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

Well we had another lovely day at Biota Dining in Bowral for their Celebration Sunday. No doubt this is growing every month. The weather was good which always helps and there were lots of stalls at the Market in the garden.

This is a very picturesque little Produce Market set up in the garden near the lake, with geese swimming around and really setting the scene.
Products today included:
Potatoes, sheep's milk cheese, sourdough bread, coffee from our local coffee roasters, jams and chutneys, fresh hazelnuts, wine, fresh vegetables, olives, olive oil, apple cider, free range pork and lamb and skin care products made from olive oil. New stalls today included Sally Beresford who had started to produce her own range of chutneys and sauces; some vegetable growers from Murrenbateman, Jim Gleeson with his fresh hazelnuts, Sally with her coffee and Joey with her jams and jellies.

I took a Market Tour for 6 people at 10.30 and was not able to fit all the stall holders in by 12 noon, when we moved inside for lunch! Such interesting people that everyone wanted to linger.

Lunch was delicious and ample - good value for $55.

Starters included:
Zucchini flowers - pumpkin - house made ricotta
Roast garden beetroots - Pecora sheep milk cheese - Currawong extra virgin olive oil
Fuji apples - fennel - chives - sticky onion

Mains were:
Roast Redleaf suckling pig
Apple cinnamon chutney
Roast potatoes - hazelnut butter
Sauteed curly kale - chilli - garlic

To finish:
Rhubarb tartlet - yoghurt sorbet - vanilla creme
Meringue - lime curd - tarragon


Don't forget you are always welcome to join us in a Market Tour followed by lunch at the FoodPath table if you would like to.
Date: The last Sunday of the month
Where: Biota Dining, Kangaloon Rd, Bowral
Time: 10.30 - 1.30
Price: $55 pp
To book: Contact us from the website www.foodpath.com.au and we will send you a booking form

I was lucky to be invited to visit another olive grove in the Southern Highlands with the chefs from Biota Dining last Friday.
There were 1200 trees on 100 acres - three different types of Italian olives. The trees were laden with fruit and if you squeezed an olive out came the olive oil - they are almost ready to harvest.
We have several olive growers in the Southern Highlands. The quality of the oil is excellent and the price reasonable. Just knowing the fruit is grown here and the oil is extracted almost immediately nearby at Menangle Park should reassure you of the freshness of the oil - unlike many of the imported olive oils.

Let's support our local producers and buy local and everyone benefits as a result. Look out for the following labels - all grown in the Southern Highlands and listed in alphabetical order:

• Brondale olive oil - from Canyonleigh
• Currawong olive oil - from Berrima
• Scarlett Grove olive oil - from Mittagong
• Southern Highlands olive oil - from Diamond Creek Estate at Mittagong
• Sutton Forest olive oil - from Sutton Forest

Wow, we have a busy week coming up -
1. Another Croissant Workshop tomorrow with 12 people, which is a good sized group. Coming along is a chef who wants to be able to surprise his daughter by cooking her croissants for breakfast! Lucky girl. This workshop is good for those who like to cook and also for those who are just interested. Watching skilled people "strut their stuff" s something I always like to do - and Tracy is highly skilled in pastry making.
2. On Sat we have our next Fruit Bottling Workshop. This was full but a couple of people have transferred to another day so there is space available if you would like to come? Email us from the website for more info.
3. Next Tues 2 Aug we have a Mushroom Tunnel Tour with Noel Arrold Micro-Biologist. There is a lot to find out and it is fascinating just to see all the different types of mushrooms growing. Quite a surprise to see all this in a disused railway tunnel - not normally open to the public. Bookings for this are taken at the Visitors Information Centre - ring 4871 2888.
4. On Sat 6 Aug we have a Day Tour in Canyonleigh. During this tour we visit an alpaca farm (they have baby alpacas which will be cute), two or three vineyards and an olive grove. Lunch and a wine tasting will take place at the hub of the community - The General Store. If you want to meet the locals this is the tour for you! Contact us from the website.

• We have our first Winter Food and Wine Wander scheduled for Sat 2 July. It is going to be a good day!
  
  We start by visiting a beautiful property between Bowral and Berrima where Lyn and Al have an olive grove and produce olive oil under the label Currawong. They also have a huge shed that is worth a look, because this used to be one of the biggest cattle properties in the Southern Highlands.
  
  Lyn will provide us with a delicious morning tea by a cosy fire in their beautiful house and Al will tell us about their olive business and treat us to an olive oil tasting.
  
  After a quick visit to the olive grove we will drive on to Joadja to the oldest vineyard and winery in this new cool climate wine area. Here Kim and Frances will be our hosts.
  
  We will be given a tour of the winery and a special tasting of their current range of wines including their new boysenberry liqueur! Nick Padol will give us a tasting of local cheeses and we will make up a pizza for lunch using local produce. These will be cooked in Kim and Frances' new outdoor pizza oven - yum!
  
  After lunch we will drive on to Tertini Wines out of Mittagong where Robert and Linda will be our hosts. We will have a tour of the vintner's shed and a wine tasting and talk by the cosy fire in the tasting room. If you can fit it in we finish with coffee and cake made by a local patissiere Mark Stone from Stone's restaurant.
  
  This tour covers about 15kms outside Berrima and Mittagong so we will drive ourselves and travel in convoy.
  
  For bookings contact us from the website. 10% discount for bookings of 4 or more and 10% loyalty discount for return visits.
  

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We have our final farm tour for Autumn next Sat 21 May and we are looking forward to it. It is virtually booked out which is exciting - maybe room for 1 more? 
Kym at Sutton Forest Olives is just about to harvest so we will be able to see her trees laden with olives. Alan is busy training his dog to find truffles in anticipation of the season - he rubs some cotton wool with truffle oil then buries it and the dog has to find it! Hope he succeeds in time - wouldn't want to miss any! We are having a lovely lunch at Stones Restaurant at Eling Forest winery. Anne and Warryn are busy with a new batch of hens settling in. It is all good - just hope the weather warms up a bit, it has been freezing.