d employed a market manager, organised banners and signs and arranged publicity while producers were being cajoled into having a stall. We spent hours organising the site: cleaning up, marking out stalls and finding a coolroom to hire at reasonable rates. “On the morning, pandemonium ensued as everyone arrived at the same time to set up before the 8am opening. The smartest stallholders had practised erecting their tents but the rest of us struggled with what seemed like too many poles for canopies. “Eight o’clock came and went with the site still looking chaotic. Then there was an air of nervous anticipation – we wondered would anyone apart from family and friends turn up? That was the last time anyone had that thought. By 9 there was a steady trickle of people. By 10.30 stall-holders were returning to the farm for more produce”
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The official opening took place a few weeks later with Dr David Suzuki as Guest of Honour and the media coverage was terrific. The public turned out to hear Suzuki and to shop at their new market. And they were becoming involved. Mikaela Wilford explained why. “The market is not for profit, the members pay $30 a year and get a 10% discount on what they buy. That also gives them one vote and they can become elected members of the organising committee. The stall holders have to be members too. We started it for the locals, but it has been embraced by other people. The membership scheme is a huge amount of our income from the market, there’s over 1000 members now.” Jude McBain was the first treasurer, and she believes membership is the key. “We have actually created this massive sense of loyalty. It’s not through them feeling sorry for the stallholders or wanting to give them a go. It is because they feel that they are part of it, and that they have a say in how the market is run.” The City of Onkaparinga may have bought into the idea at that first planning meeting but the market has had to prove itself for five years before council could remodel the street outside the Willunga High Street shops into a purpose-built market area. It was opened on the market’s fifth birthday by Premier Mike Rann.
Zannie Flanagan and Chef Cheong Liew champion of the Fleurieu’s food, get friendly at the recent Cheesefest where they were both judges.
This extra space has allowed the market to expand the number of stall holders and, along with a new logo design, the market is slowly changing. I heard the inevitable grumbles from people who were used to knowing where to shop quickly and didn’t like the new expanded layout. It’s a market that is strong and alive and will continue to change with its members. r f Fred Harden * The closest we have to a real Willunga Market history are the notes that I’ve drawn from for this article. Zannie Flanagan and Helen Bennetts added them as ‘marginalia’ to what has to be the best document about starting and growing a Farmers’ Market. It is available online by request from the SA Food Centre, www.safoodcentre.com Look for their Farmers’ Market Toolkit 2006 in the Industry section. In 2003 Jane Adams wrote a Guide for the establishment of farmers’ markets which is on the Victorian DPI website. The Australian Farmers Market Association website is www.farmersmarkets.org.au. Many of the Willunga Market regulars also sell on Sunday at the new Adelaide Showground Farmers Market where Zannie Flanagan is now the Project Manager, Strategic Planning & Marketing. But that’s another story.
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“We have had several market babies because of it, we have had marriages because of it. We probably have had a few divorces but we don’t mention that.”
The New Willunga street market venue. Photo courtesy of Gordon Hammond. www.australianregionalfoodguide.com
Market Success Stories Every market should tell its story. As a way of reinforcing change in the way we support regional food, the farmers’ market model shines. As I talked to the organisers about the Willunga market, stories about market regulars who have changed their lives and businesses that kept emerging. Jude McBain told me about Ray Seidel of Ray’s apples and pears fame. (Everywhere I went in the Fleurieu people would say ‘would you like one of Ray’s apples?’). “Ray Seidel’s involvement is very funny,” she said. “He lives
over near Coriole and he’s got the most beautiful apple, pear and cherry orchard. He was another producer who was having to pull some of his orchard out and put grapes in to make money. He was selling all of his apples and pears into the Coles stores and it didn’t pay.
“The week before the market started I rang him up three times and said ‘Come on Ray, what’s the worst that can happen? You’ll lose your $25 stall fee.’ He did come that first day, he went home twice and got more stuff because it was just going out the door. He has never missed a market in five years and now he pretty much doesn’t sell anything to the supermarkets, which is fabulous.” Mikaela Wilford started Spice Girlz and is a past committee member. She also tells a good story (or six). Talking over a coffee, I asked her about the market regulars. The following comments are hers, just slightly edited. My first question was
why there were only a few winemaker’s stalls in a region full of them? “When we started, Pertaringa was the only one that would give it a go. And they came down and sold a whole pallet! Now they are actually making wine specifically for the market, and they have hired another person because of that. Because of the market they are generating more business at the cellar door. The new street market layout will allow us to have more winemakers, but we want them to be strictly local wineries. But now Pertaringa have been so established, if shoppers can’t find their wine they get really quite stroppy! “The bigger companies like Pertaringa and Coriole, Paris Creek and BD Farm are successful businesses on their own. What they do is use a stall as a way of actually getting a bit of market research. They can introduce new lines and see how it goes, talk to customers.”
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can come and use. I think they joined forces to buy this press actually. He makes mustard seed oil, pumpkin, almond oils... all different sorts of oils. Tony and Marg have got a really good story to tell about market success.”
“And then you’ve got businesses like the Harts. That’s a fantastic story. Wes started off selling potatoes, and he had red potatoes and white potatoes off a single market trestle. And people were saying ‘Well what’s the difference’, and he’d say ‘don’t know’. He didn’t want to speak. ‘Well how do you use them?’ ‘Oh, boil them, mash them’. And you look at him three years down the track, confident and he has his brother and both their wives involved. They have a huge amount of produce and they specialise in all the different varieties of potatoes. You have people coming from Sydney and rather than going back with a couple of bottles of wine, and some posh olive oil they take five kilos of potatoes.” “There has only ever been one stall that does hot food and that’s the breakfast stall.
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The criterion is that they have to use local produce to make that stuff. And the chances are that if the people are sitting down and eating they will stay and buy more. So we started off the breakfast stall as a way to make money for the market. Initially it was run by the committee, but it was a hell of a job. It’s now run by the Relish Sisters, Jane and Tina. They don’t really need the market sales, but it’s really good publicity for them. It helps them be part of the community, and it makes people aware that they’re local. Spice Girlz started off growing herbs and chillies. We started going around to restaurants with bunches of freshly cut herbs in a big basket. Then we had surplus chillies and basil, and we turned it into jam and pestos to sell at the market. They were so much more popular than the fresh things. Then we starting growing things to make our own ingredients, then demand grew and grew, and now we have to buy in to create enough. “John Downes has been a market regular with his authentic sourdough bread. It’s in such
demand that you’re likely to miss out unless you come very early. Shoppers now place orders for the following week.” (We’ve a long interview with John where he talks about the introduction of true sourdough bread to Australia and his part in it. See the Regional Food website.) “I must tell you about the Mt Compass Venison” Judith Phillips brought a proper till down, and we all looked amazed, shaking our heads. But what it has done is enable her to see exactly how much she has made for the business in these four hours or five hours. Judith was saying, I think, that the Saturday morning accounts for 25% of her turnover, and that she gets
a sale every two minutes. She has the shop on the way down to Victor Harbour, but everyone would zoom straight past it. Now it is bringing people to her shop.” Mikaela finished with the observation that “What the market has done, as well as encouraging
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FAR M E R S ’ MA R K ETS “All we really talk about here is food and wine and that is the reason you move to this area. All the ones who started the market were blow ins and we all have chosen to settle here because it has something unique about it, and has this massive emphasis on produce and wine.” Mikaela shoppers to buy locally, is encourage all the businesses to think about using local produce where they can. That in turn means they need to employ people, so it stops people migrating to the city which is great. It is its own sort of community. It has given the businesses a value which they wouldn’t have had. So for example when Remedy sold her organic tart business she could guarantee that you would be getting between two and three thousand people past the stall on Saturday for five hours; it added a certain amount of value onto her business. “Many of these people have started from nothing and have built up viable businesses, and all those businesses have evolved in a very simple organic way as a direct result of the markets. It is just something that you can feel really proud to be part of.” want to know more? The Willunga Market website has been undergoing a change of its own, and it will (hopefully soon?) have a list of all regular stall holders and other information www.willungafarmersmarket.com There is also a longer version of this story with acknowledgement of the early committee members, and with more photographs on our website.
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FAR M E R S ’ MA R K ETS People say “Look I am having a dinner party tonight, and I know I need cheese, bread, meat, wine. And they can buy the whole lot at the Farmers’ Market.”
Market Favourite You can’t have an early morning market without good coffee. Jen Hanna is a market original and has gradually refined her trailermounted café Piccolo Espresso. She’s handed on the first version of the trailer to her eldest daughter who now attends the Adelaide Showground Farmers’ Market to perform the same stimulating functions with caffeine. We came back for seconds of Jen’s baked rice cakes, and were bold enough to ask how she makes them. Of course it came with a story. “I guess you could call them “Budini Piccoli” (little puddings, in Italian). I first tasted these from a small town bar in the Tuscan hills when last in Italy. I was staying for several months, with my daughter Beatrice, then aged three. I would cycle up a very steep and winding 15kms road, to a small hillside village; firstly because there was a ‘seven-swing’ playground....and second....for the delicious mouthfuls of ‘rice pudding’ that I knocked back very quickly (with a latte, of course) soon after dismounting from the bike! “Having eaten my mother’s ‘creamy rice pudding’ since childhood, (and in turn, my two daughters receiving the same), I figured it was just a variation-on-a-theme, to recreate those Tuscan mouthfuls. Finally, I am happy with the way they turn out, which goes something like this: start with Mother’s ‘Creamy Rice’ To a generous pint/ 650ml milk, add 3 generous tablespoons shortgrain rice (calrose, vialone or arborio). Stir over medium heat, adding 4 tablespoons sugar and a knob of butter. Stir until creamy and the rice is cooked. (It will thicken as it cools.) Add vanilla extract. That is the family favorite, as we kids had it. Budini Piccoli Now, add to that the yolks of two eggs, some lemon rind and juice, a slurp of rum, then fold in the two stiffly-beaten egg whites. Bake in muffin pans in a moderate oven for half an hour. Dust with icing sugar when cold and serve with very good caffé. Buon Appetito! r f Fred Harden
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THinGS We KNOW ABOUT THe THin
Fleurieu 1 Henly on Hardy
The Bacchus Club is an association of local wine-makers and friends and they run this invitation-only event each summer on a large pond on the Hardy property. The only rules are that each crew must have at least one woman, and all crew members must row. Other than that, total anarchy prevails, with splashing, ramming and even sinking your rivals’ tinny all part of the fun. A large and, shall we say, unique perpetual trophy is up for grabs and, of course, great attention is paid to the food and wine on the day.
2 Alexandrina Cheese Company Above. Public school scarecrows; the winners of last year’s Henly on Hardy; the trophy; The blue cow sculpture at The Cheesery door of Mt Alexandrina Cheese Co.
This Mount Jagged producer is off the main road but pretty easy to find. The cheeses are available all over the Fleurieu, and this is a large scale operation but you can tell in the back ground there’s the artisan cheesemaker still pushing for quality. That’s Dan McCaul a third generation cheesemaker, and his hard cheeses are consistent award winners. Start with their vintage cheddars, gouda, edam and romano but you’ll find a bewildering range of other varieties in their farm gate retail shop ‘The Cheesery’. If you’re in Sneyd Road you won’t miss the big blue cow sculpture out front. Open every weekday 12–5pm, weekends 10–4.30pm. www.alexandrinacheese.com.au
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Fine Fino Partners Sharon Romeo and Chef David Swain have found a home in this tiny Willunga restaurant. David has worked at some of the best restaurants on the Fleurieu Peninsula, but this is a very smart and assured take on Mediterranean-ish provincial food. It’s local produce driven with a menu changing daily. This is also a social hub, you’ll rub shoulders with the local winemakers and Adelaide celebs. It deserves a page or two on its own but can we make up for it by saying – this is special and very good? Take some friends and share stuff. Bookings 0 .
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4 Blessed Breakfast
The main street of McLaren Vale bends its way up the hill to, eventually Willunga. It suffers from a standard creeping urbanity, which make the few places on its length that are different, stand out. Blessed Cheese is one that the locals like; a small but ok cheese cabinet seems an afterthought to the restaurant business, but breakfast outside on that corner will ensure you can see and be seen. The food is fresh and good, try the paprika dusted baked beans and ham for breakfast, the hamburger stack for lunch.
5 Café Lime
and Gourmet Foodstore Goolwa It’s bright, it’s bustling, it serves regional produce, gourmet baguettes, good cakes, fish and chips – and yes, it has won the odd barista award, including one for ‘people’s choice’. (See #17) Sit out front and watch the street bustle.
Fleurieu Milk Two Myponga dairy farmers, Barry Clarke and Geoff Hutchinson, fed up with poor milk prices, decided to innovate and put in their own processing plant. Their regular range includes full cream homogenised, unhomogenised and low-fat milks, but the (ahem) cream of the crop is the Premium Jersey (A2) range. The A2 milk protein is more readily digested by people with lactoseintolerance. All cows are tested for the A2 gene, and the ones bearing only this gene are milked separately to produce 100% A2 milk. For stockists in SA and NSW see www.fleurieumilkco.com.au/outlets.
7 Guest Houses
Victor Harbour landladies were evidently formidable figures. Guesthouses providing full board were the standard form of holiday accommodation for the early part of last century, although the food sometimes left something to be desired.
8 Horse Power
In 1894 a horse-drawn passenger service was introduced across the wooden causeway between the railway terminus at Port Victor and Granite Island. It was popular with tourists until, in 1954, the progress-minded civic authorities replaced it with a motorised and totally unromantic ‘tractor tram’. The horse-drawn service, powered by teams of magnificent Clydesdales, was re-established in 1986 and operates daily, to the obvious delight of new generations of visitors.
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Do you Kasundi? It seems like everyone in SA does. But why haven’t we seen it anywhere else. This jar comes from Pip Forrester’s McLaren Vale Food Co. gourmet hand-made range T. 08 8557 8237.
David Betschart now runs this small butcher shop in High Street Willunga that was started by his father Dominic. As soon as you enter you know there’s a smokehouse out back, but that’s ok because people come here for the chunky chorizo, bacons and prosciutto. Dominic says he’s retired, but you’ll often see him helping to make sausage, or tending the fires.
10 What’s on?
While some of you may be intrigued to find out more about the Mount Compass Cup Cow Race in January, or the Rotary Duck Race each November (what’s a rotary duck, we ask?) we think most of our readers will be more attracted to the spring harvest festival Fiesta! (The exclamation mark is part of the brand – makes it much more festive, don’t you think?) Held each October, it includes degustation dinners, vineyard picnics, feasts, and meet-the-maker events. Sea & Vines is McLaren Vale’s weekend of cellar door tastings matched to seafood over the June long weekend, while in July there’s Willunga Almond Blossom Festival. For more, see www.fleurieupeninsula.com.au
9 Hamlet’s Meat & Smallgoods
12 Stop for a pie deer?
The Mount Compass shopping strip with its takeaways, butcher and pub always has passing customers and it’s sometime hard to find a park. But the food focus is the small Mt Compass Venison shop which has a range of fresh venison and a selection of local produce. But go for the venison pies. Try more than one, sitting out on the back verandah.
11 Learning to speak Pizza The yellow American style school buses outside Willunga High School were a novelty, but the students are rooted in the region. They have their own vineyards and learn wine making and viticulture. The hospitality students don’t have far to walk to learn their trade at Russells, the iconic pizza parlour run by Russell Jeavons. It’s these fresh faced and eager staff that you notice first, then it’s the noise level that rises on a busy night (it’s only open on a Friday, so you have to book) and the wood fired pizzas are really good and there are always two or three great desserts. We’ll give them and Russell A+.
13 The Victory Hotel Cellar For a pub to have a wine cellar like the Victory Hotel you’d have to be in a wine region. And every wine region needs a pub like the Victory and a publican like Doug Govan, who wants to be a winemaker when he grows up and has vines that come up to the edge of this quirky old hotel building. On a summer’s night on the Victory’s terrace at Sellicks Hill, watching the sun set over the bit of ocean that’s not hiding behind the huge Coopers sign, life can seem pretty damn good.
14 Viva Los Vale
Ah the light! No, not the sunset on the vines: the motel lights up with a neon palm tree and technicolor glows in the gardens outside, and a rotating fibre-optic disco light in the studio rooms spa alcove inside. It’s a shock when you hit the wrong switch heading to the toilet at 3am. Maybe it’s glamorous at 11pm.
15 Sea and Vines by Barbara Santich If we’d known about this book before we visited, it would have been a knowledgeable travelling companion. Buy it and read it before you come. It gives you an evocative background to the first inhabitants of the Fleurieu and the impact of the first european settlers. Then the chronicle of the development and change in McLaren Vale is fascinating reading. It’s been constantly in print which indicates its popularity.
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Barista Candy Weiss delivers
As a civic project, the walking path that runs between McLaren Vale and Willunga should be applauded. It’s really the big footpath that the main road doesn’t have, picked up and placed between the vineyards. A safe place for mums walking with prams, joggers, horse riders and cyclists, on a sunny weekend day this fully sealed thoroughfare is socially busy, but other times you’ll often have it to yourself.
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Queues at High noon There are winemakers who are impossible romantics as well. Like Drew and Rae Noon at Noon’s winery, where the cellar door is open for just a few hours a year. It would be open longer if the queues of people on a Saturday in November didn’t buy everything within a few hours. There’s a closed mailing list with a 6 bottle maximum so that there is some wine available publicly. The Noon’s prices are set so that everyone can enjoy their wine. Is that impossibly romantic? No, just indicative of wonderful personal values and the love of producing great wine. Noon Winery web www.noonwinery.com.au/
17 Market 190 – best coffee
Outside every coffee establishment in the region is a sign saying they have the best coffee and awardwinning barista of the year. every one. While I never had a really bad coffee I found there is a local competition for best barista, best cappuccino, best signature coffee, best decorated coffee spoon or whatever, so they’ve all shared the prizes around. In past years a pack of judges made their caffeinesoaked way around the region and asked for a coffee please. It was a tough way to do it, so now they make the proprietors and baristas line up before one standard espresso machine at the Willunga High School and give them ten minutes to produce magic. Next! The best breakfast award is 190’s as well and that’s no contest.
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16 Take a Walk
Sir James Hardy rings the harvest bell at Wirra Wirra. The picking begins.
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Cockles season at Goolwa The wide tidal beaches at Goolwa and the Coorong are a nutrient rich sandy home for the Goolwa Cockle Donax deltoids. Holidaying families with buckets, wriggling their toes into the sand didn’t make a major ecological impact on the shellfish but commercial fishing in 2001 had reached 1241 tonnes, and was worth over $1,500,000. Restrictions had to be placed on the mechanical harvesting and number of licenses issued. And a season was declared to allow stocks to regenerate. The season commences 1 November and close 31 May the following year.
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20 Flying Fish
Café & Restaurant With only a slightly better view of the rocky Horseshoe Bay than the nearby Port elliot bowling club (how do bowling clubs score such great pieces of real estate?) this café has been through a lot of changes. In the two years we’ve been visiting, it has to be the best place in Port elliot for a breakfast or do. Make sure it’s open, Bookings 08 8554 3504. There are other café’s in Port elliot that thrive in holiday season and the Railway Hotel is special. You could start at the beach and then enjoy a walk along the historic charm of Port elliot’s main street The Strand (but we reckon you’d be better walking down-hill to lunch and stay there.)
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Port elliot Bowling Club
23 Thoroughly Modern Primo
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Harbour History The Victor Harbour branch of the National Trust operates a museum in the old Customs and Stationmaster’s House on the foreshore. Soundscapes enhance the tales told here of whaling, shipwrecks and the river trade.
While family, history and tradition are attractive ingredients in wine marketing, good winemakers won’t always have a convenient old building for a cellar door. If you’re going modern, Primo shows you how to do it. enlisting the help of his brother -in-law’s company edwards Design, winemaker Joseph Grilli and wife Dina have created a beautiful functional space. everyone comments on the deluxe wood shingled car spaces so we won’t. It’s easy to find, it’s just past The Salopian on McMurtrie Road. Both Joe and Dina have Italian heritage so you have to try their Italian varieties.
22 SteamRanger Heritage
Railway The line was first used in 1853, making it South Australia’s first railway. It ferried goods between River Murray paddle steamers and the ocean-going ships. Passengers have been enjoying this unique journey from Victor Harbour to Goolwa since 1887. Steaming through the coastal dunes and right through the middle of Port elliot, the ‘cockle train’ gives you a new angle on ocean views. Timetable at www.steamranger.org.au
25 Steam Exchange Brewery
Down where the steam train meets the paddle steamer at the Goolwa wharf, is a small boutique brewery that’s geared up to be bigger. MD, Gareth Andrews took inspiration from an American classic, Steam Ale, and thanks to head brewer Simon Fennell they now have their own version. They always have two other ales and a stout adding some seasonal special brews. Opens 10am–5pm. www.steamexchange.com.au. We like their website motto “The Steam exchange Brewery supports responsible drinking. Don’t be a Steamed Vegetable.”
24 Power poles Then there’s the unique
South Australian power poles. They look like they are made from left over railway sleepers filled in with concrete. They’re not that pretty, but the broad bases cry out for adornment. It can just be a basic street name, an individual art work, or as in Kangarilla, a town art project.
WEBSiTES Fleurieu Food www.fleurieufood.com.au Sellicks Hill weather Radar mirror.bom.gov.au/products/IDR463.shtml SA Tourism’s Fleurieu Peninsula www.fleurieupeninsula.com.au McLaren Vale Grape, Wine and Tourism www.mclarenvale.info/
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h i s t ory
A splendid place for the vine Barbara Santich traces the Fleurieu’s food heritage.
S
outh Australia was envisaged and established as a model, convict-free colony, founded on democratic principles and allowing freedom of religion. The South Australian Act, passed by the British parliament in 1834, set out the terms for land sales at a fixed price, the proceeds from these sales to be used solely to finance emigration of ‘honest, sober, industrious’ labourers, ‘of sound mind and body’. The survey of the land south of Adelaide began in 1838, and John McLaren completed the survey of the country as far south as Sellicks Range in 1840. In an 1839 letter to the South Australian Company, land agents O’Halloran, Nixon & Co made its selection of land in the Noarlunga area: ‘... we will say first which we should select: Nos. 324 & 329, or 329 & 338 on the Eastern side …”. Section 324 was described as “A first rate section in which many tons of hay can be annually made — beautiful site for a house”. This was good country, and the agents made a wise choice. Section 324 subsequently leased to Samuel Clark who by August 1842 had eight acres of wheat, two acres of barley, one acre for his horse and two acres of garden. In the following year he constructed a brick house, pig-sty, goat pen and fowl sheds, and sowed 26 acres to wheat and four acres to barley. Wheat was the first cash crop to be grown, but the early settlers brought with them a strong tradition of farm orchards and kitchen gardens. Many farmers also kept cows and pigs, skimming cream off the milk to make their own butter, feeding the rest to the pigs. From the early days, the region’s natural attributes of soil and climate were recognised and turned to commercial advantage. In the early 1840s, soon after taking over the licence of the Bush Inn at Willunga, Edward Rowland wrote: ‘We have peach, nectarine, apricot, cherry, and fig trees besides vines, and by the way, this is a splendid place for the vine - we have some magnificent vineyards.
