Visits
About Us...
- 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.
Showing posts with label berry picking. Show all posts
Showing posts with label berry picking. Show all posts
Tuesday, January 7, 2014
Wow time flies and already we have started our "Summer holiday tours". This time last year Nicole Kidman and Keith joined us but we can't guarantee that again I'm afraid! Was just a lovely surprise.
We kick the tours for the year last Friday when a large family asked for a Family Farm Tour - and it just reminded me how much fun it is. Colin does a great job and has loads of animals - and he is happy to run tours on request if he is around.
Bookings are coming in for the Family Farm Tour this Friday 10 Jan at Alan's farm and the Berry Picking Tour this Saturday 11 Jan. These will both be fun and are repeated the following weekend. Alan has a different range of animals and activities and has been running tours for us for a few years now - so you could visit both farms and have a different experience at each.
Check the website for details and contact us if you would like to join us - www.foodpath.com.au, e: info@foodpath.com.au, m: 0419 617 021
We kick the tours for the year last Friday when a large family asked for a Family Farm Tour - and it just reminded me how much fun it is. Colin does a great job and has loads of animals - and he is happy to run tours on request if he is around.
Check the website for details and contact us if you would like to join us - www.foodpath.com.au, e: info@foodpath.com.au, m: 0419 617 021
Wednesday, December 11, 2013
We have been busy firming up several tours and workshops for next year and have a busy schedule lined up. If you are on our mailing list you should have received our December Update the morning. If you didn't and you would like it, please let us know and we will email to you.
Scheduled Summer activities include:
We are looking forward to welcoming Robyn Darley to our FoodPath team next year. She will join Steve Hogwood and Biddy Maupin who run regular classes for us and also Patricia Phillips from the Blue Bowl Cooking School with whom we collaborate for the Market to Table Tours.
Robyn will be running a wide range of cooking classes including Making Dairy (quark, yoghurt, marscapone, gourmet fetta and paneer - a full cream ricotta), Sausage Making, Bread Making, Pastries and more. Robyn has extensive experience as a Cooking Teacher - you may have seen her demonstrating cheese making at the Southern Highlands Food and Wine Festival? Robyn runs Cheese Making Classes for Small Cow Farm so she will not be running those for us. If you want to learn to make cheese please contact Small Cow Farm. When you live in a small community it is important that you all work together...
Cheers,
Jill
Scheduled Summer activities include:
- Two Berry Picking tours (Sat 11 and 18 Jan)
- A Winery Tour (Fri 3 Jan)
- Two Family Farm Tours (Fri 10 and 17 Jan)
- A FoodLovers Walking Tour in Bowral (Sat 15 Feb)
- Preserving Class with Steve Hogwood (Sun 16 Feb)
As well as our regular Market Tour on the 2nd Sat in the month.
However please note we can always put on extra tours for you if you have a group. Just ring us to discuss.
We are looking forward to welcoming Robyn Darley to our FoodPath team next year. She will join Steve Hogwood and Biddy Maupin who run regular classes for us and also Patricia Phillips from the Blue Bowl Cooking School with whom we collaborate for the Market to Table Tours.
Robyn will be running a wide range of cooking classes including Making Dairy (quark, yoghurt, marscapone, gourmet fetta and paneer - a full cream ricotta), Sausage Making, Bread Making, Pastries and more. Robyn has extensive experience as a Cooking Teacher - you may have seen her demonstrating cheese making at the Southern Highlands Food and Wine Festival? Robyn runs Cheese Making Classes for Small Cow Farm so she will not be running those for us. If you want to learn to make cheese please contact Small Cow Farm. When you live in a small community it is important that you all work together...
Cheers,
Jill
Wednesday, December 26, 2012
Back to earth now that Christmas is over and we have had Boxing Day to recover. Plans are in place for some fun next Sat 29 Dec when we are going berry picking in the morning and visiting a working dairy in the afternoon.
Come and join us and you will have some fun - guaranteed!
