Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you can’t fail to have some degree of awareness of the potential crisis facing worldwide food production as a result of the collapse of bee colonies.  A huge amount of food crops are pollinated by bees and therefore at risk if bee numbers dwindle too low – and that is exactly what is happening, particularly in North America.  For so many reasons, we are very lucky here in Australia.  In this instance our distance from the rest of the world means we have a buffer against some of the suspected causes of Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) such as disease and the Varroa Mite and also because right here in South Australia – on Kangaroo Island (KI) – we have the only pure colony of Ligurian bees in the world.

Ligurian bees are valued as a calm, good-natured and industrious bee and were introduced to Kangaroo Island from their home in Italy in 1884.  The island was subsequently declared a bee sanctuary in 1885 and no other bees have been imported since.  The importance of this fact cannot be overstated.  This means that not only are the bee colonies on KI protected from bee diseases which are present on mainland Australia, but also from the rest of the world thus avoiding the use of antibiotics and chemicals that many bee colonies require to stay viable.  A breeding and research resource such as this disease-free and genetically pure strain of bee may well become pivotal in the fight against Colony Collapse Disorder.

Local identity Peter Davis of Island Beehive has one of the largest Ligurian honey-bee operations anywhere in the world and is one of Australia’s biggest organic honey producers.  The diligent little bees in his 700-800 hives produce, on average, around 100 tonnes of honey a year.   Peter, who was born on KI, came from a background of mixed farming and his parents had bees when he was growing up.  What was once a family sideline has now become his family business and the store and processing plant that Peter opened in 2006 is the sweet centre of his enterprise.

In the premises behind the shopfront Peter extracts his honey, uses the beeswax to produce a quirky line of candles and stores the enormous drums of honey which will be exported to both Japan and China.  The store itself is where all of the honeys he produces can be tasted and purchased, along with the most diverse selection of bee and honey related products I’ve ever seen.  Peter’s wife has an enviable collection of vintage and antique honey pots which she has sourced from around the world and they are all on display in the store, along with a transparent beehive where those precious little insects can be observed going about their business.

But – back to global food security and Peter’s role in it.  Bees have a limited capacity to keep themselves warm through the cold northern weather and require a critical mass to do so.  A healthy colony stands a much greater chance of surviving so bees weakened by exposure to disease and Varroa Mite enter a difficult season already compromised.  At the end of each winter there is always a percentage of  colonies which fail to survive the weather, but there has been growing alarm at the increasing rates of colony loss, principally in North America.  Recent reports have suggested that up to 70% of bee colonies did not make it through to spring this current year, although when I spoke to Bob Liptrot of Tugwell Creek Honey Farm on Vancouver Island he told me he suspected that the real figure was probably closer to 90%.

The disease-free status of Kangaroo Island bees and the pristine environment in which they thrive means that South Australia has a distinctly precious asset to share with the world.  Over the years Peter, along with other Kangaroo Island apiarists, has developed a sideline in breeding up queens and exporting them to the rest of the world and has been regularly doing so for some time.   If the situation in North America continues along current lines they may well be looking to Kangaroo Island beekeepers such as Peter Davis to save their pollinators and their crops – sooner rather than later.  The importance of maintaining this pristine environment becomes ever more significant in this light and is a responsibility we should all be aware of.

There have been numerous studies into the causes of CCD (and, given the inconclusive results, one wonders who funds them) and the blame has been laid at the feet of various possible causes including viruses, bacterial diseases, the Varroa Mite, the use of pesticides, including neonicotinoids and  the rise in the production of GM crops.  I asked Peter what he thought was the problem and he was unequivocal in his answer – GM crops.

Kangaroo Island may be small but, due in no small part to its unique environmental properties, is punching well above its weight in distinctive food production, more of which I’ll share with you in the coming weeks.  We need to be alert to this asset in our back yard.  If you are looking for a foodie getaway it should well and truly be on your radar, so stay tuned for more reasons to spend a few days across the Backstairs Passage.

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I’m trying something a little different today and introducing you to a couple of ladies who share my interests in good food, easily prepared, with maximum impact – both in taste and nutrition.  Nutritionist Kathryn Elliot and her friend, photographer and recipe developer Lucinda Dodds, combine their skills and talents in An Honest Kitchen, a blog and e-magazine which focuses on fresh, simple, seasonal food.  The three of us are so on the same page when it comes to food that when Kathryn approached me with the idea of doing a guest post I simply couldn’t resist – and who doesn’t love a roast?  I’m thrilled to be able to share the knowledge and passion of these ladies with my own readers so, without any further ado – take it away, girls!

Amanda has very kindly let me, Lucy, take over her blog today to talk to you guys, her lovely readers, about the next issue of An Honest Kitchen, an e-publication that nutritionist Kathryn Elliott and I work on. It’s about cooking in an honest, healthy way with real, no fuss ingredients.

When Kathryn and I were challenged by a reader to makeover some classic recipes, to give the An Honest Kitchen treatment to some favourite family meals, we jumped at the opportunity. What a fun idea, one with a practical and healthy outcome. Our Makeovers issue was born.

