- Jill Dyson,
- Southern Highlands, NSW, Australia
- Click on the link to read Jill's latest blog post. Jill has been running FoodPath in the Southern Highlands of NSW with her partner Nick since April 2010. They have grown the business to a level where they now include a range of activities including tours, workshops and collaboration with others (cooking schools, wineries, etc). During the past 10 years Jill and Nick have got to know the local producers and continue to promote and support these local small businesses. They have organised and run many food related activities including taste education workshops and producer visits. It was after they organised a successful tour for a group of chefs from some of the best restaurants in Sydney that they realised they could turn their interest into a business - and this led to the setting up of FoodPath - Culinary Tours with a Difference. Now Jill and Nick are working closely with Southern Highlands Tourism and Wingecarribee Council to help raise the profile of their area as a food destination where everyone will benefit - tourists, local consumers and the producers themselves.
Monday, January 24, 2011
We have just prepared a program of tours and workshops for the next 6 month and these will be on the website any day now. We have between 4 and 8 activities on each month!
We are introducing series of workshops on Sunday afternoons - check the program for details. These will be run by excellent teachers -
- Fruit bottling and food preserving with Stephen Hogwood
- Wine education with our resident expert Linda Lambrecht, and
- Cheese appreciation with Nick Padol, Cheese judge.
Our regular tours continue as before - the food focused walking tour in Bowral, Moss Vale farmers market tour and our regular day tour on the 3rd Sat. However we have changed our tour on the 2nd Sat.
We have joined forces with Patricia and Kristal from the Blue Bowl Cooking School to put on a "Market to Table" tour every 2nd Sat. FoodPath will take a farmers market tour in Bowral first and then we will move on to the historic Fitzroy Inn in Mittagong, where Patricia will provide a cooking class followed by lunch, using the ingredients purchased at the market. Should be fun!
We also have chestnut picking on 26 Mar. This is a seasonal activity and we were lucky to get the opportunity. We also wanted to get a group together to do berry picking - but because of the weather the only berries were blackberries. Maybe you can let me know if you would have liked to go blackberry picking? I was concerned that we would not get the numbers.
Lots of exciting things coming up! Please spread the word and we look forward to catching up with many of you during 2011.
We are introducing series of workshops on Sunday afternoons - check the program for details. These will be run by excellent teachers -
- Fruit bottling and food preserving with Stephen Hogwood
- Wine education with our resident expert Linda Lambrecht, and
- Cheese appreciation with Nick Padol, Cheese judge.
Our regular tours continue as before - the food focused walking tour in Bowral, Moss Vale farmers market tour and our regular day tour on the 3rd Sat. However we have changed our tour on the 2nd Sat.
We have joined forces with Patricia and Kristal from the Blue Bowl Cooking School to put on a "Market to Table" tour every 2nd Sat. FoodPath will take a farmers market tour in Bowral first and then we will move on to the historic Fitzroy Inn in Mittagong, where Patricia will provide a cooking class followed by lunch, using the ingredients purchased at the market. Should be fun!
We also have chestnut picking on 26 Mar. This is a seasonal activity and we were lucky to get the opportunity. We also wanted to get a group together to do berry picking - but because of the weather the only berries were blackberries. Maybe you can let me know if you would have liked to go blackberry picking? I was concerned that we would not get the numbers.
Lots of exciting things coming up! Please spread the word and we look forward to catching up with many of you during 2011.
Sunday, January 23, 2011
Well our second Family Farm Tour was great fun too. Same itinerary as on 8 Jan but with the added treat of seeing the 9 tiny baby goats at one of the farms. Very cute and lots of photos taken by adults and children!
Our picnic lunch was very pleasant sitting under the trees by the lake at Eling Forest winery.
We had a birthday girl along on this trip who had chosen to come as a birthday treat. Mark at Eling Forest dressed up one of his delicious little cakes as a b'day cake which was kind.
We had a large group of little children this time (aged 3 - 6yrs) so at the free range egg farm we divided into two groups - the adults and older children in one group and the little ones in another.
