Grazing Down the Lachlan – A Unique Boutique Truly Country Foodie Experience
When I booked for the second year of Grazing Down the Lachlan, I knew little, but trusted my friend who is a huge Mark Olive fan. It turned out to be a brilliiant event. Style, comfort, country hospitality and generosity and lots of friendly local chat. I loved!! Can’t wait for next year!!
The local committee was very excited to have secured TV celebrity and chef Mark Olive as their creative director. He would carefully pair local wines, cider and beer with farmed and foraged produce and traditional bush tucker sourced from the district to create a wonderful seven courses of food and matched wine.
We booked in to the local Plainsman Hotel that turned out to be the perfect location near the bus meeting point, Friday’s Meet the Makers Event, Saturday morning market and Sunday community breakfast.
Friday – Behind the Scenes at Grazing Down the Lachlan
The weekend kicked off with an evening at the Forbes Town Hall where some of the committee and wine and food producers involved in the event, gave their insights into what makes Grazing Down the Lachlan special. If you’ve seen The Dish, you’ll know all about the beautiful buildings of Forbes where the movie’s town scenes were filmed.
Saturday – Grazing Down the Lachlan Kicks Off
Saturday morning there was time to grab a coffee at the market in the park, a bit of brekkie and even some local produce and plants. Or browse the boutiques and gift shops in town.
From 11am, the Grazing Down the Lachlan Bus started ferrying the 850 attendees down to the river to start the 2.5km meander along the stock route, stopping seven time to enjoy a new delicious dish and glass of wine accompanied sometimes by local country entertainment.
The local community had pulled together a totally recycled and recyclable cloth bag with enamel plate, real fork and wine glass and hand sewn serviette, all sourced from regional op shops. No detail of comfort was missed. There was even a large water bottle to fill at each thoughfully placed rain water tank along the way.
After the event the bag and entire contents was collected to be recycled for next year’s Grazing Down the Lachlan!
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Station One – Grazing Plate and Prosecco
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Station Two – Fish cakes (Murray Cod and European Carp!) with a Rosnay Vermentino
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Station 3 – Local boutique pork terrine paired with a Swinging Bridge Tempernot
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Station 4 – Kangaroo and pickled red cabbage in a sour dough roll with Cammeray Coobang Valley Shiraz
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Station 5 – Farmhouse Frittata with Roaring Fork Wine Co. Chardonnay
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Station 6 – Small Acres Cyder Apposcato with Mint Icecream Chocolate Sandwich
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Station 7 – Wallington Wines Port or Rose with billy tea and lemon myrtle shortbread and Anzac biscuits
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Sunday Morning Templar Street Community Breakfast
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The Trip Home – Boorowa’s Pantry on Pudnam
For those travelling back to Canberra on Sunday, a great half way spot for coffee, morning tea or a light lunch was The Pantry on Pudnam.
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2019 Grazing Down the Lachlan
Next year’s Grazing Down the Lachlan will be held form 20-22 September. You can subscribe to the newsletter and keep up to date. The tickets all sold out in 4 days this year. So it’s worth joining as a friend of Grazing for $40 so you get first chance at buying four tickets.
This year the tickets were $150 per person for the Saturday 7 course event including the bus transport. Brekkie both mornings is cheap. And there’s plenty of local pubs and clubs in town for Saturday dinner.
It would also work well to drive up (3 hours from Canberra) on Saturday morning and just stay Saturday night. The Plainsman Hotel is a great location and you may wish to use this link to get $20 back with Booking.com (I will get the bonus too).
Could not recommend the event more highly. It was a perfect weekend get away and an exceptionally well run event. Mark Olive did a brilliant job (the food was amazing!) and it was so delightful that he made himself available to chat with the attendees. He really was the perfect choice as creative director. The Q&A Meet the Makers session was a highlight and provided some real insight into the local producers and their passion for their products.