Eat Local Week in the Scenic Rim

The weather has cleared in time for Eat Local Week in the Scenic Rim region just south of Brisbane.  Following the first event last year the regional council and local businesses have combined to put together a packed and varied program 23 – 30 June.

 

robot screen showing tracability of milk from Tamrook Dundee Clutha

 

 

 

 

 

 

Greg Dennis will launch his Scenic Rim 4Real Milk on Tuesday 25 June on his dairy farm at 9023 Mt Lindesay Highway, Tamrookum.  I drove up to the farm today to watch the happiest of cows being milked by robots.  This method of milking is not new but is not often seen by the public and it is fascinating watching the cups connect by laser with the cow’s teets whilst she happily munches through some feed.  The farm is situated on lush green pastures along the Logan River with a backdrop of the dramatic Lamington Plateau.

 

dairy calves just a few weeks old

Three 1 year old “Ladies in Waiting” who will start milking around 2 years of age

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Following bad experiences of warm curdled milk at school at morning tea I have never been a keen milk drinker but when Greg handed me a glass of full cream chilled milk today I drank it very greedily.  It had a delicious sweetness to it and I am looking forward to trying it out in a flat white coffee and some cooking.  Distribution only started last Monday and already Greg has been run off his feet with orders.  I encourage you to try it and support a local producer who is having a go – good luck to him!  Details of where to buy the milk and how to get to the dairy are at www.scenicrim4realmilk.com.au

The Scenic Rim has Queensland’s only sheep dairy and a visit to Towri Sheep Cheeses is a must.  They have a special farm tour on Thursday 27 June.  From Monday 24 to Saturday 29 June, Terri Taylor at Tamborine Cooking School will hold classes at a greatly reduced price of $60pp and recipes will feature local produce.

If you only have time for one visit make sure it is Saturday 29 June where in the morning you can visit the Kalbar Carrot Field Day and pick your own carrots and meet some of the local carrot growers.  Then the Winter Harvest Festival starts at 12 noon in Aratula at the Community Sports Centre with stalls of local produce, tastes of local food, live music and children’s activities.  David Pugh and I will be doing a cooking demonstration in the afternoon using local produce.  The hardest part has been narrowing down what we will use because of the diversity of what the region grows.  Come along and join in the fun of the day and take home some of the best of the Scenic Rim.

Also included in the week are the Scenic Rim Local Producers Dinner at Wonglepong and the Boonah Dines Out dinner along with many other activities.  As you are driving through the region, look out for roadside stalls selling vegetables fresh off the farm.  One of my favourites is the fabulous Fassifern Heritage Tomatoes on the Boonah-Fassifern Road grown in open fields – just perfect with some Towri sheep’s ricotta.

For full details on Eat Local Week, go to:

www.eatlocalweek.com.au

www.towrisheepcheeses.com.au

www.tamborinecookingschool.com.au

www.kalfresh.com.au

www.wallabyridge.com.au

www.dugandanhotel.com.au

 

Hobart

A common sound in Hobart in the closing days of autumn was the whirr of leaf blowers as the last of the beautiful golden leaves fall leaving many trees bare for the winter.  The food and wine festival Savour Tasmania began last week and the first event on Wednesday night was the Pop Up PorkStar Dinner held at the recently refurbished Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery.  On a beautiful clear night, we gathered in the open to enjoy some wonderful Tasmanian flavours of pork, salmon, mussels, mushrooms and more.

Colin Fassnidge from Four in Hand and 4Fourteen in Sydney and well known local chef Matthew Evans were the lead chefs on the night.  Over 200 enthusiastic supporters enjoyed the food and ambience of the evening.

Savour Tasmania should be the envy of all other food and wine festivals in Australia.  I know of no other that is sold out two and a half months ahead with waiting lists but such is the popularity of Savour in its fifth year.  The program changes each year and in 2013 the international chef was two Michelin star Kobe Desramaults from Belgium, who was joined by Giovanni Pilu from Sydney, Darren Purchese and Shane Delia from Melbourne and Tasmania’s Jahan Patterson-Were and Luke Burgess as well as Fassnidge and Evans to present lunches, dinners and cooking classes.  At the core of all events is the outstanding Tasmanian produce and this is also profiled at the Red Wine Weekend.

