Going Green in Australia

A lovely warm cup of organic green tea, with Australian native ingredient lemon myrtle, keeps me warm tonight. I sit outside in the garden with a refreshing bit of wind cooling down the air that has been hot and steamy today. It actually still is about 18 degrees, but after the 30 degrees earlier today it feels cool... refreshing... very pleasant!

I has been a long time since I actually sat down behind my laptop to write down some thoughts about life in Australia or new discoveries about food and eco-gastronomy in the big land Down Under. This is not to say that food and sustainability is no longer part of my life. Quite the opposite really! Every day the Drover and I try to make the best choices in our food consumption and especially the Drover dedicates quite a few hours of the week to our beautiful organic veggie garden. Spring is in full swing and potatoes, tomatoes, zucchini, green beans, and much much more is growing like crazy.

I can't wait for the day that I can eat the first fresh tomato out of our own garden, combined with some Australian made buffalo mozzarella and basil leaves from our veggie patch, for a delicious insalata caprese. I get very excited every day I see the potato plants grow and think back of the first time I grew potatoes in my Mum's garden and the satisfaction I felt when I harvested the first lot of piepers... There certainly is nothing more satisfying than growing your own food and while cooking just walking into the garden for some fresh salad leaves, herbs, lovely veg and maybe even an apricot or two!

Words of Inspiration

These Words of Inspiration are written by Clare Lancaster, who started the blog Women in Business and wrote this Manifesto for Women in Business. Love her blog and her words!

Thinking

Do you ever have the type of moments that I have? Moments that you think. Think. You think about everything and you cannot stop thinking. Often there is no real logic in those thoughts or you are not even really thinking about one thing in particular. Your brain just keeps on going. Thinking about work, about love, about life, about memories from the past, about dreams for the future, about what to wear today and where to go tomorrow. Thoughts very often seem to be coming based on feelings. Feelings that I cannot always find the right words for, but they are just there.

Australian Autumn Days

Some thoughts about the Australian autumn and a recipe for Dutch appelmoes

My Mums Pancakes with Stroop

The smell of apple, cinnamon and cloves is filling the kitchen with warm Dutch autumn memories. Although what I am cooking is a very simple appelmoes, made from some old, wrinkly apples that I bought in the Central Market for only a dollar, the smell makes me think of pannekoeken met appel en kaneel, Dutch pancakes with apple and cinnamon. Preferably made by my Mum, on a dark and cosy autumn night. Although the pancakes made by my brother or my friend Irish are not too bad either. One thing that is missing in this moment of my Dutch thoughts and memories is the cold air, the rain and the grey clouds...

I am sitting in the kitchen in Adelaide in the season that is officially called autumn. But for this Dutch Cheesegirl it is still hard to believe that it is autumn at the moment. When I think of autumn I think of wet days with continuing rain and riding my bike through strong winds that try to push me into the canals while the tree leafs are flying through the air.

Hundreds of wines under one roof

In the weekend of 24-26 February the Cellar Door Wine Festival took place in Adelaide and as announced here the Drover and I went to have a look around, together with his parents. I was really curious to get an idea about all those South Australian wines and to see what good products there would be for taste and sale on the Regional Farmers Market. We had a lovely day out and certainly enjoyed a wine tasting or two... Or maybe... alright, a few more than that!

The location of the Cellar Door Wine Festival is absolutely beautiful. The event took place in the Adelaide Convention Centre that is situated along the River Torrens that crosses the city. When you enter the building you have a great view of the river, the park around it and the city centre. Che bello! At the entrance we received a Riedel wine glass to use for all the tastings, and to take back home afterwards - yeay, a little gift! The venue was divided into areas representing the various South Australian wine regions, being the Adelaide Hills, Barossa Valley, Eden Valley, LimeStone Coast, Clare Valley, Coonawarra, Padthaway, Kangaroo Island, Langhorne Creek, McLaren Vale, the Riverland and Southern Fleurieu. Jep, that is a fair bit of wine regions to explore in one day, especially because they together made up for more than 150 wineries! Of course this was way to much so the Drover made a selection in advance (since he is much more into wine than I am) to make sure we would taste some things a bit different and special.

