What's been happening in the Agrarian Kitchen
By on June 1, 2009 7:39 AM
Back in March I introduced you to the Agrarian Kitchen - a sustainable farm based cooking school in Tasmania. The other day I asked Séverine if she could update my readers as to what has been happening in and out of the kitchen. I suggest you go pop the kettle on and make a cup of tea as this post is a little longer than usual, but one well worth reading!
It has been five months since Rodney and I first opened the Agrarian Kitchen cooking school in Tasmania and it has been very full on for both of us. So many things have happened that we can't believe nearly half the year has already passed us by.
The cooking classes have been a great success so far with many return guests already attending more classes. We have had extremely positive feedback from everyone and at the end of each class Rod and I read through our guests' comments in our guestbook with utter excitement. We just want everyone to have a great experience with us and it's always nice to read the beautiful comments left by all. It makes all our hard work worthwhile and reassures us that our dream to give people a wonderful and different experience was not a crazy idea as some first told us.
Rodney's birthday was in February and because he had never really had a proper 'birthday bash' I thought it was time for me to finally organise a big party now that we lived on our dream property and had the space to entertain as madly as we wanted. We ended up with 45 guests from Sydney and Tasmania. Lee Christmas, our friend and butcher who raises rare breed Wessex Saddleback pigs and teaches our 'Whole Hog Masterclass' brought a lamb as a gift and our friends at the Two Metre Tall Company gave Rod a keg of their fine hand brewed ale. You can imagine how delighted all the boys were, especially those from Sydney to have a keg of fine hand brewed ale at their disposal all day and night! Rodney and our best friend, Luke, cooked a feast and roasted the lamb in our newly built wood-fired oven.
The delicious potato rolls that Rod and Luke made and cooked in the wood-fired oven were also a hit with our friends. Roasted potatoes and a selection of lettuces from our garden also accompanied the dinner. Baby Carrots, zucchini, beans and Rod's aioli started the day off with a bang. We were so excited to be able to use all our own grown produce for the party. To top it all off our friend and teacher of our 'Pastry Masterclass', Alistair Wise, made Rod a Chocolate Deux Mille Feuille cake. Rod and Luke also made a strawberry mascarpone cake for the birthday cake and gorgeous rhubarb and rose petal fizz which everyone still talks about.
Photos - Luke Burgess (2009).
Our little man, Tristan, turned two in March and was so excited when mum and dad gave him a bright red retro tricycle for his birthday. He was so cute because his feet didn't quite reach the pedals but now, a few months later he whizzes around it like a pro. The joys of being so young - it is so precious. He is definitely enjoying the country life and all it has to offer.
In April, we decided to have a small stall at the Derwent Valley Autumn Festival. It has always been a dream of ours to have a little country stall like the ones in England with bunting flags and we wanted to do our bit for the community and be present. In keeping with our belief to use as much of our own grown produce as possible we wanted to offer guests a true experience of what a stall at a country festival can really be like.
What began as a small menu with three items ended up doubling. Rodney and Luke, cooked up many yummy goodies for the day and got quite excited by all the produce available in our vegetable garden that they got carried away wanting to make more and more. You can imagine my shock when told that they decided to make our own rhubarb and rose petal fizz because it was such a hit at Rod's birthday that we just had to sell it! Off I went to source bottles and get our designers, Futago, to make up the labels for me. I also had to source environmentally friendly packaging for the soup at the last minute and found some gorgeous sugar-cane fibre bowls from Going Green Solutions.
Photos - Luke Burgess (2009).
The boys, myself and Luke's other half Kat worked into the very early hours of the morning ensuring everything would be ready for the next day. My brother and his girlfriend were also with us on holidays and we were grateful that they looked after Tristan for us. My brother thought it was hilarious to see me finally getting my hands dirty in the kitchen and helping out in making the potato croquettes (for those of you who wouldn't know, I cannot cook to save my life and the on going joke between all our friends and family is that perhaps I should be one of Rod's students and learn how to cook!
The menu consisted of wild mushroom, cavalo nero and pearl barley soup, potato croquettes with spicy ketchup, slow roast spiced lamb rolls with slaw. The potato rolls were made by the boys and were cooked in our wood-fired oven before being taken down to our stall. Luke's divine gingerbread and caramel butterscotch cookies were a winner as to were the berry and quince galettes.
The vegetable garden is now going into winter mode but Rod planted lots of winter veggies to ensure our winter classes can continue. We had a bumper season for our tomatoes that Rod planted. He went a little mad and planted sixty varieties and we ended up with 200kg of tomatoes which we were over the moon about because it was a bad growing season for them and it was Rod's first time. The remainder is drying from the ceiling in our kitchen. We made lots of tomato ketchup and relishes and are well stocked for the winter. Out of the sixty varieties, my favourite would have to be one called a green zebra tomato - it really is green on the outside and inside and is quite amazing in flavour.
Photos - Luke Burgess (2009).
I have learnt so much since living here and although we do feel quite exhausted when the days are over, trying to keep up with all the paperwork, marketing, gardening, classes and not to mention keeping up with our little man, it is all well worth the effort. Especially when I can sit back late in the evening with my favourite pot of Marco Polo leaf tea and a piece of mille feuille made by our guests in our pastry classes.
