In Conversation

It's getting awfully close to spring in Beechworth, which is both good and bad. It's the start of the new season for our olive trees and it's getting near the end of the growing season for the saffron, that's the good. The bad, I don't think I've start even half my winter farm jobs, let alone finished them. The winter season for saffron is a busy and satisfying time, without the crazy or emotional upheaval of autumn harvest. In winter our saffron grass slowly grows, the longer it gets, the happier the corms! Ideally by this time of year, our saffron corms have long luscious locks of green hair flopping all over the ground. They get fed every few weeks to ensure their happiness and the rest of the time is spent on hands and knees keeping the weeds at bay, which as you can image, in July, in Beechworth, is not a very pleasant activity.

Reducing the competition of weeds is critical to happy corms, and that is basically my job title 'grower of happy corms'. Saffron is an

What a lovely surprise to wake up to this morning. Our Egyptian Dukkha has been awarded a Gold medal in the Australian Food Awards Pantry section. We've been producing our Egyptian Dukkha for 2 years, using only the best ingredient we can get our hands on, including beautiful High Country walnuts, so it was lovely to receive the highest score for our ingredient quality and combination. The judges commented 'Very good balance, particularly salt and pepper levels. Walnut twist is very nice.'

We also submitted our Wild Fermented Olives, both Saffron and Lemon Myrtle and our Summertime blends and happily walked away with Bronze medals for both, with judges noting 'Very subtle condiments in crisp green olives.'
We sourced these Manzanillo olives from an Angus breeder in Mudgegonga who planted them for diversification, but when the 2009 fires came through his property, he decided to focus his rebuild efforts elsewhere, so it is fantastic

There's a 'lightness' in the air, which might sound strange, but for those who live through winter in the High Country, they'll know exactly what I mean. There's a slight lift in the air, it carries a smidgen more warm, you can work a little later in the afternoon, you can start a little earlier without your fingers falling off. It simply means winter is finishing and spring is coming. Is this a good thing...well for those who suffer chilblains like I do, absolutely, for those who haven't got all their winter farming tasks done, like I haven't, then not so much. A farmer's lot, never happy.

We had an excellent, but challenging olive harvest season. The extremely dry weather, put trees everywhere into stress, which resulted in slower ripening. An element of slower ripening is good for flavour and oil development, but in the High Country, it usually means you'll start having to manage ripeness with frost risk. So to achieve that balance this year, I colour picked my Kalamatas twice,

Life up here in the High Country is pretty awesome! We have gorgeous summers with cool, clear rivers to swim in. Our autumn is spectacular, with mountain breezes and all the leaf colour counting down the days till winter is upon us. Winter is cold, but the air kind of sparkles, and spring is just a pleasant relief. We love to share the High Country with others, especially in autumn where harvest is finishing for most people and the weather is still good, so be sure to check out the events available this May as part of High Country Harvest Festival. It runs from 4 - 20th of May and is filled with workshops, dinners, bonfires and all sorts of other exciting foodie related activities.

As part of the festival this year, we received a special visit from the crew at Movida in Melbourne, one of the top Spanish restaurants in Australia, wanting to learn and hear about all things saffron, as they plan the menu