A lot of traditional recipes call for very specific ingredients, but what to do if your recipe calls, say, for tomatoes and it’s not tomato season? For starters, you can rethink the recipe – is a fresh tomato sauce really an appropriate meal in the depths of winter? Maybe some roasted pumpkin, or some beetroot could take the place of those tomatoes and bring it into the moment.

Kathryn and I go on about seasonality for all the obvious, much-touted reasons – sustainability, supporting your local economy, reducing the energy required to get food to your plate – but the overwhelming reason to do so is summed up best by our favourite cook, Nigel Slater, in his Kitchen Diaries: “Right food, right place, right time…this is the food of the moment – something eaten at a time when it is most appropriate, when the ingredients are at the peak of their perfection, when the food, the cook and the time of year are at one with each other.”

Keeping in tune with the seasons will make your cooking infinitely better.

Roasts are a real favourite for many people. The traditional roast centres on a big joint of meat with hearty sides of potatoes, pools of gravy and all the extra trimmings. It’s a heavy, stodgy meal. If you’re trying to eat healthy meals, then avoiding the family roast may seem like a good idea, but we’ve gathered some tips to help you make it fresh, lighter and an altogether healthier option.

How to makeover a traditional roast dinner

In the course of our makeovers we developed a few guidelines which you can use to revamp your own favourite roast dinners:

Use less meat: Rather than cooking a huge joint of meat, choose a smaller cut with a bone in it. This will cook in a fraction of the normal time, but you’ll still end up with a juicy and flavour-filled dinner. In our recipe below we’ve used lamb shanks which speeds up the cooking time, but also gives you an idea of how much protein you should be eating. It’s all too easy to eat far more protein with a roast than you actually need.

Don’t avoid potatoes: Roast potatoes are an integral part of the traditional roast and while they have a seemingly poor nutritional profile, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with a bit of potato. It’s all about the size of the portion you eat and what else you plate them with. Try to make the potato no more than ¼ of the space on your plate.

Make sure you add LOTS of seasonal vegetables: Roasting is one of the best ways to cook vegetables. They are simply delicious and you can easily pack a variety of vegetables into the meal. In the recipe below, we use beetroot and carrots for a warming, wintry roast, but you could make it summery by using loads of big, juicy tomatoes, some chopped peppers and eggplant in season, adding some olives and a few big handfuls of basil, stirred through just before serving, instead of the beetroot leaves. Basically, play!

Add flavour: Don’t be afraid to add unusual and strong flavours to your roast, the results can be spectacular. In the following recipe, a fresh burst of lemon juice and oregano adds a lot of flavour.

So. What does a Makeover recipe look like? Like this!

Oregano Roast Lamb with Vegetables

A Greek-inspired roast lamb, where the meat and vegetables are cooked together – so you’re only dirtying one pan – and the whole meal is served with natural yoghurt instead of gravy. To make sure all your veggies cook evenly within the time frame, try to cut them into similar-sized pieces, about 3cm. Serves 2

2 onions

1 bunch beetroot –  roots and leaves

2 carrots

400 – 450g potatoes

2 sticks celery

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 lemon

1 tablespoon dried oregano

600g Frenched (well-trimmed) lamb shanks – 1 large, or 2 smaller

1/3 cup natural yoghurt

Preheat the oven to 200°C.

Prepare most of the vegetables: Trim the ends off the onions and peel away the papery skin. Cut each into 6 wedges. Cut the leaves off the beetroots and put these to one side. Scrub the beetroots, carrots, potatoes and celery – don’t worry about peeling unless they’re very grubby and marked. Cut into chunks, roughly 3 cm – this is important as you want the vegetables to cook evenly. Place all the vegetables in a large baking tray. Pour over the olive oil and gently turn the vegetables over, until they are covered in oil.

Flavour the lamb: Juice the lemon, pouring the juice into a shallow bowl and putting the leftover lemon shells in with the vegetables. Add the oregano to the lemon juice and then season with salt and pepper. Put the lamb shanks in the lemon and oregano marinade and rub the mixture into the flesh.

Cook the roast: Place the shanks on top of the vegetables, in the baking tray and pour any leftover marinade over the top. Place the tray in the oven and cook for 45 minutes. At the end of this time, remove the tray and gently turn over the vegetables and lamb. Return to the oven and cook for a further 30 minutes.

Prepare the greens: While the roast is cooking give the beetroot greens a good wash. You may need to do this in two changes of water. Roughly chop into thick strips.

Rest the lamb and cook the greens: At the end of the 30 minute cooking time, take the baking tray out of the oven. Remove the lamb to a plate, cover with tin foil and leave to rest for 15 minutes. Add the chopped greens to the tray and quickly toss them in the juices at the bottom of the pan. Place back in the oven for 7 – 10 minutes, until the greens are wilted.

To serve: Once the vegetables are cooked, serve the lamb shanks and vegetables with the natural yoghurt on the side.

