Market Minutes

Taste 2011: the calm before the storm with our stall in the foreground

We started the market and festival season with a bang at Taste of Melbourne, and have settled in to our regular calendar of events that includes the Collingwood Children’s Farm Farmers Market (CCFFM) and the Gasworks Farmer’s Market (GFM) (2^nd and 3^rd Saturdays of each month respectively).  We are looking forward to the Brown Brothers Wine and Food Festival (19^th and 20^th of November) which runs alongside the La Dolce Vita weekend in the King Valley.

Markets and events are a great way for us to meet the consumer face to face and as we have been doing them for quite a few years now, we have a loyal group of regular ice cream aficionados who are all too eager to taste a new flavour and give us their frank appraisals! It is extremely heartening to be able to chat with people who really know their products, and people who are taking their first steps in the brave new world of ingredients that can be found outside big supermarkets.

So we hope to see a few of you at the stall over the next few months as we attend some of the best markets and events on offer!

Spring has Sprung!

Make hay while the sun shines ……an old adage that still rings true today. It has come to mean make the most of opportunities and that is what we are hoping to do at Gundowring.

Spring is an exciting and hectic time on the farm; a good spring sets us up for the year. Grass is the mainstay of the diet for cows at Gundowring and when it grows very slowly over winter it is often supplemented by silage which is essentially pickled grass. Silage makes a better feed than hay because the grass is cut much earlier in the season as has more protein and energy than later cut hay.

2011 has seen a bountiful spring at Gundowring with ideal weather for grass growth. The team has been making silage since mid-September, and are out on tractors again this week, conserving the abundant growth for times of need.

The grass is cut and raked, then chopped as it is picked up by a large wagon, before being unloaded into a pit where it is rolled to squash out as much air as possible. It is then covered to keep the pit air-tight. 

There are black clouds approaching, so fingers are crossed that the pit will be sealed before the next downpour. Nothing could be better than a shower of rain on the newly mown paddocks; the grass will grow again very quickly, however it is not so good to have rain soak the carefully cut and stored silage.

The girls are going to love this when it is ready to be fed out!

Gourmet Safari!

The Oxford English Dictionary defines safari as:

Noun (plural safaris): an expedition to observe or hunt animals in their natural habitat, especially in East Africa.

While the East Africa bit is still a little perplexing, the rest of the description fairly accurately depicts what Maeve O’Meara’s groups do in locations not just in Australia, but also around the world (although not East Africa). This was the second time that the Gourmet Safari had been to Gundowring to observe the animals (read: ice cream makers) in their natural habitat (read: dairy farm/homestead).

The expedition gathers to savour the spoils of the hunt as an animal looks on with hope 

We were delighted to host them again as they toured through the Victorian high country seeing the best the region has to offer. It is no wonder that the Gourmet Safaris team chose our region as it is brimming over with incredible products and inspiring people producing them. The group were knowledgeable and interested in not only the ice cream, but in the history of the homestead and the area.

Maeve tucks in to a Gundowring Sticky Date bambini

Thanks to the group that came to the farm and for Maeve and Franca for organising it all, and we are sure that you all enjoyed the entire trip!