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

Last Thursday we were invited to put on a showcase of local produce for an international conference group at the Gibraltar Hotel. I arranged for a couple of our producers to come along and talk about their products and we took some jams and vinegars from Cuttaway Creek Raspberry Farm. Nick talked about the Highlands as a whole as a food growing area. Everyone is always surprised about that - a "food bowl" so close to Sydney, but it is true! Closer to Sydney than the Hunter, we always tell them.
Kym Burrows from Sutton Forest Olives came along and spoke about her olive growing and the processing and we had a tasting of a range of her products, including her 2013 Robust and Fresh and Fruity olive oils which won awards recently in the National competition.
Alastair came from Bousaada Wines and gave the group a tasting of his Yellow Box Mead - and they loved it. In fact the group bought lots of product from all three producers so everyone was happy.

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

Well, what an interesting afternoon it was at Howards Lane vineyard for the Gelato Workshop yesterday.

I had trouble visualising what Olive Oil Sorbet would be like - but it was delicious, with a smooth oily "mouth feel" at the end.

We ended up with a group of fourteen plus Kym who came to tell us about her olive oil business - Sutton Forest Olives. She had fun and stayed the whole afternoon. Included one very good child who has been to four FoodPath activities this year with his Mum!!

Can't believe we have had four FoodPath activities in the last six days - and we are not even exhausted. That's what happens when you enjoy what you are doing :)

Luigi has sent through his program for the Gelato Workshop tomorrow - just look at this, I can't wait!

• Olive oil and black pepper SORBET
• Buffalo milk and pure choc nugget GELATO
• Mittagong raspberry farm GRANITA
• Coffee and cream combo (GRANITA & FRESH WHIPPED CREAM)
• MATCHA Japanese Green Tea tasting/ceremony (during the break)

We picked up three punnets of fresh raspberries from the farm this afternoon - only 2 kms from where we will be making the GRANITA (low fuel miles - couldn't be lower). Berries were picked the morning (couldn't be fresher).
Kym from Sutton Forest Olives is coming in with her olive oil for the SORBET and will talk to the group about her business. Elena is bringing her buffalo milk up from Camden PLUS some fresh Jersey milk - so we can taste the difference.

How nice to be able to use fresh and local ingredients - what we are always encouraging others to do!

On Sat next weekend - 31 Mar - Luigi de Luca will entertain us at Howards Lane Winery with tales of his family business that spanned several generations.

He will also tell us the history of gelato making and show us how to make gelato using fresh local ingredients.
This will be a fun workshop. Actually more of a Masterclass I guess because we will be watching and tasting (yum), not actually making.

One of our group is bringing her own buffalo milk (!) and Luigi has asked me to source some local produce. He said olive oil but I'm not so sure - I think I will get some of our wonderful local fresh raspberry sauce. The raspberries have just finished so there should be lots of value added products that carry the farmers through the rest of the year.

Nick and I were lucky to be invited a couple of years ago to Luigi's launch of his Prickly Pear Granita at his Leichhardt Gelateria. That was delicious!

Come along and join the fun. Price: $66
To book contact us from www.foodpath.com.au, info@foodpath.com.au or ring Jill on 0419 617 021

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!

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.

Had a phone call this morning from a very excited Kym Burrows, reporting that they had won two awards for their Sutton Forest Olive Oil at the Royal Canberra Show!
They won a Gold for their "Robust" olive oil and a Silver for their "Fresh and Fruity".

We visit Kym at her olive farm with our tours

It was the first time Kym had entered a show with her oil and they came 2nd and 3rd in the whole event, Kym said! The winner was a large company in the Hunter Valley whereas Kym and her husband have no paid help. This is very exciting and makes all the hard work worth while.

Kym telling a FoodPath tour group about her business,

We visit Kym both on our Day Tours on the farm and during our tour of the Bowral Public School Market and her passion about her product is plain to see. These awards will encourage her to go from strength to strength - congratulations Kym and Mathew!

Kym is a regular at the Bowral Public School Market on the 2nd Sat

A display of Sutton Forest olive oil, dukkah, caramelised balsamic - all delicious

Well we were lucky to have fine weather for our first "Day in Canyonleigh" tour today - but we still needed our jackets at times. It is the Highlands after all :)

We had a lovely day....
Delicious morning tea at The General Store thanks to Gisanne and Louise, then on to visit Laird and Jenny at Glenfion vineyard. How interesting to find out about their wine business, their son Andrew's beer making business - and also Jenny's art and about the Canyonleigh community as well. Several of the locals are trained up in emergency response so they can look after each other until emergency services arrive, in the case of an accident. What a great idea!

Our visit to the Birrong Suri Alpacas was great. Fiona gave us an insight into the alpaca industry in Australia and Suri alpacas in particular. We met several babies or cria (good trivial pursuit question?) and went for a tour around the farm. After shearing all of the fleece is sent to Victoria where it is made into yarn or garments that can be purchased. The yarn is often blended with a small percentage of wool and the end result is soft and silky.
We enjoyed a wine tasting and olive oil tasting back at the General Store before lunch. All produce was grown in Canyonleigh.

After a yummy two course lunch we drove to Pygmy Hill with Louise who showed us the Farmhouse Country Retreat and walked us through the vineyard.
Everyone was very welcoming and it certainly was interesting to get to know this little corner of the Southern Highlands. We'll be back to the General Store for dinner on a Fri night some time soon...