For more ideas on making over the meals you love take a look at our publication An Honest Kitchen: Makeovers. An Honest Kitchen is a regular publication all about real food that’s good for you. Each issue is full of simple recipes, practical cooking information and healthy eating advice. Our latest edition, Makeovers, in which we revamp popular meals is available in e-format from 11 June.

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0430 hrs and I’m wide awake.  Again.

The joys and benefits of travel are manifold and much documented.  Travel increases our knowledge base and broadens our perspective, it strengthens our resourcefulness while it exposes us to places and experiences that generally can’t be found at home, it can  introduce one to new foods and friends, teach personal skills like time management, organisation, tolerance, adaptation and fosters the celebration of the rich diversity of our human experience. One of the less welcome gifts of travel can be an interruption to our circadian rhythms – and that’s why I’m sitting in front of my fire writing this post about my trip to Canada to you at such a ridiculous hour.

I gained all of the above from my (almost) three weeks of exploring Canada.  I went to places I’ve always been curious about, saw things I’d never seen before (a moose!) and made some brilliant friends from such far flung corners of the world as Canada, Sweden, Korea and Brazil.  I traveled the breadth of an enormous and visually exciting country, ate marvelous meals, met remarkable food producers and heard their stories, learned much from my traveling companions and was given the opportunity to attend the massive and massively exciting TBEX.  I can’t begin to count the advantages of being chosen for such an astonishing adventure and, in the coming weeks and months, I’ll be sharing my experiences of Canada with you all.

In the meantime, I’m thrilled to be able to let you have a glimpse of our experience in this short video made by one of my traveling companions, the remarkably talented and hugely popular (think circa 27k followers) young Instagrammer Alex Strohl.

Every time I look at it I think of this wonderful trip and the friends I made – I love the film and I hope you do too.

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Dear readers, you are always so tolerant of my sometimes wordy ramblings that I decided to give you all a bit of a break.  I had a great many pictures of this lovely region that I couldn’t fit in to my previous post on the city of Victoria, Vancouver Island, so I’ve decided to try to hold off on the blathering and just share some of these images with you.  I’m hopeless at sending postcards, so I’m happy for my family and friends to feel free to think of these images as a substitute.  Sadly, the weather was a little more overcast than I would have liked, but I think you will still get an idea of some of my highlights in this engaging city.

This was part of my lovely view – the stunning Japanese Garden at the Inn at Laurel Point.

And beyond that, the view of Fisherman’s Wharf.

This quirky houseboat caught my eye – because of it’s name and the modest efforts at urban agriculture in the flower boxes.

This colourful yellow houseboat comes with it’s own streamlined transport.

I simply cannot begin to imagine what these dashing young things were doing on the lawns in front of the Legislative buildings – or indeed why they had a harp with them.

These two chaps were very interested in what we were up to – although the one on the left spent his entire time upside down!

This sweet thing was a little coy & stayed under water.

This is what they were really after!

But those crabs were turned into our lunch pretty smartly.

More views from my room – a striking, big Canada sky sunset ….

….that seemed reluctant to fade away.

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Australians and Canadians seem to have quite a bit in common and like to think of themselves as distantly related in some way – kind of like cousins.  While our geographical similarities are pretty limited, one thing our respective countries do have in common is size.  We both have enormous, wide countries – a fact which was driven firmly home to me last week when I flew from Vancouver in the west to Halifax in the east.  It’s a big day of traveling, not assisted by the significant time difference, but is well worth the effort for Halifax is a fascinating city and I was excited beyond words to be visiting Nova Scotia.

Halifax has always been a seafaring town and is the permanent base of the Canadian navy.  It has a rich history stretching back to 1749 and has played significant roles in many military engagements including the American revolution, the American civil war, WW1 and WW2, as well as being the main launching point for rescue missions when the Titanic hit that fateful iceberg.  History buffs will be in heaven here, but the rest of us can find plenty to fascinate and of course, being a seaport, means that those who are fond of a feed are going to be pretty happy here, too.  Here are my top three picks.

Do Not Miss – Maritime Museum of the Atlantic

This is the oldest and largest maritime museum in Canada and, because of its impressive location on Halifax waterfront, is regularly used for public events – even hosting some meetings from the 1995 G7 Summit.  It has a large collection of small craft, is currently displaying a remarkable collection of articles from Arctic expeditions of 100 years ago and has a substantial collection of scale model boats that were built through the years by the shipping lines as prototypes and which have been lovingly restored by local aficionados.  It also has gathered a collection of artifacts from the Titanic, including one of the few surviving deck chairs, menus from first second and third class and a poignant pair of child’s shoes.  It also has a fully restored and kitted out ships chandlers, full of ropes, tools and blokey things – sure to keep the boys happy.

For Titanic Tragics – Fairview Cemetery

The public transport system in Halifax is easy to use and seems very reliable – handy, as the resting place of over 100 souls from the Titanic is just a quick ten minute bus ride out of town.  I love an old cemetery and try to visit them wherever I go, but this one has become quite famous since that movie.  Nearly all of the graves are marked with a plain granite stone, paid for by the White Star line.  As many of the bodies were unidentified the graves are unmarked, but over the years some of these identities have been established and the families have added their names and details to the stones.  One of the most touching is that of ‘The Unknown Child” (subsequently identified as 19 month old Sydney Goodwin) whose grave was paid for by the sailors of the ship which recovered his body.  There are several small tributes of toy cars, which have been left on his gravestone.

