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Get Ready For Kingaroy's
Centenary Picnic In The Park!
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 23rd August 2004: This year marks Kingaroy's 100th birthday.
And one of the highlights of the many celebrations that will be taking place
is the Centenary Picnic In The Park. It's being held at Memorial Park
in Kingaroy on Saturday 18th September and it's already taking on
the shape of one of our region's most popular annual events: a mini Wine
& Food In The Park Festival (which is held at the same location every
March). When the gates open at noon visitors will be wined-and-dined by
all of Kingaroy's winemakers and a staggering array of gourmet food
stalls to suit all tastes.
Captain's Paddock,
Crane Wines,
Stuart Range,
Ziebarths and
Kingsley Grove will be
on hand for tastings and sales of their multi-award winning vintages. Some
of the culinary delights that will be on offer include Malaysian chicken
satays, gourmet pies, oysters, lamb shanks, European-style gourmet hot dogs,
curries, stir fries, gelati, scones, coffee and tea, pancakes, nachos, Kingaroy
cheese, burgers… (pause for a breath) and what would a Kingaroy centenary
be without peanuts? To compliment the gastronomic pleasures of the day there'll
also be a line up of great live entertainment including international virtuoso,
jazz musician, trumpet player and multi-instrumentalist James Morrison
(pictured). Best of all, the whole day is free (except, of
course, for whatever you choose to purchase). I can't wait! If you'd like
more information about Kingaroy's centenary celebrations, contact the South
Burnett Visitor Information Centre - Kingaroy on (07) 4162-3199.
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Coffee Making Course
At The Bell Tower Restaurant
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 20th August 2004: If you thought that tea, beer or wine was
the most consumed beverage in Australia, you're wrong … coffee rules!
(this probably explains the record number of domestic espresso machines being
sold these days). And if coffee is as much your vice as it is mine, then
you'll be excited to learn that a coffee making course will be held
at the Bell Tower Restaurant on Wednesday 8th September between
6:00pm and 9:00pm. The new managers of the Bell Tower - Brad
and Megan Clark - have kindly offered their picturesque establishment to
Kingaroy TAFE for the night. Skilled barista and hospitality teacher Sylvia
Parsons will be demonstrating the ins and outs of speciality coffee-making.
She's told me that there will be four different brands of home coffee machines
used during the course, along with the Bell Tower Restaurant's mobster industrial
machine. "A lot of people are buying these whiz-bang espresso machines for
their home," Sylvia says, "just to be banish them into the kitchen cupboard
when they can't operate them. The machines seem a little temperamental at
first but with a little help I can have students frothing mountains of cappuccino
milk and percolating the richest black coffee imaginable". If you'd like
to join the class, you can get more details by calling TAFE on (07)
4160-4429.
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Kingsley Grove's
New Cellar Door Now Open For Business
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 17th August 2004: In July last year I broke the story about
the exciting new
Kingsley Grove Winery
located at 49 Stuart Valley Drive just west of Kingaroy. Michael and
Patricia Berry - who planted their first grapes in 1997 - built the
impressive state-of-the-art winery on the property and they've been quietly
producing a large variety of wine styles from their own grapes since 2001.
But until now the only way you could get your hands on Kingsley
Grove's products was either from their website; from various local bottle
shops; from a couple of Brisbane restaurants and hotels; or from the Wine
& Food In The Park Festival held in Kingaroy every March. But as of Thursday
12th August South Burnett locals and tourists are now able to visit Kingsley
Grove and sample the wines directly at their new cellar door
(see photo at right). Patricia Berry says "we call it tastings in
the winery because the cellar door is built within the wine-making facility
amongst the fermentation vats, pipes and barrels". But that's not all! Here's
the real scoop: construction of the winery's new
café/restaurant and yet another cellar door will be commencing
soon. And it could well turn out out to be the next Big Thing for the South
Burnett's food and wine scene (I've had the privilege of seeing the proposed
floor plan and it's very impressive!). In the meantime, though, you can pay
a visit to Kingsley Grove and try their latest vintages on site. You can
also call then on (07) 4162 2229 if you want to check their opening
hours, which are still being finalised.
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My Apologies! Technical
Glitches Delay Cuisine Updates
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 11th August
2004: Regular readers probably noticed that this site wasn't updated
for the last 10 days and I apologise for this. The reason this happened
was that
South Burnett Online -
our publishers - had a major hardware fault in their office systems early
this month and the backlog that built up during the brief 72 hours they were
out of action pushed everything (including this site) severely off schedule.
Computer faults and burnouts are becoming increasingly common in
Queensland as our electricity supply starts to assume all the characteristics
of living in the third world. Computers need a steady flow of current
to operate correctly and they're such delicate instruments that fluctuating
voltages can burn them out very easily. So far the only response the electricity
suppliers offer is "well, you can't sue us" and perhaps that's true. But
we sure can kick up a ruckus about how awful the state's power system
is. And we can sheet the blame where it truly belongs: a State Government
which has allowed this situation to develop over several years despite
repeated warnings from experts that the State's power system was being
run into the ground. In any event, all the stories that I would've
posted over the last 10 days are listed below and (as usual) you won't find
them anywhere else. Hopefully, things are now back to normal. But like most
of you I have my fingers crossed for the summer time....
