Well hello!
My messy garden is a bit like my head and a microcosm of the universe of outcomes I didn’t expect. There’s been a lot of policy made on the fly and just trying to make the best of things. Messy. Last month I carefully bought a little tray of cucumber seedlings in order to expedite my cucumber harvest. I planted them, watered them, proudly watched the vines grow, and was a bit puzzled that the leaves didn’t look quite right… and then the first fruit appeared and it grew into a lovely butternut pumpkin. Dammit. I put up a stronger trellis (an old wooden playpen) and watched as soup-for-dinner instead of fermented-pickles evolved.
We lost my beloved Dad after a short illness at the end of last October and I cannot clearly tell you anything that has happened between then and now. Grief is funny like that. It’s a sharp-edged badly-lit underground cavern that you didn’t realise you were in, it’s a heavy blanket, it’s a rope that takes your feet out from under you, it’s a fog and a raincloud and an ocean. It’s been tricky.
I’ve found it easy to look after my family but incredibly hard to get into sales mode, which is actually pretty critical when you’re a small business, trying to push a new cookbook. Luckily there is an excellent team here who just kept making all the things and tidying up behind me when I completely forgot what I was doing. And the cookbook is actually doing pretty well all by itself - if you’ve bought it, thank you! If you’re one of the many people who bought it, read it, and have now bought copies for friends, THANK YOU! The response to From Scratch has been a bit magical, and I’m incredibly grateful.
And so here we are, like farmers and gardeners everywhere, finding our way through, making pumpkin soup instead of pickles this year, putting up a frame with whatever is in the shed, looking after each other, and appreciating the days when the brain fog lifts and we can work properly! Adam and I were lucky to have a handful of days away in Tasmania last weekend visiting beloved friends and taking in great lungfuls of that lovely southern air, and came home slightly more awake. Whoot! Watch out. Pickled pumpkin with pepper. Maybe the unexpected is actually even more fun.
1. What’s going on with this newsletter?!
Yes! I’ve moved to Substack. Our other newsletter platform was super expensive and besides, a change is as good as a holiday. This is a more of a writing platform so I feel at home over here, and so here we are. It’s all new to me, I hope this works.
Geese totally not caring what newsletter platform I’m on.
2. Farm Tour Fridays (and school holiday bookings open)
Goat Therapy tours are BACK, with a little revamp, and will be running most Fridays, as well as on extra days through the school holidays. Would you like to visit the farm? When you arrive we’ll meet you with delicious fresh goats cheese to try and a glass of our sparkling water kefir. We’ll briefly wander around the kitchen garden first, then take you to see the goats, (you’ll fall in love with them too), the bees, cows, geese, turkeys, guinea fowl, and pigs. You’ll look in the window of the cheeseroom, see the dairy, the orchard, the coffee grove and the flower garden. The farm shop will be open at the end of the tour if you would like to take any cheese home with you! Bookings are essential, we’d love to see you.
Photo by Alan Benson
3. New class: From Scratch Too!
There’s a new workshop available - From Scratch Too - in which we make no-knead bread, sweet and sour zucchini pickles, ghee, mayonnaise, olive dip, rosemary and seasalt crackers and butter. Includes morning tea, lunch and lots of good cheer and giggles (which you know, if you’ve ever spent a day here with us.) First class is on Saturday 25 March, more info below!
4. Other classes
We’re finally running our beloved Fermentation class again! There’s only one listed in this booking cycle before we close down for a few weeks in the middle of the year - so if you’re into it, please come and join us on Saturday 17th June! ALL THE KEFIR TIPS! (And SCOBYS to make it yourself at home.)
We also have a few spaces in Cheesemaking and in The Sourdough Masterclass - see below for upcoming dates!
Upcoming class calendar:
Sat 25 March - From Scratch Too (10am - 3.30pm)
Sat 1 April - From Scratch Too (10am - 3.30pm)
Sat 15 April - Cheesemaking (10am - 3pm)
Sat 13 May - From Scratch Too (10am - 3.30pm)
Sat 27 May - Sourdough Masterclass (10am - 3pm)
Sat 3 June - Cheesemaking (10am - 3pm)
Sat 10 June - From Scratch Too (10am - 3.30pm)
Sat 17 June - Fermentation (10am - 3pm)
5. Online Shop
Our online shop is open 7 days a week with farm pick up, or self-collection, available for orders placed the previous day. Just place your order online anytime and pick up from the farm anytime after 9am the following day! (You’ll get a text message with pick-up instructions.)
We’re working on shipping – particularly for books - in addition to farm collection, so please bear with us! Coming soon.
6. Recipe of the week: Visitor Biscuits
Look, you’ve probably already seen these. Even possibly already made them. I include them today in an ode to my dear Dad: because this was, I think, his very favourite thing that I made. Ideally before I cooked them. He was in heaven when we had a biscuit business here and made hundreds of these in a day. Heaven was also Fathers Day and birthdays when he got a freezer bag of frozen uncooked cookies which he would carefully defrost one at a time as a treat. After he’d gone I found a bag in Mum’s freezer that he hadn’t finished, and it brought me a bit unstuck. It’s just a biscuit, but really it’s never just a biscuit. It’s a tradition, and a connection, and a moment in time and a reminder to sink your teeth into life and try your best to do more of what you love and cherish the people around you. I hope there’s a bikkie in your weekend. Enjoy.
Makes approx. 15
Ingredients
125 g (1/2 cup) butter, softened
230 g (1 cup, firmly packed) Brown Sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
1 free-range egg
300 g (2 cups) Self-raising Flour
90 g (1/2 cup) choc chips or chopped pieces of chocolate (or more!)
Method
Preheat your oven to 180°C (350°F).
Cream the butter and sugar with the salt and vanilla. Add the egg, then add the flour and chocolate.
Ball up into about 15 bikkies the size of golf balls, place on a baking tray lined with baking paper with a bit of room for spreading and bake for about 17 minutes.
Notes
Replace the self-raising flour with spelt if you like, just make sure you add 1 tablespoon Baking Powder too (2 teaspoons per 150 g /1 cup flour). Or try wholemeal or gluten-free flours.
You can also use unrefined sweeteners, such as honey or maple syrup in this recipe – just use 175 g (1/2 cup) in place of the sugar.
You can also make these bikkies with many different additions instead of chocolate. Add in 60 g (1/2 cup) sultanas or dried fruit, or 90 g (1/2 cup) white chocolate and a good handful of macadamia nuts. We also like oat and cranberry and chocolate and zested orange.
You can, as mentioned earlier, freeze the dough uncooked and eat it raw if that’s your thing, or you can bake them from frozen.