When You Get Hungry

 I was only in Halifax for two nights (including the first, when I arrived at my hotel at 10 pm), but still managed to fit in a satisfactory amount of eating and food-spotting.  I paid a visit to Sugah, a locally based candy manufacturers.  Making a lot of their products on-site, they stock a desirable range of hand-crafted chocolates, ice creams and a beer and pretzel brittle which would probably do away with the need for any other food source for some.  Right next door is a wonderfully scented bakery called Rum Runners.  They specialize in booze soaked cakes which are buttery rich and utterly divine.  These chocolate rum cakes, rum cakes and single malt whisky cakes are baked on the premises by the charming James (using a recipe that was taken from the cold, dead hands of an ancient mariner/cook – actually, I made that bit up) and they are completely portable, so can be bought to take home as souvenirs – if they were to last that long.

Being a seaport, you would be right in thinking Halifax is pretty big on seafood.  They do a lot of it and do it superbly.  My colleagues and I enjoyed a delicious lunch at the historic and very charming Henry House.  This hotel is the perfect cosy nook, with a warm fire in the grate, characters at the bar and a fine line in brews.  The fish and chips received particular praise for the light batter and the freshness of the fish.

On our second evening the media group I was traveling with were taken to local seafood specialists, The Five Fishermen.  Housed in yet another beautiful, historic building (the city really is full of the most charming and notable buildings), restaurant has more than just a seafood reputation as a claim to fame.  The building has had many incarnations over the years and at one stage was home to Snow’s Funeral Parlour, where most of the recovered Titanic victims were brought to be readied for either transport or burial.

Still with many original fittings and some stunning stained glass, it was of no concern to any of us that our long table was positioned exactly where the bodies were laid out and displayed for identification.  We were completely absorbed by the splendidly prepared and displayed food which was set before us.  I’m afraid that my inner greedy girl broke through the moment I saw the lobster on the menu, although the mussel bar and desserts scored pretty heavily with all of us, too.  There’s nothing like travel to help work up an appetite.

 Lambs Ears and Honey was a guest of the Canadian Tourism Commission and Nova Scotia Tourism, but all opinions are fearlessly her own.

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Last year, when I last (and first, actually) visited Canada I was desperately keen to go to Vancouver Island.  I had heard all sorts of wonderful things about how beautiful it was, but sadly discovered that it wasn’t a quick ferry trip away, and warranted much more than a half day trip. Given that, I was very pleased make up for the omission on this trip and have just spent three days there checking out as much as I could.  The city of Victoria, on the island, is actually the capital of British Columbia and, while not the largest, is one of the oldest cities – with British settlement beginning in 1843.  It has managed to retain many of its striking historic buildings, the two most imposing of which are the Legislative Buildings and the absolutely enormous Empress Hotel – the latter of which I’m told is built on marshy land and is slowly sinking.

The harbour is truly beautiful and extraordinarily busy with a constant stream of tour boats, harbour taxis, pleasure craft, kayakers and rowers, seaplanes – and traffic of the more feathered variety.  It is possible to walk almost all around the harbour on a waterside path that takes one into the central city area or, tucked away just past the inner harbour, to the buzzy fishermans wharf area.  This great little spot is a working wharf and has shopping, eco-tour adventures, fresh seafood available straight off the boats or seafood cafes where you can grab some lunch.  It also has the cutest little houses right out on the water.  Some seem to be available for rent, but others are clearly lived in and much loved.  These interesting homes vary from the very sweet to the somewhat quirky.

My own accommodation was a little more traditional and I was very comfortable at The Inn at Laurel Point.  I was very spoiled – staying in a stunning harbour-view room with a vast and splendid bathroom.  Situated on the point between Inner Harbour and Victoria Harbour, The Inn is smart, modern and a very comfortable walking distance from both the bars, restaurants and shops of the downtown area on one side, or Fishermans wharf on the other.  And for those who don’t feel like a stroll, the very cute little water taxis are never far away.

On my first night I struggled badly with the effects of a 4 am start from home, a 14 hour flight and crossing the international dateline and had plans for a quick, early dinner and bed.  However, the menu in the hotel restaurant, Aura, was just too tempting.  The lure of the fresh, wild seafood was too much and after 3 courses, including a stunning deep-fried, deconstructed sushi dish with albacore tuna and silky, fresh scallops I wandered off to bed much later than intended.

After completely upsetting my morning plans by managing to oversleep the next day (no surprises there, I suppose) I spent what was left of the morning happily exploring this very pretty city before meeting up with Alexis Ragan of Off the Eaten Track food tours.  Now, there’s nothing I like more than a food tour in a city that’s new to me (or even one that’s not) – I think food is simply the best way to get to know a place, understand where it is coming from and to bond with the locals.  Alexis is Victoria born and bred, but very happily lived in Australia for quite a while – more than we actually had invited her for it seems, as she found out when she overstayed her welcome and was politely asked to leave.  She started Off the Eaten Track in Vancouver, where she now lives, and has recently begun offering tours in her home town too.  She likes to take small groups into areas of the city that they might not necessarily ever see and connect them with some of the outstanding food/drink businesses that only a local will know about.

