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

There will be 14 Southern Highlands artisan cheeses at our FoodPath Cheese Appreciation Workshop this Sun 26 Feb at Howards Lane vineyard! Can you believe it! These come from 4 cheese makers and include sheep's milk cheese and cow's milk cheese.

Come and learn lots about our cheese makers and cheese generally from Nick, our in house Cheese Judge.

Meet Michael McNamara, our newest cheese maker from Pecora Dairy. Michael and his wife Cressie are passionate about their sheep and their cheese making.

Not too late to come if you would like to.
Price: $66 pp
Time: 10.30 - 12.30am
Venue: Tasting room at Howards Lane Winery, Mittagong
Bookings: Contact us from the website www.foodpath.com.au

Are you a cheese lover? Do you seek out new and interesting cheeses - or do you have your favourites?

We have a growing number of good cheese makers in Australia and we are lucky to have FOUR in our area - and another one coming soon!
To showcase our Southern Highlands cheeses we are running another Cheese Appreciation Workshop on Sun 26 Feb where you can try many of our local cheeses and learn more from our resident cheese expert Nick Padol.
Explore your palate and learn how to judge a cheese for yourself.
This workshop is popular with our followers. We also provide cheese tastings for conference groups. Come along and join us - you will be glad you did!
Time: 10.30 - 12.30
Venue: Howards Lane Vineyard out of Mittagong
Price: $66 pp
To book: Contact us from the website, email info@foodpath.com.au or ring Jill on 0419 617 021

What is your favourite cheese? Where is your favourite cheese supplier?
Share with us - we would like to hear from you.
We would also love you to "like" us on our FoodPath FaceBook page... Help us to share the info through our social networking channels. Thanks :)

Next weekend will be fun in the Highlands. We have a Day Tour on Sat 22 Oct and a Workshop on Sun morning 23 Oct.
The Day Tour starts at the Moss Vale market where we take you to meet the local producers. Then we move on to a great little farm near Moss Vale. This is featured in the Illawarra Mercury Food and Wine Supplement today if you have access to that... We are lucky to be able to visit this private farm which is a great example of sustainability.
After this we head for Robertson where we enjoy lunch at The Cheese Factory Cafe, then on to Small Cow Farm and a Cheese Tasting of their decision cheeses. Mark and Lesley are our most successful artisan cheese makers and visiting their farm is a special treat.

On Sun we have our regular monthly food preserving workshop. This month it is all about pickling. Come and learn how to pickle onions like your grandmother used to, or pickle cucumbers so they still retain their crunch. Steve is even going to show us how to pickle eggs!

For enquiries and bookings contact us from the website www.foodpath.com.au

Another very successful Cheese Appreciation Workshop today this time held in a beautiful setting at Sturt, Mittagong.

The group was mixed with members from Coffs Harbour, Sydney, Yass, Berry, Kangaroo Valley and the remainder from the Southern Highlands. Three  women had come from various directions to have a weekend together as a school reunion - and they came to TWO of our activities over the weekend! What a great idea and good for us too :). Another four were friends from the South Coast.

We focused on local cheese makers again because that has a special appeal to visitors to the area. We were able to source 11 cheeses this time from 3 cheese makers - 2 cow's milk and 1 ewe's milk. One cheese was even infused with truffles from Braidwood - how special is that!!

Nick shared his vast knowledge of cheese generally and these cheeses in particular and the feedback from the group was excellent! (See our commendations page on the website)

We will be scheduling another workshop in November. Unfortunately October is fully booked with other FoodPath tours and activities.

Would you like to do something different? Like a day in the country meeting the real people behind the food we eat?
Come and meet 16 baby Boer goats! Hear Alan talk about his truffle trees and his hopes for a first "crop" this year at his beautiful property near Moss Vale.

Tiny Boer kids were a great attraction on our last FoodPath Tour

Enjoy a leisurely long table lunch at the stunning Mount Ashby Estate winery. Eon will talk to us about where he sources his ingredients and what he has cooked for us. Enjoy a wine tasting while we are there.

Enjoying a wine tasting with Chris at Mount Ashby

Mount Ashby Estate was an old Throsby dairy. Now renovated and very special.

Move on in time to watch the afternoon milking at a nearby dairy at Burrawang. Here Tammy and Craig tell us how they came to build their modern, computerised facility and it is very interesting. Have a taste of real milk straight from the cow!

Cows waiting eagerly to be milked.

Craig and Tammy tell us about their dairy and how it operates.

Last, but by no means least, come with us to meet Lesley and Mark at Small Cow Farm. Mark will tell us about his cheese making and how they started with Dexter (small) cows. We will enjoy a cheese tasting of their wide range of cheeses and you can purchase some straight from the farm.

Dexter cows at Small Cow Farm

This is a new itinerary and we are very lucky to include some places not normally open to the public.


For bookings or more information check the Tours page on the FoodPath website www.foodpath.com.au or ring Jill on 0419 617 021. 

We were happy to be invited by Provodore Ian Feary to see his Cheese Room at The Old Cheese Factory at Robertson yesterday. Ian has had a successful business in the Southern Highlands for many years now, but has only recently taken over the lease of the cheese section of the Old Cheese Factory.

Ian Feary (right) with his mother Christina and FoodPath's Nick.

Friends and customers enjoying a tasting of Ian's great products and ordering our Christmas hams.

Many of us have fond memories of visiting the cheese factory in years gone by and buying Roberston cheddar. Do you also remember Tilba cheese, Bega cheese, Bodalla cheese from down the South Coast? All good cheddars sorely missed.
Well it is nice to see a return to cheese making in the Southern Highlands, and Robertson in particular establishing itself as a Cheese Centre.
We now have Small Cow Cheese farm nearby, Zoe Brogan at The Old Cheese Factory making goats' milk cheese (and also a range of fresh butters made from Jersey cream) and Michael and Cressida McNamara nearby planning to launch their sheep's milk cheese next year. Fabulous!

Zoe with Sam. Zoe makes goats' milk cheese and runs a fresh produce store in the Old Cheese Factory with her parents.

The Robertson Show has introduced a cheese category in their program, so having Ian take over the Cheese Room at The Old Cheese Factory is another step in the right direction!

Natasha presented her Eling Forest wines

Natasha had a range of wines on hand for us to taste from her family's vineyard, winery and cellar door at Eling Forest, where the wine maker is Michelle Crocket. We enjoy a glass of Eling Forest wine on our FoodPath food tours when we have lunch at this beautiful winery.