Apologies to Grant Wood (1892-1942).
Free range, heritage meat from Tasmania grown by Eliza Wood and Guy Robertson
Friday, February 19, 2010
Monday, February 15, 2010
A trip to the city
We've been at Mount Gnomon Farm for nearly nine months now, and we've just had our first proper weekend away together. When you've got a farm you can't just pack your bags and lock the door. Going away involves organising pig-sitters, chook locker-uppers, cat-feeders and long lists of instructions (e.g....only let Eliza's ducks Roger and Dylan out of their pen for the night shift AFTER all the other ducks have gone to bed, otherwise they'll chase them...). Fortunately Guy's got a muscly and dedicated brother who doesn't mind lugging buckets of grain, and our 14-year-old neighbour has great attention to detail for all the little animals.
So we took off to Hobart and Launceston for a long weekend of catching up with customers and foodies. I think we ended up meeting more than a dozen people who we've been corresponding with, but never met.
It wasn't till we went away from the farm that we realised how busy we've been since we bought the property. Every weekend has been filled with fencing, moving pigs between paddocks, digging up lawn for the garden, planting trees and trying to work out the underground water system.
And that means wearing farm clothes every weekend that end up being soaked to get the red dirt out. So it was quite an effort going through the ironing basket and dress cupboard looking for "city" clothes for us to wear this weekend.
On Friday night we went to Piccalilly in Battery Point for dinner. No, actually it was a lot more than that - it was the eight-course degustation, of which one of the courses was our pork. Chef Iain Todd slow-cooks the pork and serves it with egg-yolk pasta, corn puree and bechamel and of course crackling. It was about ten o'clock when it was served - about three quarters of the way through the degustation - and we were so excited to be eating our own produce in such a fine setting.
The next morning we caught up with Hobart's food bloggers at Red Velvet Lounge at Cygnet. We gave our host Steve Cumper a sample of our shoulder pork, which he tested out later in the day (find out the verdict here). We also met prolific food blogger Rita, food tragic Stephen Estcourt and his wife Mary, food trailer Victor, and Reb of the Gutter Trash.
On our way back to the north-west we went to Festivale in Launceston. It had such a great atmosphere and genuinely good food. There was a 'produce to plate' section where you could try olive oils, wasabi pickles, chilli ginger beer, rhubarb drinks, beef, lamb, garlic, and talk to the people who grew it all. I think we might have to have a stall there next year so we can tell people what's different about free-range, rare-breed pork.
And it seems some of our piglets have learnt some very bad habits while we've been away...although Guy says he deliberately left the barn door open so that the piglets could get used to life away from mum, eating grain.
So we took off to Hobart and Launceston for a long weekend of catching up with customers and foodies. I think we ended up meeting more than a dozen people who we've been corresponding with, but never met.
It wasn't till we went away from the farm that we realised how busy we've been since we bought the property. Every weekend has been filled with fencing, moving pigs between paddocks, digging up lawn for the garden, planting trees and trying to work out the underground water system.
And that means wearing farm clothes every weekend that end up being soaked to get the red dirt out. So it was quite an effort going through the ironing basket and dress cupboard looking for "city" clothes for us to wear this weekend.
On Friday night we went to Piccalilly in Battery Point for dinner. No, actually it was a lot more than that - it was the eight-course degustation, of which one of the courses was our pork. Chef Iain Todd slow-cooks the pork and serves it with egg-yolk pasta, corn puree and bechamel and of course crackling. It was about ten o'clock when it was served - about three quarters of the way through the degustation - and we were so excited to be eating our own produce in such a fine setting.
The next morning we caught up with Hobart's food bloggers at Red Velvet Lounge at Cygnet. We gave our host Steve Cumper a sample of our shoulder pork, which he tested out later in the day (find out the verdict here). We also met prolific food blogger Rita, food tragic Stephen Estcourt and his wife Mary, food trailer Victor, and Reb of the Gutter Trash.
On our way back to the north-west we went to Festivale in Launceston. It had such a great atmosphere and genuinely good food. There was a 'produce to plate' section where you could try olive oils, wasabi pickles, chilli ginger beer, rhubarb drinks, beef, lamb, garlic, and talk to the people who grew it all. I think we might have to have a stall there next year so we can tell people what's different about free-range, rare-breed pork.