Our tour was in the Oak Bay area and we started off by visiting a remarkable coffee business called Discovery Coffee.  Established in the city in 2006, Discovery Coffee has now expanded the original site to include a roastery, a bakery so they can produce their own baked goods, a pottery where the owner makes her special coffee and tea ware and a training facility for their staff. The city premises are now licensed and they have gone on to open two more stores – with one in Oak Bay.  Discovery has made enormous efforts to provide an excellent, but sustainable cup of coffee – ensuring a fair price for the grower by buying their beans from the source (and often buying the whole crop) wherever possible, or by using trusted brokers.  Their staff take great pride in their skills and will go to any length to provide the best possible cup of coffee (or tea), with one of them showing us a very specialised halogen brewing method which resulted in a sophisticated, nuanced coffee which I (who hasn’t had a cup of coffee in over 6 years) honestly enjoyed.

We went from there to The Whole Beast, an artisan salumeria which uses locally bred, free-range Berkshire/Tamworth pigs.  The owner, who is chef-trained, has a particular passion for pigs and is actively engaged in encouraging the local production of Tamworth pigs, a breed which is considered to be close to endangered.  From there we moved on to Vis a Vis, a local wine bar and restaurant, a delicious little patisserie, a candy store (squeals of delight) and finished our trip with a crab smash at the Marina Restaurant at Oak bay Marina.  Not at all stuffy, as some marina eateries can be, this beautifully positioned restaurant has a popular sushi bar and free-loading seals who were very inquisitive when we went out to fetch our own crab from the water!  We apologised to him as he was carried off to the kitchen and then enjoyed him with an ice cold beer a short time later.

Showing dedication above and beyond the call of duty, Alexis offered to take me out for a cocktail or two after I had mentioned that, being as I was so well brought up, I wouldn’t be able to hang around in bars on my own.  We dropped in to the gorgeous Bengal Lounge at the aforementioned Empress Hotel.  It is stunningly decked out with a British Raj theme (dead wildlife included) and offers heavenly cocktails with impeccable service.  Just be aware – this does not come cheap!

Lambs Ears and Honey was a guest of the Canadian Tourism Commission, The Inn at Laurel Point and Tourism Victoria.

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Some days opportunity comes creeping up behind you, taps you politely on the shoulder and makes a subtle suggestion or two about pleasant possibilities you might like to explore.  More rarely, it barrels up right in front of you looks you in the eye and says “I’m fabulous and I’m yours, right now – grab me!”  Such was the case for me quite recently when I was presented with the opportunity to go back to a country I visited very briefly last year – big, beautiful Canada.

Some of you will remember my posts from the ‘girls trip’ I took with my two daughters in January of last year.  We began the adventure in Vancouver, British Columbia, when we picked up my youngest from her student exchange experience, spent a few days there and then headed south, across the border.  I was struck by the vibrant food culture that I glimpsed while in Vancouver.  This was evident from the popular food trucks that dot the streets and was really brought home to me when we spent a blissful day in the culinary heart of the city on Granville Island – in the markets and most particularly in a wonderful store called Edible Canada, which stocks only produce from Canadian artisan culinary producers.

Our stay was too short and I was unable to explore this wealth of food producers, but the gods have smiled on me and I have been given another chance.  This Friday I’ll be on the red-eye to Sydney, connecting with a direct (how handy is that?!) Air Canada flight to Vancouver, as a guest of the Canadian Tourism Commission.  I’ll be exploring as much as I can of the dynamic food culture of Vancouver Island, home to many artisan food producers, before heading over to Halifax on  the east coast and gradually making my way back west – finishing up in at the huge North American travel bloggers conference TBEX, in Toronto.

A lot of Australians get to Vancouver, but fewer of us make it all the way east, so I’ll be exploring a part of Canada that not too many of us get to see.  I’ll also be hunting out as many of the Canadian foodie secrets I can find and sharing them with you, my lovelies – hopefully showing you an aspect of Canada that you hadn’t considered before.  We all know Canada is full of spectacular scenery, but it is also possessed of a dynamic food culture which has a very strong focus on food security and I can’t wait to show  you all the things I’ll be uncovering.  Not only that, but I get to mix it with some remarkable bloggers from all over the world and all over North America at TBEX  the world’s largest gathering of travel bloggers, writers, and new media content creators – to be honest, I’m still pinching myself about all this!

I’m off to start packing now, but it will all be here in living colour so follow my adventures here and on my Facebook page which I’ll be updating regularly (just as soon as I get over the flight).  I’ll also be sharing my experiences on my Twitter account – just look for the hashtag #ExploreCanada.