Brisbane Chefs Ben Williamson, Gerard’s Bistro, Josh Lopez, Queensland Art Gallery & GOMA, Richard Ousby, Stokehouse and Linda Franz, Harveys Bistro

The Tasmanian government invited numerous chefs from the Australian mainland to attend some of the activities but also to meet with local producers.  This is a great way of introducing chefs first hand to the growers and makers.  Chefs visited Spring Bay mussels where owner Phil Lamb took them out onto the leases to show close up how the mussels are grown – an experience none of them will forget.

Saturday night was the Hobart finale event with the Long Table Dinner for 600 in Princes Wharf No1 and began with a parade of chefs on Vespas riding around the vast building to the delight of the diners.  Below is the menu which again was a great advertisement for Tasmanian produce. (click on the image for a close up)

The menu words and photos don’t do justice to some of the courses, in particular the outstanding dish presented by Desramaults.  Giovanni Pilu had the job of preparing 110 shoulders of lamb for the dinner and the result was meltingly tender meat packed with the flavour of juniper, pepper, thyme and salt.  Marcus Moore has vast experience of events, both small and large and currently looks after the food and beverage operations of Crown in Melbourne.  He was brought in as a consultant to oversee the smooth running of the dinner and it went off without a hitch.  The staff and students of Drysdale College, the apprentice training facility in Hobart also play a big part in making the whole event come together and what great experience it is for the young trainees.

Kobe desramaults and Luke Burgess

The public had the opportunity to attend dinners at the much awarded Garagistes Restaurant where owner Luke Burgess and Belgian Kobe Desramaults have been working their magic and last Sunday these chefs presented a special lunch for people from the food industry.  I have endured many degustation menus where by the eighth course I am praying for the meal to end only to have another half dozen courses arrive at my table.  This lunch proved that degustation style in the hands of good chefs produces a well balanced meal and this was another highlight of my visit to Hobart.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another aspect of Savour Tasmania is the Masterclass program presented to the Drysdale students by some of the visiting chefs.  Colin Fassnidge, using a single knife, broke down a whole pig into its various parts to show how diverse this animal can be in the kitchen.  The dexterity with which he wielded that knife was quite rhythmic and had the students hanging on every word.  Another chef who gave an outstanding class was Giovanni Pilu when he made gnocchi and pasta.  This was no ordinary class on the two classics of Italian cooking.  Pilu value added with information about his Sardinian homeland and the varied uses of the products in the kitchen.  I could have listened to him all day such was his knowledge and relaxed style of presentation.

Colin Fassnidge

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Savour Tasmania will continue in Burnie in a couple of weeks with more events.

Congratulations to Alan Campbell and Ann Atkinson from Department of Economic Development, Tourism and the Arts and the many others who put this wonderful show on the road.

www.savourtasmania.com.au

Who is the cheeky Brisbane chef behind the disguise?

Hervey Bay

 

Spending five days in Hervey Bay is certainly no hardship with excellent seafood on hand and long walks along the foreshore to enjoy.  The weather was not at its best during my recent visit but this did not seem to matter as there was so much else to do and see.

One of the reasons for my visit was to discuss plans for the Hervey Bay Seafood Festival coming up on Sunday 11 August.  If you have never been, try to attend this year as it promises to be a great day with great flavours of the sea.  Organised by local members of the commercial fishing industry, there is Tastes of the Bay, a sit down lunch prepared by Andrew Mirosch, executive chef at Lurleens at Sirromet Winery and a keen fisherman and many stalls selling all types of seafood from the famous Hervey Bay scallops, prawns, whiting and a myriad of other delights.  Tastes of the Bay booked out in 30 minutes this week with a waiting list – that’s what I call “much in demand”!

There will be cooking demonstrations with local chefs and well known Brisbane chef Javier Codina from Moda restaurant who is a big fan of Hervey Bay scallops will make his first appearance at the festival as well as entertainment and information sessions on what seafood is caught in the region.

 

 

I attended a wine dinner at Coast Restaurant during my stay in Hervey Bay where the wines were presented by Alan Hunter, sommelier at ecco bistro and recently awarded Sommelier of the Year at the 2013 Good Food Awards.  The food prepared by chefs Nick Street-Brown and Krista Graham was star quality and showed imagination and sensitivity to Alan’s wine pairings.

Banana prawns were running in area and is there anything better than freshly caught and cooked prawns with a squeeze of lemon juice?

