I was very lucky to be invited to check out the new Cygnet Mushroom Farm, owned by Bec from the Cygnet Garden Larder (our local grocery store selling all sorts of goodies from the farms around us). As though Bec didn’t have enough projects already, when Huon Valley Mushrooms shut down Bec decided to put an old apple-picking shed she leases to good use, and started up the farm in it.
This weekend was the Australian Wooden Boat Festival, so we decided to have a quick walk around and snap some pics. We had a friend visiting for the weekend too, so couldn’t spend all day there, but it was great to check out some of the awe-inspiring work put into the vessels on display. Highlight for me was absolutely the wood-burning steam-engined cruiser that had been lovingly restored to spit-polished perfection. What an absolute beauty.
Despite intermittent pouring rain and high winds keeping a fair few people away, there were still a fair few brave people out for the Middleton Country
Fair today. We’ve never actually been so weren’t going to let a typical Tassie summer day keep us away, and we’re glad we went. There was lots of animals to play with and look at, some sheep shearing, a collection of old steam engines being demonstrated, some nice classic cars, and a variety of live music. Oh, and dagwood dogs. It’s not a fair without dagwood dogs.
Cygnet Folk Festival is a music festival that completely takes over nook and cranny of Cygnet for 3 days each year. It gets a monstrous turnout for such a small town, estimated around 6000 last year, and has a huge variety of acts across dozens of performance areas around the town. Every space that can handle it has some kind of performer, from full concerts in the halls and buildings to buskers on every corner and throughout the parks.
It’s been a while since I first posted about our chickens. They’re all still clucking along happily, cranking out a consistent 1 egg per chook per day, and owning them has been a highlight of our life here. Their enclosure and house was the first major outdoors thing I’ve built from scratch (I’ve spent years tinkering with electronics and motorbikes but never built a structure), it taught us about looking after animals, and it has pushed us to cook more and try new recipes since we’ve got so many damn eggs!
With a strawberry farm down the road, this has been on our todo list for a while now. I’ve never actually made any jams or preserves before, so it has always been quite daunting to get it right, but in the end it all went perfectly the first time and I couldn’t be happier with the outcome. It’s absolutely delicious, and when I run out of this stuff it’s going to be very difficult to go back to the store-bought jam!
Despite living here for nearly a year now, we still hadn’t gotten around to visiting MONA, Hobart’s super-famous loved-by-celebrities Museum of Old and New Art. Myself and my wife do love art, but modern art doesn’t really pull us in anywhere near as much as somewhere like the National Gallery in Victoria. We figured we should check it out though, and had a visitor staying with us keen to see it, so off we went.. and we actually really enjoyed it.
The Cascade Brewery, right at the foot of Mount Wellington on the outskirts of Hobart, is the oldest operating brewery in Australia. It was initially a saw mill from 1825, which is convict era, and it was indeed built with the help of convicts.. then they started the brewery in 1831. It has obviously been expanded and modernized since then, and it is now a very fascinating mix of old sandstone buildings with state-of-the-art robots and brewing equipment.
They run paid walking tours of the brewery itself, paid tours of their gardens and historical sights, or you can just rock up and browse the visitors center, which has lots of photos and equipment scattered around as well as the obligatory gift shop and cafe/bar.
The Model Shipyard in Franklin is a privately owned collection of model ships, on display in the owner/builder’s house. You pay a small fee, and get to check out their rooms of incredibly intricate and very realistic models. Some are functioning ships which he takes down to the water to sail in the local club, others are purely for display.
My parents have owned this hobby blueberry farm for a few years now, but recently moved to a bigger farm and have been trying to sell this one. Apart from the shameless plug to try and help them sell it, it’s also an absolutely amazing property so I figured it’s worth posting even just for people to drool over… whether you’re interested in buying or not.
Living In Tasmania 