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The fruit display at the 1883 Willunga Show, held at the beginning of March, included apples (both table and kitchen), pears, quinces, peaches, damsons, grapes and mulberries, together with dried apricots, peaches, currants and raisins, preserved figs, softshell almonds and ‘colonial jams and jellies’. Recognising the region’s Mediterranean climate, many early officials advised growing almonds, together with other Mediterranean fruits: figs, grapes and olives. Around the turn of the century Mr A.C. Johnston, founder of the Pirramimma vineyard (still owned by the Johnston family), planted a patch of almonds near his cellars, using young trees received from an Adelaide nurseryman. One of these stood out from all the others, yielding large, good-flavoured almonds which were also easy to shell. It was named the Johnston’s Prolific. Buddings from this single tree propagated the variety throughout the district. One of the most popular varieties in the 1940s, it is still grown and Johnston almonds are still in demand. Olive cuttings arrived in South Australia with the Buffalo. In 1839 George Stevenson, editor of the South Australian Gazette, had four varieties of olive grown from these cuttings. Wine pioneer Thomas Hardy, who was one of the early enthusiasts, planted bands of olive trees through his McLaren Vale vineyards. Somehow, some of these developed into the Hardy’s Mammoth variety, still grown in Australia today and used for both oil and table olives. Olive trees, both wild and named varieties, in ordered rows or scattered clumps, are now as much a part of the McLaren Vale region’s landscape as vines and giant rolls of hay. Like almonds, olives go with wine and many wineries offer at cellar door their own pickled olives and smoked salted almonds.
Reaping in the Hindmash Valley 1890s. From Port Victor Museum collection.
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surprising!
You can see why it’s called Surfers Paradise, but surfers are notorious for eating junk food. Is there good regional food here? Yes, grab a map, and let’s head for the Gold Coast Hinterland.
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i n t r o du c t i o n
Utpat do commy nonum in elit, quisit aut iure tatisis moloreet adit dolum iusto do consed erciduisl et wisim acincil irit
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goldcoast W
HERE YOU START from on this journey is as important as where you finish. If you fly in to either of the airports in Brisbane or Coolangatta you’ll almost certainly find yourself at some stage in Surfers Paradise. This is where the big hotels are and where the high-rise rental apartments start their march along the coast, elbowing each other aside for a view of the beach. Can we suggest you start with a long walk on that amazing beach? If this is to be your base, you’ll find that there are some very special restaurants that the southern cities would be envious of. Not all of them will reward you with generous regional food experiences but that’s why you’ve got the hire car and the map that says ‘this way to the Gold Coast Hinterland’. The word hinterland is borrowed from German meaning ‘the land behind’, usually it refers to a coastal port but here it’s a narrow strip of coastline. To the west, there are barriers of layered mountain ranges that physically hold development to the coastal strip. That high density and incredible population growth have brought continuous construction, so don’t try to rush this, slow down and allow travel time.
hinterland
It gets easier as you leave the freeway. As you drive, you’ll see the agricultural areas that are being enveloped by suburbs, then suddenly you dip through patches of lush green rainforest which open up to views of farmland. Even with the drought, the green is startling. All this growth means that there’s a big customer base for regional producers. The local farmers’ markets are not an entertainment event for a weekend drive, but viable outlets for growers and producers. The crowds and the chefs know if they don’t come early, all that will be left are the jams and scented soaps. Don’t worry too much if you’ve made a late start though. As you drive these back roads you’ll see lots of farm gate fruit and vegetable stands. If you stop at the hand painted signs, ( ‘Avo nice day’) you can be sure of the cheapest fresh produce. But you won’t meet the grower, there’s just an honesty box for payment. This is a place that brings self-awareness as a tourist. You’ll realise that you’re the reason that many of the attractions in the Gold Coast Hinterland are thriving. These pages will help you seek out which ones are the best regional food experiences. Which naturally we believe is an end in itself.
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It’s Tony who loves the movies of Federico Fellini. The Fellini name gives the restaurant and its pasta products an identity that taps into Italian art and high culture. The promised renovations to the restaurant will add new Phillipe Starck chairs which could even add a little bit of Fellini’s Dolce Vita decadence to this special bit of the Gold Coast food scene. 68
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P R OD U CE R S
Lights. Roll Pasta. Action! Tony Percuoco enjoys coming to work, and it shows.
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rom the front, the Marina Mirage shopping centre is just another modern concrete mall. Behind it, however, is the marina. There are balconies facing the water, many with restaurant signs and clusters of outdoor umbrellas. Inside, you find an inordinate number of interior decoration shops filled with gold-painted objects. Considering it’s next door to Palazzo Versace, maybe it’s gilt by association. This makes the clean glass-fronted shop with the sign Pastificio Fellini stand out as an example of good taste. Around the corner, a buzz of diners’ voices announces the entrance to Restaurant Fellini. It’s Italian in style but modern in approach, a description that also fits Tony Percuoco. The Percuocos can trace their past through four generations of restaurateurs, from Naples to well-respected restaurants in Sydney’s past and to the present Buon Ricordo run by brother Armando. Tony’s sea change to the Gold Coast came fourteen years ago and the restaurant he started with his brother and sister has become a muchloved Gold Coast icon. The handmade pasta began as a way for Tony to get out of the kitchen. They bought a tiny pasta machine for employee Raffaele Di Benedetto to make the restaurant’s pasta. The equipment list grew, they imported more machinery from Italy and the scale of the operation expanded. “It doesn’t look that big,” Tony explains “but this small area could do about a thousand kilos of pasta a day. So if we wanted to have three shifts operating, we could be producing quite a lot of pasta. “We make pasta every day. Our forté is not fresh pasta, there’s a lot of fiction behind fresh pasta. There’s nothing wrong with fresh pasta. But if I have to cook pasta al dente, which is firm, it’s got to be dry. Our pasta takes 18 to 22 hours to dry, as against two to three hours for the more readily available or larger pasta factories. It therefore retains its shape and retains its full flavour.”
“When it comes to our filled pasta…there’s two methods. One is to get powdered chicken, beef, whatever it is, and you reconstitute it and you fill your pasta. Our way is to cook it ourselves. If it’s duck ravioli, it’s real duck. We bake it, we pull it by hand, and then it is actually put through the mixer…there’s a big difference. We wouldn’t be able to supply two tonnes of duck ravioli. It’s not even a matter of getting bigger machinery, we physically can’t.” Tony obviously enjoys the process of creating and marketing. “If we didn’t have that there,” he gestures to the restaurant behind the wall of the shop, “it would have been a lot less financially stable, but now we can move on to other ideas”. Then he showed me his balsamic vinegar ‘attic’. After years of negotiation with the Italian government, he will now be able to age imported balsamic vinegar by the traditional method, transferring it year after year to progressively smaller barrels made of different woods. He sees it as educating people’s tastes. “Unless you go to Modena, you’re not going to see it,” he says. “Every time people come in here, they’ll basically get a small tour of what’s going on. Then they will appreciate the product a little bit better. “It’s an idea that could easily be duplicated in food halls or other tourist places. It’s not going to make me much money, but I really want people to understand that what they buy for $6.95 in the supermarket isn’t real balsamic.” r f More
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R ESTA U R ANTS
Growing local A f t e r w o r k i n g in top Melbourne and Gold Coast restaurants there was only one mountain left to climb
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hilip Edwards grew up in country Victoria, on the coast near the South Australian border. In high school he decided he wanted to be a chef but looking around his home town saw that, like most small towns, its pubs and motels were the only option. He had a few cousins in Melbourne that he could stay with, so he started to look for apprenticeships in the city. His country initiative however, was what set him firmly on his career path. “I looked through The Age Good Food Guide and picked out the ten best restaurants in there and applied to all of them” he smiles remembering the moment “I was lucky, I got a call back from Hermann Schneider at Two Faces.” After his apprenticeship Philip went to Jacques Reymond, to est est est, Luxe and was then second chef at Ondine. If you know Melbourne restaurants, these were all royalty. So after that taste of big city success, what brought him to the top of a mountain in the Gold Coast Hinterland? Philip’s partner at the time had family in Queensland and they both wanted a sea change. With a lot of Melbourne and Sydney people heading up to the Gold Coast they knew it had changed the dynamic. Philip walked straight into a job at Palazzo Versace where he worked for three years, which he said was a great experience and then he added a ‘but’. He’d found in big hotels politics and a hierarchy that restricted ‘getting things done’. He’d dined a couple of times at Songbirds in the Forest and heard on the grapevine that their chef was leaving, “So I was on the phone straight away, came up and had a coffee with the owner Bonnie Rodwell. She is really passionate about the business, she didn’t want a local chef, but she liked my background. “Just putting your own spin on it doesn’t happen overnight, and getting everything running well takes about twelve months… and I’m eighteen months into it now.” Then they won Restaurant of the Year for Queensland in 2006 which he says was unexpected. “Those sort of accolades add heat, they put a lot of pressure on you”. But he’s had to accept the pressure because Songbirds has picked up more awards this year. The restaurant menu has a strong regional produce and organic focus, even if some of the items do travel a bit (like the SA Terra Rossa beef). I had to mention the local seafood.
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Philip nodded, shaking his head. “I found that out when I first got here. To get nice seafood at the hotel we were flying it up from Melbourne twice a week and we’d go to the airport at Coolangatta and pick it up and that’s ridiculous. You’re right, a lot of the tropical fish that are harvested up here, are sent to Melbourne or Sydney, processed and then you’ve got to buy it back! After a lot of chasing around, I’ve managed to get a good supplier in Tweed Heads. They have their own trawlers, and I get the fish packed in ice and couriered up here a couple of times a week. There’s another one in Brisbane, so it was just a matter of ferreting around.” Philip has a restaurant vegetable garden on the property, “Everything just grows like weeds – you put stuff in the garden and you’re harvesting it four weeks later. It’s like it’s all on steroids!” but he is also spoiled for choice by a local ‘man with a van’, supplier Geoff Buckley. Geoff has just won the Queensland Small Business Champions award in the Fresh Food section. Philip explained that, “Geoff came here in retirement but he and his wife Bev are involved with all the organic farmers up here on the mountain.* They have their own big organic garden and there’s a regular farmers’ market here on Sundays. Anything he doesn’t get he can source for me from Brisbane Market and organic suppliers from around southern Queensland. He’s got beautiful stuff. Asparagus and herbs and beans and rhubarb…avocados, papayas, tropical fruits…” If you detect a sense of the clichéd ‘lifestyle choice’ going on behind all this, you’re right. Mt. Tamborine is that kind of region, and there’s a strong sense of balance and concern for the environment. The Songbirds Rainforest Retreat setting is remote and peaceful, but the restaurant experience is sophisticated, there’s a good wine list and the service very assured. Even if you didn’t know about Philip Edwards’ big city background, you would know there was a refined sensibility at work after eating there. I was happy to find that out one warm spring lunchtime. And since I was staying in one of the villas, it was no hard choice to return for dinner that evening with the sound of frogs calling in More the cooler night air. r f *See: The Green Shed entry in ‘25 Things we know about the Gold Coast Hinterland’. Website: www.songbirds.com.au
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Clockwise. The Songbirds in the Forest restaurant; a delicious Philip Edwards take on banana fritters; Philip in the bamboo grove; inside one of the detached villas - accommodation with real style; and outside you can contemplate the garden sculpture.
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L ocaL H e r o
“i
was collecting eggs, and found a
contented caRpet snake stRetched along the RafteRs with egg shaped bulges along its body.
i
took it up
to the RestauRant to show a gRoup of
Japanese
touRists, one of whoM was a
JouRnalist.
the pictuRe of Me holding
the snake and the stoRy appeaRed in a MaJoR tokyo newspapeR.”
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L o c a l He r o
A Regional Bloke If you’re a Queenslander you already know about chef Andrew Mirosch. Now it’s the rest of the continent’s turn.
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ndrew Mirosch is the head chef at Lurleens winery restaurant at Sirromet wines in the Gold Coast Hinterland. Perfectly placed (and designed) for international tourism, the winery is about thirty five minutes drive south from Brisbane and forty minutes from the Gold Coast. Lurleens won a recent award for ‘Best Restaurant in a Winery’ and ‘Queensland’s Best Tourism Restaurant’. Andrew Mirosch seems prouder however that they were highly commended in the latest Vogue Produce Awards for the best use of regional produce. It would hardly surprise you then, that he writes a produce column for the weekend magazine edition of The Courier-Mail and appears in the ‘Saturday Afternoon’ lifestyle program on QTQ 9 where he does a paddock-to-plate segment. Oh, and he does that TV on his day off. He’s a big man, with an open face with startling clear blue eyes, wild dreadlock hair and few-days-old beard. And he was happy to talk. Remember how the World Expo in Brisbane in 1988 (the Australian Bicentennial year) invigorated Brisbane? It also started a restaurant boom that Andrew was in the middle of, starting Two Small Rooms (with chef David Pugh) and later About Face, both very successful. If it would seem a logical career move to then come to this spectacularly designed 200 seat restaurant, you’re missing a big part of the story. Andrew explained… “After About Face was sold, I dropped out, I sort of retired… I moved to Stradbroke Island, which is over there,” he pointed out the balcony window of the restaurant to some blue grey bumps in a sheet of ocean glare. “I bought a fishing licence and became a commercial line fisherman, which I did for ten years.” The restaurateur inside him came back however, and he opened Blue Water Bistro at Point Lookout on North Stradbroke Island. He remembers that “I didn’t particularly have any designs on the
restaurant, but… it was great, I was fishing for myself, I was going out in the morning on the boat then cooking. I got married and had a couple of kids along the way.” Their three children prompted the move back to the mainland for their schooling. “So I came to Sirromet. It is beautiful, a nice job, beautiful place. And room to grow a bit of stuff. Did you know we make our own olive oil? “We’ve got maybe about forty olive trees. This year we took the apprentices down and we picked, we ended up with 350 kilos off our trees. It’s the first year they’ve really cropped. I took them out to Murgon, it’s a fair way out west, and there’s a big company that does olives there and I bought another 600 kilos off them and we blended them together and did Kalamata and Frantoio oil. We sell it through here and we sell it through the shop.” I mentioned that I saw the chooks as I came up the hill to the restaurant. “Yeah…we’re not really supposed to do that, it’s one of those really grey areas…if you don’t have the stamp on it you’re not really supposed to sell it apparently…but…ah it’s ridiculous. I have up to seventy chickens there and we get quite a volume of eggs that go through. I buy free range from a local bloke anyway, but they get mixed up. “We support a lot of regional farmers, we now buy directly. We’ve got a bloke who grows strawberries, sweet potatoes, potatoes. Eggs come from a free range local bloke…as much produce as we can buy in the area we buy.” I again made the obvious comment about how things grow so well in the Hinterland. Andrew nodded and grew more serious. “It does…but we’re growing more housing estates here now…and that’s a big problem. If I took you to the farms I used to buy from…still buy from… there’s one, the strawberry bloke, he grows a lot of berries and a lot
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L ocaL H e r o
“All I’m trying to do is make a regional restaurant in a region that had a French restaurant…”
of fruit and vegetables. He’s got housing estates on three sides. He tried to put in a little market, he’s got an old shed there that he’s been selling from for the last thirty years but when he tried to put in a little farm shop the council said, ‘No, your land’s not zoned to do that’. And they also didn’t want him to put in a kitchen garden for school kids, (which he has done anyway). I know a few of the councillors so every time I see them I really get stuck into them. “There is wonderful produce here. Things like red claw (a freshwater crayfish common to tropical Queensland and Northern Territory). I buy red claw from a farmer in Gympie and she drives them down and delivers them… and fish. I’ve got a crabber who supplies all our fresh crab meat. I go with him once in a while, but since I’ve sold my boat and I’ve sold my tractor and,” he rolls his eyes dramatically, “sold my life …it hurts, it hurts”. “Every day I do a specials list…based on what’s good and what’s available. This is quite small, usually I have twelve or fourteen things but Fridays my stuff arrives, generally. We’ve just got some Morton Island oysters in, which are the first of the season. They’re a rock oyster and they’re delicious. There’s a certain type of algae they feed on in that area that gives them a really nice flavour, quite salty, not massive but very tasty.” “In the Channel show we travel around the farms and meet the farmers. It’s supposed to be
south-east Queensland from Gympie to the Tweed. It’s me and a cameraman, we self-produce. It’s mostly paddock to plate but we’ve done fishing, I’ve been out in boats with crabbers, and I’ve been out fishing with divers. Last year I went to a herb farm that grows medicinal and culinary herbs, up near Gympie, I’ve done a story on the red claw. “It’s not the typical cooking show, we spend about half the time talking to producers and ‘why do you do it, and how do you do it, and what do you think about your product?’ And then we take the product and we go and do a dish, out in the bush usually on a barbecue or a little gas flame. It’s good.” So he could happily live this life for some time to come…? “Yeah, I’m happy here… I had dinner with Rick Stein last night, really interesting, he’s in Brisbane at the moment and he was a very passionate sort of bloke. You know he wasn’t what I expected, he was just a normal sort of bloke you could sit down and have a drink with and he’s one of the most successful chefs in the world…he’s concentrated on doing regional produce and seafood and stuff all his life.” It was said with admiration with not a touch of envy. Andrew is the normal sort of bloke that could do something like Stein here. To appropriate a quote from writer AA Gill, Andrew is clearly ‘on the side MoRE of the angels’. r f Fred Harden
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Good Food
Ferry Rd Market
If you’re going to knock down a brick works, this is what you should build.
E
arly(ish) on a Sunday morning, the rest of the Brickworks Centre shopping precinct was deserted, but this stylish indoor market centre was really buzzing. Borrowing from the concept introduced at James St Market in Brisbane’s Fortitude Valley, Ferry Rd Market aims to be a ‘Europeanstyle’ market, offering ‘everything one needs to entertain or be entertained’. We were shown around by Tony Roberts, one of the owners of the market’s Spendelove Bistro. The bistro was named after the original owners of the brickworks and the last surviving family member was invited to the opening. “The old lady was really chuffed,” Tony told me. Judging by the hum, Spendelove is the brunch venue of choice for ‘VeryGC’ locals. There’s a classy homewares store, called Wheel & Barrow, but mostly it’s all about food. Darren Frame and Mitchell Love have brought
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their 45-plus years of experience in fresh fruit and vegetables here to the Market. Not all the produce is local, but it’s all top quality. Sevilo Delicatessen has a large selection of local and imported goods. In a Gold Coast first, Sevilo barbecues stuffed and seasoned hormone-free chickens onsite. You’ll also find Reef, with superfresh seafood and sushi, a quality butcher, and Quench, a juice bar. The bakery, Flour, is very special. Superb sourdough and pastries — it was no surprise when we found it was operated by Head Baker Jesse Downes. Jesse is the son of John Downes, and he sells his father’s cereal range. Jesse has just opened a fine chocolate shop Sweet. Merlo Torrefazione (Italian Coffee Roasting Factory) roasts onsite as well as selling fresh espresso. They also carry coffee machines and accessories. Ferry Rd Market Open seven days a week until 6pm. You can park your convertible at the door. www.ferryrdmarket.com.au
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P R ODU C E R S
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Left. The Witches Chase triple cream Brie is a sell out success; Meredith turns cheeses in the cool room and right, some harder style goats’ milk cheeses.
A ‘cheese change’ story
Witches Chase cheese
M
eredith and Andre Morris’s ‘cheese change’ had its genesis in the tiny seaside villages of coastal Spain. In 1999, having sold most of the shares in their company, Lush Cosmetics they sailed the world for 3– 4 years during which time they fell in love with the food, wine and cheese of Spain. During forays into the hillside villages they discovered family life they could not have imagined in their homeland of North America. Tiny vineyards that had been operating for hundreds of years with someone, usually the grandmother in the back making cheese. With Andre’s father living in Australia and already making his own cheese at home in the kitchen the Morris’s decided Australia was the place to replicate the classic family scenario they had observed in the tiny Spanish villages of their travels. After running a cattle property and a stint on the Gold Coast they now find themselves at Witches Chase on Mount Tamborine making cheese. They opened a shop in November 2004 with both Meredith and Andre making cheese. However, after an argument that found them throwing their newly made camemberts at each other, they realised that perhaps it would be best to have someone
else working in the cheese factory along side Andre. Early days in the shop were very slow, that is until they started to sell at the Marina Mirage and Mudjeeraba markets. Selling at the markets quickly built a huge following for their cheeses so they kept expanding the range to meet demand.The cheeses, and now on any one day there are a dozen to sample, are still sold only through the shop and the Tamborine, and the Marina and Mudjeeraba markets. So these are cheeses which are only sold locally. Not many food miles here! It helps being so close to the large population centres of Brisbane and the Gold Coast. This allows them to retail all their product giving the customer direct access to the producer. It’s an ideal situation for both the cheese maker and the consumer. They now have a full time cheese maker, Adam Papprill who has moved from the Puhoi Cheese Company in New Zealand, and their friend John Longman is also helping them produce cloth bound cheddars, red leicester and caerphilly using both cows’ and goats’ milk. Meredith is particularly excited about these harder-style cheeses as there are currently very few being made in Australia now. The Morris’s commitment to quality extends to their suppliers with them paying
their local farmer a premium price for his Jersey cow’s milk. As if making cheese is not enough Andre has branched into making beer. So come the end of January this year both Witches Chase Cheese and the MT Beer Co will be sharing premises at the end of Gallery Row and Long Road in the centre of Mt Tamborine. This sounds like a good combination to me. And when it comes to the next generation, eleven year old Sienna is already on board selling cheese at the bimonthly Mount Tamborine market. Blessed are the cheese makers. r f Russell Smith.
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THinGS We KNOW ABOUT THe
Gold Coast
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Life’s a beach
Well, pretty much. With kms of superb beaches, you can swim, surf, fish, ski or whatever to your heart’s content. Twenty six beaches are patrolled year-round ( during school holidays). Popular patrolled beaches on the Gold Coast include Main Beach, Surfers Paradise (sounding more glamorous than it did when it was called Elston), Broadbeach, Mermaid Beach, Miami & Nobby Beach. If you’re a serious surfer, get the run down at www.goldcoast.com.au/sport/surfing, which details attractions like the ‘infamous Superbank’ at Snapper Rocks and the ever-reliable swell at The Spit.
