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

Well we are still in recovery mode!
On Wednesday this week, 9 Mar we had two things running concurrently. Fortunately Nick could be at one and I was at the other.
First we had a film crew come to shoot one of our Fruit Bottling Workshops for the program Sydney Weekender. We got a group of nine women together to make up a class at the Howards Lane tasting room out of Mittagong - a beautiful setting looking over the vineyard.

Fruit preparation for bottling with Steve

Steve Hogwood from the 1910 Bottling Company ran the workshop and Kath and Emma from a new business DeliSH kindly brought along one of their hampers to provide lunch for everyone to share.

Mike Whitney complete with apron!

While this was going on I was at the Visitors Information Centre in Mittagong to host the Mushroom Tunnel Tours. We had two tours which were well attended.

Noel explaining about his mushrooms

We travelled by bus to the entrance of the tunnel. From there the group walked the full length of the tunnel (650metres) while Noel told us about the mushrooms and about his business. It was very interesting and as always very popular.
We are hoping that Noel will let SH Tourism and FoodPath host a further 3 tours to the tunnel during the year - fingers crossed!

Everyone wants to see the famous mushroom tunnel in Mittagong - well now is your chance!
Southern Highlands Tourism has negotiated with the owner to run two tours next Wed 9 March - and they have asked FoodPath to host them. We are very excited!

The entrance to the old disused railway tunnel

A bus will be leaving the Visitor's Information Centre at Mittagong at 9.30am for the first tour and 11.30am for the second tour.

The mushrooms include a range of exotic types and colours

All bookings to go to the SH Tourism on 02 4871 2888. Price is $35 pp which includes a guided tour by Dr Noel Arrold and a punnet of mushrooms.

Colours include yellow, orange, blue, grey, white and various shades of beige

Exciting news - Channel 7 is coming to the Southern Highlands next week to film one of our Fruit Bottling Workshops with Steve Hogwood, for their program Sydney Weekender!

This will take place at Howards Lane vineyard in their tasting rooms, a lovely setting looking out over the veranda to the vines and the bush beyond. Wallabies come down in the late afternoon to graze.
We have discovered a nice connection - there is a portrait on the wall of a lady called Sophie Corrie who owned the land at Howards lane vineyard in times gone by. She published one of the earliest books in Australia on fruit bottling and preserving in 1893 - and we are now running Fruit Bottling workshops there! A nice connection?

We had our last tour at the Moss Vale Produce Market last Sat before it changes again. Our markets in the Highlands have been through a topsy turvy time to say the least. Let's hope it settles down soon!
The Showground Trust have taken over the Moss Vale Market so it will be interesting to see if it becomes even more rural, which would be good.
Despite being the last day there were eight local producers or food related businesses we could visit and our group really enjoyed meeting them.
No doubt about it this really is a great way to meet the producers and get to know who is really local. Phil was there with his wonderful organic vegetables from near Fitzroy Falls. Michael had free range eggs from Marulan and he has started to breed free range pigs as well. Pasquelle was there with his father-in-law's potatoes from Robertson. They grow over 20 varieties which is pretty impressive.

Mary had come down from Bungonia with her olive oil, dukka, olive oil soap etc. Boon had a range of Asian pears from her orchard near Robertson and also a pear vinegar. Jo had her amazing range of breads and even brought in some sourdough starter for the group to feel and smell.

Mrs Bucket was there with her delicious chicken liver pate (which we can't resist) as well as a fabulous range of jams and jellies made from locally grown fruit where possible; and Susie was there with Bruce Hindmarsh's olives.
As always we ended up with some delicious fresh local produce to take home for lunch - what a great way to spend a relaxing Saturday!
We will keep an eye on what is happening at this market. The Bowral Public School Produce Market may be going from monthly to fortnightly. We will go where there are most local producers!

The results are out for the Cheese and Dairy Produce Awards at the Royal Easter Show - and the Highlands did extremely well.

ALL OF THOSE WHO ENTERED WON GOLD! 
(In alphabetical order):

• Bill Smillie of Highlands Organics at Moss Vale won Gold for his organic cow's milk Fetta.
• Mark and Lesley Williams of Small Cow Farm at Robertson won Gold for their Fettice - a Fetta style cheese. 
• Michael and Cressida McNamara of Pecora Dairy on Jamberoo Mountain won Gold for their Jamberoo Mountain Blue, a mould ripened sheep's milk cheese - and they were first time entrants. Needless to say they are very excited! Their cheese will be available commercially later this year.

Highland Organics cheese used by FoodPath in a presentation of local produce

As well as this:

• Bill Smillie supplies the organic milk for Country Valley Organic Milk which won "Champion Milk" and also "Most Successful Exhibitor"!
• Small Cow Farm won 3 Silver awards for their Eastern Fetta, Petit Vache Camembert and Petit Vache Brie.

Holsteins heading for the dairy at milking time

John Fairley of Country Valley at Picton won:

• "Champion Milk" for his Country Valley Organic Milk
• "Champion Yoghurt" and a Gold award for his Country Valley Lush Natural Yoghurt
• Silver for his Country Valley Lush Plain Yoghurt and
• Silver for his Country Valley Classic Cream.

Small Dexter cows at Small Cow Farm - hence the name!