A little gem just north of Hervey Bay is the Moreton Street Bakery Cafe in Toogum.  Amanda Hinds from Indulge Cafe first told me about this bakery a couple of years ago and on this trip I drove up to see for myself.  Wow, what fantastic bread!  Ian Lind and his team make great sour dough bread and beautiful French pastries that I just wish was a lot closer to where I live.  When you are next in Hervey Bay, don’t miss going a little further north to visit this bakery at 67 Moreton Street, Toogum. Phone:  4128 0724

For more information on the Seafood Festival, go to www.herveybayseafoodfestival.com.au

Coast Restaurant:  www.coastherveybay.com.au

 

Killarney in Autumn

The road from the western side of Brisbane to Killarney via Gatton and over the seven Heifer Creek crossings, Allora and Warwick is a pretty drive through fields of winter vegetables and once over the range there is endless sorghum which is now a rich terracotta colour with the ripe heads of seed nearing harvest.

Peter and Colleen Lindores

 

Melrose Station near Killarney was the destination for 120 people last Saturday who attended the first Southern Downs Harvest Lunch.  Owned by Peter and Colleen Lindores, Melrose is a picture perfect property first established in 1850  with extensive gardens featuring in particular the deep pink “Iceberg” roses, a blackmith’s shop, a large lagoon filled with Murray cod, silver perch and other species, the best chicken house I have ever seen and an intriguing wine cellar.  The garden was part of the Open Garden Scheme in 2012 and will be again in 2014 – well worth a visit.

 

Jocelyn Hancock, Bev Ruskey, Colleen Lindores, Peta Hawes

Tables were set up under a majestic pecan tree laden with nuts which was planted in 1853.  The purpose of the lunch was to profile the produce of the region and the brains behind it were Bev Ruskey, owner of Spring Creek Mountain Café and Cottages, Jocelyn Hancock, Alfred & Constance in Fortitude Valley who grew up in Killarney and regularly makes return visits with her family, Peta Hawes, another local who drew on her contacts to put together the website and ensure that the community was well informed of the event and Colleen Lindores.  Many months of planning and sourcing the ingredients for the menu paid off and after weeks of rain it was a lovely sunny day with the shade of the pecan tree spreading over the tables during the lunch.

 

This event marks a difference from the many others that the region does so well.  Almost all of them are staged by the wineries whereas this was driven by the food and I hope it is the first of what will be an eagerly awaited annual event.

Food and wine tourism is a major reason why people visit the Southern Downs but the economy of the area is driven to a large extent by the expansive agriculture which has year round production.  Add in the natural beauty which is popular with bush walkers and hikers and the beautiful wattle that will flower through the coming months.  Sometimes I think that tourism promotion in Queensland is solely about the coast and beaches but the Southern Downs has a great diversity of attractions to interest tourists, whether they are visiting for a day or staying longer.

    This lunch was not a menu of liquid nitrogen, foams, soil, smears or flavoured air, etc.; this was a lunch comprised of excellent produce prepared by chefs who let the ingredients speak for themselves.  Bev Ruskey’s delicious pork and pistachio terrine was one of the canapés which got the lunch off to a start followed by a standing beef rib roast from milk and grass fed Hereford cattle which was cooked in an Aga oven and served beautifully pink with two salads that were colourful and bursting with flavour.

Laurie Stiller’s Chalala sour dough bread accompanied the main course.  Jocelyn’s mother, Nancy Hancock made a superb quince paste to accompany the Granite Belt Dairy cheese and the meal finished with Jocelyn’s signature Meyer Lemon Tart of which I have eaten many over the years and a lovely seasonal Gala Apple and Almond Torte.  The full menu is listed below.

 

All the beverages were local and included wines from Robert Channon and Symphony Hill, Sutton’s Apple Cider and Granite Belt brewery beer.

Mal Smith (vegetable grower), Greg Power (Killarney Butchery), Ewen McPherson (Symphony Hill Wines), Robert Channon (Robert Channon Wines), David Sutton (Sutton’s Farm), Laurie Stiller (Chalala Breads), Ian Henderson (LiraH Vinegars)

Many of the producers present on the day had display tables where guests could have tastings and make purchases.  I have come home with 15kg of Mal Smith’s wonderful pink fur apple potatoes – a very rare find in Queensland.

 

that fabulous Meyer Lemon Tart!

I can’t think of anything that would have made the day better – an ideal location with an outlook onto the western face of the Great Diving Range, the use of local produce turned into an excellent meal by people who have pride in their region, good weather, gentle music and a happy crowd of people – a great day.  I’m thankful I was there on the first occasion and will make sure I am back again next year.