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25 things.gold coast hinteRland The beautifully restored delivery truck at the Mount Tamborine Winery.
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Mt Tamborine in Beaudesert Shire is a gem in the Hinterland. If you climb this peak via Canungra, you face single-lane traffic lights for one rocky narrow section. If you come the other way via Henri Robert Drive it’s a continuous climb with signs showing an increasing grade at each bend. At the top is a plateau around 8km long by 5km wide, and home we’re told to around 7000 people, some just on weekends because it has always been the place to escape from the tropical heat. The travel websites are a pretty dull introduction, but start online exploring with the Shire website www.queenslandshiddenoasis.com
3 Weddings on Mount Tamborine
Mount Tamborine / Tamborine Mountain
There’s a spot on the main road beloved by hang gliders by day, and as the sun sets by wedding parties having their photographs taken. The wind lifts sails and wedding dresses. The layers of mountains to the west are a spectacular background.
5 Sirromet wines 4
Lamington anyone? In this case, it’s a National Park, not a sticky cake. Presumably they’re both named after the same Baron Lamington who was Governor of Queensland from 1896 to 1901. As well as offering spectacular views back down to the coast, the rainforests here let you journey back in time. Some of the plants and animals here are survivors from before the days of the dinosaurs. For more details about walks in Lamington National Park, and a lot more fascinating stuff about its history, go to the Parks and Forests section at www.epa.qld.gov.au
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The name looks like that of an industrial chemist, but it’s a bit more attractive when pronounced Sirromay as in French. It’s the owner’s, Gold Coast businessman Terry Morris, name and initials spelt backwards. Lurleen’s restaurant is named after his wife.
6 Sweet Cane
Chilled cane juice sounded a bit sickly sweet to be refreshing on a hot day. even with the promise of dash of ginger its appeal was low. But sampled from the juice stand of Dan, a cane farmer from Tumbulgum near Murwillumbah, I found out why the locals formed a queue. Needing a way to value add to his cane farm, Dan started to grow a low sucrose variety, with around half the sugar content of normal cane and ideal for juicing. He and his son now do markets up and down the coast. MoRE
7 A Man with a van
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Philip edwards at Songbirds sings the praises of Geoff Buckley’s vegetable deliveries (P70) and tells another story about Bruce Makin who moved from the Coonawarra with his wife and began managing apartments. Philip says “he’s got a real passion for food and he’s taken it upon himself to go around in his little delivery van and he sources really good suppliers. He picks it up directly from the freight section at the airport himself. Bruce loves his South Australian things... like Hahndorf Venison and he does quite a few Kangaroo Island products and free range chickens and crayfish. And he’s the sole distributor to Brisbane’s four best restaurants and the three or four best restaurants on the Coast. And that’s it, he doesn’t want to get any bigger than that.” Nice one Bruce.
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25 things.gold coast hinteRland
8 Cool Absynthe
If all you know about absinthe the drink is what Baz Lurman taught you about green fairies in Moulin Rouge, relax. The award winning wine list here is so good you’ll never consider touching this namesake spirit at the restaurant. Choosing any wine could be daunting but there’s a very knowledgeable sommelier to lead you through it. If you try chef Meyjitte Boughenout’s degustation menu and have wine matched with every second course, you’ll still take a taxi home. The décor is Wallpaper* magazine cool, the formfitting uniforms on the waitresses very chic, and the one who asked which of the bread rolls I’d like, had an accent to fall in love with, “this one has ‘azelnoots’. Boughenout also has a classic French patisserie in the Circle on Cavill development and is making a real impact on the reputation of the region for high quality dining. Absythne Restaurant is hidden away in the ground level of the Q1 building. Bookings 07 5504 6466 www.absynthe.com.au
Restaurateur Marty Kollrepp has been around. In the nicest possible way, with a string of award winning dining places along the coast. Here on Goodwin Terrace at Burleigh Heads, he and wife Mandy have found a home. Getting off an aeroplane, taking a long taxi ride and being smoothly seated on the balcony at Oskars in one long breath, may have had something to do with it, but I sat stunned in the sunshine looking at the view back to Surfers. The service and food quality matched it, and by the time it came for the dessert of sorbets with tropical flavours it was all over. No I don’t want to go to my hotel. Leave me alone. Bookings 07 5576 3722.
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10 The Courier-Mail ‘Good Life’
This is where Queenslanders on a Tuesday get their Food and Wine information. Now we love SMH Good Living and The Age’s Epicure food sections but there’s just so much energy in this. The design isn’t as sophisticated but the writing is good and if you’re around on the weekend, the glossier magazine (above) has Andrew Mirosch’s pages of produce and recipes.
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11 When you’re not eating…
9 Oskars Restaurant
…how do you amuse yourself? If golf’s your bag, there are more than 0 courses, from fun par courses up to superb internationally designed layouts. Some are by invitation only - the best guide is on ausgolf.com.au. Other big drawcards are 12 the Sanctuary Cove Boat Show in May and 13 the Indy car races in October. The major food event of the year is Tastes of the Gold Coast, scheduled for the end of August.
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High Brunch The Q1 building is the Worlds tallest residential tower, at least it is this week until someone put up a taller flag pole in Dubai or Brazil. You can buy a ticket to the observation QDeck with a 360 degree view of the Gold Coast, then have a coffee or drink at the Skybar café and lounge bar on Level 77. It’s a wonderful way to orient yourself to the region, and beautiful at sunset. But we think it would be a fun place to have Sunday breakfast. Available from 8am until 11am. www.qdeck.com.au
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‘Avos’ That’s short for avocado’s (for any readers who probably don’t know what a chook is.) There are lots of roadside stalls that all seem intent on price offers - three for two dollars, eight for five dollars. Then there are the ones saying ‘No spray’ and a few proudly claiming totally organic. Here the avocado isn’t a luxury and you can be choosy about finding the best.
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25 things.gold coast hinteRland
16 Miami ice There’s more than a touch of Florida about the Gold Coast: you can even live in Miami. And, of course, if you need to keep your drinks chilled, there’s only one place to go!
17 War of the ‘Worlds’ For many, especially people with ankle-biters, this is THe reason to visit the Gold
Coast. There’s Warner Brothers Movie World, Sea World, Wet’n’Wild Water World, Whitewater World and Dreamworld. Not to mention the Australian Outback Spectacular (why didn’t they call it Aussie World?) presented by RM Williams. Ah, fond memories of children being fascinated by the dolphins, scared witless on the giant water slides, and expecting their parents to accompany them on yet another terrifying ride.
18 Everyone needs a shed especially if it’s like the ‘Green Shed’, at The Showground on the Main Western Rd., Mt.Tamborine. Organised as a non-profit venture by the Tamborine Mountain Local Producers Association Inc. (LPA), the market provides a service to local small farmers and growers. Open to the public every Sunday from 10am to noon it is a great source of fresh local produce to the region. Through members Bev and Geoff Buckley who also take their produce to a Brisbane food distribution network called ‘Food Connect’, the Shed is a co-ordination point for other Tamborine Mountain growers who have surplus quantities of produce that the Buckley’s help distribute. www.greenshed.com.au
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How to get lost There’s a challenge for this region using a GPS in your hire car. If you get a visual display you might just avoid needing a map, but get the kind that has a couple of big arrows and reads the instructions out to you, it spent a lot of time telling me ‘When safe make a U turn’. With all the roadwork, new streets and detours it’s mighty confusing driving here. (It helped when I worked out that Tamborine wasn’t spelt Tambourine.) Get a map. Drive slowly.
20 Do you want views with that? Apartments are a favourite way to stay on the Gold Coast
Mudgeeraba Markets
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– unless you want to wallow in the 5-star opulence of hotels like the Palazzo Versace. De rigeur with your apartment is a water view, a pool and a balcony to dry your beach towel. The advantage is the extra room to spread out and the chance to cook your own hinterland produce, at least some of the time. On any of the Gold Coast accommodation websites you’re spoilt for choice. Hotels, apartments, beach houses - take your pick
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Take the slow road There’s an active Slow Food convivium on the Gold Coast, and who better to introduce you to the local produce? They have been known to run tours including champagne breakfast, a rainforest walk, local produce sampling, wine tasting and a local sunset dinner. Who knows what other slow events may be on the horizon? The person to contact is Robyn Vulinovitch on 07 5571 1699.
22 Queensland icon Mr Fourex first appeared as a caricature in an ad in October
1924 but without his boater which he sensibly sun smart appeared wearing a month later. There’s speculation that he’s modelled on Paddy Fitzgerald (who much later was the General Manager of the Castlemaine Perkins Brewery during a period of great growth.) while others think he is based on a popular dwarf who sold newspapers in Brisbane’s Fortitude Valley www.xxxx.com.au
Gold Coast Certified Organic Co-op have two outlets. On alternate Saturdays they’re at the Marina Mirage or at the Mudgeeraba Showgrounds. It’s worth the drive to Mudgeeraba on the 2nd and 4th Saturdays of the month, there the feeling is much more rural, but stall holders come for all-over, even from down in the Northern Rivers. It’s open 6am–11am. Be early to avoid the heat of the day and to catch the best produce.
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Very GC It’s slick, it’s sophisticated and it’s a lesson to any regional tourism organisation in how to promote their patch. With something of the iconic quality of I♥NY, Very GC has lots of attitude. See the website at www.verygc.com. They also publish a comprehensive Food, Wine and Dining Guide that includes food and wine trails, food events and restaurant listings (and hooray, with prices).
25 Mt Tamborine Distillery While
you’re hard pressed to grow a good wine grape in this wet lush place, everything else that can be crushed, fermented and distilled ends up here at Michael and Alla Ward’s small distillery. Wild haired and bearded Michael looks like a greying hippy farmer which he was, and he talks about them still being ‘a bit feral up on the mountain’. They built the distillery to use up excess organic fruit and it has become a wonderful business. It’s only open Wednesday to Saturday 10am to 3pm so plan your visit carefully. They’re recognised internationally, and their absinthe recently won a gold medal at the World Spirits Competition. www.tamborinemountaindistillery.com
Do you have a food aversion story or a taste you abhor? Write and tell me: fridge@regionalfood.com.au
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I n t r o du c tI o n
Sign at Solitary Restaurant, Cliff Drive Leura
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blue mountains I
n the Blue Mountains civilisation comes to an abrupt halt on the brink of dizzying drops into a forest wilderness. The slightly seedy guest houses, the jostling souvenir shops, the faded reminders of the days when this was the honeymoon retreat of choice, contrast with scenery of a pristine grandeur.
Until 1813 the Mountains were a formidable barrier that defied the attempts of Sydney’s early colonists to penetrate their maze of canyons. By the 1870s, after the completion of the railway, they were a fashionable retreat. People came for the air: perhaps the mists that can hang there well past noon reminded them of the softer climate of an English ‘home’. The legacy of those early tourists lingers in the great houses, the lavish gardens and the opulent hotels, rescued now from the years of neglect that followed WWII. Today a new generation is discovering the Mountains: people coaxing grapes and olives from the valleys below the towering cliffs. Visitors can eat well and stay in comfort. Although fashion has moved on, the mountain experience is as seductive as ever. In summer the heat crackles in air laden with the scent of eucalyptus; autumn colours flash against blue-grey landscapes. It can get damp; weather is something they specialise in up here. So if you’re going to join us, don’t forget to pack your umbrella. And please, don’t let your children play near the edge!
The clutter of the Katoomba shopfronts have barely changed, and travellers still tour the Jenolan Caves. Photo from the Blue Mountains Historical Society collection.
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Restaurants
Front
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H ug h W h i t e h ou s e wants the experience of dining at Darley’s to be as fine as the regional produce he creates it from.
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ugh Whitehouse is a country boy. His parents have a farm in the Hawkesbury, between Windsor and Wisemans Ferry, where they grow tomatoes, stone fruit and mushrooms. He always wanted to be a chef. “Or a dairy farmer,” he adds, but agrees that it’s better not having to get up at four in the morning. The executive chef at the Blue Mountains’ most expensive restaurant has come back to the country via a circuitous route that saw him train at Kurrajong, work in grand hotels in Switzerland and the UK and then spend eight years at Milsons, in Sydney. At Milsons, Hugh started the cooking school concept he brought with him to Darley’s. “You know, a restaurant is always taking, always giving them a bill and I thought it would be a nice thing to give something back. So we started this cooking school once a month, on a Saturday morning. It went for years; it was just a lot of fun. You can invite six people into your kitchen and it was hands on. “When I came up to Darley’s here at Lilianfels we probably did, I would say, a dozen cooking classes and the coverage has been huge, but the price tag is the thing. It is a full day. You cook half a day and the rest of the day we get in the car and we go out and have a picnics in National Parks, and we go to Mt Wilson, and we go fruit picking in Bilpin or mushroom picking and it’s as much about guests being spoilt rotten as it is about cooking, you know, with their chef and having fun.”
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Hugh’s enthusiasm for the picnics and the cooking school clearly stems from his love of people. His respect for his guests and his staff shines through as he describes his role. “Here at Darley’s, I do front of house some nights. You know even though I’m the chef I think it is important to get out there among the diners and I enjoy the service side of it. I have always said you can cook all the best foods in the world, but if you haven’t got the service staff that can execute it and pull it off then it is a waste of time. They hear me talking to customers about my food and so on, they pick up little bits and pieces of the way to explain dishes and it builds their confidence. So what does he have to say about the food that won Darley’s the 2008 Good Food Guide’s coveted Regional Restaurant of the Year award? He says it’s food that’s less fussy, pared down to two or three ingredients that he thinks go well together. Well, maybe. The dishes we tried were more complex in their layered flavours than Hugh’s description would suggest. With the goat’s cheese tortellini for example, there’s the crunch of prawn pieces, the soft green raisins, the warmth of the burnt butter and the cool surprise as you bite through the fresh pasta and the goat curd flows into your mouth. Sure there are just a few ingredients but the resulting entrée is truly special. The other dishes on the menu are often also complex, interesting and balanced. Right. On the verandah of Darley’s, the 1888 home of Sir Frederick Darley then Chief Justice and Lieutenant-Governor of NSW. He named it Lilianfels after his daughter.
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Restaurants
“ You have to be very flexible to use seasonal produce... if I have to change a menu I can ...every day if I need to”
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ugh uses local produce when he can, but laments that the area’s proximity to the city has seen ‘rich folk from Sydney’ displace many orchards and small farms. This means that access to what’s truly local can be limited. And there are other hiccups. “I suppose too with the mountains people are quite relaxed. They all say they are going to deliver and they do it for a week or two and then all of a sudden…you know… they smoke too much pot and it is all gone again.” He grins. “That’s the typical mushroom picker or someone like that.” “The small producers that work well are people like Jannei with their goat cheeses. We buy it direct. I have a supply from a great farm at Mt Cooma that’s an organic farm, a husband and wife team, and they grow organic vegetables and they raise beautiful chickens for nine months of the year and they have fantastic nuts. “Every month I get my 30 or 40 chickens and they ring up and say right, they are being killed today, they will be delivered tomorrow. Their nuts…in autumn time, I will go and buy 200 or 300 kilos of walnuts and hazelnuts and that will keep. So I have got them for the next six months over the winter period. “You have to be very flexible to use seasonal produce. I print all my menus here so if I have to change a menu I can print it every day if I needed to. Probably once a week things change.” Like most chefs, Hugh has his list of favoured suppliers – venison from Mandagery Creek at Orange, lamb from the Southern Tablelands. But he remarks that you can’t limit yourself to local. “This week I have been getting lamb from Flinders Island,” he tells me. “Not because I couldn’t get any locally, but it is all beautiful milk fed baby lamb.” “I would love to see more of farmers that want to grow specialised things that can be on a menu. But that takes time and also takes a lot of resources and money. We are not a cheap restaurant and I know the produce I buy is always at the top-end price.” Does he miss the buzz of a Sydney restaurant? “Not at all,” he says quite firmly, “The healthiest thing for me was getting out of Sydney. In Sydney you are always checking out what everybody else is doing and I think you actually forget what you are about. You are always trying to do someone else’s dish or something like that. I think I am one of the luckier chefs, in that I not only get this beautiful restaurant to cook in with these amazing views and in an area which has seasons and you can feel that. But you know I get to do the whole thing, front of house, wine lists, the whole package.” rf
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Goats Cheese Tortellini with Pinenuts, Raisins and Prawns Four entrée portions
12x10cm circles fresh pasta 200g Jannei fresh curd goats cheese 2 tblsp Persian green raisins soaked in black tea* 2 tblsp pinenuts 100g unsalted butter 50g Parmesan, grated Salt and pepper 8 medium green prawns – peeled Place a small ball of goat cheese in centre of pasta, wet pasta edges with water. Close pasta to form a half moon, bring edges/corners together and pinch. Cook tortellini in boiling salted water for 5 minutes. Meanwhile, heat butter in a small frying pan. Add pinenuts, prawns and raisins and cook until butter starts to brown. At this stage, add the tortellini and cook gently for a few seconds. Serve on a plate with grated Parmesan. Recipe courtesy of Hugh Whitehouse * See Plate for information and stockists
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RestauRants
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EHIND THE SUCCESS OF multi-award-winning Ashcrofts Restaurant is a dedication to seeking out quality ingredients. Coowners Corinne Evatt and Mary-Jane Craig look first to the local area, then to the wider region and then beyond to secure Australia’s top produce. It’s a focus that has made Ashcrofts one of the top restaurants in The Blue Mountains. This Blackheath fine diner is a favourite with locals – always a good indication of consistent quality. They are now approaching their eighth year of trading, and have been awarded a Chef’s Hat in The Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide for the third consecutive year.
Among the local specialties on the current menu is a platter of five cheeses from Jannei Goat Dairy, accompanied by house-made dried fig and ginger jam. Ashcrofts also sources quality produce from Orange, including the famous Ross Hill snails. Rabbit and poultry comes from the Wallaraway Butchery, who themselves have an award-winning regional reputation as suppliers of top quality beef, game, poultry and smallgoods from the Central West and other Australian specialty producers. Ducks are supplied by a farm in Windsor and are fully free range. The produce may be largely local, but the influences are international. An entrée of Sydney rock oyster shooters in snapper broth is enhanced by saffron aioli, and
the signature twice-roasted duck has a distinctly Persian twist with its cinnamon and cardamom flavours. Ashcrofts offers an eclectic list of 0 Wines with an emphasis on regional boutique wines and varietals. Examples are an excellent organic and chemical free merlot from Rams Leap Wines in Warren, a delicious crisp citrus-driven riesling from Shepherds Moon Winery in Young, and a robust spiced black shiraz from Mortimer’s Wines of Orange. In 00 , Ashcrofts will be opening their new Art Space upstairs above the restaurant, where you can expect to see the works of some of the region’s top artists. For more details see www.ashcrofts.com rf
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P R OD U CE R S
Jannei Goat Dairy A lt h oug h M i x i ng their names to form their company identity, Janette and Neil Watson take pride in making some of region’s purest produce.
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Neil and Janette Watson, in the tiny sales area at Jannei. Neil finds the refrigerated cabinet an ideal aging environment for some of his matured cheeses.
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e’re late. It’s a grey rainy day in November as we head west along the Great Western Highway past Lithgow heading for Jannei Goat Dairy at Lidsdale. However all is well when we do eventually arrive at Jannei, as Neil and Janette Watson are too busy packing up their cheeses for the following day’s Pyrmont Growers Market in Sydney to be concerned about our late arrival. The Watsons started their cheese making here in 1995 when Neil decided he wanted a change from teaching agricultural science at a school in Portland. When looking for an alternative income, it’s not surprising that Neil would be thinking milk. He grew up on a dairy farm in that wonderful, rain-blessed dairying country around Wauchope on the NSW central coast. Initially they intended to sell their fresh goat milk into the Sydney market but found this was not profitable in the volumes they could produce. So Janette supported Neil’s experiments with cheese making. He started with hard cheeses in 1996, but soon found that what his customers in Sydney really wanted was fresh curd. Just about the only goat curd available in Sydney at the time was coming from Gabriel Kervella in Western Australia. So local chefs and retailers were delighted to have a truly local product. From this base product, Neil has added many award winning cheeses such as their Bent Back Chevre, Buche noir and Chevrotin.
Cheese making takes place six days a week and while Neil is busy with the curd, Janette uses her background in advertising and design to market their cheeses to an ever-increasing number of customers. Jannei milks around eighty goats (mostly Saanen) from a herd of one hundred producing about 130kg of cheese a week. Ninety percent of this is delivered weekly into the Sydney market where Simon Johnson is the main distributor. Diet for the goats is very important to Neil who goes to great lengths to ensure that every goat in the herd is in peak condition, thus ensuring the highest quality milk for cheese making. In June 2007 Neil had major heart surgery. During his hospitalisation and subsequent recovery Janette took responsibility for all aspects of the business, including the cheese making. So now they often work together in the cheese making room. The weekly trips Janette makes to the Growers Markets she says are hard work. With the long travel time, some days are barely profitable. Jannette says she looks past the sales and considers it important to be there, as it is their only regular marketing exercise. If you would like to visit the dairy for a tasting or purchases of their cheese, phone first to check that either Neil or Janette are available. Blessed are the cheese makers. r f Russell Smith Jannei Goat Dairy 8 View Street Lidsdale NSW 2790 T. 02 6355 1107
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P R ODU C E R S
the MegalOng I
F YOU’RE STAYING at the Hydro Majestic, the Megalong Valley is simply ‘the view’. But don’t just gaze from afar. Take the drive down the narrow road, winding from dry eucalypts to ferns and rain forest, then into the rural valley itself. There, a few traditional farmers and weekenders are now sharing their community with a new breed of small producer.
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P R OD U CE R S
The name ‘Megalong’ is said to come from an aboriginal word meaning ‘under the stone’. The valley has a long history of Indigenous occupation and the original inhabitants clearly defined the region by its dominant feature – the towering red cliffs on either side.
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TableTalk extra virgin olive oil, and olive tapenades.