CONGRATULATIONS TO EVERYONE!
We are lucky to have you amongst our local producers - and FoodPath encourages everyone to buy your products!

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 have just prepared a program of tours and workshops for the next 6 month and these will be on the website any day now. We have between 4 and 8 activities on each month!
We are introducing  series of workshops on Sunday afternoons - check the program for details. These will be run by excellent teachers -
- Fruit bottling and food preserving with Stephen Hogwood
- Wine education with our resident expert Linda Lambrecht, and
- Cheese appreciation with Nick Padol, Cheese judge.
Our regular tours continue as before - the food focused walking tour in Bowral, Moss Vale farmers market tour and our regular day tour on the 3rd Sat. However we have changed our tour on the 2nd Sat.
We have joined forces with Patricia and Kristal from the Blue Bowl Cooking School to put on a "Market to Table" tour every 2nd Sat. FoodPath will take a farmers market tour in Bowral first and then we will move on to the historic Fitzroy Inn in Mittagong, where Patricia will provide a cooking class followed by lunch, using the ingredients purchased at the market. Should be fun!
We also have chestnut picking on 26 Mar. This is a seasonal activity and we were lucky to get the opportunity. We also wanted to get a group together to do berry picking - but because of the weather the only berries were blackberries. Maybe you can let me know if you would have liked to go blackberry picking? I was concerned that we would not get the numbers.

Lots of exciting things coming up! Please spread the word and we look forward to catching up with many of you during 2011.

Well our second Family Farm Tour was great fun too. Same itinerary as on 8 Jan but with the added treat of seeing the 9 tiny baby goats at one of the farms. Very cute and lots of photos taken by adults and children!

The birthday girl holding a baby goat!

Cute little baby Boer goats!

Our picnic lunch was very pleasant sitting under the trees by the lake at Eling Forest winery.

Lunch under the trees at beautiful Eling Forest

We had a birthday girl along on this trip who had chosen to come as a birthday treat. Mark at Eling Forest dressed up one of his delicious little cakes as a b'day cake which was kind.

We had a large group of little children this time (aged 3 - 6yrs) so at the free range egg farm we divided into two groups - the adults and older children in one group and the little ones in another.

Inquisitive kids!

Warryn's pasta demonstration was popular. This is a good way to use surplus eggs. It is only made of eggs and flour, nothing else. What child doesn't eat pasta these days - so good for them to see how it is made. They were fascinated! Each family was given a sample of  pasta to take home, cut to their choice - tagliatelle, fettucine etc.

Collecting eggs rated highly too and the children learnt a lot about where their eggs come from. We even saw a hen actually lay an egg this time, which was a first! The children painted faces on some hard boiled eggs and took them home to eat.

At the dairy this time we got very close to the cows who were anxiously waiting to be milked. Craig showed us the milking apparatus and we got to feel the suction that is used to actually milk the cows. The children loved that and it caused much hilarity!

Eva and Sam feeling the suction on the milking machine

Feeding the calves was popular again especially with the bigger children (and some of the adults)!

Zoe helping to feed the calf

Thanks to all our kind producers who let us visit their farms! These school holiday family farm tours have been such a success that we will repeat them next holidays. Let us know if you want to go on a waiting list?

Wow, what a great day we had yesterday. It was a bit overcast early in the morning but cleared to a beautiful day here in the Southern Highlands. Rachel and Greg Power from The Great Aussie Road Trip joined us with their 3 children, which was fun. They have travelled far and wide and it was nice to be able to welcome them along on one of our FoodPath tours. Another family - Janelle and Dion and their children have followed Rachel and Greg in their travels for the past 6 months!

Dion, Janelle, Rachel, Teddy and Greg from The Great Aussie Road trip

We had a run on bookings in the couple of days prior to the tour - as the result of an article in the local paper and an announcement on local radio. We ended up with 18 adults and 12 children ranging from 2 up to 12 years of age!

Chooks, Maremma dogs and kids - what a great combination.

Yabby - one of many seen on our latest tour.

Please see our Facebook page for more photos.
We have another Family Farm Tour in two weeks on Sat 22 Jan. We meet in Berrima at 10am and finish at Burrawang at 4pm. $185 for a family of four. $25 per extra child and $85 per extra adult.
We already have 3 families booked so don't delay if you would like to come? This is our last school holiday activity for January - but keep an eye on our website for future activities.

Happy New Year everyone!
Now the festivities are over are you looking for something to do during the holidays? Come along on a FoodPath Family Farm Tour! We have one this Sat 8 Jan and another on Sat 22 Jan. 

Six Maremma dogs help to protect the 4000 chooks from the foxes

We will be visiting a free range chook farm and meeting the beautiful Maremma dogs who protect them from the foxes. For lunch we are having a picnic at Eling Forest winery, prepared by Mark and Megan Stone of Stone's restaurant. After lunch we will be seeing some goats (hopefully with babies) and visiting a dairy where we can bottle feed the calves. 

Boer goats are from South Africa and are bred for their meat.

Will be nice to show the children where their food comes from? 

There are always some calves at the dairy so their mothers produce milk.

This Sat we will be hosting the Power family as part of their Great Aussie Road Trip. Check the website (see link above) and also www.foodpath.com.au for more details or ring Jill on 0419617021.