Frostfest in Orange

Pre-Note:

On the day that I finished this entry, our darling dog Georgie suddenly died on 8 August 2009. She was only 9 years old. It has taken me a while to come back to this blog, as it brought back memories of that wonderful and awful last holiday day in Orange.

This is for you, my baby.

After missing out on Orange Food Week in April, I was determined that we were not going to miss out on the inaugural winter food festival, Frostfest.

Orange is a foodie's dream region that's 3.5 hours drivewest of Sydney - a lovely drive across the Blue Mountains and rolling pastures and green, green hills. It's a region well known for its cool climate wines (we've tasted beautiful sauvignon blanc and pinot noir from both Bantry Grove and Printhie wines) and fabulous produce that includes apples, cherries and hazelnuts.

We've been staying in a wonderful place called Keronga Park managed by Annie and Jim Simpson, and we and our doggies love it so much we're planning to come back very soon and hope to have many more visits in the future. The fact that they have a wood fired oven on the property is a huge drawcard (and yes, I did go a bit crazy cooking in the thing), but it's also the fact that the cottage is comfy, cosy and gorgeous set among their hazelnut and cherry orchards. Annie and I stayed up late last night plotting a 100 Mile Feast fundraiser potentially in February next year, so watch this space for more information as the planning gets underway.

We've been in Orange for a week, and only this morning did we actually get some frost on the ground. Still no snow - well, it kinda snowed for 2 minutes yesterday afternoon amidst a winter downpour but the hubby says it doesn't count - but I haven't given up hope yet.

Quite a number of the stallholders at the North Sydney Produce Market come from Orange, and we'd been getting invitations to come and visit the source of all this good stuff.

We've been bowled over by the hospitality of Fred, Zanzie and of course Raewyn of Trunkey Creek Pork. Fred gave us a detailed tour of their processing plant where we got a real appreciation for all the hard work that goes into a such a high quality product. The massive smoker machine was a revelation (they use beech wood to get that great flavour - I would drool every time I sniffed my jumper afterwards), and the hubby and I couldn't believe how bloody expensive vacuum sealer machines were (had to keep the hubby's itching hand from trying out the machine). We also got to see how the world-famous Trunkey Creek sausages were made - Fred offered to let me have a go, but I was too chicken to try as I bet it wasn't as easy as it looked!

We saw Raewyn at the Orange Farmer's Market where she made sure we got to meet all the stallholders, and get to sample their incredible bacon and egg rolls. Of all the farmer's markets we've been to, this one felt the most local, where everyone knew everyone and bought each other's stuff. Our haul included beautiful veggies, local bread from Anna's Cuisina (we ate four loaves between the two of us in the past week!), salt-dried Manzanilla olives that amazingly don't taste briny and olive-y, and sylvanberry jam (similar to blackberry) which was fabulous on freshly baked scones.

We're off to Selkirk's* tonight for their 4-course Wagyu beef dinner with local Twin Oakes Wagyu beef and local wines to round out a fabulous food-focused week. I think I'll be crying tomorrow when we drive down the Mitchell Highway back to Sydney, but will comfort myself with the thought that we will back very soon!

*We never managed to get to Selkirks that night. And yes, we were crying on the way home, but for very different reasons, and one which we didn't think would happen so soon. I've now since heard unconfirmed reports that Selkirks is gone, so that's one famed regional restaurant we need to take off our to do list.