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hese days, the most important feature of a Megalong Valley homestead is the verandah, a place to sit and watch nature happen around you. Mist tumbles over precipices and boils down the gullies; sunset illuminates the ramparts with fiery reflections. We watched the performance, a glass of local rosé in hand, from the terrace at “Glyn Newydd”, home to Eveline and Robert Schuyff. From Holland via Sydney, the couple have established an organic olive grove in the Megalong, producing their first crop in 2006. They bought the 40-acre property in 2001 but it took two years before they planted a single tree. “Before we put the trees in we needed to take soil samples,” says Robert. “I said to the guy who was advising us, ok, how do I do that…you know, I’m a city boy. He said, ‘you’ve got to dig, maybe two meters down and at different levels you take samples’. I went in the next day with my shovel and I think I got that deep.” He holds his hands 20cm apart. “It was rock hard.” The breakthrough was teaming up with their neighbour, Malcolm Scott, a retired engineer. He told Robert he’d been thinking about growing something like olives, he knew more about farming and he had some equipment. Together, they got a bulldozer in to deep rip the land, then, Robert says “worked pretty hard for a whole year to get the soil into condition”. Eveline was the driving force behind going organic, both from an ethical point of view and as a marketing edge. They imported tonnes of organic matter and ploughed in cover crops to build up the soil, only planting their first trees in 2003. To their delight, the preparation paid dividends – they had a crop three years later. Robert and Eveline came to the valley looking for a better lifestyle for their young family, but they
weren’t naïve about their new venture. From the beginning there was a plan, with Robert applying the city smarts he uses in his IT business. They launched their TableTalk brand well in advance of having their own olives, using oil sourced from Mudgee. The product range is small: the oil, and two different types of tapenade. “We have that made for us in the city,” Robert told us, “and that was all planned. If we’re going to do this we have to try and market the products, and we didn’t know enough about it. So… we did three years of test marketing, and we tried different things. We tried distributors, we tried to go direct to delicatessens, and we tried growers’ markets.” Delis are now their main outlets, in the Blue Mountains and in Sydney’s Northern Beaches, where the couple used to live. A step forward in regional authenticity is converting to their own oil. “This year we didn’t buy in the other oil, we sold some of our own oil and that has been received really well, especially in the local community here. We have a little brochure to say it’s from Megalong and they all know the Megalong. “One of the plans that we have is to have a small oil pressing facility and to have cellar door sales, not a café or anything, but if people want to come this way we’re open and we can sell some of it directly. It’s quite a simple calculation: if you can sell direct your margin is all yours. We’ve looked at different presses and been in contact with Case Gilbert in New Zealand, and he’s actually built a ‘modern’ stone press.” The stone press appeals because it’s traditional, as distinct from the modern centrifuge machines. “When you plan these things, you start off going ‘Hey, we’ll do an olive grove’ and then you sort of disappear underwater going ‘oh my God’. It’s a lot of work. But there is this plan…when we started to rip and plough this land we had that plan ultimately
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P R OD U CE R S to have the facility to press. Malcolm has that technical mind as well. He will be the key person to say ‘What are we going to do, how are we going to do this, and how are we doing to make it deliver the right product?’ You don’t want to have a stone press and say ‘Well it looks really good…but it tastes shit.’ When we get to that stage, which will be in the next two years, we’ll decide what’s the best way.” Like many small producers, Eveline and Robert have day jobs to support their olive enterprise. As well as handling the TableTalk marketing, Eveline has resumed her profession as a physiotherapist, working two days a week in Blackheath. She also works for one day at the Megalong Tea Rooms, “Mostly for the stories and to feel like part of the community” she laughs. She’s active at the small local school, where with other parents, they’ve started a school garden. Robert often works from home, travelling to meetings in Sydney for his business.
There’s only one road into the Valley. The other way is to walk, on the Six Foot Track from Katoomba that takes you through Nellie’s Glen, home to a butterfly found nowhere else on the planet. Pseudalmenus chlorinda chloris is a variety of ‘Hairstreak’ butterfly and was the inspiration for the Dry Ridge Wines logo.
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hat rosé we sipped on the Schuyffs‘ verandah came from Dry Ridge, one of two wineries in the Valley. For Bob and Barbara Tyrell, their vineyard is a retirement venture, and you sense that they’ve been lucky to have the wherewithal to employ others to do a lot of the hard yakka. It’s still no cakewalk. Frosts are a hazard in the area. They’ve imported a machine that blows hot air over the vines at critical times, but there’s heavy irony in Bob’s voice when he talks about getting up at 2am to tow the thing around the vineyard “It’s great, it’s really fun, and with all that flame it looks really exciting too…” Birds are another problem, which was a factor in the decision to produce a rosé. “In this bush setting we get monstered by native birds,” Bob explains, “and cabernet’s very late ripening, so after everything else is picked the cabernet’s sitting there and becomes a bit of a target. We’re producing a Bordeaux style rosé, which is made from cabernet grapes picked considerably earlier, which means that we can pick those grapes before they’re destroyed.” The Dry Ridge rosé owes its finesse to a combination of old world and new world winemaking
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skills. “We’re very happy with our winemakers,” Bob tells us. “They’re in Orange: Chris Derrez and Lucy Maddox. He’s French, from the Chablis region of Burgundy, and winemaking’s been in his family, in his genes probably. She on the other hand is a girl from Western Australia and is Roseworthy trained. It’s a great combination.” On the opposite side of the valley from Eveline and Robert, the Tyrells enjoy an equally spectacular view. Vineyards in the foreground add to the romance of it all. Visitors to the valley can share the experience, thanks to their architect-designed guest accommodation called Sunrise Lodge. Opened in September 2007, it can accommodate two couples. “People ask ‘don’t you get lonely out here’,” Barbara says. “But we have neighbours all around, and everybody feels they have to look after each other.” That’s the way it is when you share something as special as the Megalong. For details of Dry Ridge wines and Sunset Lodge, see www.dryridge.com.au. For more about Tabletalk, including their own lovely cottage accommodation on the farm, see www.glyn-newydd.com. r f
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We’ve pulled off a hat trick In 2007, the Sydney Morning Herald’s Good Food Guide awarded us a Chef’s Hat for the third successive year. It’s a tribute to our philosophy of serving the best local, regional and Australian produce, in an intimate and elegant setting. 2005
2006
ashcrofts
Open Wednesday to Sunday evenings and Sunday lunch, 18 Govetts Leap Road, Blackheath. For reservations call (02) 4787 8297 or email bookings@ashcrofts.com
Fully licensed – international list with emphasis on regional wines.
2007
licensed restaurant
www.ashcrofts.com
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L o c a l He r o
Special Delivery A s t h e ‘ d i s t r i b u t i o n d e pa r t m e n t ’ fo r q ua l i t y A u s t r a l i a n D a rr e n G e r s h b a c h s p e n d s a l o t o f h i s l i f e o n t h e r o a d .
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met Darren Gershbach in the spring of 2003. He arrived at my Market Deli in Canberra with a handful of Australian products which he considered of high quality, and thought I might be interested. His appearance was, to say the least, startling – especially for a sales person. There were the jeans that appeared not to have seen a washing machine in weeks and a shirt that I assumed he’d slept in. Then I noticed the footwear. Well, I guess the hiking boots were at least waterproof. I wondered if this person knew what business he was in. Four years and many long food conversations later I know that he definitely does understand what business he’s in. In fact in my years in the food industry I have rarely come across a distributor who is so wholly committed to quality produce and supporting the producers he represents. A quote from the Gershgoods website sums it up. “We at Gershgoods love food. We love to eat and are proud and privileged to earn our living tasting, and sharing our tastes with our customers and friends.” It means Darren doesn’t spend a lot of time in the office. He’s mostly on the road, sussing out new products, visiting producers, and taking their stories to his customers – in his own inimitable style. Darren’s wife Zoe Gershbach-Smith is an elfin redhead who handles the marketing side of the business. She also drives a mean forklift. They have just moved their business to an accommodating warehouse in Lawson, in the Blue Mountains. From there they distribute to delis, specialty stores and restaurants throughout metropolitan and regional New South Wales.
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p r o d uc t s ,
To my knowledge Gershgoods is the only distributor focussed entirely on Australian products. They see themselves as their suppliers’ distribution department, allowing producers to concentrate on what they do best – producing. The Gershgoods range includes Careme pastry, Charmaine Soloman’s spice pastes, a range of Tetsuya products, superb Kennedy and Wilson chocolates and many more specialty goods. Then there’s the coffee. Gershgoods represents Toby’s Estate and also deals in coffee-making equipment. Darren’s dedication to good coffee borders on fanaticism and everyone around him has been educated in the correct technique. “You have to have your elbow at a ninety-degree angle,” Zoe told me, as she demonstrated the action required to exert even pressure on the freshly ground beans. Zoe’s passion for food overflows into gardening. The extensive organic veggie garden spills down the hill behind their lovely old house in Lawson. (The house used to be the local council chambers, and its quirks had me wondering about the various chapters in its history.) Chickens wandered in the garden and a quartet of gawky ducklings waddled out to be fed. “Look at that breast,” Zoe said, poking one of the ducklings gently. She’s joking, but to Darren and Zoe there’s always the food angle. rf For more information about Gershgoods you can phone them on T. 02 4757 2013 or see www.gershgoods.com.au
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P R ODU C E R S
good the
If Poilâine’s 200-year-old sourdough starter is a mature adult, Hominy’s is just a baby. But Brent Hersee and Jennifer Ingall want to make sure it will grow up good and strong. 10
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Jennifer Ingall, the cheerful day-time face of Hominy Bakery
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P R OD U CE R S
“Y o u
c a n pay t w o d o l l a r s fo r a l o a f o f
b r e a d b u t i f yo u c a n ’ t e at i t , i t ’ s e x p e n s i v e ”
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ot all sourdoughs are what they claim to be, according to Jennifer Ingall from Katoomba’s Hominy Bakery. She speaks with authority. The sourdough at Hominy can trace its parentage back no less than 17 years, to when she and baker Brent Hersee began their own starter dough at Blackheath Bakery. When their business began it was a typical hot bread shop, but they knew there was something better. They had read a lot about sourdough and decided to learn from the source. “So Brent went straight to Europe – straight to the top to Poilâne in Paris” says Jennifer. “He had been learning French and he walked in and said ‘can I please learn about sourdough?’ Poilâne is an exceptional bakery, such beautiful bread – fifth generation starter dough so perhaps 200 years old, and M. Poilâne only let him in because he was from the other side of the world…” Jennifer describes their original starter as “relatively weak” and says all starters need time to develop and become more complex. “It’s like the way a really good red wine that’s made correctly will actually improve with time in the bottle,” she explains, “so it’s like a good Grange.” That’s why she takes issue with bakers who cut corners. “One of the big issues that I think is incredibly important to mention is essentially definition and labelling laws,” she says. “When you’re in Europe, and particularly in France, they are very strict about what you can and cannot call sourdough, but here in Australia none of that exists.” Making a true sourdough is a lengthy procedure - eighteen hours “from go to whoa” according to Jennifer. It gets bakers up at night, hence the desire to take shortcuts. “They do use some sort of starting culture,” she says, “but they add commercial yeast – that is not true sourdough.
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“They do a lot of tricks. Like they can say, okay, we use no added commercial yeast but they’ll add a little bit of yeast food, so they’re using wild yeast and microorganisms to make the bread rise, and then they add this little bit of chemical — ascorbic acid to essentially make the wild yeast feed. “That really accelerates the dough which totally destroys the whole mission of sourdough, because the whole point of extended ferment is flavour, crust, crumb and pre digestibility. It’s like the whole loaf is partially digested for you by the extended ferment activity. If you shortcut that, you’re wrecking everything, but you can shave hours off and then you shave the labour off. But, you shouldn’t then call it sourdough, do you know what I mean? “Gourmet Traveller did a big blurb on bakers and there were several of them who I know for a fact, because I’ve gone there, are using chemicals but not mentioning it. It sounds innocent enough to say I’m adding a bit of ascorbic acid, or they might for instance, pop some sultanas into their starter culture. That’s sugar, which of course is yeast food, and it warps it and adds a very strange dimension to the dough – makes the dough more cakey and close crumbed instead of more large crumbed.” Hominy has two sorts of customers. There are the gourmet conscious, who love the bread for the flavour, the big crust and maybe because sourdough is fashionable. “It’s interesting to those customers who know Brent trained with Poilâne,” adds Jennifer. The bigger segment is the health-conscious market, who come because it’s organic, it’s stone-ground flour and the extended fermentation makes it more digestible. With the extra work involved there comes a premium price. “Most people who shop in our store have a sense of fairness,” Jennifer says. “They know that comparatively speaking it is inexpensive and if you want to extrapolate that a little bit further, expensive is inedible. You know, you can pay two dollars for a loaf of bread but if you can’t eat it, it’s expensive. “Fortunately our customers are highly educated about food and genuine sourdough. Also we are on a mission, we truly love the organic side of things The preservation of traditional bread-making techniques, making a wholefood product, and it’s just incredibly satisfying work.” r f Above. If you were a night-time visitor to Hominy you’d see the other partner, master baker Brent Hersee here making pastry.
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elevate
senses your in the
Blue Mountains Region
Less than two hours from Sydney, the Blue Mountains region is the perfect place for a refreshing escape. Experience the exhilaration of fresh clean air and breathtaking World Heritage listed wilderness. Indulge yourself with a luxurious day spa or a world-class meal at an award-winning restaurant, all set against a magnificent scenic backdrop. Explore quaint mountain villages and browse through galleries filled with locally produced artworks, antique emporiums, museums & boutique shops offering everything from hand-crafted jewellery to photography and textiles. Living artworks in the form of spectacular gardens open to the public change dramatically with the seasons.
Experience the thrill of the great outdoors – take a bushwalk to a majestic lookout, picnic by a rainforest waterfall, or for the more adventurous, try rockclimbing, canyoning, mountain biking or adventure caving. The region also offers outstanding horseriding and golf courses. With an amazing range of accommodation on offer in the region you’ll be sure to find something to suit your taste and budget – whether you are looking for a romantic getaway or indulgent short break at a cosy B&B, boutique hotel or resort, the nostalgic charm of a restored historic guesthouse or hotel, the privacy of a bushland retreat or the convenience of a selfcontained cottage. So what are you waiting for? Come on up and elevate your senses in the Blue Mountains.
For a FREE copy of the 2008 Blue Mountains Accommodation & Experience Guide, general enquiries or accommodation bookings, call 1300 653 408 or go to
www.visitbluemountains.com.au
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S l ow Fo o d
Slow and blue Building a community is the focus of this Slow Food group, the second designated Cittàslow in Australia.
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nne Elliot is the assistant convivium leader of Slow Food Blue Mountains and one of the five founding members. She’s the very active spokesperson we managed to convince to sit quietly for a few moments conversation. On the balcony of her lovely old weatherboard home (where she and her husband also run a B&B) there were noisy interruptions of parrots and a hyperactive, much loved dog that wanted attention. Anne didn’t let any of that stop her sharing what she believes is the new activism, as important for social change as any other cause. The convivium started in 2004 and for the first 18 months it was very hard to get the idea across. In November 2006, they were down to two or three members. Now there are more than 60 members, plus another 200 ‘supporters’ on the mailing list. Anne attributes the growth to a combination of hard work and timing. “Last year it just boomed – the membership just romped ahead and I think there’s been so much more information about climate change and we have major problems with water in Australia – people are really identifying with
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it a lot more.” she says. “Lots of small events and writing articles, getting information flowing through where we could in the local region also helped turn things around. “There’s been an explosion in creating kitchen gardens, especially in the schools which of course is a major project of every Slow Food convivium. There are something like 200 kitchen gardens in the schools in Italy and a similar numbers of growers markets, and when you see the impact of what that does to reduce the food miles and support small producers, it’s quite, quite profound.” A current project for Slow Food Blue Mountains is to have a kitchen garden in every Blue Mountains home. The working group has developed a three year program targeting people who have never gardened before – showing them how to grow their own vegies in simple Styrofoam boxes. About 20,000 low cost or no cost starter seedlings have been provided. Then there’s the Fruit Tree Register. Discovering that many properties around the Mountains had really old fruit and nut trees, Slow Food devised a program to
connect people who wanted to give away surplus fruit with people who wanted it for jam making, preserving or baking. There’s no money involved; it’s all about building up community and the idea of sharing and exchanging. The Register is supported by Preserve Making Rediscovered workshops run by Slow Food, which have proved extremely popular. Anne is hoping that the local council will take over the administration of the program and the mapping of the fruit trees, in conjunction with their weed-mapping program. Anne herself is obsessed with chestnuts and has been the driving force behind the “Chestnuts in the Mist” seasonal celebration which runs through autumn and culminates in events at Katoomba’s Winter Magic festival in June. “We roast chestnuts, we offer to taste chestnuts, we show people how to peel and store chestnuts. There’s a slow café that’s themed on chestnuts, and “Tea with the Tenors” at The Carrington with chestnut pate and chestnut chocolate cake,” she enthuses. In March 2007, Blue Mountains Katoomba became the second Australian town, after Goolwa in South Australia, to be accredited as a Cittaslow. It signifies an adherence to “slow” values, rather than a heedless push for progress. Anne is thrilled with the accreditation. “It’s great and I want to see this happening right around Australia,” she says. “I think it’s a great way to really encourage cultural tourism, but mainly I love what it does to the community. It really does help to draw out all the positives.” rf You can read more about the Slow movement at www.slowmovement.com
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THinGS We KNOW ABOUT THe
Blue Mountains
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The Carrington That’s the thing
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The Three Sisters What the Eiffel Tower is to Paris the Three Sisters are to Katoomba. Google ‘Three Sisters Katoomba’ and you get , 00 entries. The striking rock formation has been turned into all manner of souvenirs – even chocolates. The Three Sisters Motel was described as ‘really basic and budget and so unrenovated that it is almost retro’.
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The Six Foot Track The 42km Six Foot Track (so named for the width that allowed two horses to pass) was constructed in the 1880s as a bridle trail, providing a short-cut from Katoomba to the popular Jenolan Caves. The first recorded passage of the completed track was by the governor, Lord Carrington, in September 1887. Reopened in 1984, following reconstruction work, it involves serious uphills, river and creek crossings and a lack of facilities. If you want to walk it the ‘easy’ way, a number of tour companies provide supported walks; all you have to carry is your day pack. If you want to do it the very, very hard way, there’s the annual Six Foot Track Marathon each March – see www.sixfoot.com
about Australia having such a recent history. There are no Roman viaducts to preserve so we’re rightly hanging on to anything with a connection to the past. Even when it’s as ugly as the tall black chimney that towers over the town of Katoomba.
It’s a less-than-gorgeous landmark, but the Carrington Hotel is heritage-listed so it’s likely to dominate the Katoomba skyline for years to come. The hotel itself (formerly called the Great Western) was opened in 1 and advertised as ‘the largest and best known Tourist Hotel in the Southern Hemisphere’. A powerhouse was established at the rear of the hotel in 1 1 , providing electricity for the hotel itself and for the town. After World War II tourism to the Mountains declined and the hotel fell into disrepair, closing its doors in 1 . The Carrington reopened in 1 after considerable restoration and now this gracious old lady is making another bid for glory. You can’t miss it.
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25 things.blUe MoUntains
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Hydro Majestic Described as ‘a great place to take your grand mother’, it’s accurate. Afternoon tea and scones was underwhelming but the place is wonderful. If you stay you can really explore, if you visit don’t miss the historic photographs on the walls. Now part of the Mercure Hotel group, it opened in 1 0 as a ‘hydropathic sanitorium’ but the Medlow Bath spring waters dried up and water was shipped from Germany, arriving in iron tanks and tasting terrible, so it was assumed to be very beneficial.
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cheap eats
5 Megalong Valley Tea Rooms
The Gershgoods team recommend Three Sisters BBQ – Katoomba St (our personal favorite!) Arjuna – with great views, Zycca – good fresh Indian. Grand View Hotel – has a Monday and Tuesday pub dinner special. Hana – top Japanese in Leura. Hominy Bakery – Katoomba. Try the pizza strips and organic sandwiches.
Proudly eschewing the new-fangled title of ‘Café’ the Tea Rooms have been run by four generations of women from the same family for more than 50 years. It’s a social hub for the Valley and the recipes haven’t changed in decades. An elderly lady who returned after a 40year absence declared that the apple pie tasted exactly as she remembered it! There are some modern additions, like the Plowman’s lunch, but mostly its Devonshire teas, big breakfasts and country hospitality.
Those who know say Café Momento at Blackheath, Jamison Café in Katoomba, Fed Café at Wentworth Falls and Fresh in Katoomba.
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Go Jump We get all the stimulation we need from caffeine, but if you need a serious adrenaline rush, the Blue Mountains has climbing, canyoning and abseiling, including the Mega Jump – the highest continuous free-hanging abseil in the Southern Hemisphere, led by an experienced guide. Katoomba has a number of reputable adventure tour companies to show you how.
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Hartley Drive straight off the Great Western Highway and into the 1830’s. Hartley Historic Village has historic inns, a courthouse, churches and post office in the sandstone colonial style. You can stay at the Comet Inn at nearby Hartley Vale – the building dates back to 1879 and was named after the brand of kerosene produced from shale mined in the area. Sadly, the much awarded restaurant at Collits’ Inn is no more, but the establishment is still operating as a B&B.
10 Hang in there For sheer gee-whiz tourist
enjoyment, take the Scenic Railway. It used to be how the coal and shale came up from the Jamieson Valley. It creaks, rumbles but you’re right in the environment. Inside the glass bottom Skyway cabin on the other hand you can smell fear but the kids love it. See the advertisement on Page 99.
PHOTO. BLUe MOUNTAINS LIBRARY COLLeCTION
7 Best Coffee
Fish & Chips are a day tripper favourite. Falls Takeaway in Wentworth Falls, and Friar Tuck in Blackheath which is on the biker route and sometimes full of Hell’s Angels – they come a long way for a good chip.
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11 norman orman Lindsay Gallery
While tending more towards appreciation of the voluptuous Lindsay paintings at this beautiful National Trust gallery in what was Lindsay’s home in Faulconbridge, we’d have to mention the images of the Magic Pudding. They’re such a part of our Australian food culture. The pudding story arose out an argument that Lindsay had with a fellow writer who thought that fairies were the most popular subject for a children’s story. Lindsay believed it was food. The success of the pudding story, plainly won the argument.
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Events for all seasons The annual three-day Blue Mountains Music Festival, to be held from 14 to 16 March in 2008, features acoustic folk, jazz & world music artists from around Australia and the world. In May, the Blue Mountains ‘Food with Altitude Fair’ is held in Blackheath. Katoomba turns on pagan-style madness around the winter solstice, with Winter Magic, when market stalls, costumed locals and performances close the main street for the day. In spring, the focus turns to gardens with the Leura Gardens Festival held each October, followed by Blackheath’s Rhododendron. Festival on the first weekend in November. Songlines Festival – held bi-annually, (hopefully) next in October 2008, celebrates the arts and the natural environment, with events like fire sculptures on the lake, opera in the Jenolan Caves.
