By Vivienne Pearson
The Farm to your fridge
The market garden at The Farm is bursting with seasonal veges – so much so that not all can be used in the Three Blue Ducks restaurant or Bread Social bakery. You can share in the harvest by buying a Farm Produce Box. Costing $40, boxes contain a mixture of organically grown tomatoes, eggplants, zucchini, baby carrots, sweetcorn, with a side serve of eggs, edible flowers and shallots. Collection for pre-ordered boxes is on Wednesdays and Saturdays 8–11am.
Train to your table
What do you do if a need for a healthy meal strikes but you can’t rouse yourself from the couch? Your new option is to order home-delivered sushi from O-Sushi in Byron Bay. Currently, getting sushi from the train to your table is only available for those between Ewingsdale and Suffolk Park (and for orders over $30), with orders via menulog.com.au or eatnow.com.au ‘It’s started slowly but once people discover the service, they love it – we’re getting a lot of repeat home-delivery customers,’ says one of the staff.
Apprentice MasterChef
Even if she doesn’t win the top gong, for 19-year-old Haley Moreland being a finalist in the Fonterra Proud To Be A Chef competition is a prize in itself. Haley, a third-year apprentice at the Ballina RSL’s Boardwalk Bistro, is spending this week in Melbourne cooking up a storm (actually a crab terrine) for judges as well as being treated to mentoring and masterclasses with top chefs. Haley entered the competition at the suggestion of her boss and executive chef Blake Seymour.
Hospitality holiday
When you need a holiday but are dedicated to your profession as a Thai cuisine chef, holidaying in Thailand is a perfect solution! Mullumbimby’s Spice It Up Thai reopened last week after owner and head chef Matthew Jackson spent two weeks on Kohchang Island. Accompanied by two staff, Robert Gower and Aidan Dwyer, the three revelled in tasting regional varieties of Pad Thai, cooking with noodles packaged only in banana leaves, and discovering that garlic and chili can have very different potencies when grown in different conditions.
Introducing guests
Table View Café in Brunswick Heads would like to introduce you to their new guests. Fittingly, the guests are not people but coffee! Each week, a different guest coffee will be available in addition to the usual (and excellent) Marvell St coffees. Guest coffees will be sourced from roasters within Australia as well as from Denmark (The Coffee Collective) and Sweden (Koppi Roasters). ‘It keeps things interesting for me as well as for our customers,’ says Mark Schubitz, owner and barista.