On Monday night at Circa, The Prince in St Kilda, Melbourne, the winners for the 2010 delicious Produce Awards were announced and we are proud to say that we won a GOLD MEDAL for our beloved GARLIC in the "From The Earth" category. The delightful and creative Matt Wilkinson, head chef at Circa and his team put on a sumptuous cocktail party spread with as many of the Award entrants' produce as they could source this time of year and it was truly lovely.
There was the 'who's who' of top chefs, including the awards' judges. Some we spotted and/or got to speak with were Maggie Beer (Barossa food legend and a hero of ours!), Matt Moran (ARIA), Neil Perry (Rockpool), Sean Preslin (Saki), Cheong Liew (The Grange, Adelaide Hilton), Stephanie Alexander (Stephanie's & the school Kitchen Garden Scheme) and our own Alla Wolf-Tasker (The Lake House). I said to Tim, "I wonder what Sydney-siders are dining out on tonight? Many of their best chefs are here!"
The magnificent Matt Preston hosted the awards presentation in his usual sartorial splendour and great humour. He was very generous in posing for a photo with us and chatting about our work and it was so nice to finally meet him. He is in our esteem a very talented food critic and personally I adore cravats! I have to mention that Matt actually looked damn finer than he has come up in our photo below...sorry Matt...our phone camera is very unkind (the digital camera jammed earlier in the evening).
All the other winners and medalists for the various categories and awards are listed at the attached ABC delicious magazine website. Several of this years finalists and winners are from around our region, which is really lovely to be a part of...Fernleigh Farms, Wurrook Super Fine Prime Lamb, Holy Goat Cheese, Meredith Dairy, Mt Alexander Fruit Gardens, Daylesford Organics, Sher Wagyu, Warialda Belted Galloway Beef, as well as several other great Victorian producers.
We extend our sincere congratulations to all finalists and the winners and we feel honoured to be amongst such a great bunch of passionate, sustainable producers. We really appreciate how hard everyone works and what kinds of risk factors can be associated with farming and food production, so cheers to all the hard work and big hearts and for the generosity and support a few of you in particular have shown towards us since we started our long held dream of organic farming.
We are also thrilled that the Collingwood Children's Farm Farmers' Market won the 'Outstanding Farmers' Market' award (for all Australia!). Established in 2002, this community-owned market brings more than 70 Victorian producers (such as us) to inner-city Melbourne on the 2nd Saturday of each month and was one of the first farmers' markets to be accredited for stallholder authenticity. It was really wonderful to see Miranda Sharp our market co-ordinator accepting this award, as we truly appreciate the commitment and many hours (years!) of work she has put in towards making this market and others a success and an experience consumers can rely on for quality and integrity as well as an enjoyable environment. Go girl and go CCFM!
As I was discussing with a colleague and friend earlier today, one of the best things for us about winning this award, is that both me and Tim have been 'obsessed' with really good food or ingredients in one way or another (i.e. different aspects at different times) since our teens and although winning awards is by no means our 'why' for becoming organic food producers, it IS very nice to be recognised for being premium produce growers (esp. GARLIC of all things for us and being a 'small holding' farm enterprise). We have dreamed for decades in a number of ways, about becoming premium, artisanal producers, prior to starting Angelica Organic Farm 5 years ago, like our heros in France and Italy, like Maggie Beer and many others here, who have inspired us for such a long time. To be also doing it by biological/organic means is very dear to us. During my early 20s, whilst I was working in Sydney restaurants, I read a book called 'The Chef's Table: an Australian gourmet in the great restaurants of France' by Aussie chef Barbara Ross. In her book Barbara journals her working holiday around France, for which she organised in advance with a number of top restaurants (often Michelin Star or 'hatted' restaurants), volunteer cooking positions, so she could learn from and experience the best chefs and produce France had to offer. The anecdotes about the regional produce and growers and the respect with which the chefs utilised it just made my heart 'sing' and has inspired me forever more. Watch out France when we get over there!!
Thanks to everyone who has supported, encouraged, taught, respected and believed in us - family, friends, colleagues, competitors, customers, local business groups such as DMP and the local community in general. It is cherished and of great help as we 'rock on' into the future with our little farm, lovingly growing our natural produce.
This is just the 'tip of the iceberg' from us folks...we've got a lot more 'in the tank' to come and we can only get better at what we do!
One of the beautiful displays at Circa for the awards.
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