 Menu

Jocelyn’s country style homemade lemonade

Robert Channon sparkling wine

Symphony Hill sparkling wine

Sutton’s apple cider

Roasted pumpkin and beetroot dips

Pork terrine on wood fired bread

Devils on horseback

Shared Table Main Course

Standing rib roast of grass and milk fed yearling with Bev’s red wine reduction and horseradish mustard

Pink eye potato salad with dill pickle, bacon chips, parsley, spring onions and free range egg mayonnaise

Tomato and green bean salad with mixed leaves, torn basil, olives, feta, walnuts and lemongrass balsamic vinegar

Organic bread made with stone ground flour accompanied by olive oil and balsamic vinegar

Accompanying wine from Robert Channon and Symphony Hill

Dessert

Cheese tasting plate with quince paste and oat biscuits

Meyer lemon tart with farm cream

Late harvest royal gala apple and almond torte with vanilla bean anglaise

Accompanied by Ballandean Estate White Liqueur Muscat

 Suppliers

Killarney Butchery,  Gordon and Ann Goodwin – Cattle producers

Robert Channon Wines,  Symphony Hill Wines,  Ballandean Estate Wines,

Granite Belt Brewery,  Sutton’s Farm,  LiraH Vinegars,  Mal Smith – Vegetable grower,

Junabee Free Range Eggs,  Granite Belt Dairy,  Wendland Olives,  Chalala Micro Bakery

Summit Coffee,  Ivan and Nancy Hancock

All kitchen and wait staff donated their time and were joined by volunteers from the Killarney Rural Fire Service.

   My accommodation overnight was as a guest of Bev Ruskey in one of her delightful cottages.  Autumn has well and truly arrived and Saturday night and the following morning were quite chilly.    Thankfully the cottage was warm when I arrived in the early evening but I noted a log fire so decided to relax for the evening in front of the fireplace.  Only problem was that I am hopeless at making a fire and after three attempts I gave up.  I needn’t have worried about being cold as the bed was fitted with an electric blanket and enough covering to keep an Antarctic wind at bay.

I woke early and despite the cold went outside to watch the sun come up through the Condamine Valley.  Autumn colours are emerging in the leaves of deciduous trees with colours of burnished gold through to deep burgundy.  To the east of the valley is Wilson Peak, 1,230m and covered in dense rainforest, which is the location of the headwaters of the Condamine, Logan and Clarence Rivers.      Wild life was everywhere from the small wallabies (or kangaroos – I have no idea how to tell the difference), richly coloured crimson rosellas, kookaburras and tiny little wren darting everywhere trying to catch insects.  I was bemused by a young Hereford calf who sauntered past my cottage munching its way through deep grass that came up to its belly.

Breakfast at the cafe was a full house and my choice of baked ricotta, grilled bacon and tomatoes and buttered toast was delicious.  A lovely warm croissant was delivered to my table fresh from the oven with crisp exterior and soft centre – thank goodness not from the microwave like the last one I ordered at Brisbane Airport!

Attention to detail seems to be the motto of the Spring Creek Mountain Cafe and Cottages, whether it is in the accommodation, wait staff, food or the general ambience of the place.  Can’t wait to return.

 

www.opengarden.org.au

www.springcreekcottages.com.au

Disclaimer:  I was a guest of Spring Creek Mountain Cottages.

Tea Cosy Revival

The Brookfield Show will be held 17-19 May at the showgrounds a few kilometres west of Kenmore.  Nestled into a western hillside I always have the feeling of being in a small country community rather than less than half an hour out of the Brisbane CBD.  The show brings together the local community and many organizations such as the Brookfield Pony Club and CWA rely on this event for fund raising.

Along with the usual entertainment, this show is a significant event for horse riders each year and it is lovely to sit and watch the ring events.  The Friday competition is for local riders only and gives a glimpse of the intensity of riding as a pleasure sport in the western suburbs.  Fierce competition is also held in the Poultry, Cookery and Arts sections to name a few. Guinea Pigs will also be judged at the Brookfield Show and I am astounded at the wide range of categories for entries.

With the interest in speciality teas in recent years tea cosies have made a comeback.   Just over a decade ago the tea shop in Brisbane Arcade was a rare find for the less common teas but now there are tea boutiques in most large shopping centres and beyond.