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The Adelaide Hills is a popular tourist spot and we have much to offer up here in the way of  scenery,  food and some wonderful wineries.  While there are tons of charming B & B’s, guest cottages and three star hotel/motels, we have been a little short of luxury beds, with fairly limited options  for those who want to really spoil themselves – or someone else.  My friend Clare, of the hugely popular Sticky Rice Cooking School, has put on her clever pants and done something about that!

Clare and her husband established Sticky Rice, in Stirling – just ten minutes up the freeway from the city, in 2008 and her school has become something of a mecca for food lovers, both local and visiting.  She offers a range of cooking classes which encompass all the Asian cuisines and also classes on Spanish, Moroccan and Middle Eastern cooking.   All the classes offer excellent tuition by highly experienced chefs, but she aims to teach more than just a recipe or technique.  Clare wants her clients to come away from her school with new skills and culinary achievements, but also with a deeper understanding of their chosen cuisine and full of inspiration from the carefully designed and crafted surroundings she has created.

With this in mind, she has extended the experience by creating three stunning luxury villas on the premises.  Each villa is architecturally designed, individually styled and seamlessly blends their distinctive interiors with the private walled gardens by the use of floor to ceiling glass.  Guests can choose from the tropically inspired “Bali”, the stylish monochromatic “Zen” or the clean lines of the Japanese inspired “Yoko”.  Each is fabulously appointed with correlating,  comfortable furnishings, underfloor heating, seductive bathrooms and truly exceptional kitchens.

As is only fitting in accommodation attached to a cooking school, the kitchens in each of these villas is, as far as I was concerned at least, enviable.  Fully fitted out with top-of-the-range appliances from Electrolux, Clare has been a little surprised to find that many of her guests arrive with large boxes of produce and announce that they are staying in for the evening to cook in the kitchen of their dreams!

Of course, for those who are a little more inclined to be indulged (like me) there are plenty of great dining options in the Adelaide Hills and in the immediate surrounds of Sticky Rice, or it is a very short drive down the hill to Adelaide’s many fabulous restaurants.  Alternatively, take a gourmet tour or one of Clares fascinating classes, completely immerse yourself in the experience (along with a glass or three of fine South Australian wine) and amble casually back to your villa to relax and rest, possibly even waking up unsure of what country you are really in.

These absolutely gorgeous villas fill an accommodation gap in the Adelaide Hills and their design and attention to detail is a credit to Clare and her family.  Her vision has created a truly landmark attraction which adds significantly to the appeal of the Adelaide Hills as a holiday destination – and, I suspect,  not just for those from out of town.

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There are some quite remarkable people in this world and every so often one of them comes into my life.  I first met Tammi Jonas, publiser of the blog Tammi Jonas: Food Ethics, at Eat Drink Blog 2011 and was able to get to know her a little better when she came to Adelaide for our version of the Australian national food bloggers conference, Eat Drink Blog 2012.  Tammi is a food writer, food activist, food producer and cultural theorist close to the completion of a PhD examining the role of food and foodways in the development of a sustainable society – and a home butchering student.

From the very first time I met her, I was struck by Tammi’s friendly, genuine manner, easy laugh, open-mindedness, her quick, razor-sharp intellect and her utter commitment to her firmly-held beliefs.  Tammi has made the journey from vegetarianism to meat-eating in the only way she has felt ethically able and as a result is now learning to butcher her own meat, cure it and is also sharing that knowledge with her Eat Your Ethics workshops.  To further ensure the security of their own, personal food chain the Jonas’ (or Jonai, as they prefer to be known) have now launched a campaign through Pozible  to fund the construction and licensing of a registered boning room on their own property.  If that’s not conviction, I really don’t know what is.  To learn more about this truly inspirational woman, read on …

While lots of us care about the provenance of our food, not too many are prepared to make such radical changes to their lives to ensure an ethical meal. Was the change from suburbia to Daylesford an evolving decision or more of an epiphany?

It came from a long-held desire to move to the country that one day happily collided with the realisation that we could make a modest living as farmers, all while still advocating for a fair and ethical food system. I grew up on a cattle ranch in Oregon, so country living was not only familiar to me, it’s my preferred natural state, and Stuart, though from generations of suburban dwellers, must have been a farmer in a former life – I call him ‘hypercompetent’, which is pretty useful as a farmer! We have always wanted to grow, cure, ferment and pickle more of our own food, and we can now do all of that while sharing our produce and our learning with loads of like-minded people. So what may have seemed radical to many people seemed totally logical to us.

You don’t use harmful chemicals or sprays and follow pretty traditional organic farming techniques, but have chosen not to seek organic accreditation.  Why is that?

There are a number of reasons why we won’t be seeking any accreditation – neither organic nor free range – and I need to write more on this topic soon. In short, we work on a transparency model rather than an accreditation model. The people who buy our pork aren’t ‘buying from a stranger’, we deliver the pork directly to their door, or they pick it up from the farm, so they can see for themselves and have lengthy conversations with us about our systems, plus we’re now running the Eat Your Ethics workshops to share our practices with more people. Accreditation schemes are largely designed to give people confidence when they can’t/don’t know their producers.