14 Bush Tucker Walk It’s a far cry from Darley’s but you can Learn the history and food use of many Australian native plants and rediscover the wisdom passed on from the local Aboriginal people to early white settlers. www.high-n-wild.com.au
In 1888, the Chief Justice and Lieutenant-Governor of New South Wales, Sir Frederick Darley purchased 12 acres close to echo Point at Katoomba and began the construction of a ‘high-class cottage’ which he named Lilianfels after his daughter. The house, where he entertained distinguished guests including the future Queen Mary, is now Darley’s Restaurant, one of two restaurants at the Lilianfels Resort and Spa. Superbly positioned with a stunning view over the Jamison Valley, the 5-star hotel is part of the Orient express group. If you’re looking for an indulgent weekend, you could do worse than the ‘Vie en Rose’ package which includes dinner for two at Darley’s, a full breakfast, a bottle of Moët Rosé Champagne and other goodies. In a valley view room (highly recommended) the whole thing will set you back $789 for a weeknight or $879 on weekends.
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12 Lilianfels
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Leura Mall It’s really a main street, not a mall, but this tidy, split level tree-lined thoroughfare is picturesque and eminently strollable. Among the restaurants, cafés and fashion shops we liked the sign ‘Stairway to Kevin’ that directs you to an establishment where the (presumably) eponymous owner sells musical goods. The Stockmarket café is cosy and busy for good reason - they make a good coffee and excellent bakery style lunches.
York Fairmont resort r In the Blue Mountains, even the addresses suggest that you’re a world away. Fairmont Resort’s address is 1 Sublime Point Road, Leura. And if you were trading hotels with the best views, this is as beautiful (sublime?) a location as Lilianfels has. Here the modern architecture is decorated with changing contemporary Australian landscape art, some of which brings you to a halt. In the eucalypt restaurant, Chef Michelle Babb follows a fine dining and award winning reputation with an approachable menu that she still slips some special moments into. Presentation is important and we were not surprised when found that Michelle is also is keen painter. Coming to work here must be a pleasure.
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Trains The Blue Mountains train line changed the commerce of the mountain and beyond. An express morning and evening service between Mount Victoria and Sydney also changed the mountain life. Now commuters could live almost rurally along the route and work in the city, an advantage that continues today with a regular electric suburban rail service. But something is missing.
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The most famous of the steam trains was ‘The Steamed Fish’ which made its last run in 1957. Many commuters used its buffet car to have their breakfast, with tea and toast costing a shilling. John Low’s book ‘Pictorial History of the Blue Mountains’ has a story about how the compartments became small social clubs and were guarded jealously, and how at Christmas and easter the public servant passengers festooned the train with streamers and balloons and the trip home became a big party.
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Hold that pose If you even mildly interested in the history of the Blue Mountains this photographic collection held by the Katoomba Library will delight you. Once you’ve found the right page (Image Library on menu) you can search by keyword (try trains) or by Attraction or Photographer (try the famous local photographer Harry Phillips whose photographs the library staff are holding) choose view by the thumbnails and click away. www.bmcc.nsw.gov.au/library/
19 Best Restaurants
Restaurant Como (Blaxland), Vulcans (Blackheath), Darley’s (Katoomba), Silks (Leura), Ashcrofts (Blackheath), Solitary Restaurant (Leura). uPDATES
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Blackheath Growers Market Features eccentric farmers like Yuri the biodynamic grower – a story with every bunch of Rhubarb and a bow and a “thank you for shopping with a grower” for every purchase. Malfoys Gold is fantastic honey from third generation apiarists – originally arriving in the Bathurst region for the goldrush.
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Mount Tomah Botanical Gardens established as the cool-climate garden of the Royal Botanic Gardens and opened in 1987, there are 5000 plants here grouped by geographic origin. This is a young garden but already quite beautiful and will grow to be very special. It’s views beyond the garden are just as spectacular, and it’s open every day except Christmas day.
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22 Paragon Café This landmark in Katoomba’s main street is a must-see. The cocktail bar in particular is a retro gem (you have to go through the door that seems to direct you to the gents’, then turn left). They’re still making chocolates – totally original, nothing has changed in 25 years - including the plastic and polystyrene chocolates in the front window display.
The Blue Mountains
Food Co-Op
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Guest Houses A feature of Blue Mountains accommodation, particularly in Katoomba, these are the local version of B&B’s. Some date back to Victorian times, or the first decades of the 20th century, when the Blue Mountains was a fashionable weekend and holiday retreat. Many have grandly english names like Belgravia and Balmoral. It’s a more personal alternative to hotel accommodation and gives you the chance to soak up a bit more local atmosphere.
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24 Road news and closures
When you depend on one road to get on and off the mountains, the RTA website is invaluable. Our trip to Lidsdale was blocked by a tanker spill for hours and the locals checked on the live traffic information at www.rta.nsw.gov.au/trafficreports
The food co-op now housed in Ha’penny Lane in Katoomba started in a garage when a group of people wanted to buy good quality wholefoods for a good price. From the original 15 to 20 households, the co-op has grown to more than 1800 members. You don’t have to be a member to shop here, but if you are you get a 10% discount. There is a focus on the biodynamic, the organic and the eco-friendly, so take your own bags please. Locals recommend getting in early on Saturdays if you want the best of the fresh produce. They also sell the local Jannei cheeses.
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a fresh taste every time. there’s nothing mass-produced about our fresh and matured goat cheeses. Because they’re mostly made to weekly orders, the taste reflects small changes in the milk, from season to season or even week to week. So every time you try a Jannei cheese, it’s subtly different. one thing we are consistent about, however, is winning medals – 29 gold awards from 2003 to 2007. you’ll find Jannei cheeses at Simon Johnson in Sydney and melbourne. For details of other retailers, give us a call, or come and see us at the good Living markets at pyrmont on the first Saturday of each month (find us on the wharf next to mowat’s of mudgee). you can also buy from our farm shop, open mondays & tuesdays or by appointment. closed Sundays.
Jannei Goat Dairy CORNeR MUDGee HIGHWAY & VIeW St. LIDSDALe NSW 2790 teLePHONe 02 6355 1107
Blue Mountain Ranges
ADVERTiSinG in
Reach a discerning audience* committed to food and wine tourism. Our readers take lots of short breaks and say one the most important reasons they travel is to discover great food and wine. Food and wine is fastest growing segment of tourism worldwide. If you have a product or service that you think will be of interest to these discerning people (our conservative estimate is that our magazine readership is 50,000 and growing), we have a range of advertising options for you. Also, all advertisements in each issue are include in that issue’s online content. Our website has 300,000 unique visitors each year. Visit www.regionalfood.com.au Please contact our Advertising manager John Bushell on 02 8252 0854 or at ads@regionalfood.com.au
* Ask for our latest reader survey which has more details about these special people.
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Photograph by Aurore Harden kris Lloyd with a washedrind offering from Woodside.
Woodside cheese Wrights
I
T’S 8.30AM in late October as I drive through the picturesque Adelaide Hills town of Woodside, the sun is just starting to warm the cool hills air. I’m here to meet with Kris Lloyd, manager and head cheese maker at the Woodside Cheese Wrights, a small artisan cheesery famous for their unique goat and cows’ milk cheeses. As a member of the Lloyd family, owners of Coriole Vineyard in McLaren Vale (Kris is married to Paul Lloyd) her commitment to quality is taken as granted. Kris came to cheese making through her involvement with food product development at Coriole.
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She was working with brother-in-law Mark when in 1 , the opportunity to buy Woodside Cheese Wrights came up. Kris took over the management, and in time the cheese making. Since then the business has gone from strength to strength producing what I believe are some of the most exciting cheeses in Australia. These cheeses are sought after by top chefs and discerning gourmet food retailers around the country. However, at this moment, it’s a bit hard to find. Kris tells visitors to ‘look for the Chocolate Factory sign’. A discreet sign on
the highway directs me to my destination housed in a section of an old Farmers Union dairy factory in the backstreets of Woodside. It’s a sprawling building which is home to a number of small businesses. I only spot the possibility of an entrance by the presence of a four wheel drive vehicle with a tank mounted on the tray, delivering milk to the Cheese Wrights. This has come from Carol Pennington at McFarlane Goat Dairy, about an hour’s drive away at Middleton. Francine, who is making the delivery, tells me she does three to four deliveries a week.
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ta lK & c h e e s e
In this new regular section cheese judge Russell Smith has the inside information on Australian cheese and cheesemakers.
I
FIND OUT LATER that the Cheese Wrights have three goat dairies supplying milk to them, coming from different areas, the milk from each dairy being used to make specific cheeses.
Entering through a heavy sliding door I find I’m in the storage areas, with telltale signs of cheese making: cartons stacked to the ceiling, wire racks waiting their turn in the maturing rooms, there’s a lunch room and a tiny office with windows looking into the ‘make’ room. Kris appears around a corner and I am greeted with a welcoming smile and, as always, abundant enthusiasm.
Photograph by Aurore Harden
On a visit last year, I delivered to Kris her award from the Royal Agricultural Society of NSW for “ The Most Successful Exhibitor of Goat, Sheep and Buffalo Milk Products” for the Sydney Royal Easter Show. Although Woodside have won this award previously, what was particularly exciting for Kris was that she achieved it by entering three of her “new” cheeses. Returning just one year later I found that Kris has again produced several new cheeses which are finding their way into the top restaurants and retailers Australia wide. The desire to experiment and innovate is as much in evidence at the Cheese Wrights as at Coriole. It’s precisely this that has brought me to Woodside. The cheeses that Kris presents in various shows, often have quite different characteristics. This brings us to talk about a topic that is perhaps discussed as much among cheese makers as the weather is among farmers. Seasonality. Every season, or even every month, the composition of milk changes subtly, responding to temperature and feed variations in the milking animals ‘ environment. This requires the cheese maker to continually adjust their procedures to accommodate these changes. While this is seen as a negative with larger cheese makers who are striving for a uniform product, it is precisely these seasonal changes that Kris loves. In fact she says ‘seasonality’ is a driving force in her passion for making traditional cheeses. Woodside cheeses will vary with the season (as do wine vintages) so, rather than seeing variations in the cheeses as a problem, she suggests we embrace them and enjoy their individuality! Kris Lloyd’s love of a challenge may soon extend to making some of her cheeses from raw milk. At present this is not permitted; however FSANZ (Food Standards Australia New Zealand) is almost certain to legislate federally for this to be allowed, under new dairy production legislation to be introduced, hopefully this year. Kris says she is looking forward to the day when she can make some of her cheeses for her customers using raw milk. In 00 year a retail ‘cellar’ door was opened at Woodside, so if you haven’t had your fill of cheeses at Coriole you can head to ‘the source’ and excite your palate once again with these delightful morsels. You may even be lucky enough to taste a cheese that is still in its development stage and not yet available in retail shops. As if there is not enough work running the whole operation at Woodside, Kris founded CheeseSA in 00 , an industry organization with the aim of promoting the specialist cheese industry in South Australia. She is currently the chair of CheeseSA held its second annual Cheesefest in October 00 . With almost 00 entries from around Australia and New Zealand this event has already established itself as one of the premier cheese shows in Australia. (see the Events section for more details and a winners list for CheeseFest0 ) Blessed are the cheese makers! r f Russell Smith
Woodside Figaro
a selection of Woodside cheeses Edith. A Woodside benchmark. A small ( 00g) cylindrical ashed goat milk cheese. When young the centre can be quite chalky however it develops almost blue characters with age. Be careful with the rind; as the cheese ages as it can develop some bitterness. Vigneron. Wrapped in vine leaves after being washed with white wine this goat milk cheese develops a tangy, earthy flavour. At its best around six weeks old. Figaro. This is the funkiest of Kris Lloyds goat milk cheeses. Washed several times before being wrapped in vine leaves the surface of the cheese under the vine leaves developes a rusty red paste resulting in some intense rustic flavours which are balanced by the clean herbaceous flavour of the inner paste. Fibonacci. Kris says this cheese was inspired by her last trip to Italy. Made from goat milk it is quite a thin disc that oozes a smooth runny paste with delicate hints of the pasture. The Paisley Goat. A semi hard goat milk blue with a mild flavour when young but softening with age to develop more intense blue flavours. Charleston. A white mould Jersey cows’ milk cheese which is sold in 0g, 00g, and a kg wheel. It has a rich yellow paste and develops straw-like flavours as it ages.
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c h e e s e Wat c h
a french perspective
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RENCH CHEESE judge Roland Perrin arrived in Melbourne last November as the guest of Dairy Australia to judge at the 00 Australian Grand Dairy Awards. A consultant to the French minister for agriculture and president of the French National Cheese and Dairy Contest held annually in Paris during February Roland added an international judging perspective to the Australian competition. The Australian Grand Dairy Awards is an annual event organised by Dairy Australia where only gold medal winners from qualifying competitions all around Australia are eligible to enter. This makes it the premier awards event on the Australian judging calendar. The judging took place in November with the awards being announced and presented at a gala event in Melbourne on the th February. So look out for the 00 champions logos on dairy products and cheeses in your deli or supermarket soon after; these are Australia’s best. Between the two judging days Roland presented seminars for Australian cheese makers at the National Centre for Dairy Education Australia at Werribee. I was lucky enough to join Roland and chief judge of AGDA Neil Willman on a visit to Tarago River Cheese Company in Gippsland and Red Hill Cheese on the Mornington Peninsular. The exchange of information between Roland and the cheese makers was a valuable experience for the Aussies and Roland certainly enjoyed travelling through some of Australia’s most picturesque dairy country. At Tarago River Roland tasted several blue cheeses and a triple cream cheese with cheese makers Matt Taylor and Mark Leighton. Everyone benefited from the frank exchange of ideas. A tour of the factory followed and Roland was impressed by the underground cellars filled with quietly maturing blue cheeses. Similarly at Red Hill cheese maker Burke Brandon spent several hours tasting and discussing critical aspects of cheese production with Roland. Roland’s visit to Australia showed just how much we can learn when ideas are freely shared.
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Washington Washedrind
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HIS ISSUE’S cheese to look for is from Barossa Valley Cheese Company and is included due to its success in show competitions during 00 . It won Champion washed rind cheese at the Australian Grand Dairy Awards in February (an award that cheese maker Victoria Glaetzer likened to winning a gold Logie) and more recently champion cheese of the show in October at Cheesefest in Adelaide. A particular point to make is about the consistency of this cheese. The biggest challenge for small cheese makers dealing with an ever changing ingredient(milk) is to produce interesting and exciting cheese with a reasonable level of consistency. And Victoria has done just that. Made in 00- 0g rounds from cows’ milk it is hand washed with a brine solution for two weeks before being released for sale. A mild sweet flavour on release it develops characteristic earthy, cooked brassica flavours as it ages. If you find a lovely fully ripe one at your local deli, buy it and enjoy. Warning! Remember to appreciate the full flavour of washed rind cheese, and for that matter most cheese you need to take them out of the fridge to allow them to warm up. In summer about 0- 0 minutes should be enough for a small cheese like the Washington.
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dairy tales
challenging times for dairy Extracts from a conversation with Peter WilsonDairy Australia Industry Analyst. 13.11.07.
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USTRALIAN MILK production dropped % in 00 / 00 and Victoria with % of Australia’s milk production had a decrease of %. The worst affected areas were the northern regions of the state. These are the irrigated areas that have little or no water allocation. A similar decrease is expected in the 00 / 00 financial year. This will contribute to an increase in the price paid to dairy farmers of between 0 to 0%. However for many farmers this will be offset by the higher input costs especially for feed. Dairy Australia’s In Focus publication out the end of November is a great source of information giving an overview of the industry worldwide. Download from website www.dairyaustralia.com.au and go to publications. The combination of drought in Australia and high world commodity prices will force up the domestic price of dairy products but by how much we still really don’t know. We still haven’t seen much movement in the retail price of dairy products, but it is just a matter of time.
Companies are now making the decision whether to sell product on the domestic market or into the export market. The possibility of major shortages of butter and cream are remote; however small manufacturers who are effectively buying on the spot market with no secure contract could face intermittent shortages. Anecdotal evidence suggests this is already happening in the local market. Renowned Canberra baker and pastry maker Leanne Gray of Silo Bakery says she is already having difficulty sourcing enough butter for her fabulous pastries. There is an expectation that prices for dairy products will remain high even if sufficient rain falls in Australia as world economic growth lead by China is causing an ever-increasing demand for dairy products. So even in the middle of the current devastating drought there is still optimism for the future of dairy.
Cheese Courses — build a brie Cheese educator Carole Willman will be running her ever popular ‘home cheese making’ workshops throughout the year. On February th there is camembert and the 10th goat fetta at Red Hill Cheese on the Mornington Peninsular. On March th it’s goat fetta and on the th blue cheese at Wingham, NSW Check out the website for more details. www.cheeselinks.com.au Carole’s husband, Neil will be running a day ‘intensive practical cheese making’ course at Regency International Centre, Adelaide April 1 th to 1 th. Check out the website for more details. www.cheeseexpertise.com.au
First look: Cheese Slices Will Stud’s new book ‘Cheese Slices’ arrived in bookshops last November. A beautifully produced volume as was his first book ‘Chalk and Cheese’ in 1 . It contains a huge amount of excellent information about all things ‘cheese.’ While ‘Chalk and Cheese’ dealt mainly with the Australian industry ‘Cheese Slices’ focuses on European cheeses with eighty pages at the back on the Australian industry. The change in emphasis is not surprising as Will’s personal journey has seen him travelling the world in search of cheeses for his Cheese Slices TV program. It is also not surprising that Will uses his new book as a forum for his favourite topic: ‘raw milk cheese’ Will’s belief that the very best cheese can only be made with raw milk is a strong one. Given that his import company fromagent delivers large quantities of pasteurised milk European cheese into the Australian market he is obviously of the opinion that these cheeses are also superior to their Australian counterparts. Will’s assertion that unless Australian cheese makers are allowed to use raw milk we will be confined to being a producer of industrial cheese only, is, I must say, patently absurd. It is also an insult to our cheese makers. We only have to sample some of the excellent specialist cheeses being made in this country to realise that superb cheese can indeed be made using pasteurised milk. There are many people who agree with him and there are many who don’t. Maybe the proof will be ‘in the pudding’ when Australian and New Zealand cheese makers get the chance to produce cheese from raw milk, most likely by the end of the year. Whatever your preference this is a serious book for cheese lovers. R egional F ood a ustRalia
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CHEESE How many odes to a cow are sung? more honour is bestowed on the moon, that languid autumn gouda eaten bt hungry shadows – but cheese is taste, the moon is dust and I’m buttering up to the real thing that warm fuzzy mouthed feeling that can’t be found in low fat singles.
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a real cheese is like a real man gives your lips something to remember matured, blue veined on cream; a fine cheese talks back to the olive. I am never bored in the marketplace I like to peel back rinds and taste. my unfettered senses praise the cow my bones know her as mother.
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dairy tales island innovations It’s not surprising that King Island Dairies master cheese maker Ueli Berger is excited about his new cheeses that are to be released early this year. In total there are five, with the underlying goal of developing more complex flavours in each of the products. These cheeses are for the ‘food service” industry and are not destined for the supermarkets. Hence the ability to push the flavour boundries. One, Loorana Black Label Double Brie is the first addition to the Black Label Range in seven years. Named after the location or the cheese factory it is a . kg wheel made with traditional starter cultures and additional brevi flora that promises to be serious contender in the white mould flavour stakes. The other products include a 00g Stormy, a washed rind cheese that will develop a more intense flavour than it’s smaller 00g counterpart. There are also three products in the ‘Discovery’ range. An ashed blue ( 00g), ashed brie ( 00g) and a bush pepper cheddar (1. kg). Again the blue and the brie are made using traditional cultures to enhance their flavour profiles.
Ueli thinks the combination of the bush pepper with the slightly sweet flavour characteristics of the cheddar are a great combination. Keep a lookout for these new King Island products at your local deli or your favourite restaurant.
Smelly Cheese Club Valerie Henbest and Tania Cavaiuolo from the Smelly Cheese Shop in Adelaide’s Central Market have launched the Smelly Cheese Club. Aimed especially at cheese lovers who don’t have the good fortune to be close to a reliable cheese retailer they are offering a selection of Australian and imported cheeses every two months. The cost of each selection will be around $ 0 including freight. So if you would like to find out more visit the website at www.smellycheeseclub.com.au
Char-Grilled asparagus, Blue Cheese and Walnut Salad Combine lemon juice, olive oil, honey, thyme leaves and seasonings.
SERVES 6
1 tablespoon lemon juice 1 tablespoon olive oil 1 teaspoon honey
Lightly drizzle asparagus with oil. Cook on a preheated grill plate or barbeque turning frequently for 3–4 minutes, until charred and tender.
1/2 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste 3 bunches asparagus, blanched olive oil, for drizzling 75g rocket leaves 100g Australian blue cheese, King Island Endeavour Blue is ideal 1/2 cup walnut halves, toasted and roughly chopped
Toss warm asparagus and rocket with honey and lemon dressing. Arrange on a serving platter and crumble over blue cheese and walnuts.
Recipe from the Dairy Australia 2008 Cheese Calendar with thanks.
For more recipies visit www.dairyaustralia.com.au
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Dairy Tales Have a slice of Washington Washrind cheese.
Raw Milk Cheese, Possums?
Cheese Lovers’ Alert Neil & Carole Willman, two of Austalias leading cheese educators are heading to France again in May/ June 2008. Their two week tours are based around visiting cheese makers, markets and shops. Cheese lovers will think they’re in heaven! The first tour is already fully booked so if you missed a place on it now is your chance to secure one of only 12 places on the second tour commencing May 30th in Paris and concluding on the 12th in Paris. For more information visit the website www.cheeseexpertise.com.au
Dairy Australia Scholarships Passionate cheese lovers are invited to apply for one of three annual scholarships offered by Dairy Australia. The scholarships offer all-expense-paid tuition with Australia’s top cheese makers as well as a series of courses through the National Centre for Dairy Education Australia. Anyone passionate about cheese can apply. You don’t have to be established in the industry. Applications for the 2008 scholarships closed on December 28th. However it’s still worth checking the website www.dairy.com.au and go to cheesemaker scholarship. Good Luck!
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While Food Standards Australia & New Zealand are working on new dairy production code which will include the ability to make cheese from unpasteurised milk it appears that Australian regulators will take a more cautious approach than their New Zealand counterparts. Australia is likely to legislate for the production of low moisture raw milk cheese, because it is considered lower risk while the New Zealanders appear headed for an all-inclusive approach. Despite the concern for possums pissing on the pastures. As the introduced possums have become ground dwellers in NZ and have no natural predators, they mark their territory with urine thus pssibly infecting the pasture with tuberculosis. Sometime this year we should know the details. Watch this space.
