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

We have a few spaces available this month for Celebration Sunday at Biota Dining due to a cancellation.
This is a popular day - with some people coming back again and again.
A nice way to spend the last Sunday of the month meeting our wonderful local food producers at the market in the restaurant garden in the morning, followed by a delicious 3 course lunch of shared platters at our FoodPath communal table.
If you would like to join us contact us - www.foodpath.com.au, info@foodpath.com.au or m: 0419 617 021

Or - make a weekend of it and come on our Truffle Tour on Sat 27 July as well!

Can't believe it is nearly the end of May and I have been slack with my blogging! Have been posting on Facebook and Twitter and even started on Instagram - but no excuses, should have kept up our FoodPath blog too...

This month has been super busy with our two Art of Food dinners at the Milk Factory Gallery in Bowral on Sat 4 and Sat 18 May. What a nice feeling it was to collaborate with other local businesses, support our local food growers and wineries, include them as speakers at the dinners, showcase Steve Harris' wonderful paintings and put our chef John Shelly in touch with so many local suppliers that I know is going to be the beginning of a beautiful relationship. All good.

Already we are exploring other opportunities to collaborate and bring you different and special food related activities - watch this space!

In the meantime we have some special tours to look forward to next week for World Environment Day as part of the Wingecarribee Shire Council's program of activities. FoodPath are taking a Southern Highlands Farm Tour on Thurs 6 June to visit three farms and enjoy a delicious lunch at Mt Ashby Estate. Our first farm has 19 baby boer goats and I am looking forward to seeing them! The second farm has beautiful alpacas of all colours and the third is a beautiful beef property. All are interesting and we feel privileged to be able to visit.

On Sat 8 June we have a Market Tour at the Bowral Produce Market where you can meet the local producers and hear their story. Always interesting.

On Sun 9 June Biddy Maupin is running a Jam Making Workshop for us at the Cookability Kitchen in Bowral. That will be fun and we will learn how to make

• mandarin marmalade, 
• passionfruit and lemon curd, 
• rhubarb and raspberry jam and 
• crab apple jelly. 

She will tell us lots of tips and tricks for success and we will have lots of tastings and a light lunch. Check the website for details and contact us if you would like to come.

What a busy week!
First we have had a group of 17 women come on a customised tour with us while their partners played golf. That was a new itinerary which was a great success and we will definitely be repeating!
We ran TWO Farmers Market Tours yesterday at Bowral Public School! One was as part of a Market to Table Tour and was followed by a cooking class with Patricia from the Blue Bowl Cooking School and a long table lunch.

Thirlmere Poultry has been going for over 40 years and John and Jeanie represent them at the Bowral market

Patricia bought the ingredients at the market and these included free range duck, minced free range pork, organic shallots and other vegies, blood oranges, rhubarb and prawns (up from Wollongong).
The meal had an Asian theme and the group made -

•  Steamed Prawn Dumplings with the pork and prawn, with black vinegar dressing
• Mushroom Fried Rice using the shiitake, oyster and swiss brown mushrooms from the Mittagong mushroom tunnel (we have a tour to the tunnel scheduled for Tues 25 Oct)
• Szechuan Duck which was so tender and delicious
• Blood Orange Sorbet served with rhubarb which had been cooked in the juice of the oranges.

Enjoying the fruits of their labour the group lingered over lunch at Fitzroy Inn. Great to see the men cooking!

We were all given a book with the recipes and some useful information about the produce - AND we got to take the apron home!
Thanks Patricia!
I am looking forward to the next one which is on Sat 8 Oct. Contact us from the website for bookings or more info www.foodpath.com.au.
The website for Patricia at the Blue Bowl Cooking School is www.bluebowl.com.au

First we had a tour of the Moss Vale Produce Market.
Some changes since last month -

• The pumpkins are finished so Louise and Luke from Marulan were not there

Don't pumpkins look great as a decorative feature!

Pam and Paul of Doolan Country Jams & Chutneys

• Phil is between seasons with his organic vegies so said he had a limited supply - but he still had English spinach, baby leeks, baby endive, potatoes, baby brussel sprouts, cavolo nero, kale and broccoli - and it was sooooo fresh! 
• Jim was there with his fresh and roasted hazelnuts but said this was probably the last time for the season. He was selling barefooted hazelnut trees too - great for anyone who is planning to grow truffles!
• The two Steve's were there with their newly formed business Phatt Duck and Hog. They make great pies and chutneys and more. Steve from the 1910 Bottling Company is now making the fillings for the fruit pies. Won't be long before they build up a following.
• Mary was there with her olive oil and soap, Jo with her great range of breads, Michael with his free range eggs, Rhona with her fruit leather, dried fruit and fresh fruit, Biddy with her famous chicken liver pate and Seville orange marmalade, Susie with Hindmarsh olives and Pam and Paul from Doolan's jams with their jams, jellies, butter and chutneys. 
• All fabulous products and our group certainly enjoyed buying things they would take home and enjoy. 
• Coming to the Market on a tour with FoodPath means you get an inside look at what is going on with food in the Highlands and you get a personal introduction to the producers, which makes it special. Helps to build relationships between the grower and you, the consumer... which is the way we are heading. People really want to know more about the food they eat these days, which is great.

Last Sat we hosted a journalist from Sydney who was interested in meeting local producers.

It was fortunate that this coincided with our first Farmers Markets tour in Bowral (2nd Sat) because this was a perfect opportunity to see many local producers in the one spot.

Ben really enjoyed it and wanted to linger longer but we had a tight schedule so had to move him on.









During the time at the market we met:
- A raspberry farmer
- A fruit bottling guru
- A couple selling mushrooms from the famous mushroom tunnel
- An olive farmer
- Some jam and chutney makers
- A dried fruit and fruit leather maker and
- A couple who produce a new prize winning Hand Made Slow Cooked barbeque sauce.


Time for a leisurely coffee half way through under the trees.




The Bowral Farmers Market is small and an attractive location much loved by the locals who come out in droves.





Producers can vary from market to market and there are also many producers from outside the area -
eg free range pork, saltbush lamb, honey, bread, cheeses, traditional sausages, vegetables, wine, tea, Maltese cakes etc.