Our tours are well known now and we have repeat customers which is wonderful. Two families who came last Jan have just booked again. Another couple who have already booked for three activities in the next few weeks have just emailed and want to book for three more!!!
It is very gratifying when we hit the spot and provide you with interesting and fun activities - because that is what we are all about.
So - if you want to come along on Sat 29 Dec please contact us ASAP. If not possible we are repeating this tour on Thurs 3 Jan and again on Sat 5 Jan.
You can come to one or both farms, you decide. Meet at 10am for fruit picking and 2.30pm for the dairy - or come to both and we will head to the Burrawang Village Hotel for lunch in between.
Contact us for info or to book - m: 0419 617 021, info@foodpath.com.au - or send us a message from the website.
Price: Adults $35 one farm, $65 for two farms. Children (3 - 12 yrs) $20 one farm, $35 for two farms.
Come and join us and you will have some fun - guaranteed!
Our tours are well known now and we have repeat customers which is wonderful. Two families who came last Jan have just booked again. Another couple who have already booked for three activities in the next few weeks have just emailed and want to book for three more!!!
It is very gratifying when we hit the spot and provide you with interesting and fun activities - because that is what we are all about.
You can come to one or both farms, you decide. Meet at 10am for fruit picking and 2.30pm for the dairy - or come to both and we will head to the Burrawang Village Hotel for lunch in between.
Contact us for info or to book - m: 0419 617 021, info@foodpath.com.au - or send us a message from the website.
Price: Adults $35 one farm, $65 for two farms. Children (3 - 12 yrs) $20 one farm, $35 for two farms.
Wednesday, December 12, 2012
Time to roll your sleeves up and come berry picking in the Highlands.
Join us for a coffee first at the Exeter General Store then come picking nearby. It is fun to join a group. Then follow us in your car as we head for Burrawang for lunch at the Village Hotel, winner of the Best Country Pub. Great view from the beer garden and plenty of room for kids to run around.
In the afternoon we will visit a modern computerised dairy where the children can feed the poddy calves and you can learn how it all works from the dairy farmer. See for yourself as we watch the afternoon milking.
Date: Sat 29 Dec and Sat 5 Jan (or if you have a group of 8 just call us anytime)
Price: $65 adults $35 kids (3 - 12). Half a kg of berries included for adults.
NB Morning tea and lunch not included - choose your own lunch and be in control of your spend - and join us at the FoodPath table.
Join us for a coffee first at the Exeter General Store then come picking nearby. It is fun to join a group. Then follow us in your car as we head for Burrawang for lunch at the Village Hotel, winner of the Best Country Pub. Great view from the beer garden and plenty of room for kids to run around.
In the afternoon we will visit a modern computerised dairy where the children can feed the poddy calves and you can learn how it all works from the dairy farmer. See for yourself as we watch the afternoon milking.
Price: $65 adults $35 kids (3 - 12). Half a kg of berries included for adults.
NB Morning tea and lunch not included - choose your own lunch and be in control of your spend - and join us at the FoodPath table.
Sunday, January 22, 2012
Another successful FoodPath Day Tour today and we were lucky with the weather. Some light rain but only intermittent and it didn't stop us at all.
Picked delicious blackberries at Montrose.
Jasmin gave us lots of tastings at The Sutton Forest Country Store and it was great to include Kym from Sutton Forest Olives today.
How nice to meet the grower in the olive grove amongst the trees that she looks after so well to produce her prize winning oil.
For lunch today we visited Sutton Forest Estate Wines where Nick and Santina gave us a wine tasting followed by a long table lunch with antipasto platters and delicious tiramisu followed by a nip of home made limoncello.
This group were mostly locals some of whom were friends but others enjoyed meeting more like minded people. This is what we like to do on our tours - give everyone a good time!
This group were mostly locals some of whom were friends but others enjoyed meeting more like minded people. This is what we like to do on our tours - give everyone a good time!
