Last weekend.
Endless blue skies.
The magnificent Buena Vista Farm.
…
A day-long From Scratch workshop hosted by the inspiringly wonderful Fiona & Adam.

Exploring.
Gathering vegetables.
Harassing the happy animals.

Soft and gentle.

“Who are these humans and why are they petting me?”

They were both ready for this photo.

Learning how to make all the simple things you never thought you could make at home.

A glorious bunch of friends.

Additional too-cuteness.

Laughing. Learning. Making. Playing. Eating.

Scroll down for endless photos of picturesque hills, chilled-out farm animals, and creative city kids.

The animals…

City slickers. (Yes, that’s a Google Glass.)

Big dog is in love with tiny rascal kitten — AS AM I.

Supremely happy chickens.

Living the good life.

Blue, blue, green.

Accessorising for the occasion.

They were both ready for this photo.

“Who are these humans and why are they petting me?”

“OK Glass. Pat the pig.”

Pig responds quite well to having its head scratched. Like a big, bristly puppy.

That cocoa-red Gerringong soil.

#Australia

Too much cute.

Soft and gentle.

Baby chickens look like popcorn.

One week later… Even hormone-free, antibiotic-free ‘meat’ chickens grow up FAST.

These fluffy-eared young Black Angus moo-cows munch the grass until it’s the right length for the chickens to roam on, then move on to the next picturesque patch of land.

Honk if you’re a goose! (Apparently geese aren’t super friendly. But they do honk a lot.)

Earth.

Classic Australian cicada-shell accessories.

The plants…

I knew eggplant was beautiful, but I never knew HOW beautiful.

Like, seriously beautiful.

Corn and blue skies in the kitchen garden.

Thistledown.

Earth.

Basil and chilies going crazy in the market garden.

Foreground: chillies: Middle ground: a wall of basil. Background: gum trees.

Chilli pickin’.

New growth on the raspberry canes so green it’ll put your eye out.

’Straya.

Rocket: picked in the morning and eaten for lunch.

Supple rhubarb: picked for jamming.

Farmgirl.

Postprandial coffee…plantation tour.

Dear coffee berries: I am going to love what you become.

Buena Vista indeed.

The food…

My kind of agenda.

Fresh, thick, creamy yoghurt.

Sourdough goop.

Familiar friends.

And some Fiona prepared earlier.

If you’ve got cream and a jar and a good shaking arm, you can make butter.

Additional too-cuteness.

Lunch break: While we ‘toiled’ in the workshop kitchen, Adam ‘threw together’ something in the house kitchen. Caramelised onion and mushroom tart, roast blue congo potatoes, two kinds of home-made sauerkraut, pumpkin hummus on fresh sourdough toast, and the rocket we picked only an hour before.

Special days involve lunch dessert: flour less chocolate cake + blueberry coulis + fresh whipped cream.

The bannetons live with flour in them.

Balls of dough and bannetons.

Some impromptu chilli-in-the-bottom-of-the-pickles action.

Salty cukes. Soon to be pickles.

PICKLES.

Green apples for the pectin in jam. Eggs (from the chickens we just met) for the biscuits.

Impossibly vivid rhubarb, ready to be jammed.

Fact: licking the spoon is at least half the point of making jam (or anything).

Playing around with rosemary cracker shapes.

Cracking up the crackers.

Fiona in her element/kitchen, proving you can prep chicken stock in 2 minutes (including time to laugh and snack on carrots).

Before.

After.

Perfectly motley eggs.

The fallout: We left feeling nourished in every way. And now my kitchen is full of sourdough starter (and fresh bread!), mellow hand-churned butter, fresh yoghurt (and the labne I strained from it), rhubarb-vanilla jam, couverture-filled cookies, salty crackers, crunchy pickles, and some sauerkraut in the corner (lactofermenting with the whey from the labne).

And I intend to keep it that way.

Trust me, you want to do this.

Buena Vista Farm
Fern Street, Gerringong
From Scratch workshop: currently $195

Fiona also keeps a blog — innerpickle.com.au — about making, baking, and living on a wholesome, sustainable, small-scale farm.