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It’s like this. I set myself the goal of trying to rear and grow as much of my own food as possible. And I failed, particularly during the early months in the garden, and over the hungry part at the end of winter when nothing grows. I still wonder about my credibility as someone trying to eat food I’ve grown, or grown by someone I know. I shop for lots of things locally that I can’t grow myself, including at either of the two supermarkets in Cygnet.
So this is what I’ve eaten in the last week.
Thursday
Pasta with kale from the garden. I learnt that kale, unlike spinach or broccoli or silverbeet, isn’t that good with pasta unless it’s really young leaves that you choose. The pasta, an excellent one, is from Italy.
For dinner it’s a tortilla of home grown pink eyes with sage and lettuce from the garden.
Friday
As usual breakfast is made from Elgaar organic oats, walnuts from mate Jen Owens’ tree and other bits from much further afield. For dinner I braised the last of my onions with purple and yellow carrots and baby up-to-date potatoes from the garden in a little water with Penna olive oil sold by the growers at the farmer’s market. On the side was a dish of homegrown broccoli with bought chilli, garlic from the plot, and some sorrel that I thought was perennial spinach.
Saturday
At the market. A lamb wrap from a stall. Dinner of chips, nuts, beer and whisky (I went to a poker night). Threw in a ginger beer as well.
Sunday
Coffee. More coffee. Hey, I needed it. Lunch of pork dumplings of unknown origin at a very good Shanghainese restaurant called Written on Tea in Hobart. Dinner; sirloin steak. Hereford/friesian cross from the organic farm in Nichols Rivulet. Salad from George and Hillary at the market. Mustard made by my mate Ross and some of Gil’s homegrown horseradish I’d grated last season and jarred.
Monday
Pancakes with my own blueberries. Maggie’s yoghurt. Mascarpone from Elgaar dairy. Black currant syrup made from currants grown by the family of Richard Clark. Preserved greengage plums from last summer, which I picked myself. (I also put Canadian maple syrup on the table, but don’t use it.) The same farmer that sold the beef gives me a half boot load of broad beans. I freeze some – the others are blanched, double peeled and tossed with Tongola goat’s cheese from the other side of the valley. Penna olive oil and Hillary’s tomatoes. For dinner it’s snow peas from the garden of Joanne and Mike (Mike is an AFI award winning sound engineer who did the sound for the series and lives up the valley a bit), along with their cucumber, and scarlet runner beans.
Tuesday
Small potatoes, some the size of a child’s thumb, from the garden are boiled and tossed with my own bacon and its fat after frying. On the side there’s a broad bean and tomato salad. The tomatoes come, while I wit for mine to ripen, from the farmer’s market, too. Two Metre Tall Huon cider, a stunning drop.
Wednesday
Chargrilled home baked sourdough with olive oil and a salad of scarlet runner beans, broad beans, snow peas and Tongola cheese. On the side are a few slices of my own prosciutto, and some radishes from Yorktown Organics, who are based in the north of the state.
Dinner of ten-hour bacon baked beans that I had saved from the market stall, poured hot over chargrilled sourdough, and topped with a poached egg. Salad on the side; leaves from Hillary and George, broad beans from Gerard.
So there you go. Maybe it was a good week. The vegie garden is full of weeds, but there’s plenty for a small household to find to eat, or at least add to the meals. I’m not eating much meat, which is a good thing, and come the cooler months – when there’s little fruit and less leafy greens in the garden, it may mean I have to source things from much further afield.
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Comments (19)
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21 Aug 2010 9:26 AEST
From:
Growing it, cooking it, eating it
The bacon and potatoes recipe with beans on the side is making my mouth water. I also think you're being hard on yourself. It's ok not to grow everything. Oliver (the man trying to buy your pigs, who is also my Other Half) now grows plenty of veg for us, we've got eggs too and will be branching out into Barnefelders soon. And then there's the pigs although it'll be a while before we're eating our own bacon, and the prosciutto - shows like your s have a lot to answer for...
06 May 2010 6:24 AEST
From: cx nxc
tibia
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10 Mar 2010 10:46 AEST
From: toowoomba
death on a farm
When it comes to killing animals you will always have bad feedback. Stick to your guns home kill done right is always better than the meat off foam trays from supermarkets. Your living my dream so enjoy it for me.
06 Mar 2010 1:20 AEST
From: Perth WA
Baked beans
mmm - those ten hour bacon baked beans sound fabulous. Can't find the recipe on the site though - are you able to share it? My 6 year old son would love them particularly topped with poached egg as described! Thanks for great show!
05 Mar 2010 22:22 AEST
From:
Kale etc
I agree with George's comment about the kale. I live in the hills near your home town Canberra Matthew and in the middle of winter there is always sweet and tender kale in the garden under the frost. Good for a pasta sauce with pecorino or with poached eggs and shaved local truffles on Silo sourdough. On a different note I can't believe you haven't seen any of the River Cottage series - you even sound a bit like Hugh, especially when you are about the kill and eat something!!
22 Feb 2010 10:04 AEST
From:
What are you doing!
Dear Mathew
I have been where you are at the moment on a farm a few acres of land and what the hell do I do with it!
You really made me laugh as I really know what you are going through with slaughtering animals but I am a bit disturbed by your killing method with the chooks the way you are doing it is so cruel and not humane at all please distroy it! I f you want to kill any feathered beast get a very very sharpe axe with a heavy head for a start with a wooden chopping block it is over in a
I disagree that the chook killing was cruel. We go from the back of the neck, pushing back feathers to get a clean cut, and so the spinal cord is broken before the windpipe. I’ve now been party to killing chooks with an axe, and the razor sharp knife and cone method is foolproof, quick, and the chook is calm by comparison.
- Matthew Evans
21 Feb 2010 16:18 AEST
From:
ugni / title not shown?
why have a comment title in the form, if it doesn't get shown? my prev post was about ugni or chilean guava
21 Feb 2010 15:05 AEST
From:
Gourmet Farmer
I think your 30 minute program is superb. Plenty of variety, conquering life as a farmer, yet still the great cook. It is a shame we cannot experience your products. SBS and you are to be congratulated on a wonderful show.
21 Feb 2010 9:19 AEST
From:
Someone of Interest
Attention: Matthew Evans I live about 15 minutes from your house, at Petcheys Bay, having relocated from Sydney in July, 2008. We thoroughly enjoy your Gourmet Farmer TV show. There is a personality in our area who I feel would be of real interest to you for a future show. If you would like to consider him, and there is no certainty that he would agree to go on the show, just send me an email to john.huckerby@phoenixsearch.com.au and advise how I can contact you to discuss.
20 Feb 2010 9:47 AEST
From:
Killing animals
Lorraine's comment is very common among people I know, even well educated people who do realise that meat comes from animals! Vegans take this as a reason we should all stop eating meat, but I take the opposite view - that this is a reason we should be more familiar with the whole food-growing and -raising process. Especially from a younger age (Matthew, if you had grown up on a farm, I don't think you would be quite so squeamish!!) So this show is really filling a gap.
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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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