Yesterday was the last day of operation for the Farm Cafe 1.0. We're hoping that work to the new Farm Cafe will start soon. We'll be posting regularly on this page and on our facebook page once some interesting work begins. 

We love peaceful rainy days at the farm.  The trees and flowers all look brighter and the animals enjoy playing in the puddles.  The kids do too!

Cozy up under an umbrella with a mug of coffee and our homemade salted peanut caramel slice and watch the rain renew our beautiful green oasis.

Then pull on your gumboots, wrap yourself in a raincoat and splash around with the goats, pigs, horses and sheep!

There is a reason why salt and caramel is fashionable right now - it's irresistible in a dribble-licious kind of way.

We know it's a 'sometimes' food, but its nice to have such a treat up your sleeve for those cold day low points or to share with someone special. It's very easy and pretty quick too!

Adapted from The Australian Women's Weekly Home Library 

base:

• 125g butter
• 1/2 cup raw caster sugar
• 1 egg yolk
• 1 cup plain flour
• 1/4 cup self raising flour
• 2 tbs rice or cornflour 
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

topping:

• 1/2 cup soft brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon golden syrup
• 90g butter
• 125 grams roasted peanuts chopped 
• 1/2 tsp salt 

method:

1. Set oven to 180 and grease a 20x30 centimeter tin (or there abouts). 
2. Make the base first by creaming butter and sugar, adding egg yolk and when all fluffy and good, add in dry ingredients. 
3. Pop the base in the oven for 15 minutes or until golden. 
4. While the base is cooking, put all topping ingredients (except for peanuts) into a pan and simmer for 5 minutes. Stir in peanuts and pour over the hot base. 
5. Pop back in the oven for another 5 minutes. 
6. If you have patience let it cool in the tin before cutting into small rectangles. Yum! 

Our Head Chefs story about his time at Fundacion Escuela Taller, Columbia.

Our head chef, Camilo, has had some interesting experiences working in his native Columbia on an amazing project. Here's a little bit about his experience and a video on the program. Thanks for sharing this Camilo! 

Camilo's Story

My experience as the Cooking School Director was the biggest professional challenge I've had and it involved two different aspects: 

1. Course Coordinator: Academic Program Development and Managing operations to run the classes (including teaching History of Gastronomy)

2. Head Chef: The Foundation is composed of 4 different schools (Carpentry, Construction, Cooking, Paper Making), and I was in charge of catering for morning teas, lunches and afternoon teas for 120 students and staff members.

My engagement with the academic program, and the support I had from the government, NGO's and the private industry, made it possible to give one of the most ambitious ever cooking programs that I have seen, to the some of the most disadvantaged people in the country/world?

All the problems this kids had, were left behind, as well as their personal differences. Watching them work together for a common goal was amazing, specially with so much rivalry among each other in their previous years. 

The change they had in their personal lives in the course of a year was one of the most fulfilling experiences I have ever llived! Knowing that 80% of the students completed the course (specially under the conditions they live), is what I call success. That means there are less people in the war conflict and more building a country, becoming better persons, a giving back to the world.

My point of reference and inspiration to that moment was Fifteen by Jamie Oliver. I hadn't work for them when I went to Colombia, but it was an eye opener of how you can pass on a bit of your skills and inspire people to do something meaningful for their lives. I was lucky enough to experience working at Fifteen after my work in Colombia, and comparing both Foundations (taking into account the difference in context) was a point in which I knew the highlight of my career had been teaching back home.

Enjoy the video :)

I'm a few months late but I just stumbled upon a lovely post about the Farm Cafe from the blog 'Totally Addicted to Taste'. 

Here's a excerpt:

Click here to read more great posts on this blog about Melbourne Cafe's.

And we've been busy in the kitchen creating a few new dishes for the rest of the Summer season.

Green pea, zucchini & haloumi fritters with natural yoghurt and a tomato & herb salad $14.50 (gluten free) and Grilled Dench brioche with vanilla bean poached peaches, fresh blueberries, mascarpone & toffee almonds $14.50. Yum yum...

We're closing for a bit of a break over the Christmas/ New Years period. Our last day of trade is Wednesday the 22nd of December and we'll reopen on Wednesday the 5th of January. Have a lovely holiday. 

Click here to read a great little story about the adventures of a few kids at the Farm. 

Delicious local produce from 8am to 1pm this Saturday at the Collingwood Childrens' Farm. See www.farm.org.au for more info. 

We enjoy creating most things from scratch at the Farm Cafe. It's an obvious way to put lots of flavour into all our menu items. It's no surprise that home made mayo makes a BLT taste a million times better or that home made raspberry jam makes scones fabulously delicious.  

We've started putting a few of the things we make into jars so you can enjoy them at home too. So far we've got jars of tomato chutney, raspberry jam and beetroot relish. They're all reasonably priced at $8.5 and really yummy.