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I used to be a chef. But I’m better now. I used to be a restaurant reviewer, and I’m much, much better now. That’s because I’ve chucked in my city life for small farm living in Tasmania, that small furry triangle at the bottom of Australia (as Barry Humphries so elegantly put it).
In Australia’s southernmost shire, up a dirt road, not far from the picturesque hamlet of Cygnet, lies Puggle Farm. It’s five acres of somewhat useable pasture that stretches across a barely trickling creek and up the opposite hill. It also encompasses 17 acres of south facing bush. In summer, the sun sets a crimson colour at the end of the valley as late as 9pm with a lingering twilight well beyond that. In winter, I’ve heard, the sun will scrape above the hill, so the sunroom on the enclosed deck can trap what little heat the distant orb can produce. I named the farm after the baby echidna, an animal I’ve seen plenty of while looking for my very first place in the bush.
Puggle Farm is my new patch of land, a scrap of dirt a long way from Sydney where I was working as the Sydney Morning Herald’s chief restaurant reviewer. It’s a long way from the urban grit of life in a terrace house to a life on the land. A long, long way from the rarefied world of swank restaurants to a place where your neighbours have time to lean on the fence for a chat. A place where the sound of roosters, frogs and the lowing of cattle has replaced the sounds of sirens, of tinkling glass, of drunks heading home from the nearby pub.
I’ve moved because I’ve spent most of my life hearing and reading and writing about what good food is, and now I want to know what it’s like to rear it myself. For a time I’ve had the sneaking suspicion that those who would sell us good food, in their restaurants and in their shops, may not be getting as good a produce as is actually available if you went to the source. Partly, I want to be the source of my own food, to be able to trust the origins of my food. And with any luck, I’d like to make a bob out if it one day.
Puggle Farm has the bones already in place. There’s a chook shed, albeit in serious disuse. There’s a vegie garden, presumably, under the layer of weeds. There’s a barn with a hayloft and a solidly built house that has plenty of rural charm. It’s in a majestic part of the world, south of Hobart, in a fruit growing area where smallholders are known for making a go of it, for filling their fridges with produce from their own farms or those of their neighbours.
I hope to be a part of this self sustaining community. To get pigs, chooks, sheep, maybe a goat or a cow. To grow things for the plate, to have the farmhouse table groaning under platters of food I’ve grown or sourced locally. To have people over to share in the spoils. There’s a long way to go, though, but at least I’ve made the first step.
I moved in on a Wednesday, with no power to be able to pump water for a shower. Things take longer in the country, and the electricity company only puts on power once a week. Got the dog on a Thursday. A beautiful kelpie bitch as black as squid ink. She’ll keep me company as I try to get things growing, both animal and vegetable; a best friend, if ever she stops chewing my Blundstones and shredding the front door mat.
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Comments (18)
24 May 2010 11:54 AEST
From: Hurlstone Park NSW 2193
Visited Cygnet but unable to find your farm!!
Dear Matthew, Congratulations for being transformed!! 'hope you are enjoying domesticity (both literally and figuratively!!) Bel (Isabelo) - my husband and I flew to Hobart for a 5-day holiday, then drove to Cygnet on Thursday 13 May before flying back to Sydney on the 14th (Friday). A local gave us directions to your farm, but unable to find it. Anyway, we enjoyed seeing you on tv in SBS - I also kept recipes from Good weekend. Best wishes, Cris and Bel from Sydney
15 Mar 2010 10:45 AEST
From:
wonderful
As I get older I find myself wanting something more. I want to extend myself; grow my own food, gather my own eggs, feed my own piglets (not so sure about the dispatching part!) and dogs and propagate my own plants. Your show, and the many others that preceded you, have only made me more determined. Thank you for sharing your life and making it real.
19 Feb 2010 23:04 AEST
From:
Jealous
I have always wanted to live in Tazzy, If I come over, can I live with you. I promise I will learn to cut the chooks heads off and everything else that goes with the new found lifestyle. Im so jealous ... Love your show.
19 Feb 2010 15:24 AEST
From:
Deer hunting
Couldn't bring myself to watch your show last night - not a big fan of deer hunting anyway (brings back too many memories of my "nearly" ex's so-called hunting exploits in the 70's!) Do we really have to eat deer? Don't we have enough to choose from already?
18 Feb 2010 20:32 AEST
From:
Remember Holder High?
Enjoying your programs,Matthew. Did I in any way contribute to your stunning success?!!!!!!!!!!! Good to see the familiar face and remember the humour and charm of the14yr old.Love Tassie. Have great memories of many, many visits when our daughter lived there over a 13 yr period.Be in touch if you can.I most recently set up a cafe in Ethiopia selling the best Aussie pies,salads,stunning Ethiopian coffee and cake.One of the best years of my life......2008-9.
18 Feb 2010 20:01 AEST
From: Canberra
Why are you shooting 25p and not running any shutter
Please place 1/50 when shooting 25p your camera guy should be sacked, great show really let down by the blurry pics maybe next time
11 Feb 2010 13:20 AEST
From:
Dating & running Puggle Farm?
Hi again Matthew! I have just finished reading what I wrote to you way back in early January and didn't realise it was "me" for a while! Since then, I now have a second round interview with a Hobart company (up here on the Sunshine Coast somewhere) & yes, there's a really good chance I could be "tassie bound" , after spending the last 4 months in Noosa. I'm now also aware that most people here are a "whole generation" older than me! Just wanted to know if you want a date sometime?
11 Feb 2010 0:11 AEST
From:
Passata
Was the passata cooked or just blanching the tomatoes, strain off any excess juice, pulp the flesh and heated in the bottles to seal? Great show by the way, almost "river cottage" without the whole workforce of chief gardeners, livestock supervisors and mass media sell out. As a chef I understand first hand what your on about in terms of produce and it' origin. All to often it's the bottom line that rules the roost, simple economics I am told! Pop the kettle on... Allan AKA sop
10 Jan 2010 13:31 AEST
From:
Painful Susan
Poor Susan, what a cow.
08 Jan 2010 9:09 AEST
From: Noosaville
I alway knew Tassie was Good!
I am sitting here alone, further pondering my future and watching SBS, when suddenly a food program comes on about Tasmania! I cannot believe it! I so much enjoyed watching Matthew wandering around his new patch of "tassie dirt", talking about his plans for the farm and his future. My own destiny may also lay in tassie (with my convict roots and all) as I try to decide on where my next phase of life's journey will take me? You have been a true inspiration and I hope one day our paths may meet?
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About this Blog
Ever wondered what it’d be like to leave a cushy city job and set up a small farm without any experience of rural life? Join Matthew Evans as he adjusts from being a restaurant critic to learning exactly where his food is coming from, on a farmlet in Tasmania’s beautiful Huon Valley.
Matthew Evans was once trained as a chef, before crossing to the dark side of the industry and becoming a restaurant reviewer. After five years and 2,000 restaurant meals as the chief reviewer for The Sydney Morning Herald, Matthew realised that chefs don’t have the best produce in the land, normal people who live close to the land do. So he moved to Tasmania, to a small patch of earth where he’s raising pigs and sheep, milking a cow and waiting for his chickens to start laying.
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