It has been five months since Rodney and I first opened the Agrarian Kitchen cooking school in Tasmania and it has been very full on for both of us. So many things have happened that we can't believe nearly half the year has already passed us by.
The cooking classes have been a great success so far with many return guests already attending more classes. We have had extremely positive feedback from everyone and at the end of each class Rod and I read through our guests' comments in our guestbook with utter excitement. We just want everyone to have a great experience with us and it's always nice to read the beautiful comments left by all. It makes all our hard work worthwhile and reassures us that our dream to give people a wonderful and different experience was not a crazy idea as some first told us.
Rodney's birthday was in February and because he had never really had a proper 'birthday bash' I thought it was time for me to finally organise a big party now that we lived on our dream property and had the space to entertain as madly as we wanted. We ended up with 45 guests from Sydney and Tasmania. Lee Christmas, our friend and butcher who raises rare breed Wessex Saddleback pigs and teaches our 'Whole Hog Masterclass' brought a lamb as a gift and our friends at the Two Metre Tall Company gave Rod a keg of their fine hand brewed ale. You can imagine how delighted all the boys were, especially those from Sydney to have a keg of fine hand brewed ale at their disposal all day and night! Rodney and our best friend, Luke, cooked a feast and roasted the lamb in our newly built wood-fired oven.
The delicious potato rolls that Rod and Luke made and cooked in the wood-fired oven were also a hit with our friends. Roasted potatoes and a selection of lettuces from our garden also accompanied the dinner. Baby Carrots, zucchini, beans and Rod's aioli started the day off with a bang. We were so excited to be able to use all our own grown produce for the party. To top it all off our friend and teacher of our 'Pastry Masterclass', Alistair Wise, made Rod a Chocolate Deux Mille Feuille cake. Rod and Luke also made a strawberry mascarpone cake for the birthday cake and gorgeous rhubarb and rose petal fizz which everyone still talks about.
Photos - Luke Burgess (2009).
Our little man, Tristan, turned two in March and was so excited when mum and dad gave him a bright red retro tricycle for his birthday. He was so cute because his feet didn't quite reach the pedals but now, a few months later he whizzes around it like a pro. The joys of being so young - it is so precious. He is definitely enjoying the country life and all it has to offer.
In April, we decided to have a small stall at the Derwent Valley Autumn Festival. It has always been a dream of ours to have a little country stall like the ones in England with bunting flags and we wanted to do our bit for the community and be present. In keeping with our belief to use as much of our own grown produce as possible we wanted to offer guests a true experience of what a stall at a country festival can really be like.
What began as a small menu with three items ended up doubling. Rodney and Luke, cooked up many yummy goodies for the day and got quite excited by all the produce available in our vegetable garden that they got carried away wanting to make more and more. You can imagine my shock when told that they decided to make our own rhubarb and rose petal fizz because it was such a hit at Rod's birthday that we just had to sell it! Off I went to source bottles and get our designers, Futago, to make up the labels for me. I also had to source environmentally friendly packaging for the soup at the last minute and found some gorgeous sugar-cane fibre bowls from Going Green Solutions.
Photos - Luke Burgess (2009).
The boys, myself and Luke's other half Kat worked into the very early hours of the morning ensuring everything would be ready for the next day. My brother and his girlfriend were also with us on holidays and we were grateful that they looked after Tristan for us. My brother thought it was hilarious to see me finally getting my hands dirty in the kitchen and helping out in making the potato croquettes (for those of you who wouldn't know, I cannot cook to save my life and the on going joke between all our friends and family is that perhaps I should be one of Rod's students and learn how to cook!
The menu consisted of wild mushroom, cavalo nero and pearl barley soup, potato croquettes with spicy ketchup, slow roast spiced lamb rolls with slaw. The potato rolls were made by the boys and were cooked in our wood-fired oven before being taken down to our stall. Luke's divine gingerbread and caramel butterscotch cookies were a winner as to were the berry and quince galettes.
The vegetable garden is now going into winter mode but Rod planted lots of winter veggies to ensure our winter classes can continue. We had a bumper season for our tomatoes that Rod planted. He went a little mad and planted sixty varieties and we ended up with 200kg of tomatoes which we were over the moon about because it was a bad growing season for them and it was Rod's first time. The remainder is drying from the ceiling in our kitchen. We made lots of tomato ketchup and relishes and are well stocked for the winter. Out of the sixty varieties, my favourite would have to be one called a green zebra tomato - it really is green on the outside and inside and is quite amazing in flavour.
Photos - Luke Burgess (2009).
I have learnt so much since living here and although we do feel quite exhausted when the days are over, trying to keep up with all the paperwork, marketing, gardening, classes and not to mention keeping up with our little man, it is all well worth the effort. Especially when I can sit back late in the evening with my favourite pot of Marco Polo leaf tea and a piece of mille feuille made by our guests in our pastry classes.
Permalink
Well done on the hard work paying off. The mushroom, cavalo nero and barley soup sounds just delicious. Must be fantastic doing something you love for work!
I am dying to know more about the rhubarb & rose petal fizz!
How interesting to learn all this about you. I hope that we will be seeing some of the recipes you mention in the post.
Ivy I think I am going to have to ask Séverine and Rodney if they can share some of their wonderful recipes with us all especially the 'rhubarb and rose petal fizz' and 'gingerbread and caramel butterscotch cookies'.