About

Eating what the land provides is something that has fascinated me since I was a runty little kid growing up on a small Gippsland farm in Victoria. As a boy I would often catch eel, trout and fresh water crayfish and cook them up with simple ingredients. I could have lived off this food!
It was the family farm that got me started with the now adult obsession with growing my own food. My mum inspired me with her love of growing your own and living as self sufficient as possible, something I now try to instil in my kids. We (my little family) live in a converted old school house in country Victoria. Our garden is a useful one, and is stuffed full of produce, some fruit tree’s, plenty seasonable vegetables and plenty of mixed herbs. The very reason for our self sufficient lifestyle is aimed at reducing our reliance on high carbon cost food from major supermarkets. We still buy the basics from the supermarkets, that will never change, but we have drastically reduced our trolly of fresh food and meat.

I love to cook, I love to eat. Who could say that eating delicious food doesn’t make us feel good? I cook fairly rustic type meals, it’s peasant style cooking to be honest, nothing fancy. I don’t like to bastardize food by over complicating it. I may care about my food, but that doesn’t make me a ‘gour-met’ nor a ‘provincial artisan foodie’. I really don’t like these fancy associations. Simply put, I love cooking with food that I’ve grown, gathered, hunted, fished for or sourced locally. There is a peace to understanding food. Food ethics and a conscience make the the process more interesting. Sometimes frustrating, often rewarding, always challenging and sometimes divinely tasting.

This blog documents my cooking, hunting, fishing, harvesting from my patch and of course daily life with my little family living in our historic region situated in Victoria, Australia. If you not impressed with the caliber of the ‘thrilling yarns’ or frustrated with my spelling mistakes….then just look at the pictures!

And if you’re philanthropically minded….feel free to donate some land to me!

Not much has changed from this pic. I’m still a grubby little bush kid. I’m just bigger now and have grey hair sneaking in.