self sufficiency

Another milestone last night when we dined with J & G. The meal of goat's cheese feta starter, roast pork, roast potatoes and squash, broccoli, green beans, cabbage and apple sauce, followed by plum pavlova was created in its entirety by produce from the farm- pretty amazing after only 6 months here.

Admittedly the wine had to travel a few short miles, but all in all the night was a triumph for free range home grown negligible food-miles living.

mudfest

The end of a thoroughly enjoyable weekend, with friends Jules & Vanessa over from Sydney for a spot of provincial living. This meant yet another winery crawl, but we went to some that to date we had not visited and restocked the Winnebago cellar.

The Pieter Van Gent winery was pure pleasure, with a superb setting of a cellar full of huge oak barrels lending a heady scent. Vanessa had visited 15 years ago and was keen to check it out again. More white port in the cellar!

http://pvgwinery.com/

Saturday night was the 4th Mudgee 'Mudfest' an outdoor short film festival staged at a local winery- a great venue, good collection of films, and catering by the Ormiston Free Range master sausage makers. A turn out of nearly 1000 people ( 10 % of the town's population ).

babes and boars

With some free time 'at home' before we head off on further travels it was time to catch up with some light reading. I happened upon a quality quarterly periodical 'Bacon Busters' the definitive guide to hunting pigs with dogs in Australia.


I was fortunate to get the edition containing the free 'Babes and Boars' calendar. March features Nicole, who loves pig shooting and getting down and dirty in the bush, and very lovely she looks too in her camo bikini sporting an extremely phallic rifle. I think that the recently slaughtered and heavily bleeding boar corpse is a creative and artful juxtaposition.

All the ladies featured 'like nothing better' than ripping pigs apart with huge dogs, shooting them, then celebrating with a raw steak and several pints of vodka. A Lara Croft physique ( with additional pneumatic breasts ) are a prerequisite, as is scanty clothing, a large knife, and light blood smearing. One assumes that in their spare time they also cook, clean, set up camp, look after the dogs, polish the ute, strip and reassemble the quad bike engine, and shag like nymphomaniac rabbits.

Even the dogs appear to have a dress code, and the men a penchant for baseball caps and blue nylon.



Eagerly awaiting the arrival of my 'Full of Grunt' T-shirt and matching baseball cap.






Meanwhile, the sausages were a raging success in Sydney, and in under 5 hours all 800 had been sold. This looks like the start of a thriving new enterprise- very funny to think that a few weeks ago we all sat round the dinner table and said 'better google sausage recipes then' and now the gourmet product is being enthused about by the eating public.

missing pig

A big day today for the free range pork enterprise- J & G are off to Sydney to promote the first sausages at a Mudgee Fine Foods promotion. Berkshire bangers have rolled off the production line and are about to wow the pork sausage wary Australian gastronomes.

The week did not go completely according to plan. Poor Gloria, the gilt who had a penchant for the ladies has consistently failed to get pregnant, and was the first to take the one way trip to the abattoir on Tuesday. The local butchers were supplied with bags of freshly ground herbs and spices and instructions on meat/fat ratios based on our intensive research and multiple sausage tastings.

By Friday afternoon said butchers were still waiting- Gloria had gone missing! Somehow the carcase had been misplaced and not made its way back from the abattoir. Frantic arrangements were made to get it here in time, and sausage production was only completed yesterday afternoon. J & G had to get up at 3 am this morning to collect, pack and wrap 800 sausages before the 4 hour drive to Sydney.

We did get to sample the first ones to roll off the production line and they are mighty fine. The Berkshire meat has lived up to all expectations.

back to the country

We have returned to mudgee after a week in Sydney, and it is great to be back in a rural setting. Sydney is a stunning city, but neither of us would want to live there permanently.
A few of our favourite pics here, more on slide show.









M & N and family ( including M's parents over from England ) are visiting this weekend, so unfortunately we will be obliged to do another winery tour.

tourists in sydney

We have spent the last three days being tourists in Sydney. Despite two previous trips here there was so much we had not seen, so we climbed the harbour bridge pylon to enjoy the stunning views, had a closer look at the Opera House, walked the length of the Botanic Gardens ( where I was somewhat freaked by the thousands of fruit bats hanging around ) and of course managed a little light shopping.

Ness is a firm believer that the only way to really get to know a city is 0n foot, so we have pounded pavements, spurning public transport. All very exhausting- I suspect she will have me swimming across the harbour today. Hopefully I can persuade her that ferries are an acceptable way to get to Bondi.

Weather great as autumn approaches. Catching up with more friends this evening, then back to Mudgee on Friday to collect the ginger dog and van and plan phase 2 of the tour.

Mardi Gras

After many years of wanting to be here for Mardi gras, we finally managed to attend. A friend booked a first floor restaurant so we had a fantastic view of the parade. At street level all the short people came armed with milk crates to stand on, but even that would not have been enough to see the action as the place was heaving. We did not have tickets for the all night party afterwards, but not sure we are up to all night raves these days.

Will load some pics when we get back- highlights were the opening 'dykes on bikes' and my favourite was the catholic gays with a very well constructed pope mobile. Gay super heroes from the planet 2010 were rather special- 'the fuchsia is pink'.

Off to do some tourist stuff today-we are planning to be bold and climb the harbour bridge, so should be some wobbly photos to display later.