A very Gundowring Christmas

Christmas day at Gundowring is usually a sweltering occasion, it is often in the high 30’s and the Crooke family does its best to keep cool in a variety of ways, some in the pool, some in the Kiewa River, and some retreating to the relative cool of the homestead to enjoy an afternoon kip or good book. There is however one way the family always gathers to take the edge off the summer heat, and that is with the now customary after lunch treat, the Ice Cream Plum Pudding.

Fresh berry season ties in quite well with our Christmas Ice Cream Pudding

For the past 37 years Sarah and Stephen have been soaking the fruit, roasting the almonds and steeping the chestnuts and vanilla bean in milk collected from the cows. The recipe they work to coming to them from the south of France, where they say their ice cream career started in 1974. While working as cooks for a Scottish family on holiday in Cannes, Sarah stumbled upon a small ice cream churn while shopping for supplies in the backstreets of Nice. Chestnuts being a staple in the region, the recipe was imparted top them by the locals.

Stephen contemplates how many slices of Ice Cream Plum Pudding
he is going to eat this year. Lots.

Flash forward to 2003, the rest of the family had little wonder that their Christmas favourite would make it into the newly christened Gundowring Ice Cream’s flavour line up. We have been making the special Christmas treat ever since, using Ovens Valley chestnuts, fruit from South Australia and of course lovely fresh Gundowring milk. From its time honoured place on the Crooke family table, the last 9 years has seen our frozen Christmas favourite enjoy pride of place on the tables of households from Hobart to Sydney and Melbourne to Perth.

A few years ago, we decided to experiment with our other decadent Yuletide indulgence, Brandy Butter. Carefully folding brandy and vanilla in to our anglaise, we fashioned a truly delicious ice cream that can happily sit next to any traditional plum pudding.

For the traditionalists, Brandy Custard Ice Cream does wonders for a heavy Plum Pudding 

So what will your family be enjoying this Christmas? Something traditional or does your clan have a favourite that you can’t do without?

Market Minutes

Taste 2011: the calm before the storm with our stall in the foreground

We started the market and festival season with a bang at Taste of Melbourne, and have settled in to our regular calendar of events that includes the Collingwood Children’s Farm Farmers Market (CCFFM) and the Gasworks Farmer’s Market (GFM) (2^nd and 3^rd Saturdays of each month respectively).  We are looking forward to the Brown Brothers Wine and Food Festival (19^th and 20^th of November) which runs alongside the La Dolce Vita weekend in the King Valley.

Markets and events are a great way for us to meet the consumer face to face and as we have been doing them for quite a few years now, we have a loyal group of regular ice cream aficionados who are all too eager to taste a new flavour and give us their frank appraisals! It is extremely heartening to be able to chat with people who really know their products, and people who are taking their first steps in the brave new world of ingredients that can be found outside big supermarkets.

So we hope to see a few of you at the stall over the next few months as we attend some of the best markets and events on offer!

Spring has Sprung!

Make hay while the sun shines ……an old adage that still rings true today. It has come to mean make the most of opportunities and that is what we are hoping to do at Gundowring.

Spring is an exciting and hectic time on the farm; a good spring sets us up for the year. Grass is the mainstay of the diet for cows at Gundowring and when it grows very slowly over winter it is often supplemented by silage which is essentially pickled grass. Silage makes a better feed than hay because the grass is cut much earlier in the season as has more protein and energy than later cut hay.

2011 has seen a bountiful spring at Gundowring with ideal weather for grass growth. The team has been making silage since mid-September, and are out on tractors again this week, conserving the abundant growth for times of need.

The grass is cut and raked, then chopped as it is picked up by a large wagon, before being unloaded into a pit where it is rolled to squash out as much air as possible. It is then covered to keep the pit air-tight. 

There are black clouds approaching, so fingers are crossed that the pit will be sealed before the next downpour. Nothing could be better than a shower of rain on the newly mown paddocks; the grass will grow again very quickly, however it is not so good to have rain soak the carefully cut and stored silage.

The girls are going to love this when it is ready to be fed out!

Gourmet Safari!

The Oxford English Dictionary defines safari as:

Noun (plural safaris): an expedition to observe or hunt animals in their natural habitat, especially in East Africa.