Warryn's pasta demonstration was popular. This is a good way to use surplus eggs. It is only made of eggs and flour, nothing else. What child doesn't eat pasta these days - so good for them to see how it is made. They were fascinated! Each family was given a sample of pasta to take home, cut to their choice - tagliatelle, fettucine etc.
Collecting eggs rated highly too and the children learnt a lot about where their eggs come from. We even saw a hen actually lay an egg this time, which was a first! The children painted faces on some hard boiled eggs and took them home to eat.
At the dairy this time we got very close to the cows who were anxiously waiting to be milked. Craig showed us the milking apparatus and we got to feel the suction that is used to actually milk the cows. The children loved that and it caused much hilarity!
Feeding the calves was popular again especially with the bigger children (and some of the adults)!
Thanks to all our kind producers who let us visit their farms! These school holiday family farm tours have been such a success that we will repeat them next holidays. Let us know if you want to go on a waiting list?
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| The birthday girl holding a baby goat! |
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| Cute little baby Boer goats! |
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| Lunch under the trees at beautiful Eling Forest |
We had a large group of little children this time (aged 3 - 6yrs) so at the free range egg farm we divided into two groups - the adults and older children in one group and the little ones in another.
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| Inquisitive kids! |
Collecting eggs rated highly too and the children learnt a lot about where their eggs come from. We even saw a hen actually lay an egg this time, which was a first! The children painted faces on some hard boiled eggs and took them home to eat.
At the dairy this time we got very close to the cows who were anxiously waiting to be milked. Craig showed us the milking apparatus and we got to feel the suction that is used to actually milk the cows. The children loved that and it caused much hilarity!
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| Eva and Sam feeling the suction on the milking machine |
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| Zoe helping to feed the calf |
Thanks to all our kind producers who let us visit their farms! These school holiday family farm tours have been such a success that we will repeat them next holidays. Let us know if you want to go on a waiting list?
Sunday, January 9, 2011
Wow, what a great day we had yesterday. It was a bit overcast early in the morning but cleared to a beautiful day here in the Southern Highlands. Rachel and Greg Power from The Great Aussie Road Trip joined us with their 3 children, which was fun. They have travelled far and wide and it was nice to be able to welcome them along on one of our FoodPath tours. Another family - Janelle and Dion and their children have followed Rachel and Greg in their travels for the past 6 months!
We had a run on bookings in the couple of days prior to the tour - as the result of an article in the local paper and an announcement on local radio. We ended up with 18 adults and 12 children ranging from 2 up to 12 years of age!
Please see our Facebook page for more photos.
We have another Family Farm Tour in two weeks on Sat 22 Jan. We meet in Berrima at 10am and finish at Burrawang at 4pm. $185 for a family of four. $25 per extra child and $85 per extra adult.
We already have 3 families booked so don't delay if you would like to come? This is our last school holiday activity for January - but keep an eye on our website for future activities.
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| Dion, Janelle, Rachel, Teddy and Greg from The Great Aussie Road trip |
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| Chooks, Maremma dogs and kids - what a great combination. |
Everything went smoothly and it was great to see families sharing the experience together and kids showing so much interest. One child loved the demonstration of pasta making at Berrima Ridge Free Range Egg Farm where they make pasta from their under or over size eggs. Another said she loved feeding the day old calves at the dairy. Another said he liked learning how to tell a male from a female yabby!! A wide range of experiences as you can see!
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| Yabby - one of many seen on our latest tour. |
We have another Family Farm Tour in two weeks on Sat 22 Jan. We meet in Berrima at 10am and finish at Burrawang at 4pm. $185 for a family of four. $25 per extra child and $85 per extra adult.
We already have 3 families booked so don't delay if you would like to come? This is our last school holiday activity for January - but keep an eye on our website for future activities.
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
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| Six Maremma dogs help to protect the 4000 chooks from the foxes |
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| Boer goats are from South Africa and are bred for their meat. |
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| There are always some calves at the dairy so their mothers produce milk. |
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