We also cannot ensure that all of the grain we procure for the pigs is organic – it’s prohibitively expensive, and in drought years, unreliably available. Our primary focus is on ethical animal husbandry and good agroecological practices, and while we don’t use any synthetic inputs on the farm, some of the things we bring in from elsewhere will have come from such ‘conventional’ systems, though we’re working to reduce those external inputs. Free range, on the other hand, is a no brainer – we wouldn’t dream of putting our pigs into an intensive system, and could easily be certified if we wanted to be. But I’m pretty sure our twitter account, Instagram feed and website prove the point about the wonderful space our pigs have to wander, root and wallow! And if in doubt, just come visit and see for yourselves!

Why pigs?  While you do have other livestock, pigs probably require the most intensive husbandry and management of all large farm beasts – so why did you choose them?

Kind of like the move to the country, pigs were the obvious choice for us, as they’re very clever animals kept in what we consider unconscionable conditions in intensive systems as a population increases its pork consumption on the back of those systems. Chooks were the other possibility as they’re the other most intensively raised animals, but frankly, I think we should stop eating chicken except for the once or twice a year when you kill the surplus roosters, which is how it was not that long ago. So while pigs are, as you say, a lot of work, they’re the most in need of an increase in ethical farming systems and lots of awareness raising to help people understand why it matters to choose free range.

Once you made your decisions, was it very difficult to educate yourselves in the various practices and how did you go about finding the supports – suppliers, information & buyers for your product – you needed?

We’re still educating ourselves every day! We’ve been the grateful beneficiaries of the knowledge of other free-range pig farmers who went before us, all of whom have been incredibly generous with their knowledge. We started with our four-month Road Trip USA trip in 2011, where we visited Polyface and a couple of other farms to learn about their systems, and then got lots of information and support from people like Anthony at Greenvale Farm, Fiona at Fernleigh Free Range, and Loz at Bundarra Berkshires. We’ve read a lot of books as well, and of course have learned the most just by doing! As for buyers, our sales started with the enthusiasm of friends and followers on twitter and the blogs, but have since broadened out to include a diverse set of people locally and in Melbourne who care about the treatment of animals raised for meat.

You have visited Joel Salatin’s inspirational Polyface Farm – what specifics did you bring home with you as a result of that?

Polyface was fantastic, and I detailed that visit in 2011. I brought home a few things – one is that Joel does what he says he does – his animals are raised in a great system that benefits the land. The vertical integration he does is inspiring – it’s also quite labour intensive. We certainly aren’t afraid of labour, but we need more hands on deck to run a system as diverse and demanding as his – we’d love to get there one day! But I also took home a stronger view that meat chickens just aren’t really sustainable, and don’t sit well with my ethics. Joel still runs meat chickens that have such large breasts and feeble legs (Americans don’t like thigh meat, silly buggers) that even though they’re out on the paddocks in an otherwise ethical system, my view is that the breed itself isn’t ethical – the poor birds can barely walk by the time they’re three or four weeks old. I think that’s inhumane breeding, personally, though I otherwise am a huge fan of Polyface’s systems.

You are now working towards the next logical step in your ethical meat journey – your own on-site boning room.  Was this always part of the plan and (aside from funding it) what have been the largest obstacles you have encountered?

Our plans are always evolving as we discover the next challenge and work out the Jonai way to solve it (which typically means learn more and do more ourselves…). We hadn’t anticipated doing all our own butchering, though we’ve always hoped we would be able to do artisanal curing and fermenting once we were well established and could afford the prohibitive setup and auditing costs. We’d been told by all the small growers that butchering is always an issue, but didn’t fully understand the problem until it was ours as well. There is, quite simply, a shortage of skilled butchers around, and the good ones are running successful retail ventures in their own right and so have little time for private jobs like ours. We’re so lucky to have found Sal, our wonderful butcher in Ballan, who not only is very good at what he does, but is incredibly generous and willing to share his knowledge and skills with me so that we can do it on our own. But he won’t be able to keep up with our needs within a few months on top of his own thriving shop, and he doesn’t have the licence to cure either, and we’ve had issues finding someone else suitable for the curing side. So while some people may think setting up a boning room to do it ourselves is a fairly extreme response to the problem, it’s in keeping with our constant drive to do things ourselves, and to maintain total transparency about what we’re doing.

You are in the process of completing a Ph.D., have a partner and three children, pigs, chooks, cattle & sheep, open your farm to the public, are teaching yourself butchery, write several blogs and still work part-time. Do you have more hours in your day than I do?

Ha! I get asked that *a lot*. In fairness, I just quit my full-time job with the government so I can focus on the farm and finishing my PhD this year. Some of my time is created by having the amazing Jonai involved in everything together. The #orsmkids aren’t called that for no reason – they’ve taken on a lot of the domestic chores, including cooking up some delicious meals when Stuart and I are otherwise occupied, plus they tend the chooks and help out where they can with farm chores. Stuart never stops moving – the man is incredible at getting on with the job at hand, and is by far the primary labour force on the farm, doing all the feed procurement and feeding, as well as leading the infrastructure projects like the endless fencing… he also does all the laundry (except folding, which is the kids’ job).

