Join Jill and Nick as they take you behind the scenes to see where your food actually comes from!

A wide range of smoked pork products

Lilli looking excited

After breakfast we walked to the Polish smokehouse which Nick and I discovered recently

Wednesday is the day when most of the smoking is finished and there is a wide range of products to choose from.

Made from 100% pork with no preservatives how lucky are we to have this little treasure so close by.

I know I will be a regular visitor!

Happy customers!

Last night was the first of a series of seasonal "Cool Flavours" dinners planned by the newly revamped Southern Highlands Food and Wine group. This was a Winter Regional Dinner held at Southern Highland Wines.

FoodPath's Nick Padol was asked to be MC for the night, commenting on the food that came from our local producers.
There was a good crowd - 95 people in total.

A wide range of cool climate Southern Highlands wines were selected to match the food by Will Matthews, Wine Consultant who gave an interesting talk.
Products used included cheese from Small Cow Farm, tangello infused olive oil from Sutton Forest Olives, quail from Thirlmere poultry, exotic mushrooms from the Mushroom Tunnel in Mittagong, beef from Spring Hill Beef at Burrawang, barramundi from Infinity Fisheries at Bargo and apples from the historic Tennessee Orchard at Yerrinbool.

Most of these products are available at the Producers Markets in Bowral and Moss Vale.

FoodPath has a Farmers Market Tour which will take you to meet these producers and more. They will tell you about their products, give you a tasting and you can buy food knowing exactly where it is grown and who by. Pretty special?

Well we are exhausted now - two FoodPath events in two days!
Yesterday we had the Mushroom Tunnel Tour (see separate posting) and today we had our first corporate event - a team "bonding" event I guess you could call it.

A group of 10 who worked in a State Govt Dept came down from Sydney for a day out from their work.

FoodPath put on a Fruit Bottling Workshop for them with Steve Hogwood, who has a new business called The 1910 Bottling Company.

The venue was the old kitchen in Hopewood Country House event building.
Steve spoke about the history of bottling fruit as a preserving method and how this has changed over time.

We had tastings and he had some bottles of his wonderful fruit available for sale.

I am sure the group enjoyed it - we did!


Hopewood provided a beautiful setting and stunning garden.  The group had time for a wander through the garden before they set of for a nice lunch at Milton Park.

 I am generating a list of options for corporate groups so please, tell your friends?

Some of us met for coffee first then moved on to Bowral to join the rest of the group.



Twenty six people came to our Mushroom Tunnel Tour and we were very excited about that. Five chefs, one hotel manager, one events organiser and 4 staff members from SH Tourism were included in the group.



Noel told us the history of the tunnel and how he came to be in the business. He explained the details involved in maintaining a pristine environment for the mushrooms to grow in a similar way to how they did in  the forests of Malaysia.


This tour is always very popular and we are very excited that Noel has said that we can continue to bring groups of people to tunnel.

Please let us know if you are interested and we can let you know when a tour is coming up.

Check out the photos!

How exciting - we have 24 people booked in to the FoodPath Mushroom Tunnel Tour this Wed 4 August, including chefs from two local hotels, representatives from SH Tourism, a group from Wollongong, more from Ulladulla and from Kangaroo Valley. It is nice to know the word is getting out about our activities.
Half of the group are coming on to lunch with us at Sturt, a lunch including mushrooms from the tunnel of course.
The tunnel is an old disused railway tunnel and it is interesting to see the range of exotic mushrooms grown by Noel of Li Sun Mushrooms. Look out for them at your local farmers market!

How lucky are we!
Today we had a Russian lunch prepared by our friends Tatiana and Steve. We provided the venue, they provided the food - what a great idea.
Several friends joined us.
We started with Borscht (a meal in itself) followed by two amazing pastry dishes - Coulibiak (with trout and barramundi) and Pirogue (made with pork and veal).
It is special to experience traditional food from other cultures - don't you agree?

Our FoodPath blog has a following in Russia which is exciting - because of Tatiana, I'm sure.

Hello to anyone from Russia who may be reading this.

Thanks for the lunch Tatiana!

Last night Nick and I went to Bilsons to the Australian Association of Food Professionals President's Dinner. What a treat that was - with Maggie Beer there with husband Colin and also Margaret Fulton. Maggie gave an inspiring speech and Margaret was inducted into the Hall of Fame. Simon Marnie of ABC radio was the MC for the night. We have seen him a few times now at food events.
For dinner we had lobster quenelle followed by breast of pheasant with foie gras, quite possibly from Maggie's farm in the Barossa. All quite delicious!

Today we had a lunch for Slow Food celebrating "Slow Fashion". Marg Connor, a wonderful felt maker and SH local spoke to us about her felt making and how she gets her inspiration - then treated us to a wonderful parade of her clothes. Such variety and so creative it was very special. It is not just having the skills to make the felt but having the creativity to put it together into a unique garment to be worn and enjoyed. Margaret does not take orders or do commissions because no two pieces are the same.

The models were great fun and we all had a go at trying on the clothes. They came to life when they were being worn.
Slow Food now embraces fibre that is close to the earth - like felt and pottery.

This is not about food - but I wanted to share with you anyway! Marg's clothes can be found at the old Milk Factory complex and Gallery in Railway Street, Bowral. Have a look if you get the chance.

Go to the Tours page to see the complete range of tours down for the month of August. Email us to make a booking, it's easy as 1,2,3.

Yes, these are sausages - just out of the smokehouse! What a hidden treasure in Mittagong. Smoked salamis and sausages, speck, black pudding, pork loin, etc, etc.
All pork - no preservatives, just seasoning. A Polish family business using Polish recipes.
Just had some for lunch - so fresh and yummy with pickles and crusty bread. Will have to include on a FoodPath tour. Only problem is that Wednesday is the day when they have finished the smoking and have most stock, then it is driven to Liverpool and distributed around Australia.
If you think the Southern Highlands is a monoculture - think again!