Events 08 Sydney Royal Cheese & Dairy Produce Show Judging for this show will be held at the Sydney showground on February 11th to 13th. This is one of the largest shows in Australia with around 1,000 entries to be judged over the three days. Helen Parker is the coordinator and if you are part of the dairy industry and would like more information you can contact Helen on 02 9704 1218. Otherwise visit the website www.sydneyroyalshows.com.au Dairy Industry Association of Australia (DIAA) judging happens in Melbourne 26, 27, 28th February 2008. This is an industry event with around 1000 entries judged by dairy industry technical experts. Check the website www.diaa.asn.au Meanwhile across the ditch the Kiwis will be holding their annual specialist cheese makers show the 2008 Cuisine Champions of Cheese with the judging and awards happening 2nd to 5th of March. r f Russell Smith
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big issues
The Omnivore’s Dilemma
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ichael Pollan is not a sentimentalist, nor does he retreat from moral choices. In ‘The Omnivore’s Dilemma’ he examines the issues of ethical eating from many perspectives and is prepared to ‘walk the walk’, whether it means owning a steer destined for the feedlot, beheading chickens on an organic farm, becoming a temporary vegetarian or gaining a gun license so he can shoot his own dinner. This fascinating book examines the journey food takes before it reaches the table. Pollan eats four meals, each as a climax to his investigation of a specific food chain. There’s the ‘industrial’ meal – McDonald’s fast food eaten at speed on the highway. The ‘big organic’ meal, featuring Rosie the chicken, is based around organic foods produced by largescale operations catering to national markets. The ‘grass-fed’ meal, by contrast, stars the produce of a small-scale sustainable farming operation, while the last ‘perfect meal’ combines ingredients gathered, grown or hunted by the author himself. In the course of the book, Pollan discusses issues ranging from the obesity epidemic to the destructive effects of America’s corn monoculture, from the morality of eating flesh to the food industry’s role in fossil fuel consumption. He looks behind the contemporary tags of organic and free-range and finds that they don’t always get the eater off the ethical hook. His insights link the specific with the global: “The short unhappy life of a corn-fed feedlot steer represents the ultimate triumph of industrial thinking over the logic of evolution,” he writes. Pollan talks about the debts our eating creates – to nature, to the future, to the earth. He describes his hunter-gather meal (where he shot the pig, grew the vegetables, gathered the fruit and even captured wild yeast for his bread) as ‘fully paid for’. He’s not advocating a return to hunting our own food, but this book is about taking responsibility for how we eat and the impact it has on our planet. Here’s his manifesto, from the book’s introduction:
…the way we eat represents our most profound engagement with the natural world. Daily, our eating turns nature into culture, transforming the body of the world into our bodies and minds. Agriculture has done more to reshape the natural world than anything else we humans do, both its landscapes and the composition of its flora and fauna. Our eating also constitutes a relationship with dozens of other species – plants, animals and fungi – with which we have coevolved to the point where our fates are deeply entwined… Eating puts us in touch with all that we share with the other animals, and all that sets us apart. It defines us. What is perhaps most troubling, and sad, about industrial eating is how thoroughly it obscures all these relationships and connections. To go from the chicken (Gallus gallus) to the Chicken McNugget is to leave this world in a journey of forgetting that could hardly be more costly, not only in terms of the animal’s pain but in our pleasure, too. But forgetting, or not knowing in the first place, is what the industrial food chain is all about, the principal reason it is so opaque, for if we could see what lies on the far side of the increasingly high walls of our industrial agriculture, we would surely change the way we eat. “Eating is an agricultural act,” as Wendell Berry famously said. It is also an ecological act, and a political act, too. Though much has been done to obscure this simple fact, how and what we eat determines to a great extent the use we make of the world – and what is to become of it. To eat with a fuller consciousness of all that is at stake might sound like a burden, but in practice few things in life can afford quite as much satisfaction. By comparison, the pleasures of eating industrially, which is to say eating in ignorance, are fleeting.
Read ‘The Omnivore’s Dilemma’ and you’ll never feel quite the same way about food again. The Omnivore’s Dilemma Michael Pollan, Bloomsbury, paperback $35.00. Michael Pollan’s new book In Defense of Food has just been released.US$22 from Amazon. See www.michaelpollan.com
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R egi o nal Regi
plate After reading our stories about fresh produce and the producers that grow or make it, the first thing that readers ask for is recipes that use the ingredients we talk about. However, can we offer you something we think is much more useful? That is the knowledge of how use that produce in your cooking. What are its characteristics and flavours, its season and how do you choose the best? How do you prepare it and what flavours are compatible with it? Once you’ve learnt these basics, you can then look at a recipe using the produce and know what’s going on within it. What we are offering here in plate is like a members only cooking school. In print we’ll have preparation ideas, sources of unfamiliar ingredients and products that will make your cooking easier or enjoyable. Online at our websites we will have extra material, videos and photographs. So we’re going back to school, but you can talk amongst yourselves (start on our web forum) and it’s ok to have a drink or two while you read. May I introduce our teacher, Chef Jan Gundlach. Fred Harden
Welcome One of my favourite quotes defines what I’ll be trying to do here in plate. It really is the basis of all cooking and it comes from my culinary mentor master chef and author Gerhard Dammert who says “The art of cooking is: the knowledge of products and cooking techniques, culinary lore and science, the continuous training of skills, and precise seasoning and timing. To achieve perfection, in taste and appearance.” It’s important to be aware of that ‘continuous training of skills’ part. That will be your homework when you enjoy your cooking at home. experience comes with each new thing you try, and even if you don’t know it, you’ve actually been training since as a child, you first licked the cake beaters when your mother made a cake! One important difference to the recipe magazines, is that here we’re not giving you absolutely specific sizes and quantities. We make suggestions and the photographs let you see what I think are appropriate serving sizes, but you should be able to choose that yourself to suit your dining occasion. I will also to encourage you to taste and adjust any seasoning to suit the ingredients rather than a specific ‘half teaspoon’ etc. Fresh produce varies with seasons and varieties and a good cook is always tasting and adjusting. JAn GunDLACH
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Cooking with Quail
Pan fried quail with wilted greens, mushrooms and juniper berries Farmed quail, as most of what you will buy is nowadays, is a very tender and moist meat. It requires very little cooking time. The wild bird has a stronger game flavour, but even the farmed quail is a delicious little bird. While prepared cuts and fully deboned quail make it much easier to try quail at home, if all that are available are whole birds, it’s not that hard to prepare as we’ll show you (P122). Try this is a very simple quail dish to start with, it’s the accompaniment that makes it special. Crush some juniper berries and leave to infuse in some good olive oil. A tablespoon per person. Preseason the quail breast with salt and ground pepper.
To the pan, add some olive oil, some whole peeled cloves of garlic and thyme. A sprig of rosemary will add some aroma. Fry the quail skin side down and turn after two or three minutes. Select some leaves of baby cos, and other fresh lettuce, put them briefly into boiling water. I add a sprinkle of icing sugar to take away the bitterness. Saute some mushrooms in olive oil or butter (try the smaller exotic mushroom varieties, you’ll find them prepacked at your green grocer). Place the softened leaves of lettuce on the plate, add the mushrooms and arrange the quail pieces on top. Drizzle with the reduced stock jus and finely crushed juniper berries in olive oil. Serve immediately.
Tip barbecuing quail Start with a high heat to brown the outside then lift the quail from the heat so that it cooks slowly. The meat can dry out quickly. You can coat quail pieces in olive oil to keep in the moisture, but the cooking process is the key. Precise timing. It’s much easier to do this in a pan where you can turn the heat down.
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Cooking with Quail This a beautiful appetiser to go with the quail Cure a filet of ocean trout with a sprinkle of sea salt, cover and refrigerate for 8 to 16 hours. Trim before slicing to sashimi thickness. Poach two quail eggs per person. Select small salad leaves and place beside the fish. Place the eggs onto the salad, drizzle with a lemon vinaigrette, add a sprinkle of salt flakes and a little fresh ground white pepper. A sour cream based mustard dressing would compliment this dish.
Tip poaching (Quail) Eggs
Seasalt cured Ocean Trout with salad and poached quail eggs
This works for all eggs. Boil two pots of water, one with a dash of vinegar, the other with some salt. The vinegar keeps the egg white firm, and it is then transferred into the salted water to get rid of the vinegar taste and season it. These small eggs don’t need long cooking times. The egg is then transferred to a piece of absorbent paper, where you can trim the stringy bits off to make a more attractive shape.
De-boning a Quail
Tip Remove the wing tips, cut at the first joint, these will burn if you’re roasting, and there’s no meat on them. Then remove the leg.
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Cut through the pocket of skin between the leg and body, and cut through the joint.
Remove the breasts by cutting along the breast bone, as shown. Keep the carcase to make stock that you will reduce for the jus.
Trim the bone on the leg back to the thigh meat, scraping with a sharp knife, cutting away the loose pieces. This makes it easier to pick up, and you will want to!
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Pepper and pepper grinders I always have a choice of white and black pepper available. My favourite grinders are these Peugeot ones. Goya -The Quail Shoot
Quail (Coturnix coturnix) are a traditional wild game bird that has been domesticated. From the same family as pheasant, they are native to all the continents and despite those tiny wings, are migratory. A single male bird can cover an area of forty kilometres looking for a mate. It’s famed in biblical history, being described in Exodus as having saved the Israelites from starvation when a vast migratory flock covered their camp. While they were regular visitors in summer in England, they ate seeds from poisonous plants like hellebore and were thought to be unsafe to consume. The Europeans were less picky, and have always trapped and hunted them. There’s a popular quail curry dish in Pakistan, and in China quail and their eggs have been eaten since the Zhou Dynasty (11 0 0 B.C.) when in the hierarchy of food nobility, they were considered suitable food for ‘Senior officials’.
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hey have an adjustment that can give you a choice of fine to a very coarse grind. I use mostly white pepper, but that’s just a personal choice. Quite a few cookbooks claim that black pepper is more aromatic and white pepper is spicier. I’ve done
dozens of taste tests and found the white to be just as aromatic. It varies with each batch you buy, like all natural produce. The region it’s grown, the microclimate, the country of origin all affect the taste. When it has been harvested makes a big difference. Most of our pepper comes from South east Asia and the Indian pepper has a large peppercorn and is highly regarded. There they grow around 100 different cultivars. White pepper is actually black pepper with the dark outside husk removed. The peppercorn is soaked in water, rubbed to remove the outside and then dried. Black pepper is usually just sun dried. Green peppercorns are the immature fruit and are often preserved in vinegar or brine. When in dried form it can be ground just as white or black pepper.
Sorbet The difference between a sorbet and ice cream is in that ‘cream’ in the name. They’re made without milk products, using fruit flavours or infusions of herbs and liqueurs. I use the words sorbet and sherbert interchangeably. The French call them sorbets, Italians sorbettos and the Spanish sorbete. (See our The Old Foodie section P141 for more icy history.) You really need a commercial ice cream maker to make good sorbet. Because this is basically frozen sugar syrup, it needs to be churned until the texture is fine crystals that melt in your mouth. It’s a lot harder to do without one.
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Making Sorbet
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t’s a simple process. Take the fruit puree (or the syrup if you’re just adding fruit flavours), add the syrup and churn in the ice cream maker until smooth. The sugar level slows the formation of ice crystals. It’s at its best when made fresh, when you refreeze it you need more sugar to keep the smooth texture. This can overtake the fruity flavours. Make them a couple of hours in advance.
The sugar balance is the key to successful smooth sorbets. In commercial kitchen you would use a sugar scale such as is used in wine making. This is a weighted floating glass or plastic sealed tube that measures the density of the sugar in solutions. Ideally this would be to 19 baumé for sorbets, you would know then, that when frozen there would be no crystals.
Serving ideas. Individual servings, and sitting in ice, a mixed bowl of sorbet to share from for the centre of the table. The biscuit is almond tuile. Easy enough to bake yourself, or buy at a good Providore.
Some suggested sorbet flavourings ABOVE. Dark red Pomegranate sorbet. A lemon sorbet base and the pomegranate seeds and juice. I left this mix sit for a couple of hours to infuse. Then you strain the seeds out but in one batch we added them back in, after the churning process, it added bit of texture.
Sugar Syrup
Almond Tuiles
This makes approximately 1 cup
1 cup powdered almonds 1/2 cup caster sugar 1 tablespoon flour 2 egg whites , 1 egg 1 1/2 ounces melted butter
1 cup (250ml) water Add ½ cup (110g) caster sugar Place the water and sugar in a small saucepan, and stir over a low heat until the sugar dissolves. Bring to the boil and cook for 2 minutes. Remove from heat. Cool to room temperature. Refrigerate so that it gets quite cold, for several hours or overnight. If you make a bigger quantity it will keep for weeks in an airtight container in the refrigerator.
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Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine the almonds, sugar, and flour in a bowl. Mix until smooth. Add the egg whites, egg, and melted butter. Stir well. The mixture should have an easily spreadable consistency. Grease a baking tray, and spoon the batter onto the cookie sheet, the equivalent of a teaspoon, spacing the mixture 3 inches apart. Bake for about 10 minutes or until golden brown. Cut them into strips when warm, they become crisp as they cool.
Dark Green Chiso sorbet. This is again a lime sorbet, but reduced in quantity to allow the herbs to speak for themselves. I added chiso mint leaves, that’s the decorative leaf you see on a sushi platter. It has a minty, peppery-fresh taste. If you don’t have those leaves basil is also a favourite of mine. Even tarragon is quite beautiful. You just add abundant leaves, sugar syrup and the lime juice into a kitchen blender, blend and then strain the pulp from the mixture. Use the juice.
Orange Fresh mango, just the blended mango pulp and a little less sugar syrup because of the natural sweetness of the fruit. (I believe we are used to over sweetened desserts. It’s a chefs responsibility to let the flavour of the product speak for itself. And today we are more conscious of the health aspects of over sweetening.) Light Green Lime sorbet, lime juice and sugar. You would need to add water to the lime juice, or you could add some verjuice, or a little apple juice. Taste as you add it so it doesn’t start tasting of apple juice. Pink Fresh strawberries, washed, trimmed and pureed. Find the tastiest strawberries, add some lemon or lime juice to elevate the acidity and the sugar syrup.
Sunbeam’s GL8200 Gelateria at RRP $300 is the foolproof way to create multiple flavoured sorbets. If you’re just testing, try the GL5400 Snowy at RRP $50 but it needs to have the insert bowl frozen each time to change flavours..
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p l at e
Almonds & Olives While I use olive oil I every day, and can talk for hours about selecting and tasting olive oil (maybe we’ll do that in a future Plate), I almost never use table olives in my cooking. There’s a classic recipe, Chicken al Cacciatore (you’ll find it on the website) here that recalls their Mediterranean origins, the ‘al cacciatore’ in the title means in ‘the style of hunters’ who probably had just picked the mushrooms for the pot, and used ripe olives direct from the tree. This is a slow cooked chicken with olives added at the end for their strong salty flavour. They quickly take over the dish.
For me, table olives are ideally used as part of an antipasto plate. Of course you couldn’t have Salad Nicoise without olives, and you’d miss them on a pizza.
Devilled almonds You can choose them blanched or leave the skin on. In a heavy frypan (non-stick is ok) spread the almonds out so they’re all being heated and shake or stir them over a low heat until they start to brown in patches. Add a few teaspoons of some good quality olive oil, They should just be oily enough to make the seasoning stick. Add the seasoning and toss them. Serve warm. For seasoning, try a mix of peppers szechuan pepper and sansho (a Japanese pepper). Another blend is peppercorns, mustard seeds, chopped tarragon, lemon zest and some salt flakes. Togarashi This is a prepared Japanese sevenspice mixture that is a blend of red peppers, sansho pepper, roasted orange peel, black and white sesame seeds, seaweed, and ginger. (Also known as Shichimi Togarashi.)
Green Raisins Iranian green raisins, known as keshmesh in Farsi, are less sweet and more fruity than ordinary raisins. They’re green because the grapes are dried in the shade, not in the sun. The taste has been described as having hints of pineapple, lemon and nutmeg-tinged green apple. You can buy them online at www.pariya.com, with delivery generally within two days to Australian capital cities and three to five days to other areas within Australia.
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able olives are selected as green or black, and sometimes dried as in the Coriole sundried ones. Start with a good quality grower, and if they’ve managed the pickling process carefully their olives retain the flavours of the different varieties. If you eat a green olive from the tree, you’ll taste the bitterness. A black olive that has ripened has a more intense flavour, but for table olives they’re picked before they go soft, at the purple black stage. Commercially produced green olives are usually treated in an alkali bath that neutralises the acid (oleopicrine). Traditionally this was done with a wood ash paste, but now it’s replaced by caustic soda in solution. This covers the olives for around twenty four hours and they are rinsed and soaked in clean water. Some smaller producers make cuts in the skin or roll them to bruise the skin which means they can avoid the caustic process. They are then treated much like the riper olives are. Fermentation also produces a superior tasting olive without alkalis, but takes a lot longer time. The process is a continuous one of covering with salt brine, with a weight on the barrels to keep the floating olives submerged away from the air, and monitoring the pH so no bacteria can grow. This solution is changed often and after the salt has reached the stone, they’re soaked in water and for sale, put into a milder salt solution and flavourings such as oregano, garlic, capsicum and lemon can be added. If you’ve got a supermarket jar of olives that are all a consistent black colour, they’ve probably been imported and darkened by oxidation. Give them a miss and support your local olive grower instead. It’s ok to have variations in the colour of the fruit.
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HA RVEST
Tweed Heads Claws
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ULLING A CRAB pot up out of the briny water of the Tweed River instantly took me back to my childhood: summer holidays in a fibro house; sun, surf and seafood. My father and a couple of his friends would often go crabbing in the mangroves around Coffs Harbour, bringing back big dark-shelled mud crabs. With two or three families holidaying together, us kids stood around terrified and fascinated by these muddies, their claws capable of taking off a man’s finger if he didn’t watch what he was doing. It was always a family affair; the catching, the cooking and the eating, something that Lee and Robert Eyre encourage with their ‘Catch a Crab’ tours.
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Lee and Robert have been taking tourists up and down the Terranora Inlet on the Tweed River where the Queensland and NSW borders meet for more than ten years now and have won several Tourism Awards for their trouble. Not only do they offer a cruise which allows visitors to enjoy the beauty of the local environment and wild life, it’s a real hands-on experience. You can fish, pump for yabbies on the sand bars, go crabbing, collect oysters or just sit back. “It’s a great day out for families,” says team member Hannah Arandale of the tour when we chat, “and certainly not boring”. If you haven’t done it before, crabbing is a wonderful way to enjoy a fresh seafood meal, and the Eyres supply international and local guests on their boat with a top notch experience and a couldn’t-be-fresher
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feed. Once you’ve pulled up the crab pots and hopefully nabbed a few muddies and perhaps one or two other species when in season, the crabs are cooked on board and eaten for lunch, served with cracked pepper and wedges of lemon. “It’s the mud crabs that are the draw card,” enthuses Hannah. ‘There’s a lot of meat in those huge claws’. Minutes from the Gold Coast and a day trip from Brisbane, the Eyres have tapped into an experience many of us would not otherwise have when it comes to seafood. For the family, it’s a huge treat and one the kids won’t forget in a hurry. You can go to the Catch a Crab website www.catchacrab.com. au or email the Eyres at info@catchacrab.com.au r f Nikki Davies Left. A live and alert Spanner Crab - Ranina Ranina
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HARVEST
Ballarat
Eclectic Tastes
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t was a typically dreary and drizzly Ballarat Thursday (or was it a Ballarat Friday?) when Robbie suggested a spur-of-the-moment lunch at Eclectic Tastes. Inside the wedge-shaped café – a building which juts out at the 45-degree junction of Burnbank and Lexton, right beside the old Ballarat Cemetery – the atmosphere was a whole lot warmer than the Ballarat on the outside. Through the two-metre wide entrance, past the alcove of purchasable local and international titbits in the ‘shop’, we stopped in front of the large counter and cake display to survey the widening café’s warren of shabby chic rooms to choose a table. Two pretty women jiggled strollers while seated in the armchairs in the lounge-
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style pink room to the right of the counter. The green room’s ye olde dark wood dining table at the back to the right was empty, but deemed too formal for us this day. The four to five smaller tables in the larger back room were all occupied by chatting groups of friends. A smiling older mother-and-daughter duo sat at the table for two directly to our left. We chose to sit in the middle of the long table in the main room, under the light of a large and wonky window.
“Hi Robbie,” said Eclectic Tastes coowner Julie Mott, with a wink aimed at the stylish brunette. As a good friend and neighbour, Julie has had a considerable amount of success talking Robbie into being an Eclectic Tastes waitress/kitchenhand on various days off from work. “Hi Jackie,” Julie said, leaning on the back of a spare chair to my left, resting the notebook and pen on the table. It is during these moments, encouraged by the comforting combination of wafting food
“Then there’s ‘toastie man’. What he really wants is a toasted cheese and tomato sandwich and a latte. He always sits on table 10 and wants to talk. He’s a builder in his 60s, with daggy shorts and Blundstone boots. But we found out the other day that he’s also a masseur!”
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“Oh, and we have two gorgeous real estate agents who come in the morning,” says Margot. “They come in every day, only for coffee and cake.” smells and being remembered by name after just three visits, when a lunch-time patron makes the decision to become a regular. Both blonde-bobbed, attractive and 0-something, Julie and friend Margo Pettit came up with the Eclectic Tastes idea a couple of years ago as a “fun project” to do while raising a handful of highmaintenance teenagers each. “Our kids come first,” explains Julie, who has four teenagers (Ben 1 , Harry 1 , and the 1 year-old twins Nick and Pat), while Margo has three (Tom 1 , Harry 1 and Annie ). “I think that’s why Eclectic Tastes works, because we’re older and we do it for the fun of it. We make it work for us, around the kids. That’s why we close for the summer school holidays.” Previously a non-descript golf equipment shop on a residential street largely used as a busy link from Ballarat city to the northern suburb of Wendouree, the Burnbank Street building was quickly and cheaply transformed the former golf accessories shop into a cosy café during the 00 /0 summer school holidays. “We had seven weeks to renovate,” Margot explains, emphasising the story with high-energy and expressive hands.
“We’ve started to see a lot of three to four burly plumbers, and they sit around the little table in the pink room eating steak sandwiches,” adds Eclectic’s other co-owning half, Julie Mott. “Basically Jules and I did it ourselves with our kids. The tradesmen would deliver the supplies themselves – they don’t usually do that – just to see if we could do it.”