And don’t tell my supervisor (actually he’s well aware of it), but I haven’t done much on the PhD in the last year, though that is changing as I have a target to write a full rough draft by the end of August… not having a tv helps with the time factor too, I guess, though I tend to think of that as time other people sacrifice rather than time I save. Oh, and I do also tend to be pretty energetic (and enthusiastic) by nature.

If you want to find out more about Tammi’s Boning Room Project or even support it check it out on Pozible here.

Image courtesy of  and owned by Tammi Jonas.

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This last weekend I was given an opportunity to revisit Kangaroo Island, a region of South Australia that is truly unique, spectacularly beautiful, possessed of a remarkable, growing food culture  and now their very own food festival – the Kangaroo Island Feastival.  The brainchild of KI born and bred Nick Hannaford, last weekend’s fabulous knees-up was only the second event since it’s debut last year and already has attracted significant interest, sponsorship and attendance – with almost twice the number of guests this year than in 2012.

As the main driver of the event, the utterly indefatigable Nick Hannaford has not only the energy, but also impeccable credentials to produce a food and wine festival with such a unique focus.  After growing up on the island, Nick moved off into mainland food and event management running distinctive corporate and incentive events throughout Australia and the Asia Pacific, in extraordinary locations ranging from rivers to the Daintree Forest.  He had also spent some time working in his mothers restaurant – Adelaide’s iconic Jolleys Boathouse – and when he eventually made his way back to Kangaroo Island he was ready to use all he had learned to showcase the unmatched assets of his home.

Simply by virtue of it’s pristine location, diverse scenery and exclusive food products,Kangaroo Island Feastival is a food and wine festival unlike any other.  Setting out to capture the spirit of the island and it’s people – many of whom are fifth and sixth generation islanders – this particular festival offers a totally different experience by offering guests access to the people and locations, creating a truly unique and memorable event.

From the beginning Nick was keen to use the significant points of difference on the island as the keys to the events he and the local food and wine producers put together.  With this in mind he created events like the pop-up oyster and wine bar, where guests donned waders and waded out to tables set up on boats.  Staffed by local sailors, the oyster grower and wine producers, the guests chatted about sailing, food and wine while standing in the water that the oysters they were eating had been grown in.

For visitors to the island who wanted to have a genuine experience of not only the fabulous food, but also those who live it and produce it, there were a series of ‘Table Surfing” dining events which were held by the individual producers in their own homes.  Once again offering guests a unique experience and the opportunity to enjoy produce and insights from the producers, these events were hugely popular and quickly booked out.

Seafood lovers had the opportunity to meet the amazing fresh lobster and seafood fished from the pristine waters around the island, before sitting down with some of the local producers to enjoy eating it at a lunch at Ferguson Australia and gin junkies joined master distiller John Lark of Kis in a masterclass on gin.  John shared his knowledge on the history and production methods of gin before leading guests through blind tastings and then a meal with a gin-inspired menu prepared by himself.

There were gourmet fishing charter trips, a mystery picnic, a hands-on cooking masterclass with Tim Bourke (head chef of the very exclusive Southern Ocean Lodge) and Kate Sumner (owner of Kangaroo Island Source, which provides gourmet food production, cooking classes and catering on the island), celebrity chef dinners with George Calombaris, Maggie Beer and Andrew Fielke – all using the exclusive and distinctive local produce – and the huge day that was Tasting Kangaroo Island at the Wharf.  The latter was the main event and offered guests the opportunity to immerse themselves in Kangaroo Island with historic guided walks, fish smoking demonstrations, live entertainment, the Kangaroo Island Signature Dish competition and by enjoying lunch and a drink from the many food and wine stalls.

With our current culinary obsession, there are many food and wine festivals around these days.  While they all offer fabulous products and amazing eating opportunities, in my opinion none can offer the absolutely unique experiences that the Kangaroo Island Feastival does.  There are foods produced on this island that cannot be found anywhere else in the world – I spent a large part of the weekend getting to know some of the producers and will be introducing you to them over the next few weeks.  Many of them offer farm-gate purchasing or cafe facilities so that you can enjoy their products on the spot or take them home – making Kangaroo Island the ideal culinary holiday destination.

Actually, it seems to me that Sealink, the only form of public transport to Kangaroo Island, should really be on top of this and offering culinary food tours, day trips and over-night trips.  Why they haven’t caught on to what is potentially a lucrative income stream is beyond me – there’s a lot more to the island than kangaroos, koalas and seals – and there would certainly be a market for it.  But maybe that is a subject for another post.

The Kangaroo Island Feastival will be back again next year and promises even more in the way of  exclusive food and wine experiences. I’ve heard some hints of what Nick Hannaford has in mind for next years event and it sounds like it will be building even more on the festival and offering more amazing unique events in unique locations.

Lambs’ Ears and Honey visited Kangaroo Island as a guest of the South Australian Tourism Commission and  Good Food Kangaroo Island.

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