At Harvest | 11 February 2023

Notable returns and absences, festival washups, and MONA FOMA coming up but no news is good news at Harvest.

With a soggy week 5 in the bag, and a much finer week 6 rapidly approaching, we’re wasting no time in getting stuck in this week at Harvest. With plenty of catch-ups to play and wash-up to complete, we’re mucking in and not mucking about.

No news is good news

Ordinarily, we’d be filling this page with the goings-on of Harvest and other events around the state. And sure, there has been a lot going on lately with yet more to come. Clarence Jazz Festival, Festivale, and Pangea Festival all shared the weekend last weekend. This weekend it is the turn of Party in the Paddock (north) and the Wooden Boat Festival (south). Plus, MONA FOMA gets its run next weekend.

Given that MONA donated the SOMA stage to us, they tend to get the run of it whenever they’re in town. This year is no exception! Next week expect a full day of amazing MONA FOMA artists on the SOMA stage. We’re being treated to the likes of Meyers + McNamara, Freedom Fly (Siwei Wong), and Luke Plumb. Nope, we’ve never heard of any of them either, but that is kinda the whole point with MOFO. Nonetheless, we’re really keen to see what goodness this year’s festival brings to the fore for us to enjoy.

All that aside, to be perfectly honest all is quiet on the western front at Harvest this week. We’ve very little to report beyond the weekly machinations. With that in mind, here are the headlines for this week.

The Ins and Outs this week

Our most notable return this week is Bruce and Lisa, bringing the exquisite flavours and aromas of Saffron Tasmania. We haven’t seen Bruce and Lisa since the conclusion of their last season. During their off-season, they’ve developed a saffron ice cream for your enjoyment! On par with truffles and grapes for the care and skill it takes to cultivate, saffron is a true niche and a lauded delicacy. Notice anything about the three things we’ve mentioned there? Correct, they’re all produced to world-class standards in Tasmania nowadays. Also, all three are available from local producers at Harvest.

On that, we’re also welcoming Truffles of Tasmania back for a few weeks during February. Louisa and the family are still finding their feet a little balancing farm life. This hasn’t stopped them from making appearances when and where they can, with truffle paste and value-added products that keep the revered flavour of truffle on your table out of season. If they think life is busy and tricky now, wait until truffle season! Then they’re in for it. How anyone manages such a highly valuable yet so highly perishable inventory is beyond us. Thank goodness they do though. Otherwise no truffles for anyone, and that would be unacceptable.

Those are the notable ins, but now we should in good conscience mention the notable outs. We won’t be seeing the likes of Sandy’s Sourdough, Brady’s Lookout Cider, Hillwood Fresh Food Co, and New Norfolk Distillery this week. The reasons for this are many and varied and we won’t bore you with them. Suffice to say that all absences are temporary and no cause for concern.

Well, in the interests of brevity, that is it for us for this week. Plenty coming up for you to get around so keep an eye out here.

Thanks for reading 🙂

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