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

Our Preserving Class at Monreale Bed and Breakfast at Burradoo went very well yesterday. Our new and beautiful venue - thanks to Gail Wilson. FoodPath uses a variety of venues around the Highlands depending on the occasion and we are always very grateful to receive support from fellow businesses. It is all about supporting each other! We are excited to be working with Gail to bring you, our customers a range of preserving workshops and cooking classes.

We had a full class yesterday (max 10 people) but if you missed out the next one is scheduled for Sun 17 June.
Date: Sun 17 June 2012
Theme: Pickling and Fermenting
Time: 10am - 1pm
Inclusions: Tea/coffee on arrival, DVD with preserving notes to take home, hands on workshop. light lunch of pickles, bread and cheese and a jar of product to take home.
Price: $90 - great value!
To book: Contact us from the website www.foodpath.com.au
Everyone was impressed yesterday with the amount of knowledge Steve demonstrated during the class and he is very happy to share. Two of the group have already booked for the next one!
This is what we like to hear because, as well as having fun we like to provide a high standard of workshops for you.

Stephen Hogwood, our teacher, has a business called The 1910 Bottling Company. Check out his website.

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

It is very exciting because our big weekends are becoming more frequent and this has to be good.

The word must be getting out about what a great area the Southern Highlands is for food and that you can have fun when you come on a tour with FoodPath.

Thanks to everyone for talking to your friends and relatives about FoodPath - that is the best marketing we can ask for.

We have many people now who have been back several times and we love you! Just the sort of customers we want - like minded people who enjoy the same things we do.


This weekend coming we have a conference Partners Tour on Sat that has taken up our normal Day Tour.

On Sun we have a Preserving Workshop that is fully booked - but there will be another one next month if you missed out this time. Steve Hogwood is running this and is always good value and Gail Wilson has kindly offered her beautiful house (and kitchen) at Monreale, her Bed and Breakfast in Burradoo, as our venue. We are all excited about this collaboration and I am sure it will be excellent.
Please keep an eye on the website for what is coming up and let us know if you have a group of family, friends or work mates and would like a customised tour, just for you. This is a growing part of our business and seems to meet the needs of many. Contact us from www.foodpath.com.au, email info@foodpath.com.au or ring 0419 617 021.

If you have been meaning to come but haven't made it yet - the next Mushroom Tunnel Tour is coming up next week - Tues 8 May.

Come and walk through this 650 metre long disused railway tunnel that now grows a range of exotic mushrooms - oyster, enoki, shiitake, shirneji, wood ear, king brown and more.


Hear Dr Noel Arrold, Microbiologist talk about his fascinating business.

This is the last FoodPath tour for this year - so don't miss out.
Ring Southern Highlands Tourism to book on 02 4871 2888
Price: $35
Tour times: 10am and 11.30am
Meet at the Visitor Information Centre, Main Street, Mittagong

We are very excited - after our interesting Gelato Workshop on 31 Mar we can now announce a Spice Workshop with Ian "Herbie" Hemphill on Sat 30 June 2012!
These workshops are both very special and usually only available in Sydney.
We have to finalise the venue etc - but just wanted to share the news.
Keep an eye on our website or get on our mailing list to stay informed (contact us from the website www.foodpath.com.au).

There are only about 8 days left of the chestnut season in the Southern Highlands for this year and I have learnt a lot. It has been fun taking more and more people on this unusual tour. I was not very experienced in handling or using chestnuts before - but after three tours and many kilos I know a lot more now :)
I find boiling them for about 10 mins and then peeling them using a small sharp knife is the easiest. There are two layers to remove during peeling - the outer thick covering and then an inner skin. Quite laborious - I am wondering how Biota Dining went with the 6 kilos we gathered for them!!
The flavour is buttery and sweetish and the texture crumbly and a bit like potato. We downloaded masses of recipes from "the net"- but so far I have used them for crumbling on cereal or putting in salads - as you would other nuts. Am planning to try a chestnut soup and using them in seasoning - yum!
We have had a few children come along this year and they had fun. Six year old Zoe has a husk carefully wrapped ready to take to school for show and tell. I love it when the kids learn where food comes from - that is, to some extent, what we are all about!

• A FoodPath Tour on Saturday visiting farms and wineries, followed by
• A ’Celebration Sundays’ long table lunch at Biota Dining where you also meet local producers at their market stalls in the garden.

During April we will be having two Day Tours because there is so much to see. The potato farm and the cheese makers are only available on 21 April and they are both very special, so we decided to bite the bullet and run two tours.
We start with a beautiful sustainable farm near Moss Vale. Privately owned - not normally open to the public. Lots to see.















                                                                               

After lunch you can browse through the French furniture that is for sale in "the shed" before we leave to catch the afternoon milking at the dairy nearby.


Finally we go to Small Cow Farm for a cheese tasting and talk with Mark and Lesley Williams. If you haven't tried their cheese this is your chance. If you have, it is interesting to hear Mark talk about his cheese making.



All in all this is going to be a great day - a long one too.
Meet at Cecil Hoskins Reserve near Moss Vale at 10am.
Finish at Small Cow Farm Robertson at 5pm.
A guided self drive tour where you follow us in your car.
Price: $120
To book contact us from the website www.foodpath.com.au, email info@foodpath.com.au or ring Jill on 0419 617 021

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 :)