ORGANIC HARVEST
PHOTO: CHRIS MIDDLETON
As good as life gets
In his new book The Edible Garden: Cookbook and Growing
Guide, host of River Cottage Australia, Paul West, tells
how he fell in love with farming and food.I
didn’t grow up in what you’d call a ‘foodie’
household. Mum and Dad ran a small business
and, on top of that, Dad also worked in the coal
mines of the Hunter Valley. They were very busy people
and didn’t have the luxury of being able to spend a
lot of time in the kitchen. That’s not to say we didn’t
eat great food; it’s more that food had a utilitarian
purpose rather than a gourmet one.
Our town was quite small with few options for
takeaway, so every night without fail, Mum would
close the shop at 5pm, come home and have a home-
cooked meal on the table by 6pm. Mum and Dad never
discussed business at the table, there were no smart
phones and the TV was always off. I look back now
and realise how important these meals were to our
family. It was a chance to put the day behind us, share
our stories and eat nourishing food in good company.
While I’ve always enjoyed eating good food,
it wasn’t until I was in my early twenties that I
finally discovered the joy of growing food. I was
travelling around Tasmania and heard about an
international organisation called WWOOF (Willing
Workers On Organic Farms), which provides foodand accommodation for volunteer members in exchange
for five or six hours of work a day. Being a solo traveller
with rapidly dwindling funds, I thought it sounded like
an excellent idea and joined up.
The first farm I stayed on was like something out of
a kid’s storybook.
The farmer was a Frenchman and retired carpenter
who had created his own little slice of Provence in
northern Tasmania. I found myself eagerly working
well beyond the prescribed hours, tending vegetables,
fruit trees and chickens.
This may have had something to do with the fact
that every meal we ate included ingredients that we
had toiled to produce. I had never experienced a way
of life like this, and as I looked around the farm, the
amazing food we were eating and how connected we
were to the local community, it became crystal clear
to me that this is as good as life gets.
I was happy, healthy and loving every second of it,
and it all came down to growing a bit of food! And here
I am today, hoping to share this inspiration via my latest
book. Here are a few spring-focused recipes to give you
a taste of what it contains.organicgardener.com.au^65