Highland Gourmet Potato Farm

ingredient profile
n: potato
l: wildes meadow, nsw
s: december - august

Interview with potato farmer: Norman Gair

From planting to the plate, what is the life span of a potato?
This depends on the variety and time of the year. Spunta is planted early i.e. September and takes 90 to 95 days to grow to maturity. King Edwards on the other hand are planted at the same time but take 120 days to grow. Some varieties e.g. Necta can't be planted early because they grow so fast they'll go hollow. After digging in summer and kept unwashed, most potatoes  will last for about 2 weeks before they start to go soft through transpiration. In winter, unwashed potatoes can last from 4 to 5 weeks. 

Where do potatoes like to grow and when are they in season?
In our area at Wildes Meadow (Robertson) planting begins mid-August and harvesting begins, depending on the weather, the first week of December. We finish planting mid-February and harvest the last crop in mid-August.

Something interesting about potatoes that we may be surprised to learn?
All potatoes originated in Bolivia and southern Peru and all of today’s varieties can be genetically traced back to these two south American Countries. Potatoes are the third most grown crop after rice and wheat/maize but need the least amount of water to grow. Another fact, Australia has a world class potato research station at Toolangi in Victoria where they have developed varieties such as Otway Red and Toolangi Delight.

Where did your interest in farming come from?
I grew up in Fitzroy Falls (just down the road) where the family ran a guest house and a vegetable farm supplying both the guest house and Sydney markets. Potatoes, cabbages, 1,200 sheep (ewes), 100 pigs (sows) and 12,000 chickens and 10 acres of strawberries figured prominently. No wonder I am feeling my age!

What is the best part about being a potato farmer?
I really enjoy working full time with my partner Robbie who is a great inspiration and enthusiastic potato grower. When the crop comes in and you see the culmination of all the hard work and planning it does wonders for the soul. We both enjoy, very much, the interaction with our customers at our various farmers’ markets that we attend.  

The worst part?
THE WEATHER!  A lot of time is spent on the Bureau of Meteorology web site trying to plan planting, digging and “sleep ins” (a rare occurrence). One of the biggest disappointment is when you put all the effort and money in to growing a crop and nature destroys it.

As a farmer, how do you feel about better understanding where our food is grown and the process it goes through to get to our plate?
As we are becoming an increasingly urban society, people are losing touch with the land and have lost sight of the value of home grown, fresh and seasonal produce.  We find we are discussing more and more with our customers where our potatoes come from and the effect of weather conditions on the quality and quantity of our produce. Hopefully with an increasing use of gardens in primary schools, teaching children where their produce comes from will alleviate some of the misconceptions - one being that potatoes “grow on trees” as was told to us by a primary school teacher.  We also face a dilemma in that single farm growers of all produce are getting less and less as big conglomerates take over our farming. These are generally run by a manager and unskilled workers with no chance of interacting with the consumer. Also, the age of our farmers is getting older because the young farmers do not have the capital required to get started in purchasing the land and the equipment to keep production at a high level (there aren’t many silly farmers who do what we do).

Whats your favourite variety of potato and favourite way to eat it?
Toolangi Delight, a purple skinned and white flesh potato is fantastic roasted. However, it is closely – and I mean closely – followed  by Lustre. Robbie, on the other hand, prefers the Otway Red for both mash and roasting.

Highland Gourmet Potatoes is a small family owned farm run by Norman Gair and Robyn Jackson of Wildes Meadow, near Robertson in the NSW Southern Highlands. Over 40 different potato varieties are grown here from December through to August each year, and can be found at their road side stall or at a variety of markets around the Highlands and Sydney area. We took a visit to the farm where Norman kindly dug us up some potatoes and showed us around the paddocks and shed. Norm is a real genuine bloke. He has a good soul, loves what he does and also loves a good yarn. And his potatoes – well they’re always worth a trip up the mountain. They are truly something else.

coming soon: a recipe using Norm and Robbie's potatoes. 

Sassafras Chestnut Farm

ingredient profile
n: chestnut
l: sassafras
s: autumn 

Interview with chestnut farmer: Richard Moxham

From planting to the plate, what is the life span of a chestnut?
Chestnuts can be planted to grow new trees, but if you want good eating chestnuts, you must graft proven varieties onto the seedling trees.  After that it may take up to 7 years before you get a crop of chestnuts so it is not something that can be rushed.  The really good news is that chestnut trees are very long lived and will survive for hundreds of years if they are kept in a healthy condition.
It terms of the chestnut itself, the nuts start to fall towards the end of March each year and depending on variety chestnuts continue to fall until late April. Once a chestnut falls it should be picked up as soon as possible and then kept at 0 to 3 degrees (in the crisper of your fridge) to keep them fresh. If stored properly, chestnuts will last up to two to three months but I am a firm believer in eating them in season.