“It was a big job. It was pretty grotty when we took it over. The floorboards had rotted away. But fortunately my father is a builder so we had scaffolding and equipment. Mick, my husband, worked his guts out every weekend to do all the things we couldn’t do. “We were fairly lucky we were able to do it so cheaply. We scavenged all the furniture from junk shops and opp shops.” A former assistant to Australian chef Elizabeth Chong, Julie is responsible for the menu and the extremely popular Asianinfluenced steamed pork and chicken dumplings. “There are a few regular items such as the dumplings and our own steak sandwich that remain on the menu,” Julie says, with a measured wry smile and direct eye contact. “We also like to experiment with the menu with our chefs Sharon and Vicki. I love to scour Melbourne and come back with eclectic ingredients, and with a great deal of chatter in the kitchen a new dish is then created.” r f Jackie Cooper
Eclectic Tastes 2 Burnbank Street Ballarat Vic 3350 T: 03 5339 9252 Open seven days a week. Closed 22 December to February.
Central West, Riverina, Hawksbury She’s Sweet
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EET JOHN, FRANK AND DAVE. They’re beekeepers and they’re part of Australian Beekeepers Direct. The idea was cooked up by John’s son Kieren who we suspect is also responsible for the smart website. He explains it this way: “Not everyone can get to a growers’ market or out into the country to buy honey directly from
us, so I thought why not bring the growers’ market into the supermarket itself? Give consumers the chance to buy the same honey they’d buy if they met us at a farmers’ market but make it easy for them to do it on a daily basis when they’re picking up their groceries from the supermarket.” The result is honey you can put a name to, rather than an anonymous blend. Varieties change with the seasons. For stockists, see www.australianbeekeepersdirect.com
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HARVEST
Colorno NORTHERN ITALY Food, in depth
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ust as Slow Food is not about a long lunch, the university it sponsors is not about learning to cook. The University of Gastronomic Science (or, in Italian, Università degli Studi di Scienze Gastronimiche) was founded in 2003 by Slow Food, in conjunction with the regional authorities of Emilia-Romagna and Piedmont in Italy. Its objective is lofty: to create an international research and training center, working to renew farming methods, protect biodiversity and maintain an organic relationship between gastronomy and agricultural science. So why would you go there? First of all, it’s in Italy. There are two campuses, one at Colorno just north of Parma, in a royal palace that once housed the Duchess Marie Louise, second wife of Napoleon Bonaparte. The other is in Piedmont, in the small village of Pollenzo, just a few kilometres from Bra, Slow Food HQ. It was built in 1833 as a model farm by King Carlo Alberto of Savoy. It makes your
average Australian sandstone university sound positively plebian. Louisa Cass did the Masters degree, which is offered in English or Italian, at the Colorno campus. She’s one of a steady trickle of Australians whose interest in the commercial, economic or communication aspects of food lead them to this university. A former TV journalist now working at Ausaid in Canberra, Louisa was keen to get a global perspective on issues surrounding food. What’s more, she confesses, doing this degree had an element of adventure. ”The degree was called Masters of Food Culture,” she says. “It was a communication Masters. The idea was that if we were going to be writing about food, we could do it more effectively if we understood the product, from the production through to the marketing of it, and that includes the consumer, tastings and so on. “We also did a lot of anthropology and sociology, food history…understanding the evolution of food culture, and the influence of things like trade and city/ country relations, and changing fashions in food influenced by the royal courts.”
Louisa would have liked to see more emphasis on big issues like trade liberalisation and third world food security. For her final assignment she spent two months with the International Land Coalition, attached to the United Nations food agency in Rome, developing a communication strategy. The Coalition looks at securing access to land for poor people, for food security, wellbeing, identity and culture. But it wasn’t all lectures, books and assignments. The course includes three field trips to other regions of Italy and three international trips – in Louisa’s case to Crete, the Lyon and Dijon regions of France, and to Catalonia in Spain. Undergraduate degrees also include these trips, called ‘Stages’. They supplement the scientific knowledge of food’s nutritional value and chemical makeup with ‘living the experience’. There’s a lot of tasting and smelling of food in its original environment and meetings with farmers, artisans and producers. In 2007, such a ‘Stage’ was conducted in South Australia, with students immersing themselves in the food culture of the Barossa Valley, Fleurieu Peninsula and Kangaroo Island. The courses aren’t cheap. Louisa’s oneyear degree, including accommodation, cost her 21,000€ (around $35,000 AUD) which meant, she says “not buying a house”. However, she insists that it was worth it. “In Crete, for example, we went with the local people onto the hillsides and we picked wild herbs; we saw goats’ cheese being made fresh after we watched the goats being milked. You don’t get those kinds of experiences as a tourist, and it would have cost a fortune.” www.unisg.it rf Left. Louisa Cass with wildflowers in Crete “I loved Crete! We had the warmest welcome, saw amazing things and ate great food (not to mention all the raki we drank!). We sang together, collected wild greens, swam in the Mediterranean, talked to goats, made pottery, visited ruins and generally had a great time. I truly felt at home”
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RECIPE
Louisa describes the images clockwise from above. “Wild asparagus in a Paris market; the view of the Uni building from Maria-Luigia, a little cafe across the piazza where we had coffee most days; in a poultry version of the tricolour, the Bresse chicken has steel blue legs, white plumage and red crest, France; in Rethymnon, Crete, a traditional filo pastry maker at work; the group with our orange hats visit the vines of Viticultures Espelt near Girona, Spain; our class eating saffron risotto, saltimbocca alla romana, pesto, and various vegetable dishes we made; and in Spain I ate the best mussels I’ve ever tasted.” Photos by classmates Charles Wolinksy, Elizabeth Manning and Andy Chou.
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HARVE S T
Jeff Whyte with quail at three weeks of age.
Visit www.gamefarm.com.au or call 02 9653 2113 for stockists in your region. 51 crosslands road galston 2159
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H A RV E S T
Hawkesbury
The Game Farm usually sell quail in commercial quantities and it is often repackaged by your retail outlet so you may have to request a specific size or deboned portion. Clockwise from top left. Whole jumbo quail 200g; medium quail 150–180g ; whole jumbo butterflied quail, Supreme double breast with wing bones, fillet deboned breast skin removed, whole deboned quail, Centre - double breast fillet with skin on. Other cuts are available. With such delicate birds, scissors are the fastest way to debone.
Quail -The Processor and Distributor
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ame Farm P/L is one of the largest suppliers of game birds in Australia, with 40% being sales of quail. It’s a second generation family business, with all the big business structure of directors and managers. Their modern processing facility on the edge of Galston Gorge (in Hawksbury Harvest region), is export and HACPP approved and one of the biggest local employers. They’re cautious marketers so if you’re not in the food trade, you may not have heard of them. It’s story that needs a longer telling but it starts with the arrival in the early 1960’s
of Portuguese immigrants Armenio and Olivia Bento. Arriving penniless with just their suitcases, Armenio worked on the Snowy Mountains Scheme for eight years, and returned to Sydney with enough money to open a restaurant. He’d always loved hunting and had been raising game birds on the second floor of a furniture factory in the city, and later in the backyard of his Bondi home. The birds were reared for hunting release as well as for family consumption. Soon the circle of friends grew who wanted quail which was then, still a produce confined mostly to tastes of the ‘New Australians’. Armenio’s restaurant closed and made way for a lucrative home business. Health regulations
today would be much different, but then he said “the ‘abattoir’ was the kitchen, storage was in the family fridge and the delivery vehicle was the boot of the family car.” They registered the business as La Cordinez (Spanish for quail) and by the end of 1975 they were selling five hundred birds a week, enough to relocate to a leased plant in Duffy’s Forest. Armenio and Olivia would process during the day and then spend the evenings delivering their fresh produce all over Sydney. The Spanish name gave way to the more prosaic ‘Game Farm P/L’ and the company has maintained double digit growth for the past 12 years. It now sells a game meat smorgasbord of camel, crocodile, ostrich, kangaroo, rabbit, geese, venison and R egional F ood A ustralia
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wild boar. They’ve just added Geelong grower La Viande’s alpaca but that’s another issue’s story. See the website www.gamefarm.com.au and call 02 9653 2113 for stockists in your region.
Quail -The Grower
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eff Whyte and his wife Yvonne gave up poultry farming when the pressures to match a market price didn’t seem to match the work they were putting into growing a premium chicken. That they could be enticed by the Game Farm to turn to raising quail, with the only contract being a handshake deal, says a lot about trust from both sides. The Game Farm knew how fastidious and professional the Whyte’s were, and Jeff and Yvonne trusted the strong family business values of the Game farm. Eleven years later the Whyte’s now supply Game Farm with their bulk of their quail. They start with day-old birds from the Game Farm hatchery at Merriwa in the Upper Hunter NSW, and just six weeks later, the birds have reached a marketable weight. The quail have continuous access to food and water and they double in size in just a few days. The temperature controlled sheds start warmer with the young chicks and then the heating is lowered as they grow. All have emergency power that cuts in within seconds of a power blackout. The shedding and growing techniques are
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geared towards a stress free environment for the birds. In the security of the flock, they are not frightened to be picked up (which means that you also have to tread carefully walking between them). This is large scale agriculture. You draw breath stepping inside the huge sheds the first time, not from any strong smell (which is mainly of earth, grain, feathers and droppings) but because there are thousands of living birds moving around the floor, the length of which is picked up by shafts of sunlight. The Whyte’s care for these small beautiful birds is evident. In the wild the birds drink morning dew on grass, just drops at a time. The drinkers in the sheds recreates that, with custom designed small nipples that are bumped by the birds to release individual droplets.The feed is specially formulated. The sheds are rotated, cleaned and restocked every twelve weeks. The birds are collected into crates by hand and butterfly nets, with workers moving quietly from one end of the shed, calling softly to the birds. The occasional escaping quail has to cross open grassland and the predatory birds are quick to notice. Jeff is a keen and appreciative observer of the falcons, hawks and eagles in the trees around their property. Cleanliness and bio-security in an age of bird flu are all key considerations. Jeff’s aim of “a short and as far as we can make it, a happy life” for their quail seems more credible here than in large scale chicken farms I’ve visited. All aspects of the farming operation is designed to produce tender, flavoursome stress free stock. We are discovering more and more why they’ve always been so popular on European menus.
Quail -The Chef
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n their website, the Game Farm use input from chefs whom they supply with produce, to offer cooking hints and recipes. We persuaded one of them, Farzan Contractor, the Executive Chef for The Meat & Wine Co. restaurants (in Sydney, Paramatta, Melbourne, Dubai, Israel and South Africa) to barbecue some of the Whyte’s quail and share his recipes. We met at the Game Farm in Galston, where one of the staff had made us a simple
rotating spit and had started a wood fire. We were under the watchful eye of Anthony Amaro, one of the family members behind the business, who had worked there on his holidays during his school years and is now in their Business Development division. As we cooked, various other staff came round to the attractive barbecue area (and a few more were there at the end to sample the results!) Farzan may be the only chef we’ve known who has moved to a culinary world from the jet stream. He tells us he was once a jet pilot in the US and on a visit to a relative in Australia, decide that he’d like to stay here. He started his training as a chef to extend his holiday visa and caught the magic. Now many years later he has restaurant experience at places like Nobu in London and he was part of the Ramsay team at Maze, voted the hottest new opening of 2005. When our fire was hot, Farzan opened his prepared vacuum packs of quail that had been marinating overnight. He explained the ingredients. “This orange coloured marinade is an Indian Tandoori one. Quail is high in protein and low in fat and its milder taste suits a wide range of flavours. This has a prepared Tandoori spice, the saffron base gives it the colour. I’ve added yoghurt, cinnamon sticks, bay leaves, a few crushed cardamom. While it’s cooking I’ll baste it with lemon juice. The flame blackens the outside and the yoghurt keeps it moist inside.” On a wire grill, then on the hotplate of the gas barbecue Farzan also had butterflied quail that was almost a piri piri marinade, “This uses chili, garlic and lime but I’ve added fresh rosemary and lime. It’s spicy and unlike the yoghurt, this will go crispy and tangy. With a char-grilled flavour. This is basted with lime juice as it cooks.” Both were cooked on a small picnic fire that we impatiently pushed before it was really the right hot coals, so Farzan finished the butterflied quail on the hotplate and we all thought that they could have been just as successful cooked totally that way. Online we have some more pictures and a podcast of Farzan telling his story while we cooked. We also asked Anthony Amaro from the Game Farm how his Portuguese family cook quail at home. rf More
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Clockwise from above. Anthony Amaro and Farzan adjust the rotisserie spit; Yvonne and Jeff Whyte and daughter Kate Caldwell with guard dogs Roxy and Chopper; Tandoori quail being moistened with juice.; the quail drinking.
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haRv e s t
London
ViA WESTERn DiSTRiCT
Keep it Simple
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ILL DUPLEIx surely needs no introduction to Regional Foodies who know her from her days at the helm of the food sections of Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, and her great, easy to follow cookbooks. She now lives in London, where she writes for The Times as The Times Cook. We caught up with her in Sydney, where she launched Penfolds 00 Bin range and was telling people that it’s time to re-invent the art of home entertaining. She confesses to having been a dinner-party tragic in the ‘ 0s. “I was the most competitive dinner-party cook,” she admits, recalling one occasion when she and husband Terry Durack spent hours teasing the pips out of grapes with sewing needles. “It was Michel Guérard’s Quail with Grapes” she remembers, “ and you had peel each grape and replace the each pip with a pink peppercorn”. That’s not the kind of dinner party Jill does these days. “It is not about that sort of showing off any more. I’m looking for simpler, easier, healthier things,” she says. “I grew up on a sheep farm in the Western District in Victoria, so lamb is my comfort food still. But I’m not just doing it the way that my mum did, heavy with gravy and vegies. I love it when Mum does it for me, but I’ll do my slashed roast leg of lamb (recipe right). “My mum was a typical farmer’s wife who just grew up with food. But I remember, when I was a kid, her dinner parties would be the most nerve wracking, stress-filled tension. I can remember her doing the crown roast. She made
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every single little paper hat that goes onto each bone. And she filled the centre with peas. We all have our equivalents, each generation. “It’s easier now. The sort of wines that we are making, the sort of produce that we are selling make it easier also to think about – okay I am going to have six people around this Saturday night. And 0% of good cooking is good shopping. If you just get something good... wine, good cheese, a nice piece of meat or fish...
“….And as I was saying to Prince Charles last week over a dinner of mutton at the Ritz… (I just had to say that!)” “I believe in the power of the table to bring people together. To do that with friends is one of the most generous acts; you are saying ‘I want to share my life with you, I am prepared to take the risk that you don’t like me and don’t like my food’. And then it all got a bit skewed into, ‘I’m going to impress the socks off you while doing it’. That’s the bit we can do without, I think. But if you do stuff you love, you do care about your meal, it will probably impress the socks off them anyway.” In Britain, as in Australia, there is a growing focus on farmers’ markets and fresh produce. Jill cites a discussion with Prince Charles - yes really - about his determination to save the hill farmers in Wales, by reviving the market for quality mutton. “I grew up on mutton, as did my mum in South Australia, Broken Hill saltbush mutton,” she says. “And that is the education that generation had, it’s the re-education we need. That is the joy of it. You cannot take a shopping list to a farmer’s market, you just buy what is there. Very, very interesting stuff is going on.” rf Fred Harden
slashed Roast lamb LAMB SLASHeD almost to the bone cooks faster, remains tender and looks spectacular. You’ll end up with chunky slices coated in a garlicky, lemony seasoning that are a joy to eat. Serve with potatoes roasted in the same pan, and a green salad. Serves 4 to 6 1 leg of lamb, around 2kg 3 tbsp roughly chopped parsley 4 garlic cloves, chopped 2 anchovies, chopped 2 tbsp salted capers, rinsed 1 tbsp coarsely grated lemon rind 4 tbsp soft fresh breadcrumbs 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil 4 rosemary sprigs extra olive oil to drizzle 1 lemon, quartered Method Heat oven to 220°C. Holding the leg of lamb with its meatiest side towards you, slash five times almost to the bone, at 2.5cm intervals. Combine the parsley, garlic, anchovies, capers, lemon rind and breadcrumbs in a bowl. Mix in the olive oil to make a paste and push between the lamb slices. Re-shape the meat and tie with string. Scatter with rosemary, drizzle with a little olive oil and bake for 20 minutes. Reduce setting to 190°C and bake for another 45 minutes to 1 hour. Leave to rest under foil for 10 minutes. Strain the juices into a bowl and spoon off surface fat. Remove string and carve across the lamb, parallel to the bone. Arrange on warm plates, drizzle with the juices and serve, with lemon wedges. Recipe from ‘Very Simple Food’ by Jill Dupliex - Hardie Grant. RRP $34.95 Her latest book ‘Lighten Up’ is RRP $40.00
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Back Paddock When we travel, we tell the stories of each region via the stories the producers tell us. At the same time, we’re sharing information and gossip - about local and overseas trends, business tips, grants and Government services that are available. We feel that this is as much a part of our mission as creating nice photos and recipes. Here in the Back Paddock is where you’ll find that content. We welcome your questions, contributions and feedback and help in keeping our online version updated.
ORGANIC
Getting organic Certification If you’ve decided to move to a totally organic production, you’re already a regular reader of the Biological Farmers of Australia website www.bfa.com.au (their free email newsletters are a good way to keep up with courses and industry moves). If you’re just a small or back yard grower you might think that Australian organic certification www.australianorganic.com.au, is only for the bigger end of the market. If you’re just starting out, and perhaps just supplying one ingredient to someone who already has organic rating, consider OGA Organic Growers of Australia www.organicgrowers.org.au. If your sales are under $ 0,000 sales a year, they charge no levies and the small producers Program at $ 1 per year gives you membership, the Australian Organic Journal and an annual audit, onsite every second year.
WANT FRESH FISH?
Philip Edwards the chef at Songbirds made a comment in his interview about the difficulties of buying fresh fish. It lead us to consider what you need to buy direct from a trawler. The answer is in lots of places, you can’t. At www.fish.gov.au there is a list of who you can buy seafood from. Just approaching the trawler as it pulls in requires you having a licence to buy direct in Queensland,
you need a permit as a Registered Fish Receiver (RFR) in NSW, a retail licence in NT and WA. In Tasmania you can’t buy abalone or rocklobsters (unless, in the case of rocklobsters, the animals have documentation and horn tags and are from authorised fishers). There are different regulations for co-ops and farmed fish, so it’s complicated enough that you need to see the buying section at www.fish.gov.au
BRANDING
had some advertising background but isn’t a designer. Yet the result gets away with it because it is a premium price hand made product, and the hand wrapped look and label reinforces that image. It wouldn’t work for the Jannei fresh milk, yoghurt and fresh curd products so they are clean commercial labels. (If you have label ideas, solutions and samples you’d like to share here in Back Paddock, send us a picture or PDF label and we’ll run a gallery.) On the subject of labels, at the Fine Foods show, in one of the ‘interesting ‘corridors along the back, just opposite a stand that said ‘Sinofrozen foodstuff World’ (true!) was the tiny Labelpower stand where every device jostled for enough room to operate. In a few minutes of talking with Managing Director James Malone I was impressed enough to take his card and a few label samples that I wanted to show to some
We see lots of packaging, and when bottles and jars of produce are placed in front of us, if it’s not attractive we try and change the subject to the weather. Every one knows that their design and branding is important, it’s just that some can’t tell that theirs isn’t up to scratch. It may just be as bad if they know and can’t afford to change it. Strategies that keep it simple and still look good are rare. The subject was raised when we were talking to Janette at Jannei Cheese who prints her own labels in black and white, trims them by hand. She has
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We’re saving our money to go to France in September to Potato Europe 2008 – 5th International Potato Exhibition described as ‘the inescapable event for the whole sector in 2008’. See www.pommedeterre2008.com/. Inescapable?
RIMERA LX-400 Printer available from Labelpower
producer friends. What you can’t see from their ad is the quality of these really quite affordable printers. On glossy adhesive stock, they look like commercially printed ones. James has supplied enough small producers to also offer sensible advice as to the suitability to the tasks required. Once you’ve got the label, they can suggest options for label applicators from simple roller aligners to machine powered ones. I’m not sure if their ‘inhouse design studio’ did the ad, but you could take advantage of their ‘mention this add’ or ad, offer. James, thanks for the ad, and maybe you can give us a review of the available Label making software for the next issue’s Back Padock?
BUY ONE, GET SOME FREE
You’ll also have noticed the RIRDC ad on the inside back page, but that list of publications is just the recent tip of the RIRDC publications iceberg. You’ll need to go online for the 7/8 below water. See their Publications catalogue. Not immediately obvious on the RIRDC site is that there are almost 500 full reports available free. www.rirdc.gov.au/fullreports/
HELP!
Grants and development assistance are important ways to give your business a push.
online for regular producer updates.
In our Issue #2 in an article by Christine Salins with Susan Bruce from Poachers Pantry, Susan said that she is proud of her success in securing government grants. Not only did they provide funds so that consultants could be hired for professional advice, but the paperwork was a hand on the shoulder. “It makes you create timelines, document your achievements and monitor your achievements. It keeps you on track. I suspect I might not have been as rigorous if it had been my own money.” More
Where do you start? Here’s some links The Department of Agriculture Fisheries and Forestry Current Grants and Assistance Packages that are available are listed on DAFF’s website www.daff.gov.au/about/grants_and_assistance The change of government has made it harder for the Department to be specific about long term grants and assistance, but start there. Grantslink items seem to stay alive a long time after the project has closed, but serendipity might help you discover something www.grantslink.gov.au/ Start with ‘Find a Grant’. If you’re Victorian, ring the Victorian Business Line They can explain their range of export, enterprise improvement, investment, small business and employment services offered by the Department of Innovation, Industry and Regional Development. Tel: 13 22 15, Toll Free: 1800 136 034 Email: online.enquiries@iird.vic.gov.au Department of Local Government and Regional Development Grants Directory WA grantsdirectory.dlgrd.wa.gov.au In Tasmania, the one stop shop is Service Tasmania www.service.tas.gov.au look for the link to Benefits, assistance and grants. In Queensland its the Queensland Government Grants Portal www.qld.gov.au/grants/ and the ‘wizard’ will step you through choices.
YEAR OF THE POTATO
If you’re a potato grower you’ll appreciate this shift to more down-to-earth thinking, the United Nations have declared 2008 to be the International Year of the Potato. The focus of this year-long event, managed by FAO, the Food and Agriculture Organisation www.fao.org, is the role that the potato, as one of the world’s major sources of carbohydrate nutrition, can play in providing food security and eradicating hunger.