And it seems some of our piglets have learnt some very bad habits while we've been away...although Guy says he deliberately left the barn door open so that the piglets could get used to life away from mum, eating grain.
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Kohlrabi - "cabbage turnip"
Kohlrabi
Compost-fuelled spacecraft (hovering)
A leafy shot-put (for hurling)
Kohlrabi
Exotic-sounding
Worthy of a rolled "r"
A leader among vegetables
Kohlrabi
Purple inner-tube skin
Water-resistant
A bobbing bouy
Kohlrabi
Tastes like turnip.
- EW
The most interesting-looking vegetable in the garden at the moment is the kohlrabi, which is a member of the brassica family.
You mostly eat the big purple bit, but the leaves are pretty good too - I'd say sweeter than kale, and just as well.
The inside of the bulb is light green and quite juicy. It's very much like a turnip, but maybe a bit more fibrous. Although the earlier you pick them the less stringy they are. The stalks are strangely translucent inside, but good to munch on when you're cutting up the rest.
This season's the first time I've grown kohlrabi, so I'm still experimenting with it in the kitchen. Ideas very welcome!
So far the best thing has been kohlrabi rosti, with some chilli and ground ginger in it - this idea came from Farmer John's Cookbook - The Real Dirt on Vegetables, by US farmer John Peterson who runs a community supported agriculture farm.
I've also made kohlrabi and potato mash, and eaten lots raw. Fortunately it doesn't seem to have the same impact on the bodily functions as raw turnip.
But I suppose if you ate enough of it...
You mostly eat the big purple bit, but the leaves are pretty good too - I'd say sweeter than kale, and just as well.
The inside of the bulb is light green and quite juicy. It's very much like a turnip, but maybe a bit more fibrous. Although the earlier you pick them the less stringy they are. The stalks are strangely translucent inside, but good to munch on when you're cutting up the rest.
This season's the first time I've grown kohlrabi, so I'm still experimenting with it in the kitchen. Ideas very welcome!
So far the best thing has been kohlrabi rosti, with some chilli and ground ginger in it - this idea came from Farmer John's Cookbook - The Real Dirt on Vegetables, by US farmer John Peterson who runs a community supported agriculture farm.
I've also made kohlrabi and potato mash, and eaten lots raw. Fortunately it doesn't seem to have the same impact on the bodily functions as raw turnip.
But I suppose if you ate enough of it...
Saturday, January 30, 2010
The Highlands have arrived
After many months of gentle (and not-so-gentle) persuasion, Eliza's mum has allowed Guy to borrow her Highland cattle to breed with.Maggie, Linnhe, Morag and Isabelle arrived this morning, and as I look out the window now they're settling down eating some hay in the laneway.
Highlands are a rare breed, according to the Rare Breeds Trust of Australia, so we're hoping we can help build their numbers up. We're borrowing a bull in the next week ... so it's all go!
Linnhe and Isabelle
Maggie and Morag
Neither of us have eaten Highland beef before, but a Scottish chef - who just happened to be visiting this morning while the cattle were being delivered - told us it's tender, marbled meat with egg-shell coloured fat.
It'll be a little while till we have any at eating stage, but we're looking forward to having our own rare-breed beef to go with our rare-breed pork, chicken and duck.
Friday, January 29, 2010
Got any garden surplus?
There's a great new project starting on the north-west coast that's going to link backyard gardeners with families who struggle to buy fruit and veggies.It's based on something that's happening in the US, Produce to the People, and it'll involve volunteers collecting surplus produce from gardeners, and then taking it to a central distribution point.
That point's probably going to be just down the road from our place, at the Penguin Organic Growing Centre...a patch of ground that's being revitalised at the moment to turn it into a bustling community base for learning about living sustainably.
There's actually a festival coming up at the centre on March 27 and 28 that Guy's helping organise. It's all about growing food, biodiversity and reducing our impact on the environment, and includes tours of local gardens.
We think the new project Produce to the People has got fantastic potential on the coast, and we congratulate the North West Environment Centre for getting funding from the state government to get it started.
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