A Month Ago: celebrating Australia Day with a Fair Feed Breakfast

Thinking back of a lovely day in the park with a true South Aussie barbie brekkie...

Every year on 26 January Australian friends and family get together to celebrate being Australian, living their good lives in the land Down Under, and 'celebrate what's great about Australia'.*  It is a day to get together in parks and on beaches, to organise pick-nicks and barbies, or to attend one of the many events that are being organised in local communities. The Drover and I attended such a local community event, organised by Slow Food Adelaide & Barossa, where we did not only celebrate what is good about Australia, but also what is good about eating local food.

A morning in Port Adelaide

Port Adelaide - Torrens Island

I don't know what it is about ports, but for some reason I always really like them. Whether it is a small port where you mainly see small fishers boats or one of the biggest ports in the world (Rotterdam) full of container ships, there is a certain thing in the air that attracts me. Is it the feeling of being in a place where long journeys begin? Is it the feeling of being connected to the rest of the world, through boats and ships that bring goods from destinations far away? Or is it the smell of the water, the fresh fish and the sound of the birds that are flying around? Whatever it is, my joy of walking around a port was being confirmed again last Sunday, when the Drover and I spent a morning in Port Adelaide. This port is officially established in 1840, which was only four years after the foundation of the state of South Australia in 1836 - back in the colonial times.

Fish straight from the fishers boat at the Torrens Island Market

We started our journey by visiting the Torrens Island Market, a great little outdoor market with fresh produce from local farmers that attracts a very multicultural crowd of people. Although not all the produce seemed to be of the highest quality, the prices were incredible. I felt as if for a moment I was back in Italy on a local market, with the possibility to get a full bag of veggie goodness for not so much. We were a bit lazy in the morning so we were not the earliest visitors, and the quality of the produce that we saw was very mixed. But I strongly believe that if you make it to this market early (6am) you can get a lot of good stuff for your precious dollars!

Coming Up: Cellar Door Wine Festival

Last year I heard about it, this year I will actually visit it: the Cellar Door Wine Festival that will take place for the second time in the Adelaide Convention Centre in the middle of the CBD. Thanks to the generosity of the Drovers parents we will be so lucky to go and check out over 150 wineries from 12 different South Australian (SA) wine regions. That surely will be a great day out!

The event is mainly focused on all the beautiful wines that are being made in SA, but it will also be possible to taste and buy some regionally produced food at the Regional Farmers Market and of course there will be some dishes from the barbie (barbecue) for a snack in between of the many drops of wine...

The Adelaide Central Market - a South Australian food hub

In the middle of the Central Business District (CBD) of Adelaide there is an amazing place to visit. It is surrounded by China Town and restaurants serving food from all corners of the world. It is THE place to be for the best fruit of the season, the freshest fish and meat, the greatest range of veggies, the most delicious cheeses, freshly baked breads and cakes and every other special ingredient that you could possibly need for your dinner party or daily home-cooked meal. I am talking about the Adelaide Central Market, a 'South Australian icon with 140 years of experience and more than 80 stalls under one roof' (Adelaide Central Market).

The Drover told me about this great market when he was with me in the Netherlands, shortly after we met in the autumn of 2010. He had just been traveling through Europe for quite a few months and was almost ready to go back home to Australia. One of the things that he was looking forward to back home, was the possibility to go and do his shopping at the Central Market again where he would be able to find all the best quality food products in one place. Having heard many good stories about this covered market, I went to check it out soon after I arrived in Adelaide last year...

People, places, products

It is February and the sun is shining on my face. It is warm outside, very warm. In the mornings I wake up of the sound of hundreds of birds and when I look out of the window I can see these exotic looking colourful birds flying around in the garden. In that same garden some beautiful plants are working hard to cope with the heat of the sun and to produce the most delicious produce for our daily meals.

