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Hello again and time for another update from Mountain View. Its now the middle of winter and so far the winter rains are yet to eventuate with June one of the driest on record. We are hoping for much needed rain next month.
I would like to share with you something I found written about chestnuts by a well known Sydney chef Matt Moran what was published in the Australian Financial Review (yes even the Financial Review has articles about food). I think chestnut lovers will relate to this
"There is one sure-fire way to test whether the pimply, eager 17 year old, standing in front of me with aspirations of being Australia's next pre-eminent chef, has what it takes. Simply give him a kilogram of fresh chestnuts, a pot of boiling water and a tea towel. If an hour later he has been reduced to a sobbing, finger-singed shadow of his former self, the question has been answered. Preparing chestnuts is the true litmus test of someone's passion and commitment, and deep love of food. It is the gastronomic equivalent to Chinese water torture."
Perhaps our ready to use peeled chestnuts have done more to save the careers of budding chefs than we could ever have imagined!
Contents Farm Chestnut Fed Pork Cosy Kangaroo Chestnut Association
Farm We've always been inclined towards organic farming and as much as possible have followed organic farming principles. When Brian attended a Biological Farming workshop that was held locally he found that focusing on overall soil health made a lot of sense. The speakers spoke about the importance of healthy soils how these are the gateway to healthy farming. Here's what one of the speakers Gwyn Jones, had to say about healthy soils. "A healthy soil is a living renewable resource that has the ability to increasingly reproduce itself in the form of topsoil in a sustainable manner. If a soil cannot reproduce itself it is simply not self sustaining." He goes on to say that the first principles are to conserve the soil that you have via erosion control, then protect the soil surface with groundcover and minimum tillage and finally to grow topsoil by maximising leaf and root surface areas. Improving soil biology, that is increasing the population of the living microbes and earthworms, etc in the soil, leads to plant succession and this then leads to humus formation. For more detailed information on this see Glyn's website at www.healthyag.com. We've had our soils tested by a local company Hybrid Ag and are now working to balance our soil nutrients and encourage microbes to grow healthy trees and nuts without the reliance on inorganic fertilizers.
Chestnut Fed Pork When we were in Europe a few years ago (and those who have been on my mailing list for that long will remember) we came across chestnut fed pork in Northern Italy, Southern France and especially in Corsica. I came back to Australia with visions of doing chestnut fed pork but just never got around to it. Late last year when visiting Sydney I was introduced to Pino an Italian specialist butcher who supplies the best restaurants in Sydney with prosciutto and other wonderful cured meats and salami as well as fresh meat. We talked about chestnut fed pork and he was so excited about it I really felt it was time to do something. But I needed to find a suitable pig producer. We knew we didn't want mass produced pigs, we wanted pigs that were cared for and nurtured and loved. After a great deal of time on the telephone doing detective work (I missed my true calling) I was very fortunate to find a farmer near Beechworth in North East Victoria who had a small number of pigs. Olivia Johnstone loves her pigs like I love chestnuts and has taken on the project of producing chestnut fed pork with a passion. The first pigs will be ready in October so I'll keep you posted on how this project is going as it develops.
Cosy Kangaroo Chestnuts in Australia are still seen as a special food and because of this we have focused the marketing of our frozen peeled chestnuts at the top end restaurants. But times are changing. The Cosy Kangaroo is a family restaurant in the holiday town of Bright in North East Victoria. It is an institution there and the menu has rarely changed from their winning formula for 20 years. Our daughter Lisa has worked there on weekends and school holidays for 2 years and last month they approached us to supply chestnuts for a new menu item - chestnut pancakes. I don't have their exact recipe but I do have the one from the chestnut association 2006 brochure which I understand was the catalyst for their interest, please see the recipe section on the website Pancakes with Glazed Chestnuts
Chestnut Association Brian attended his last Chestnut Association Board meeting as President on the weekend and formally retires at the AGM on 2 September. Both of us have been heavily involved in the Chestnut Growers of Australia (recently renamed Chestnuts Australia Inc) since 1990. We've enjoyed our involvement immensely and met some wonderful people and now it's time to hand over the reigns and move on to concentrate on our own chestnut business. Brian will be continuing in his role as a chestnut representative on the Australian Nut Industry Council. We wish the incoming board the very best for the future.
Until next time ..
Jane
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