COU NTRY ST Y LE JUNE 2017 49“Gemma and I thought we knew everything about
gardening, so we started to build one,” says Armando. “Eight
years later, we were sitting on the verandah having drinks and
I asked, ‘Tell me honestly, do you like what we’ve done here?’”
When Gemma answered no, Armando agreed and the pair
enlisted Central Coast-based landscape designer Michael
Cooke to take over. Michael designed a curving and expansive
garden over 2.5 hectares that provides ample space for the
couple’s sculpture collection, as well as an arc of Seville
orange trees and a sweeping driveway. “We’ve learnt along
the way,” says Gemma. “Sometimes if you don’t have the eye,
or the knowledge, it’s good to call in the experts!”
Most of their entertaining is done at Valleyfield rather
than in Sydney. “Before we had the place here, we would
always be in the city spending every night in restaurants,”
says Gemma, adding that it’s a nice change to simply sit under
the stars with a glass of wine. Armando loves experimenting
in the kitchen and making dinner for friends. “Sometimes
I cook Italian, but mostly I like to try something completely
different, like Lebanese or Indian,” he says.
The orchard and garden provide plentiful produce,
and although most of the herbs at the restaurant are from
Valleyfield, Armando prefers to save his vegetable bounty
for home-cooked meals. “In the last three weeks I’ve grown
around 20 eggplants,” he says. “They’re not going to be
taken to the restaurant — we need boxes and boxes — so
I just cook them here at home.”
The garden also supplies the makings of a food range
including marmalade and chilli paste, which can be bought
at local bar and café, Great Northern Trading Post, as well
as online and in their Paddington restaurant. Everything
is made onsite in the couple’s barn with the exception of the
olive oil, which is processed 45 minutes away in Lovedale
and returned to Valleyfield in vats for bottling and labelling.
A short walk through the garden leads to the guesthouse,
which offers boutique accommodation. Guests are advised to
keep a keen eye out for visiting kangaroos at dawn and dusk,
and to help themselves to anything edible from the garden.
Over the winter months, when he’s not in the kitchen,
Armando can be found relaxing in front of the big, open
fireplace with a good book and a glass of red wine from
local favourites Tyrrell’s or Scarborough. “We are very
lucky here,” says Gemma. “When you enter the property
through the causeway over the little creek, that drive
across the water — even though it’s just a few feet
— really brings you into another world.”
For more information on Valley field Escape, telephone
(02) 4998 3312 or visit valleyfieldescape.com.au