Where do chestnuts like to grow and when are they in season?
Chestnuts are quite particular about their growing requirements.  They prefer to grow between the altitudes of 650 to 850 meters above sea level where cold winters help fruit to develop.  They demand a well-drained acidic soil of around pH 5.5 and because they develop their nuts over summer, they must have good summer rainfall (or irrigation).

Something interesting about chestnuts that we may be surprised to learn?
Chestnuts are a member of the Oak family of trees.  It is the European chestnut that most people associate with chestnuts in places like France, Spain, Portugal and Italy.  However, other species from Japan, China and America are equally important for their contribution to a chestnut culture.
The chestnut was probably one of the first foods eaten by man and dates back to prehistoric times.
In Australia, chestnuts arrived with immigrants of the goldrushes in the 1880's. Very old trees from the goldrush times still remain around Beechworth, Bright, Stanley and Wandiligong and these areas remain as the stronghold of the industry today.
Relatively unknown to most Australian households - about 2000 tonnes of chestnuts are produced each year in Australia. 

Where did your interest in farming come from?
Alison and I both come from farming families in the central west of NSW.  Alison has a background in forest ecology and I am agricultural scientist.  We wanted to pursue an interest in farming using ecological and permaculture principles as a sideline to our professional life in Canberra.

What is the best part about being a chestnut farmer?
Undoubtedly the best part of our farming life is working with our chestnut trees to ensure their continuity and to be part of the seasonal change which directs different tasks throughout the year.
Inviting our customers to pick from under our trees in season has really brought that important connection between the customer and where their food comes from. For us this has also brought us in touch with the importance of this nut to so many different cultures that really celebrate food in season.

The worst part?
The sharp prickly burrs that encase the chestnuts of course. “Ouch” is often a word exclaimed at harvest time. Fortunately these prickly burrs help protect the nuts from the kangaroos, wombats and birds that also like to chew on the odd chestnut.
As a chestnut farmer, the worst part has been the millennium drought which saw our rainfall halved and trees dying from stress and disease. We have steadily replanted and grafted to the best varieties of chestnuts so we have become quite committed to this ongoing effort to retain our orchard. Whilst we have thousands of trees we watch each one quite closely and enjoy seeing them flourish into strong and productive trees.

Your favourite way to eat chestnuts?
Roasting chestnuts with friends over hot coals with mulled wine.

Richard and Alison Moxham own and run Sassafras Nuts, a commercial chestnut and walnut farm located at Sassafras in the Budawang Ranges, 50 km south west of Nowra on the NSW South Coast. They grow and sell a variety of chestnuts and also open their farm for picking season, where they invite people to pick their own chestnuts and enjoy a picnic under the colourful, autumnal trees. We took a trip out to meet Richard and Alison and tour their farm. They showed us around sharing their genuine love for farming chestnuts and gave us a most hospitable Saturday lunch welcome - roasting chestnuts in their Swiss designed roaster, followed by a chestnut soup cooked on a wood fired stove to share on the farm for lunch. 

coming soon: a recipe for chestnuts

The Start of Something and Saffron Milk Caps

ingredient profile
n: saffron milk cap
l: belanglo state forest
s: autumn

It feels as though quite some time has passed since I have shared my own food stories here. The past few recipes have been courtesy of some dear friends, photographed on the go during the time I spent with them on my travels and while visiting their homes. But now that I too am home, settled and have successfully spent the past couple of months developing a solid amount of hibernation and antisocial behaviours (a side effect of moving countries, travelling nonstop and sorting my Australian self out), I am finally ready to step out and post a regular flow of my own food stories and recipes here again. 

For me, understanding and appreciating an ingredient – from where it grows, when it grows, how it grows and who grows it – is fascinating. I’ve mentioned before that some of my best food memories have come from the times where I was able to visit small, carefully curated farms to experience directly the source of a food and the course it goes through to become its final product. I love the learning and connection that you encounter here. I love the raw and the real of it. The slower pace that it injects. The beginning of the whole story. The process, not just the product. This is the part about food that I love most. And I want to continue to photograph that.  

So, that’s what I’m going to do. For the next however long, I’ll be visiting small farms and foraging spots to seek out regional and seasonal ingredients. Paddocks. Orchids. Oceans. Rivers. Forests. The lot. I want to learn about each ingredients story. Seek their sources. Meet their makers. Document, appreciated and share the process, and then follow it all up with some scrummy, nourishing recipes.