While the East Africa bit is still a little perplexing, the rest of the description fairly accurately depicts what Maeve O’Meara’s groups do in locations not just in Australia, but also around the world (although not East Africa). This was the second time that the Gourmet Safari had been to Gundowring to observe the animals (read: ice cream makers) in their natural habitat (read: dairy farm/homestead).

The expedition gathers to savour the spoils of the hunt as an animal looks on with hope 

We were delighted to host them again as they toured through the Victorian high country seeing the best the region has to offer. It is no wonder that the Gourmet Safaris team chose our region as it is brimming over with incredible products and inspiring people producing them. The group were knowledgeable and interested in not only the ice cream, but in the history of the homestead and the area.

Maeve tucks in to a Gundowring Sticky Date bambini

Thanks to the group that came to the farm and for Maeve and Franca for organising it all, and we are sure that you all enjoyed the entire trip! 

Brasserie Bread visits Gundowring

The Brasserie Team with their road trip van

It is always fantastic when like-minded people come together, which is exactly what happened when Brasserie Bread visited Gundowring on Monday the 10^th of October as part of their Wild Sour Dough road trip. You can read all about their epic road trip here. The crew at Brasserie are a lot of fun, which was plain to see when they visited Kiewa Valley Primary School, where a number of the  Gundowring ice cream teams children currently go to school (and where Stephen and James went to school, albeit 30 years apart and some years earlier!), to teach the kids about making real bread . All involved had a ball, and the kids are still raving about it!

Table laden with Brasserie bread and local goodies

Brasserie then made their way to Gundowring where we made some ice cream, and tasted straight from the churn. We had a delicious lunch including what else? Bread and Ice Cream! Michael even whipped up some buckwheat pancakes that had everyone salivating as the smell wafted from the kitchen. We got to talking about the benefits and challenges of Artisanal production, and came to realise that there are many similarities between making great bread and great ice cream, as well as some unique differences. It was a fantastic opportunity for us at Gundowring to hear the Brasserie team talk about their experiences and plans for the future.

Ice cream and pancakes... Michael looks content!

The Brasserie team invited us to attend the opening of their new premises in Melbourne, which is located in South Melbourne. It is quite an impressive set up, with brand new ovens that were already releasing the heavenly smell of baking bread as guests were ushered into the production space. We sampled the wares of not only the brand new ovens, but also of the producers that Brasserie had visited as they heralded their mother culture on its voyage from Sydney to Melbourne. It was a great night, and it was a thrill to watch the short film of the trip, which you can find here.

Stephen gets up close and personal with the mother culture

Thanks must go to the Brasserie team for the visit and for having us down to the opening of their spectacular new venue in Melbourne, we are sure it will be a hit, and we look forward to getting some ‘Breaducation’ there (as well as some great food) in the future!

Sarah goes in for a closer look at the Gundowring flavours

Jazz It Up

For those not in the know, Wangaratta is the jazz capital of Australia. That’s right, forget the once smoky bars of Melbourne and Sydney, Wangaratta has consistently drawn the best and brightest to its annual Jazz Festival for the last 21 years.

This year we will see the likes of Barney McAll, Dale Barlow and Walter Lampe and the Australian Art Orchestra. This year will also be the second year Gundowring will be gracing the streets of Wangaratta soaking up the atmosphere and dishing out delicious ice creamy treats.

It should be a great festival, hope to see you there!  

Taste of Melbourne 2011

It's that time of year again.... food and wine event time! This year we will be starting it off with a bang at Taste of Melbourne, which is held at the magnificent Royal Exhibition Building in Carlton. If you have never been to the REB then you have to check it out, it really is amazing. Last year Taste of Melbourne also incorporated the upstairs gallery which was less than perfect for some of the exhibitors, but fantastic for guests to be able to experience.

We love these kinds of events as they allow us to meet the public in a  fantastic environment and chat about all things ice cream and food in general, as well as sampling some of the fare from Melbourne's finest eating establishments. This year we are at stand 34 scooping our mini cones, so stop by and say hello!

We were lucky enough to score 8 passes that allow entry to any of the sessions from Thursday to Sunday. We will be giving everyone the chance to win two of these fantastic tickets just by being one of the first four to leave a comment on the bottom of this blog post.