A new competition this year in the Needlework Section is the Tea Cosy Challenge.  Entries can be embroidered, beaded, knitted, crocheted, patchwork or quilted.  Some of the tea cosy photographs which were made by a very talented artisan on this post will be entries in this year’s competition and I love the sense of fun and whimsy used in their designs.

 

For further information, go to www.brookfieldshow.com

Visiting Melbourne in March

Autumn in Victoria is my favourite time to visit.  The weather is at its most reliable, the leaves on the deciduous trees are turning the colours of gold and russet and burgundy and vintage is in full swing in the wineries.  It is also the time of the fabulous Melbourne Food and Wine Festival which began in 1993 and just gets better every year.  Although the Masterclass is the star event, I love the wide range of events around the city and indeed the whole state.  With only a week to go before the festival kicks off, a couple of days in Melbourne could be very rewarding.  There are still plenty of tickets available for the Masterclass and if you work in the food industry then Chef Jam on Monday 11 March is packed with discussion panels and a good opportunity to do some networking.

Darren Purchese first came to Australia in 2004 for the Brisbane Masterclass Weekend.  He was then Executive Pastry Chef at The Bentley Hotel in London and after just one week here he flew back to the UK knowing that he wanted to come back.  A few years later he arrived in Melbourne and landed the job of pastry chef at Vue de Monde and his name has been in lights ever since.

He now runs the Sweet Studio in South Yarra which is an Aladdin’s cave of cakes, preserves, meringues, the best salted caramel sauce on earth and much more sold under the label Burch and Purchese.  Darren has developed the skill of spraying with chocolate to a fine art and has a room devoted just to this part of the business.  The Sweet Studio is perfect for gift buying and they can ship to anywhere in Australia.

Darren wowed his audiences at last year’s Melbourne Masterclass with his creations and there were soft sighs and swooning noises around the room as the audience tasted their way through the tastes on offer.  My favourite product is the small chocolate bullion bars filled with liquid salted caramel and finished off with gold dust – superb!

www.melbournefoodandwine.com.au

www.burchandpurchese.com

 

Food Tour of Japan

Sally Lynch became well known in Brisbane with her Loaded Larder range of products and more recently for her business Taste Trekkers. Sally leads food tours around Brisbane, particularly to the Asian meccas of the city at Inala and Sunnybank, where participants discover a wonderful array of flavours.

Sally has great knowledge of Asian cuisines and is now turning her attention to Japan.  She will be leading a tour in April this year for a small group who like intimate travel with attention to detail.

The tour comprises 12 days of discovering the food of Japan and includes travel to the cities of Osaka, Kumamoto and Kyoto. Along the way you will see how ramen is made, gather produce and enjoy cooking it, learn why wagyu beef is so important in this country, visit a famous knife factory as well as soy, sake and tofu manufacturers.
You will even have the opportunity to go trout fishing!
The itinerary is packed with new experiences and with Sally leading the group you can be sure there will be lots of fun and laughter.
For further enquiries, contact Sally at:

sally@tastetrekkers.com.au

0408 321 822

http://www.tastetrekkers.com.au

Happenings in Brisbane

On Friday evening I attended Hot Shanghai Night in Burnett Lane in the CBD.  It was the opening event for the BrisAsia Festival which is one of many events organised by the Creative Communities Team at Brisbane City Council.  High above the Albert Street end of Burnett Lane were strings of Chinese lanterns and lines of washing and on the ground artists dancing and playing music and food vendors selling delicious Banh Mi and Steamed Dumplings and other foods.

This event may well be one of the best kept secrets in Brisbane as in recent weeks no one I spoke to had heard of it but I understand that there will be more events happening in the city laneways.  To find out what is happening, pick up a copy of “live, arts/culture/events” which is published every quarter.  The program can also be seen online at www.brisbane.qld.gov.au/live

The live guide has a wide range of activities from markets to concerts, walking trails, and lots more including the intriguing Fete de la Musique.  Some years ago I chanced upon a brass band playing in a park, the players resplendant in their uniforms, the instruments polished like a mirror and spent a pleasant hour tapping my feet to the oompah pah of the music.  I was delighted to find a program of all park band concerts included in the guide.  I can see in the near future I will be packing up a picnic and trooping off to some park music.

I notice that many of the events are free and it is a great way of finding out more of what happens in our city.