The Year of the Potato 2008 website www.potato2008.org really does a good job of placing the vegetable in context of world importance, third world poverty and the need for maintaining genetic diversity. In Australia, the humble potato is our number one vegetable crop; but over eighty per cent of the world’s potato crop is grown in Asia, with China the major producer. It comes here as chips and prepared potato product. If you’ve been looking at www.potato2008. org/ and can’t see anything Australian in the year’s events - have no fear, AUSveg are onto it www.ausveg.com.au. The URL www.superspuds.com.au has been registered, but there’s nothing online yet, but we’re promised a website to promote the SuperSpuds cookbook, a school potato growing ‘Olympics’ and events with Pony restaurant Chef Damien Heads, and Olympic Gold medal contender swimmer Libby Lenton telling us that we shouldn’t shun the healthy carbs in potato. As part of National Vegetarian Week there will be an attempt to create the World’s largest potato salad. Hmmm. That should do it. There may be other promotional opportunities you can use as a grower. r f Fred Harden
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the old foodie
The Sorbet Story by Janet Clarkson Sorbet is not what it used to be. It used to be sherbet (or sherbert), with pretensions of an Italian heritage. But sherbet is also not what it once was. It was certainly not originally a frozen dessert item. And if they were once the same thing, are sorbet and sherbert now different? And what about granita and gelato and frozen punch and (sorry about this one), the violently coloured slushy drinks sold at the movies?
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Photo. Bicentennial Copying Project, State Library of New South Wales
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ulinary experts apply the various terms with linguistic abandon, leaving us only with the certainty of iciness. Lawyers of course, are certain - at least in some parts of the world – that the differences are strictly in the proportions of fat and sugar and the inclusion, or not, of dairy produce. It hardly needs to be stated, however, that truth in food is not the primary motivation of the legal system – the sort of system which, in 1893 in the USA determined, in the face of overwhelming botanical evidence to the contrary, that the tomato is a vegetable. Linguists know the truth about sorbets and sherberts. ‘Sherbert’ derives from the Turkish/Arabic word for ‘drink’. In other words, a sherbet used to be a beverage – a costly beverage to be sure, in its home culture. Early European visitors to those fantastically distant and exotic places described it raptly as a sweetened fruit drink made fragrant with expensive ingredients such as roses, violets, musk and ambergris. Those intrepid adventurers made the best fist they could of the strange language, and the Arabic word gave rise to a multitude of phonetic interpretations from charbe to zerbet. ‘Sorbet’ came about as a result of the phonetic and linguistic coincidence of the Italian verb ‘to drink’ – sorbire – and the name stuck because the Italians became masters of frozen confections during the Renaissance. So, the original sorbet was a drink. Not frozen, just a drink. As the idea spread beyond its origins to other climes, sometimes the drink was chilled with snow or ice, but the tyranny of climate means that the coldest drinks are desired in the hottest months. The very rich could afford to have ice cut from mountains or frozen lakes and stored in deep pits or caves for summer enjoyment, but most of history’s citizens had to wait for technological progress to bring salt-and-ice churns and eventually refrigeration for all, in order to be able to enjoy such incredible treats. It constantly surprises me that unlike many other artists, cooks don’t often consciously use the past as an inspiration. Many very
Frank (Sonny) Duncan’s travelling cafe. His catchcry at Cobar Football games was “Try our home made pies - warm your belly for threepence” – Cobar, NSW
old recipes sound amazingly innovative and cutting edge and deserve rediscovering. One manual ‘containing original recipes for preparing ices’ from that supposedly dull and stodgy English Victorian era contains over one hundred ideas, including for example ‘water ices’ flavoured with aniseed and sweet fennel. The recipe is a variation of a basic vanilla ice, using four ounces of either seed instead of the vanilla. ‘Crush half an ounce of vanilla and a stick of cinnamon, in a mortar, add a pint of water, cover it over, and let it stand for ten hours; then pass it through a sieve, and add the juice of two lemons, if you choose; put in twenty-four ounces of sugar a lisse, and freeze it. This may be varied by using milk instead of water.’ For my own part, I eagerly await the reinvention of a sixteenth century Turkish sherbet (but frozen, in modern style) made with violets. Invite me if you do invent it, please. rf Janet Clarkson
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We think a Regional Food TV show would be able to tell even more great stories. Would you expect to see the TV show running on:
Å Free to Air TV Å Pay TV
URVEY READER S
7
Do you watch online videos?
Å Yes Å No Å Sigh, I would if I had Broadband
8
Do you download MP3s or podcasts? Å Yes Å No Å Another sigh, I would if I had Broadband
You too could be on the ‘cutting edge’ We had a survey in our first issue that helped us know who our readers were. We concluded that we really liked you. You sounded interesting and liked the stuff we liked. Given the break between issues we need to refresh that information. Some of this it is used to help us understand what the content should be, the rest to tell advertisers what a potentially special market our readers are. And why they really need to place their ad in our magazine. To make it worthwhile, if you attach a note telling us in 25 eloquent words about your kitchen, (what’s good or bad about it), you go into the competition for one of the 25 Füri knives. Then you will need to give us a way to contact you. Otherwise, none of this information stays with your name attached, you just become a Regional Food demographic (sorry about that).
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Which TV stations do you watch? (Please number l, 2, 3 etc in order of preference).
Å ABC Å SBS Å Channel 7 Å Channel 9 Å Channel 10 Å Pay TV eg Lifestyle Channel Å Local TV station Å I’m too busy eating and entertaining to watch television 10 Our website regionalfood.com.au is designed to keep you up to date between issues of the magazine. Have you ever visited the Regional Food website?
Å Yes Å No Å Sorry, I don’t have a computer
If Yes, tell us your opinion of the Regional Food website. If No, go have a look soon ok?
FREE COPY This form is also online on our website, www.regionalfood.com.au and there is more space for your comments there. We’d much prefer you to fill it in online so we don’t have to type it all up, so we’ll make an offer. The first 100 readers who fill in the survey on our website can choose who we’ll mail a free current issue to. You can send it to a friend or even yourself if you need another copy. To make sure it’s a genuine reader request, we’ll ask you a question about something in this issue.
11 Where do you shop for your fresh produce? This is an important one, so don’t fib just because we wear our regional and seasonal heart on our sleeves. (Please number 1, 2, 3 in order of preference.)
Å Local greengrocer, produce store Å Local butcher Å Supermarket Å A Farmers’ Market Å If you marked a Farmers’ Market, you get a pat on the back, but please tell us what you like about shopping there? Comment:
Thank you for your time, Or you can complete the survey here and post it by 31 March 2008. Regional Food Reader Survey, PO Box 317, Bungendore NSW 2621. Conditions of entry at www.regionalfood.com.au
1
How did you obtain this copy of Regional Food?
Å At a newsagency Å Harris Farm Markets Å At a Farmers’ Market Å By subscription Å Bookstore Å Other (Cellar door, food outlet etc.)
12 (This is a classic marketing bit ) Please tick all of the statements below that you agree with about Regional Food magazine.
Å Gives information you can actually use when travelling Å You feel you can trust what you read in it Å A magazine you really get involved in Å A magazine for people who want to actively improve their lives
2 Was the magazine placed prominently and/or was it easy to find in your retail outlet?
Å Yes Å No
Comment:
3 We presume you liked it but which sections did you especially like and feel that you’d always read? Comment:
13 What make is your main car? We wanted to wave this at the advertisers. We figure that our kind of travel is about the freedom of driving yourself, (even if it seems that to save the planet we should all stay home.) this time we’ll ask “If you’re planning to change your car this year, what make will it most likely be”
4 What would you like to see more, or less of in future issues? Comment:
5 Last survey we asked which of the following regions (we’ll get to them all eventually) and it was really interesting, so let’s do it again. What regions would you most like us to cover. (Please number l, 2, 3 etc in order of preference).
Å Central West NSW Å Yarra Valley VIC Å Broome/Kimberley WA Å Sunshine Coast QLD Å South Coast NSW Å Gippsland VIC Å Canberra Region NSW/ACT Å Margaret River WA Å Mildura/Riverland VIC Å Barossa Valley SA Å Goldfields VIC Å Mornington Peninsula VIC Å Darwin & Outback NT Å Great Ocean Road VIC Å Tasmania (South) TAS Å NE Victoria VIC Å Hunter Valley NSW Å Southern Highlands NSW Å Northern Rivers (Byron Bay) NSW Å Other?
and how they eat
Å It gives you information/ideas to make food choices at home Å It inspires me to make a sea or tree change Å It’s the food magazine most like me
Is petrol efficiency more important than comfort?
Å Yes Å No
14 How do you spend your leisure time? (Feel free to tick more than one.)
Å Reading Å Travelling Å Dining out Å Shopping Å Listening to music Å Theatre Å Sport Å Concerts Å Cinema Å Museums Å Galleries Å Gardening Å Other 15 Did you notice the advertising in Regional Food?
Å Yes Å Not a lot Å No
16 Which advertisements engaged you the most? (Feel free to list more than one.) Why?
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17 Which of the following alcoholic beverages do you consume?
25 What is your postcode?
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26 What is your annual household income? Go on, make a guess.
•
•
Domestic Beer • Imported Beer • Spirits Australian Wine - Red • Australian Wine - White Australian Sparkling Wine • French Champagne
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Liqueur
18 Have you travelled interstate or overseas in the past 12 months?
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interstate if yes
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Yes 1–3 times
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No More than 3 times
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overseas if yes
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Yes 1–3 times
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No More than 3 times
• •
• •
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Under • $30k • $31–$50k $71k–$100k • Over $100k
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•
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Weekend 2 weeks •
•
•
•
Rex - Regional express Jetstar • Tiger
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Qantas
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•
Other (specify)
Virgin Blue
22 Do you read any of the following?
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•
•
Regularly
Occasionally
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Regularly use for recipes
29 Are you already a producer of regional food or wine or are planning to become one?
Under 25
24 Are you?
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•
•
26–35 Male
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36–45
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46–55
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•
No
55–65
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Yes
•
No
That’s it, you’ve been more than generous with your time. We hope you win one of those great knives but if you do, remember not to run around while carrying it, ok? Please cut the page out (carefully, don’t hurt your magazine), fold and send it to: Regional Food Reader Survey, Po Box 317, Bungendore nSW 2621. Conditions of entry for the draw of 25 knives is at www.regionalfood.com.au Tell us how to contact you: name:
a Postal Address or an Email Address or a Phone number:
23 What is your age group?
•
Yes
Title: (Mrs, Mr, Ms)
Australian Gourmet Traveller • Cuisine • Delicious Donna Hay • Vogue entertaining and Travel
•
No
30 Are you a retailer or distributor of regional food and wine products?
21 Which domestic Airline do you travel with most?
•
•
Yes
•
Short break 3–6 days 3 weeks • 4 weeks
No
28 Are you a Slow Food member or intend to join?
20 What was the length of your trip?
•
•
Yes
of why you travel? Comment:
1 Night 1 Week
$51–$70k
27 Do you own or are you paying off your own home/apartment?
•
19 What experiences are you looking for in a holiday? is food a big part
•
•
•
65+
AnD on a separate sheet, tell us about your kitchen, what you like about it, want to change, dream about owning...
Female
subscribe We look at our subscribers as Friends of Regional Food. We don’t offer cut price deals, we do promise you’ll get your issue delivered safe and sound as soon as it’s printed, and we’ll have some subscriber only deals and thingys because you’re friends. Just choose how many issues you want to pay for at $ . each, that includes post with a hand licked stamp (probably by Fred). Just call our toll free number 1300 795 054, and the nice person on the end of the phone (probably Fred) will take your details. Yep, we’re doing it ourselves, at least for a while.
next issue Everyone loves a list, but we bet our list is way different to anyone else. The Regional Food 100 is an annual special issue that celebrates the best in regional produce, the best places to visit, and the special people who are changing how we eat and drink. Think lists of best chefs, country cafés, providores, and of course superior produce. It won’t all be too serious and you know us, it’ll look terrific. We’re building the issue as we head this one off to the printer and you can expect it in May.
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What we’d really, really prefer is that you apply using our online secure form on the Regional Food website. Go to the Subscribe link and there’s a secure server waiting to take all your details.You type them in and we promise not to spell your name wrong. You can then chose to send us a cheque, pay to our BSB number or use a credit card — Visa or Mastercard only please. If you’re a company, library etc and want an invoice, or just have a question send us an email subscribe@regionalfood.com.au Because you are doing all the work, in April all our subscribers will go into the draw for some gifts including a special six pack of the Coriole Poet Series Jude Aquilina 2004 Cabernet Barbera.. It’s special because each bottle has been signed by both Jude and Mark Lloyd and there’s a signed book of Jude’s poems in there as well. We have a story about the Coriole Series online in this issue.
Poet
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R EFR IGE R ATE AFTER OP ENING
The vital ingredient by Jan O’Connell, illustration by Mike Jacobsen There are, what, 20,000 or so items in your average supermarket? Yet, each time you shop, maybe 40 different items end up in your trolley. Who buys all that other stuff?
W
hen it comes to supermarkets, I’m a speed shopper. I don’t browse, I dash through the aisles, checking off the stuff I grab against a mental list. It’s all muscle memory – coffee on the right, biscuits on the left, skip the confectionery aisles, dogfood on the left, catfood on the right. My other half actually looks at things. He picks them up, reads the labels, compares one kind of curry paste against another. Thus we end up with various exotica in the pantry and, eventually the fridge (see Refrigerate After Opening, Issue 1). Even he, however, has not worked his way through the 20,000 shopping choices in our nearest Coles. Who, for example, eats fish paste any more? I’m old enough to remember that “A little Pecks goes a long, long way” but surely the days of fish paste on Jatz at cocktail hour have long, long gone? Maybe the local retirement home has a standing order for their Friday night happy hour. “Just the thing to go with the Yalumba Autumn Brown, Mavis.” Then there’s the pickle aisle. How many different varieties of cocktail onions do you think there are? (Answer – 20.) And how long is it since you last ate one? Remember those little fantasies-on-a-toothpick, with luridly green onion, a chunk of cheese and a bit of pineapple? The retirement home probably still has those as well. Canned fish is another category where I find the panoply of products staggering. Of course, now there are 101 varieties of tuna (literally), but add salmon (40 choices), sardines (17
varieties), mackerel (5), herrings (4), anchovies, prawns, mussels, pilchards, clams, crab and oysters. Here I have a confession to make. We take guilty pleasure in smoked oysters. Given a very bad reputation by Bruce Spence in the movie ‘Stork’, this ugly, oily morsel was de rigeur as a cocktail nibble at my mother’s drinks parties. Your smoked oyster should be served on a cheese cracker, with a shockingly cold beverage. Call it retro, call it recalcitrant, call it plain disgusting – but they do go down well at the end of a summer afternoon.
I suppose it’s elitist to assume that, while it’s perfectly normal to buy Persian fetta it’s somehow aberrant to buy tinned sausages in gravy. The tinned sausages set are probably gawping at the tiny jar of oil soaked cheese and thinking “Imagine paying $12.95 for that!” They whiz through the Asian foods aisle, skirting the loiterers like my husband, in their haste to get to the canned meats.
Of course, everyone has categories that they don’t even consider; whole aisles that get skipped. Confectionery, underwear, snack foods, soft drinks, stationery, canned soup, icecream (well mostly). And now juices (high GI, you know). But then there’s that special product that’s become part of your life and is suddenly gone from the shelves. It only takes a couple of them to disappear to make you change supermarkets. “You don’t have Roses Lime Marmalade any more? I’m off then.” Some vanish forever. Right now we’re lamenting the loss of Lemon Zinger, a herbal tea from Celestial Seasonings in Boulder, Colorado. For the last fifteen years or so, we’ve started almost every day with this gently tangy beverage, or with Celestial’s more invigorating Red Zinger. Alas, both are gone, victims of a rationalisation of the health food section (are people less interested in their health, these days?) With the rise and rise of house brands, it’s going to happen more often. Both major chains have announced that their strategy is to ‘rationalise’ their ranges, which means that the smaller brands will disappear. On paper, it makes sense. Do we really need so many choices? Or will the blanding of the supermarket offering drive people to smaller specialty shops, where they can indulge their individual preferences? And, most importantly, will Pecks Paste survive? rf Jan O’Connell I always like to hear your stories, email me at: refrigerate@regionalfood.com.au
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Last Writes
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here have you been? Our subscribers must be the most patient bunch of people in Australia. Our repeated requests for understanding have been met with amazing support and some very heartwarming letters and emails. Those on our email list will have heard the tale of woe regarding the publishing deal that was on, then off. Now, with a little help from our friends, we’re doing it ourselves again. And we’re counting on a somewhat revised format and a groundswell of regional thinking out there in the food world to carry us forward. Those who bought our first two issues will notice that our concept of ‘one issue, one region’ has changed. It’s mainly to broaden our appeal to advertisers. You see, we need them to keep the magazine afloat and to keep bread on the table in the editors’ household. Advertising is the only way to pay for the glossy printing you’re holding. If we don’t get enough ads, we can’t print as many pages – or print at all. That’s small publishing. This time there are three regions, all with their own intriguing stories. We hope you’ll find we cover them in enough depth to make interesting reading, and to entice you to discover more. Often, you’ll find longer versions on our website.
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e a distributor If you have a retail business (or a Farmers’ Market stall) that you think would be a good fit with our magazine, we can supply you with a merchandiser and a stack of magazines. The way it works is we split the cover price with you 50/50 and you return what you don’t sell. If you’re interested, give us a call.
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ur own backyard Your editors live in Bungendore, outside Canberra, and our last issue purported to be a definitive guide to our home territory. How things change! Immediately after publication, chefs left, restaurants changed hands (and names) and new establishments blossomed. Our latest tips for eating in the
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Capital Villages: Harvest at the Royal Hotel, Bungendore where the erstwhile chef from Lamberts Vineyard has transformed the menu, Grazing in Gundaroo (still) but with a new chef ex Canberra’s highly rated Sage, and Cardamom in Braidwood (recommended by a man who knows his food, Scott Watkins-Sully from the ABC’s Couldabeen Champions program).
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ed faces Last issue, to our embarrassment, we told readers that The Old Stone House, a stylish Bungendore B&B, was no longer operating. It was, and it is. We tried to make amends by building a website for them, but we haven’t had a chance to admit our error in the magazine until now. Now run by John and Debbie Putt – www.theoldstonehouse.com.au, 02 6238 1888.
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one to pot Water restrictions played havoc with the idea of a backyard veggie garden. This year, most of our half-acre is growing weeds and the veggies are restricted to a couple of tomatoes, two cannonball zucchini plants, some beans, and lettuces, all in pots. The zucchini still have the capacity to surprise us, quadrupling in size every time we turn our backs. Everyone we know is trying to give zucchini away and exchanging recipes. Zucchini icecream, anyone? We did get a good crop of sour cherries before the birds, that’s them ready for jam in the photograph.
for days and then hit one in the hire car on the way to the airport. When I showed Philip Edwards from Songbirds the KI issue he said he’d lived in the flat about the Russell’s, the butcher we featured on King Island, when they had a shop at Sorrento and he was at Two Faces. They invited him to family dinners often.
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he old, old story We had a story prepared for our third issue on Barossa Slow – a Slow Food event held in conjunction with the Barossa Harvest Festival. A couple of of advertisers we were counting on pulled out of the issue which led to a long hiatus in our publishing schedule and the story losing its relevance. One of the highlights of the event was the Tanunda Show. It’s on again this year on Saturday 8 March and showcases (among other things) the distinct food culture of the Barossa. Think Dill Cucumber, German Yeast Cake, and Rotegrutze (a kind of red fruit or wine pudding) Championships, kegel rolling, amateur beer and winemaking and there’s the famous Barossa Pie from the Magpie Café. Then, of course, there’s the chook washing demo. The pictures from Barossa Slow were lovely – see them on our website.
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HOTOS A reader asked “Why don’t we see photographs of you and Jan?” well, mostly because I’m behind the camera not in front of it. However working now with a photographer daughter, I see myself more often, not always as vanity would like. You can always ask the waiter to take the photo.
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ynchronicity It’s a small country or else we’ve got more than our share of synchronicity working. Andrew Mirosch was in King Island with the TV crew in-between our trips, we heard stories about them from the locals, including how they’d dodged the kangaroos
R egional F ood A ustralia
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nurturing new ideas
Field Guide to Olive Pests, Diseases and Disorders in Australia Pocket-sized quick
Commercial Beekeeping in Australia
The New Crop Industries Handbook Information on 69
Plants Poisonous to Horses
An overview of beekeeping – the industry, resource base, production practices and management. (07/059) $21
reference for every olive farmer to easily recognise pests and diseases and the damage they cause. (07/153) $15
new plant crops. An essential resource for crop diversification. (04/125) $50 Also available on CD ROM (CD04/002) $15
–An Australian field guide
Plants Poisonous to Horses
An essential resource for horse owners. (06/048) $30 (includes poster).
Regional Foods
Small Lifestyle Farms
– Australia’s health and wealth
- Improving delivery mechanisms for sustainable land management
Looks at the foodgrowing regions, their regional specialities, and population health. (05/045) $35
‘Lifestyle farmers’ are a growing sector, presenting new challenges for extension and information delivery. (07/098) $21
New ideas for rural Australia The Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation (RIRDC) is a partnership between industries and government to invest in research and development (R&D) for more profitable, sustainable and dynamic rural industries and communities. Our research is active in developing new industries, providing Australian farmers with a wider variety of options for diversification. Our targeted R&D has played a part in the success of the Australian alpaca industry, the olive industry, tea tree oil, Asian vegetables and coffee, to name just a few. A range of important established industries - like the honeybee industry, horses, deer, fodder, pasture seeds, chicken and rice - continually improve their productivity and sustainabilty through RIRDC’s strategic R&D.
To order RIRDC Publications call 02 6271 4100, or visit the RIRDC website at www.rirdc.gov.au
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We also invest in research on national rural issues, like farm management systems, rural leadership, communications, and trade, that assist in keeping all rural industries and communities on the leading edge. Industry-driven, with a strong focus on adoption, RIRDC nurtures new ideas that can help make rural Australia more profitable, sustainable and dynamic. The RIRDC library of over 1600 research publications, spanning a diverse range of industries and issues, is a valuable bank of new ideas for rural producers. For more information visit our website: www.rirdc.gov.au
Rural Industries Research & Development Corporation Ph: 02 6271 4100 Fax:02 6271 4199 Email: publications@rirdc.gov.au
www.rirdc.gov.au
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