Make sure we can contact you to send you your tickets, and best of luck!

Eat Thoughtfully

A family weekend in Brisbane was a great chance to find Sourced Grocer and meet Louis and Jerome. It was even better than at we at Gundowring had imagined.  

Sarah, Louis and Jerome

These two young men have gone to great lengths to source produce that meets their ideals of Thoughtful Eating, Pride in Provenance and Loving Local. Food produced by Australians with a passion for what they do.

And clearly, in a very short space of time, Louis and Jerome have drawn a like minded clientele that share their passion for good food.

Josie says "it's the best!"

I spent a wonderful couple of hours with the good people of Teneriffe as they enjoyed Saturday morning at Sourced Grocer. A large happy crowd that was very enthusiastic about sampling Gundowring ice cream. As a producer it is always fantastic to meet people who understand and appreciate what we are doing, and are interested to discuss the finer points of ice cream making, farm based production systems, dairy cows, fresh red rhubarb as well as concerns about climate and water.

I collected a delicious basket of goodies for our family picnic lunch, fresh multigrain bread, olive tapenade, fabulous boozy duck liver pate and a piece of luscious oozing brie. What a treat!

Thanks to the boys and everyone at Sourced Grocer for having me, and thanks to the people of Brisbane for stopping by and talking ice cream. We are sure that this will grow to be an institution and destination for all.

Hooray!

On Monday night we were overjoyed to take out the 'From the Dairy' category at the Delicious Produce Awards. Held at Guillaume at Bennelong, the awards are aimed at recognising the efforts of Australia's top producers. 

The field of finalists for the 5 producer categories read like a who's who of Australian food, and it was an honour to be amongst those who hold similar food values to us.

While we are all passionate about what we do, it is not easy competing against multinational corporations who strive to portray themselves as artisan, and inject themselves into the market space along with hard-working Australian businesses. That is what is so exciting about these awards, they are a celebration of all the gusto Australian producers put in and the exceptionally high quality that results from the effort.

The judging panels both state and national are made up of industry stalwarts, including chefs, media experts and icons like Maggie Beer (who loves our Licorice ice cream!). These identities embody the competition with a strong credibility, and we hope to be able to back up our success with a good showing in years to come.

Thanks to all involved in the competition, the producers, judges, and organisers and a special mention to all who would love to have been a part of it, but with all the fires, floods, locusts and everything else thrown at us over the last 12 months, were unable to.

You can find a list of the award winners and finalists here, congratulations to all!

Thanks to Lizette from Warialda Belted Galloway, here is a picture of one chuffed Gundowring member with the result of the night!

A bit of perspective

It is a wonderful thing to be able to step away from the day to day, and literally get a different perspective on Gundowring.

The home of Gundowring Fine Foods from Waddingtons deck

Once or twice a year we make sure to turn of the churn, head out for lunch and talk about the challenges and the successes of the last 6 months. This year we are eating at Waddingtons! Restaurateurs Jan and Rod Waddington and their son Rhy, who now cooks in America, have long been friends and sources of inspiration for different ice cream flavour combinations.

The team hard at work choosing a dessert... not an easy decision!

We revel in the sweeping views of the Kiewa Valley looking across to Gundowring home base and great food and hospitality that never ceases to amaze us.

It is always great to see our ice cream used with flair

Thanks to Jan and Rod for having us, and to the team for a lovely day. Same time next year?

First things first!

Churning Online

Imagine waking up to this view. Luckily enough, we here at Gundowring Ice Cream get to do just that, and year in year out, we never tire of it.

We use our own farm fresh milk to hand craft ice cream made from a traditional anglaise and ingredients inspired by the best regional produce. We also used to write a newsletter twice a year with news from the farm and information about new flavours and events. The reason we haven’t printed another edition is that it was primarily a newsletter that was made to hand out at Farmer’s Markets and events. By the time it was written, printed and picked up at the event or market, news was often 6 months old at least.

We decided that all that printing was unnecessary and that we could make better use of time and resources by doing something exciting, electronic and easily updated, hence…the Gundowring Churn Online!

We will be keeping this blog filled with all the fun stuff that normally goes into our newsletter, as well as news, reviews and recipes.

So join us as we bring a little of the Kiewa Valley to the internet!