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Amy To Compete For
Ramsay Scholarship
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 8th August 2004: Many of my long-term readers will probably
remember Amy Ballin (pictured at right). Amy was the apprentice
chef at Nanango's Copper Country Restaurant until about six months
ago when she completed her training and decided to go see the world. Well
I've just heard something exciting about her I'd like to share with you:
right now Amy is living in Scotland with former Copper Country owners
Derrick and Helena Winter - and this talented young chef has
just been short-listed as one of thirty-two entries in this year's Ramsay
Scholarship. The Ramsay Scholarship was created in 2001 by chef Gordon
Ramsay to encourage and recognise the talents of young cooks. There are
fantastic prizes on offer including valuable work experience in some of the
world's best kitchens. For those who aren't familiar with him, Gordon Ramsay
became notorious around the world for his short fuse in the fly-on-the-wall
TV show Ramsay's Boiling Point in which he endeavoured to become the
youngest chef ever to be awarded three Michelin Stars. And (most recently)
he was seen on Channel Seven's comical Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares.
Anyway, Amy will now be going on to compete in the semi finals on the 26th
August. In these events competitors are given a box with secret ingredients
and have to concoct a main course and dessert out of it in 2.5 hours. Two
chefs from each group of six will then go on to the finals in September.
I'm told that Amy is very excited about being chosen and also understandably
nervous. But the South Burnett Cuisine team - and I'm sure, all her friends
and former customers in the region - wish her the very best of luck.
Good on you, Amy! Go for it!
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South Burnett Wine
and Food Takes The Brisbane Ekka By Storm
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 5th
August 2004: Today two new stories landed on my desk and
both of them relate to the Brisbane Ekka. The first is astounding!
Fresh on the back of their phenomenal success at the prestigious Australian
Specialist Cheesemakers Awards in Melbourne (see story 13th July),
Kingaroy Cheese have
barn-stormed the Brisbane Ekka Farmhouse Cheese and Dairy Produce Show by
winning a colossal 6 gold medals, including 3 Champion Cheeses in
the Farmhouse Cheese Category alone. And Runnymede Sheep Dairy (who
are no slouches in the medal stakes either - see story 1st April 2004)
won the Grand Champion Farmhouse Cheese at the Show with their marinated
Sheep Milk Fetta and walked away with a bronze medal for their Acidophilus
and Bifidus Pure Sheep Milk Yoghurt. Cheesemakers Chris Ganzer (Kingaroy
Cheese) and Gary and Jean Monaghan (Runnymede) were elated at the
result - and who could blame them? The second story that landed on my desk
today was that three of our region's biggest wineries -
Barambah Ridge,
Stuart Range and
Clovely Estate - are also
attending the Ekka this year (and Stuart Range have just picked up a bronze
medal for their stand!). Both of them will be offering wine tastings
and selling their wine for the entire 10 days of the event in the Exhibition
Building. All wineries will also be offering Ekka case specials at
the show. This will be quite a bargain for Brisbaneites considering the avalanche
of medals each winery has won for their products over the last year (including
double gold for Barambah Ridge at the Queensland Wine Awards
- one third of all the golds handed out in 2003).
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Bottle Tree Hill
Goes Online
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 2nd August 2004: Several months ago I wrote about Murgon's
Bottle Tree Hill Organic
Farm: a 540-acre certified organic farm owned by Will and
Meagan Seiler which produces pork, beef, olives, honey and seasonal
grains and vegetables, all within a traditional whole farm system. The reason
I'm writing about them again is that Bottle Tree Hill recently took the next
step in their growth by launching their own web site. The new site provides
lists of their full product range and prices, including their popular double
smoked bacon and their equally popular gourmet Australian bush sausages (GABS);
a newsletter; a photo gallery; and contact details if you want to get in
touch. Will and Megan tell me that the site will also soon include information
on the various regional markets the couple regularly attend if you want to
catch up with them in the flesh in other parts of south-east Queensland.
"The Internet is a fantastic tool for giving customers instant information,
whenever they require it," Megan told me. "And as our web site grows we hope
to make it increasingly informative and help educate our readers by comparing
free-range and organic practices with conventional farming". Back in May,
Channel Seven's "On The Land" programme made a visit to the farm and filmed
a segment which should air nationally within the next couple of weeks. But
in the meantime I'd suggest having a gander at the new website, which already
contains plenty of pictures and some useful insights into organic farming
- the fastest growing niche food market in the country! Photo: The
Seiler's children cuddle up to one of Bottle Tree Hill's organically-raised
pigs.
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