That’s right, that doesn’t sound like the view that I would have from the apartment in our cute little hilltop town in Piemonte, Italy. Because there I would see the neighbours looking out of their window as soon as they noticed that there was life in our apartment (curious Italians!). The songs of exotic Australian birds have replaced the sounds of the church bells in La Morra. With mixed feelings and a bit of pain in our hearts the Drover and I have said goodbye to our lovely Italian friends and to the great Italian wine producers in ‘our’ town. It was time for a new adventure, and that adventure has started a few weeks ago here in Adelaide, South Australia.

In love with pumpkin

A recipe for pea and pumpkin risotto and a fresh little zucchini, tomatoes & capers salad. Extra: what to do with leftover risotto.

Pumpkin... Where to start explaining my love for pumpkin? This beautiful vegetable that comes in so many styles, sizes and colours. This lovely sweet flavour that makes pumpkin so versatile and gives inspiration for both sweet and savoury dishes. When summer almost comes to an end I truly start craving for pumpkin and Iooking forward to those autumn days that ask for nice warm dishes with pumpkin. Pumpkin soup, oven baked pumpkin with potatoes garlic and rosemary, pumpkin mash, pumpkin and chickpea stew, pumpkin risotto, ravioli stuffed with pumpkin and amaretti... What can I say? I just love pumpkin.

Latte Crudo - part 1

"Muhuu" was the sound that we heard when the milk was being poured in the glass bottle, "muhuu". But this milk was not warm like it would be when you milk a cow. No, this milk was ice and ice cold. It does make you feel a little bit closer to the cow and the source of that fresh milk, when you get you latte crudo (raw milk) from a vending machine in the middle of a little town and it even says "muhuu' to you.

Raw milk from a vending machine, you will think? Yes, in Italy this is possible. They might not like it up there in Brussels, but in Italy you can find 1445 raw milk vending machines in 92 different provinces. Seventy of these machines only have organic raw milk for sale. All of them contain milk that is coming from local farms, so the milk does not have to be transported over long distances and therefore is better for the environment. Buying your milk from a vending machine has more environmental advantages though, since the milk is not being bottled and you can just buy one glass (or plastic) bottle once, and keep on using it. And of course, you support your local farmer by buying milk this way, while there are no middlemen involved; the milk goes directly from the farmer to the consumer and the farmer gets the full price.

In season: peperoncino

A view thoughts on eating products from the right season and some recipes to preserve peperoncino...

Lately when I visit markets in the area, or when I enter a supermarket, I find big bunches of various types of peperoncino everywhere. Finally! During the last months we always had to use dried chillies when cooking, while the fresh ones were not in season yet and therefore not available. Actually I guess this is a good thing about Italy. Even in the bigger supermarkets there still seem to be seasons, something we completely lost in the average Dutch supermarket. Whenever you feel like eating strawberries, lettuce or green beans, you can find them, while this is actually summer produce. When it is not possible to get the products from the Dutch soil, you will just find products imported from all different places in the world, causing an enormous ecological footprint. Or products come out of one of the many greenhouses we have at home, which has quite an ecological impact as well. In Italy this seems to be a bit different, although I would not be surprised if this is also changing slowly.

Of course it is a very difficult debate to decide what choices are best to make when it comes to buying food. We are maybe a bit spoiled these days, that it is possible to make seasons 'disappear' by importing products in the 'wrong' season from different countries. You could argue that this might also be a good thing when you look at the social factors, because by importing green beans from African countries in the Dutch winter you support the local economy in those countries. But if you would purely look at environmental factors, what would be the best choice to make? Eating locally, eating organic, either local or from far, eating food from greenhouses or from the direct soil? I find it all quite difficult and although I have a great interest in this topics for a few years already, it remains a complex field of study.