Talking Autumn Produce in the Libraries

Late in 2012 I gave some food talks at Brisbane City Council libraries and thoroughly enjoyed the experience.  So much so that I will be back next week talking about autumn produce, what’s in season, how to use it and where to buy it.

This cake is just one of the recipes that people attending will receive.  It’s very quick to make, has many variations and goes down a treat with a cup of tea.

I will demonstrate some dishes, there will be numerous tastings and a collection of recipes and lots of information to share.

Come and join me next Wednesday 13th February at Brisbane Square library in the CBD or next Saturday 16th February at the Grange library.  Details for each of these sessions are on the links below.

http://bit.ly/EAProduceBSQ

http://bit.ly/EAProduceGNG

Supporting the Locals

I live on the western outskirts of Brisbane in an area that is not bothered by flood waters.  Further down the road I am cut off by a creek flowing into the Brisbane River and also a major crossing of this powerful beast.  I am fortunate that I have not encountered the difficulties faced by so many people in recent weeks in cities, rural towns and the country.

I generally keep a well stocked pantry and freezer so have plenty of supplies on hand.  Neither my husband nor I had tasted powdered milk since our childhood in rural Queensland but I whipped up batches during the 2011 floods when I had foolishly forgotten to buy milk the day before the waters came down.  It wasn’t nearly as bad as we had remembered, no doubt because it was all we had!  It’s surprising how you can get used to something when you have to.

I’m sure many of you are feeling the same as I am at present – wanting to support the flood effort but what can we do?  We have been told that money is what is needed, not food, not household goods, not clothes.  I made a donation this morning and encourage you to do the same but there is more that we can do.

A young corn crop at Mulgowie, Lockyer Valley

We can support our farmers and buy their produce.  Not everything in the Lockyer Valley, Bundaberg and the North Burnett has been destroyed.  I don’t mean to understate the situation but I seem to repeatedly hear negative messages about rural production in these areas being totally destroyed but there is still food coming out into our marketing systems.

We live in a country with diverse climatic conditions which gives us an abundance of food all year round.  When disasters strike it can mean that some ingredients will be in short supply for a while but the cooks of the land can always adapt and make other choices, can’t they?  At this time of the year many farmers were preparing their fields ready for planting their late autumn and winter crops so much work now needs to be done to repair or retrieve the soil and make it ready again.  The tree crops are a bigger problem as they are a permanent planting and I do fear for the macadamia, avocado and citrus growers who have lost trees.

Sweet Potatoes in Bundaberg

What we can do is look out for the local labels on fruit and vegetables.  You know those pesky little stickers that drive us mad, particularly when they are directly on the fruit which is not peeled away.  But now they have a good purpose as we can easily read them and know who is a local.

The website http://helpqldfarmers.com.au has a list of the brands to look out for when shopping.  When people are surveyed about what their buying habits are I hear them say they like to buy local but I think their good intentions go out the window when they walk into a large supermarket and everything is laid out before them.  It becomes very easy to do all the shopping in one place, regardless of quality or local origin.  Now is a good time to be parochial and discerning and look at the labels.

This week’s edition of the Queensland Country Life has some interesting stories of how some farmers have managed in the floods.  I was particularly touched by a story about Allan Voss of Mundubbera who has lost his entire crop of sunflower and mung beans and most of his corn, millet and sorghum. http://www.queenslandcountrylife.com.au

I’m sure you have seen photos of some of the rescued pigs in the Mundubbera area and the despair many farmers have faced with big losses.  The Courier Mail recently had a front page image of a pig stuck on a shed roof and a farmer taking a hose to it to give it a drink.  All that effort for one pig?  That one photo shows how much every farmer cares for their livestock.

Rob Bauer of Bauer’s Organic Farm and Trudy Townson amongst the potatoes at Mt Sylvia

The Lockyer Valley has again been hit hard by raging waters.  As well as the small community of Grantham, the town of Laidley and the area of Mt Sylvia and Junction View have suffered severe damage.  Trudy Townson has been maintaining a Facebook page on the recovery efforts in the Mt Sylvia and Junction View area on https://www.facebook.com/MtSylviaJunctionViewCommunity  I would encourage you to follow the progress in this small area.

Whether you are shopping at a large supermarket, small independent or farmers market, ask the question – what local produce do you have?

I have not used images of the floods but rather how the country has looked over the past year or so and will look that way again.

Disclaimer: I write a food column for Queensland Country Life each December.