Saturday, January 21, 2012
Rosie picked up our postcard at a local cafe and had it on her fridge thinking it was something she would like to do one day - and when it came to her birthday, thought of this as something different to do with her family and friends. What a great idea - and we had a fun day!
We started with coffee at the Exeter General Store, then on to Montrose Berry Farm where we had a tasting of their berry products and we went berry picking.
We started with coffee at the Exeter General Store, then on to Montrose Berry Farm where we had a tasting of their berry products and we went berry picking.
Then on to do berry picking at Montrose Berry Farm.
Tastings with Jasmin at the their new business - the Sutton Forest Country Store.
A delicious lunch at the Exeter Studio restaurant where Eon the Chef also had a birthday!
After lunch we had a wine tasting with Nereo at St Maur's cellar door.
All in all the day had nice variety, a nice pace, took the tour to interesting places and people.
All in all the day had nice variety, a nice pace, took the tour to interesting places and people.
AND we have another tour tomorrow! Looking forward to it.. If you want to come along these Day Tours run on the 3rd Sat of the month.
Sunday, January 15, 2012
Our Day Tour on Sat 21 Jan has been booked out for a private birthday group! There was considerable interest in this day despite the fact that there were no firm bookings.
We decided to offer another tour for the next day Sun 22 Jan 2012 and were able to organise a similar itinerary. Now we have several people booked and paid! This is very exciting for us - it is the first time we have had two Day Tours on the same weekend - and we are looking forward to it.
There are a couple of spaces left so if you would like to join us on Sun 22 Jan please let us know ASAP and we will send you a booking form. M: 0419 617 021.
Price $110 includes morning coffee, berry picking, lunch and tastings. Product and produce available for sale.
We decided to offer another tour for the next day Sun 22 Jan 2012 and were able to organise a similar itinerary. Now we have several people booked and paid! This is very exciting for us - it is the first time we have had two Day Tours on the same weekend - and we are looking forward to it.
There are a couple of spaces left so if you would like to join us on Sun 22 Jan please let us know ASAP and we will send you a booking form. M: 0419 617 021.
Price $110 includes morning coffee, berry picking, lunch and tastings. Product and produce available for sale.
Wednesday, December 14, 2011
The berries are ready to start picking... feel like some fresh loganberries, boysenberries or blue berries? We had lunch at the Moss Vale Community Garden last Fri and for dessert Jill (another Jill, not me) took us around the garden gathering berries from the vines. We found raspberries and Marion berries (no, I hadn't heard of these either). Can't get fresher than that! They also had some white currants and red currants - that not only looked stunning but tasted delicious too.
The Moss Vale Community Garden is going great guns. You can join up and then go and help in the garden or with the lunch on Wed or Fri. Great for those who do not have a vegie garden at home or who would just like the company. At the end of the day surplus produce is shared between the workers.
We are hoping to showcase the community gardens in some way at our huge food and wine festival at Bong Bong racecourse on 3-4 Mar 2011.
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
One of my favourite starting points for a day of exploring real farm fresh food here in The Southern Highlands is at an old Orchard. I love picking fruit straight from the trees. You can't beat the crunch of a freshly picked apple. No cool storage here!Berry picking is next on the agenda and just down the road. So fresh to eat and we just pay for what we want to take home.
It is great to have such nice fresh fruit at our finger tips - and it lasts so much longer than what you buy in the supermarket.
There is a winery nearby that started as a seminary 100 years ago. Now it is run as a Conference and Training Centre - and is also a working farm.
There is a fabulous refurbished chapel with the modern carved timber furnishings and stained glass windows. Very special. Last year The Song Company put on a concert there. That's what I love about living in the Southern Highlands - you get these hidden treasures!There are ducks and geese roaming free, a healthy looking herd of cattle and a vineyard. The Brothers sell their fresh produce including jams and chutneys and you can buy duck eggs if you are lucky.
We wind up by visiting a wonderful fine craft centre nearby to relax over coffee and browse through the fabulous gallery for that special present for someone - or just admire.
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