Getting ready for autumn with a tasting of grappa

It was 1885 when a man called Francesco Trussoni came up with the idea to make the first single grape grappa in history, in a town called Gallo d’Alba. Being in the heart of Barolo country this was of course a Grappa di Barolo. In 1922 the distillery was taken over by Mario Montanaro and his wife Angela Trussoni who, together with their son Giuseppe Montanaro, perfected the grappa production process in the years that followed. Since this distillery is only a few kilometres away from our hilltop, I decided that it was time to go and have a look and learn more about this local specialty. Together with the Drover and his Dad, who both like a good glass of whiskey and know a fair bit about the whiskey distilling process, I went on a grappa adventure in the area.

Visiting a grappa distillery was a first for me. So far I have never really enjoyed the taste of grappa so much. Maybe because I had not developed the right taste for it yet, or because I had never tried a really good one? Whatever it was, I was very curious and interested to see the production process and taste the result of Montanaro’s yearlong experience. The young lady that welcomed us in the shop took us to the back to show the distillery. Here she explained that Mario Montanaro makes various single grape grappa’s and a grappa of a mix of different grape varieties. Between September and December the wineries in the area bring the ‘leftovers’ of their grapes to the distillery, after having crushed and pressed them for winemaking. From the end of September until March Montanaro is in full swing to distil he vinacce, the grape ‘leftovers’.

Italian breakfast and the dynamism of a man

Did you know that it is possible to become a dynamic man, by eating biscuits for breakfast?

Italy would not be Italy without Mulino Bianco, a brand known for it’s biscuits that Italian mamma’s love to give their children for breakfast with a cup of warm milk or orzo (barley coffee) to dip them in. But according to Mulino Bianco, biscuits are just as good a breakfast for adults that supposedly become very ‘dynamic’ by having five or six Batticuori (beating hearts), Spicchi di Sole (patches of sunlight) or Abbracci (hugs) in the morning, combined with una tazza di caffè, a small tub of yoghurt and some fresh fruit. All the different packets of the biscuits have a suggestion for a real colazione all’italiana (Italian breakfast) that comes with one of the ten principles of the morning meal like ‘taste the flavours’, ‘start the day with warmth’ and ‘find your own rhythm’.

Curious as I am I wanted to know more about the story of these ten principles and thus had a look on the website. It turns out that Mulino Bianco has developed a model of the real Italian breakfast with the help of scientists from various disciplines. The model shows a food pyramid that has biscuits and breads (sweet breads are also part of their range of products…) at the bottom of the pyramid, therefore being the most important part of the meal. The biscuits are being followed by milk and yoghurt, fruit, hot drinks, sugar, honey and jam and at the small top butter. Not only can you find more information about the different categories of the breakfast pyramid, you can also learn more about the importance of love, trust, warmth, energy, care and the pleasure of starting the day with the family around the breakfast table. The project supposedly has ‘a great scientific and cultural value’ and gives guidelines to start the day full of warmth, pleasure and balance. Obviously this is exactly the way the Italians like it, seen the amount of choice in and the quantity of Mulino Bianco biscuits in the supermarket aisles!

Food and culture. Food and identity. Food and sustainability. Food and love.

In the spring of 2011 I moved from my hometown Gouda in the Netherlands to a beautiful hilltop town in the Langhe area of Piemonte, Northern Italy. Surrounded by vineyards and hazelnut orchards I was going to study Food Culture and Communications and I would become an expert in eco-gastronomy. Unfortunately things did not turn out to be what I had expected, and for various reasons I decided to stop my study programme. Making this decision was not easy, but luckily I was not alone in my hilltop town. The Drover, my boyfriend, private chef, baker and limoncello maker, came all the way from Australia to experience the Italian food adventure with me. He showed me that studying and learning is not something that you can only do in schools and universities: self-education could be the most interesting path to follow.

“How do you know all this?” is a question I have asked the Drover very often, when he was telling me another story or when he was sharing another bit of his knowledge with me.