Its been a busy week at the farm with Michael and his brother Bill off to International Dairy Week in Shepparton with two of our cows. What was so rewarding about this show trip was for the first time in years Michael had enough strength in his knee to actually lead his cattle in the ring and nobody was more happy about this than Michael .
Meanwhile I got back into the swing of things for Art4Agriculture for 2013. The week started with the launch of the 2013 Archibull Prize on ABC Illawarra
Young Eco Champion Megan Rowlatt and I popped into ABC Illawarra offices in Wollongong on our way to Chatswood to hook up with the team from Landcare Australia for an interview with the very charming Justin Huntsdale
You can read what we had to say here and hear the audio version by playing the YouTube clip here
Later in the week I caught up with the Art4Ag team at the new offices of Event Directors in St Leonards.
Event Directors in St Leonards
We spent the day putting the final touches on the exciting new direction Art4Agriculture is taking in 2013 to ensure we can source funding to train as many Young Farming Champions and get the story of Australian agriculture into as many schools as possible. Watch this space
Whilst in St Leonards we took the opportunity to visit the new headquarters of NSW Farmers where we caught up with some of the NSW Farmers ream including Danica Leys and Brianna Casey
Danica Leys is the Senior Industrial Relations Advisor at NSW Farmers as well as the 2012 NSW/ACT RIRDC Rural Women’s Award winner and cofounder of the most successful rural social media movement in Australia, #AgChatOZ.
As you would expect the Art4Ag team are discerning diners and we take every opportunity to see what local chefs are doing with the fine Australian produce our farmers grow. Here are some highlights from our two days in Sydney
In St Leonards we discovered the delightful Wooden Whisk
where I had the Breakfast Grazing Board whilst the team dined on
brioche french toast with fresh banana, strawberry, mascarpone (sans) and maple syrup and the parma ham plate .
Also at St Leonards we were recommend the Moody Chef.
On the left hand side of the photo you see the quaint touch of all the herbs growing in pots
This was my lunch and they did the salmon and avocado farmers proud
A special treat was dinner at the Star where we dined at Black by Ezard overlooking Darling Harbour
I had the LAMB RACK with mustard, herb and black olive crust, house made dry spiced
fresh curd, zucchini, eggplant caviar and lamb jus. It wasn’t cheap but it was divine
I asked where my lamb came from. Sadly the waiter didn’t know and the kitchen couldn’t enlighten him. Hopefully next time when another restaurant patron asked the same question they will have the answer
The OCEAN TROUT with crushed spring peas, bacon, caramelised pearl
onion, heirloom carrots, pea and wasabi sauce looked awesome as well and I am told it was
The Pièce de résistance was this delightful morsel which we shared. My only disappointment was I didn’t think to film the pouring process where the hot sauce is spread all over the chocolate ball and it melts and blends into this divine layer on the plate
CHOCOLATE with Warm couverture ganache, dulce de leche ice cream, peanut butter mousse
Black by Ezard is a lovely restaurant with wonderful food and service and I was curious to see so many American wines on the wine list and I asked why. The waiter told me it was their point of difference. Personally I would like to think in the future they may consider listing all the names of their farmers suppliers and using this as their point of difference.
BTW we had lovely Australian bubbles and pinot gris to help us enjoy our superb meals