Taranaki Farm

 Thank you to all who left me Birthday wishes yesterday. I had a beautiful dinner last night with family and friends.

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While in Melbourne, we visited Taranaki Farm. We were not going to be around for Ben's Saturday tour, where he takes visitors on an extended tour, but were lucky enough to be able to join his Grasshopper tour. This tour is specifically designed for Mums with young children -  bub friendly and slow paced. Not exactly suited to us but allowed us to meet with Ben and discuss all things farming. Ben takes his two young daughters along with him on the tour, the youngest in a baby carryier strapped to his back and the other one often as not on his hip.

First stop was the polytunnel which is used to extend the growing season. It is built along the lines of Joel Salatin's polytunnel. The lower part of the structure has solid walls so that pigs can move in after harvesting to clean up the area.

We then all marched across his lush green pastures to see his free range chickens. These are housed in another of Joel's invention; the A frame, and surrounded by electronetting. This allows for secure containment of the chickens from dog and fox attack.

This tour is quite a lot shorter than his tour for adults, but we still managed to take in many of the features that makes Ben's farm Unique and it has given us a few ideas for our own farm, in particular, for me, the child friendly tour.

For lunch we headed off to Trentham to meet up with Justin Walsh who is working on the Trentham food Hub. We had a great lunch at Red Beard Bakery in Trentham and purchased a proving basket for the sourdough bread. An innovation much new to Mark and worth the investment.

 After kneading, the dough is left to rise in the basket



Then turned out onto a tray for baking

 This is how it comes from the oven. Beautiful, isn't it?

Another great day in Victoria.