I had so much fun over the 2 day Strawberry and Cherry Festival last November I decided to return to Bacchus Marsh for their annual 1 day Harvest Festival in March.
This time I booked myself on the Moorabool Farmers Fresh Farm Bus Tour - 1 day, 5 farm stops , a coach full of farming enthusiasts and a buffet lunch in between made this very first Fresh Farm Bus Tour a complete day of fun and success. Goodies bag on the bus which included a snack and water also a very good idea especially on a hot day.
Going on this Fresh Farm Bus Tour has made me appreciate where my food comes from more. -the huge amount of hard work that goes into producing food, the huge amount of capital invested into producing food and the high level of technology that goes into producing food. I will never look at a product in the supermarket in the same way again.
I can only rate this bus tour which was run by farmers and not professional tour operators a 10/10! From the very start it was well organised. Timing was a bit of an issue at first but soon settled down as the day went by.
There were talks of plans to run a second fresh farm tour in a different region concentrating on potatos , meat and dairy farming for 2017 on this bus tour - Sign me up!
I won't actually write about this tour much in my blog as I have uploaded onto YouTube (under Moorabool Farmers) 5 short videos of each farm stop detailed below:
Pick up 9.30 am from Bacchus Marsh Railway Station (coming from Melbourne on a Sunday timetable it was absolutely vital to catch the one and only 8.15 am train from Southern Cross Station to Bacchus Marsh Station in order to arrive in time for the Fresh Farm Bus Tour coach waiting at the station)
Drop off around 3.30 pm at Bacchus Marsh Railway Station (with option to stay in the main street of town to enjoy the Harvest Festival's other activities returning to Bacchus Marsh Railway Station around 5 pm)
Stop # 1 Parwan Valley Mushrooms - "Mushroom Farming"
I've always wanted to visit a mushroom farm. This may not be the stinky humid old disused underground railway tunnel that I have always imagined where mushrooms would flourish but it was one state of the art mushroom farm. With mushroom samples to take back with us, I had already planned what I was going to cook for dinner when I returned to Melbourne that afternoon - pasta with mushrooms in a tomato sauce. Any left overs I will take back to NSW with me.
Stop # 2 Balliang Food & Fibre - "Growing Grain"
I was amazed at the vastness of the stubbled land and the size of the machinery used to plant and harvest grains and legumes. Does anyone not own a green and yellow John Deer piece of machinery on their farms out here? Next time I go to the supermarket and buy a museli bar for example I will stop and think about the technology, capital investment and labour that went into producing the ingredients used in this museli bar. Some of the products produced by 4th generation Australian farmers were Barley, Wheat, Spelt, Peas, Beans, Lupin, Chickpeas, Oats . Could have done with some wheat so I could take it back to NSW with me and have it milled and made into homemade bread! Way to go if you have a thermomix or know someone that has one!
Stop #3 Table Top Vegetables - "Mixed Salad Greens"
The only thing I can say is how different a salad leaf tastes when it is straight off a farm rinsed dried and placed in a cool room to one that has been sitting on a supermarket shelf. Samples of mixed salad leaves did survive the trip back to NSW however like all salad leaves only had a very short shelf life. They were great on my cheese croissants I had back in Melbourne!
Lunch Break - buffet lunch @ local Town Hall in town
This was fantastic - everyone just loved the barley salad! Some had seconds! Great idea to have drink bottles as it became quite hot by the time we reached the final farm stop.
Stop #4 Naturipe Fruits - "Strawberry & Apple Picking"
Who would have thought that pomegranate or basil would go well with strawberries - hold the cream! This was our dessert stop after lunch. Followed by strawberry and apple picking. I am all too familiar with this property I was here picking cherries and strawberries last year during the strawberry and cherry festival - I did very well with the cherries however not so good with finding any strawberries they were all picked by the time I had arrived last year. It's time to redeem myself ! Success! Unfortunately due to moisture my strawberries did not survive very well this time round back to NSW - a few strawberries were frozen straight away and the majority were eaten or made into a fruit compote - pancakes here I come! I didn't wonder off to the apple trees which I recall last year were still undeveloped.
Stop # 5 Jeff Jones Plants & Produce - "Fruit Salad Orchard & Growers Market"
Final stop - I bought a loaf of sour dough as I did on my last visit except by the time we arrived the ones I wanted were sold out ie potato and pumpkin sourdough loaves. There was an interesting pumpkin patch on this farm - samples of quince Ya pears apples and ornamental pumpkins were on offer to take home as well. I still have my quince and am unsure how to cook them , I tasted a Ya pear and it was like no other Ya pear I have eaten before - crunchy crispy juicy and sweet a cross between a green pear and a nashi apple. All sample of produce survived the trip back to NSW very well.
I only have one negative about the bus tour and that is the connection times between coach arriving and departing from Bacchus Marsh Station and the train timetable to and from Melbourne not corresponding - I had to wait 1.75 hours for the next train back to Melbourne. If I had opted to stay in town and return at 5 pm I would have missed the train I was waiting so long for back to Melbourne. No I wasn't going to Ballarat again as I did during the Strawberry and Cherry Festival last year - it turned out to be an even worse idea then waiting around Bacchus Marsh station for the next Melbourne train.
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