And I’m going to start here. At the very end of autumn, with these foraged saffron milk caps.

There was a period of time some five years ago where I didn't see autumn for about three years. I would decide every summer to head to the Northern Hemisphere, where I would arrive to the cold and bitter winter, stay through the celebrated, warming spring and as soon as summer ended I would fly back to Australia to greet the spring again. It wasn’t all planned to play out this way, but it happened at least three times in a row. Which meant that although I was seeing the world, I wasn't seeing autumn.

Finally, one and a half years ago, I stayed long enough in the northern hemisphere to see the season through. Twice. The colours had me. The flavours had me. The weather had me. Autumn, I declared, was my favourite. 

So you can imagine my joy when only three months after leaving this scrumptious season in the USA, I was greeted with it again here in Australia. I’m playing catch up. And it has been heaven. There has been quince baking and adding figs and pears to every salad and dessert. Sinking spoons into I don't know how many custard apples. There’s leafy winter greens all prepped and growing in the garden and I can't get enough of driving through fog, shuffling through falling leaves and lighting as many fires as I can carry wood for. 

We’ve also been enjoying mushroom foraging - something I had never considered doing in Australia before. Thanks to the local knowledge of some new chef friends, we were told that some of the yummiest and most prolific wild mushrooms grow in the pine forests just over the mountain. 

I sat on my hands for the first month or so waiting for the perfect opportunity and for all of the rain to come and go (we had a lot of rain). As soon as a clear, sunny Saturday popped up - and I had read and watched and asked enough to properly identify what was edible - we took the trip to the highlands in search of some saffron milk caps. 

Jakob, Taj and I had the best day in the pine forest. The air was fresh, the walk was pleasant and there were more perfect milk caps on the forest floor than we could possibly fit into our baskets. There they sat with their golden gills, dimply tops and spotty, saffron sapped stems. Our haul quickly grew. We had come at a good time. Autumn at its finest. And we were rapt. 

a note on mushroom foraging:

firstly:
When it comes to wild mushrooms, only take what you know won’t kill you. Many are poisonous.
Simply - if in doubt, go without.

foraging:
These saffron milk caps (also known as pine mushrooms) were found in the NSW Southern Highlands in Belanglo State forest. Their season is short - late March through May. Milk caps aren’t native to Australia – they arrived with the conifer trees, their symbiotic hosts. Mushrooms grow overnight so the best and freshest picking times are early to mid-morning shortly after autumn rain. To identify these mushrooms properly please do you research well or go with someone who knows what they are looking for. 

picking and Storing:
Take a knife. It is best to cut wild mushrooms at their stem and then cover them with pine needles so that they grow back again next year. Pick mushrooms that are still fresh around their edges. As they age, they will become dry and wrinkly (still edible however). Saffron milk caps are very fragile, especially their gills, and will turn green if bumped around too much (again, still entirely edible, just a little strange looking). Store cap down and stem up in a paper bag or a covered glass container and keep in the fridge for up to 5 days. If your bounty is grand – slice and fry them up with a little butter and store them in sealed bags in the freezer. These mushrooms are full of water and hold their moisture well so they will defrost with little effort and little change to their flavour.

eating:
Saffron milk caps can be eaten raw. They are also delicious on toast (see recipe above) or baked with eggs, in pasta’s, in soups, in gratins etc. 
A fun fact/warning – this mushroom’s intense saffron hue will turn your urine a saffron colour too! 

coming soon:
a recipe for saffron milk caps

Glenmore House

To stand in a garden this fine, to wander in the rain, to be more comfortable outside than in, to sit with tea, to watch the cows, to see leaves fall, to feel welcomed among the green silence between a kitchen garden and peppercorn trees -- is stirring.

Glenmore House is exquisite and is the much loved property of owners Mickey and Larry Robertson. This past weekend, the property was generously shared with the public and filled up with stalls, seedlings, talks, and produce for fellow garden lovers to feast on. I loved meeting Mickey, sharing our love for rain and hearing her story of the making of the Glenmore House gardens. I think she showed us some of the best before and after pictures I'd ever seen. Hard work and the pursuit of a dream, it's true, pays off. 

Gardens leave me invigorated, and sometime had passed since I stood in a garden and felt this inspired. It was nourishing. I'm so glad - as is always the way - that I made the trip. It turned out to be quite the place to spend a slow autumn Sunday.