Spring is all about connecting with friends and what better way than sharing a charcuterie board!
This month we will meander along the market trail discovering new tastes and products you may have not yet have discovered, and we will get to know some of our great local producers, their stories, and their favourite foods for entertaining.
Putting together a charcuterie board is so much fun, especially when you can wander the Wangaratta Farmers’ Market for fresh and interesting produce.
All of the products we will use are available at the market, and the featured stalls will be marked with a bright green banner on market day.
This month we look forward to sharing the stories of our featured market producers with you:
Gamila at Beechworth – pickled cherries and Egyptian dukkha
Boonderoo Farm – pumpkin sourdough
Maison Renoux – chicken and pork terrine
Stone Hill View – Laughing Labrador extra virgin olive oil
Blue Ox Berries – blueberry chutney
Morrisons of Glenrowan – rose
Stop 1: Gamila of Beechworth
Gamila at Beechworth brings beautiful into the kitchen!
Arabic for beautiful, Gamila and her produce really live this definition.
A software engineer and farmer of saffron and olives, Gamila also handcrafts a range of delicate produce.
This market Gamila has selected her pickled cherries as a stunning addition to your charcuterie board to pair perfectly with terrine.
Gamila is the only producer of picked cherries at Wangaratta Farmers’ Market and she makes these with saffron, enhancing their flavour.
Team up with Gamila Egyptian Dukkha, bread and olive oil to bring the taste of the Middle East to your board!
Click on here for Gamila of Beechworth online shop…
Stop 2: Boonderoo Farm
Boonderoo Farm in the King Valley is an organic farm run by Gabi and Thomas Moritz and daughter Sabine who also use their produce at their cafe, The Oven @ Cheshunt.
Grain grown on their property is traditionally stone milled and used to bake breads and pastries for their cafe at Cheshunt and market stall, using artisan methods perfected over hundreds of years.
With Austrian roots now firmly planted in the stunning King Valley, the Moritz family are famed for their handcrafted produce.
We are thrilled to feature their pumpkin sourdough loaf as one of the stars of our charcuterie board in our Fling into Spring Market Trail.
Riley is the happy face behind the market stall – stop by, have a chat and grab a muffin to go while you are collecting ingredients for your Fling into Spring Charcuterie Board!
Click on this link to take you to Boonderoo Farm Bakery Facebook page…
Stop 3: Maison Renoux
Maison Renoux brings Brittany, where cuisine is said to bring the outdoors into the kitchen – to North East Victoria.
Michel was born with a love of good food. The son of a restaurateur in Brittany, he was immersed in the creation and presentation of food from the very beginning.
Based in Beechworth, Michel Renoux is a master at making vinegar, terrines, pates and rillettes using traditional methods from his first home on the windswept Atlantic coast of Brittany.
Michel grows his own varieties of apples and hand crafts his vinegars in his cellar in Stanley which houses rows of 1000 litre tanks of cider being transformed into vinegar by the ‘mother’ which is a jelly like mass that floats on top of the cider.
It consists of a thick web of acetic acid bacteria which protects the vinegar below from oxidising, creating a beautifully sharp vinegar with surprising sweetness.
Maison Renoux vinegars range from apple cider vinegar to pommo which is a darker, sweeter vinegar made from caramelised apples and then a much darker almost black vinegar called l’aigre-doux which is deliberately burnt turning the sugar of the apples black and creating a distinct sweet and sour taste which he explains is not appealing to look at but has a fantastic flavour.
Michel has built a reputation in North East Victoria as a renowned chef who has been instrumental in the development of a number of famed foodie destinations in our area.
We recommend adding Michel’s Chicken and Pork Terrine to bring the true flavour of Brittany to your ‘Fling into Spring’ charcuterie board to wow your friends – and please, please pick up his handcrafted apple cider vinegar ( you’ll be amazed by the taste!)
Stop 4: Morrisons of Glenrowan
Di and Bob Morrison are well known in North East Victoria – in fact, if you went to school in Wangaratta, you may well have been taught by them!
Former teachers with a great love of wine, family and North East Victoria, the Morrisons with their three daughters Maxine, Robyn and Anne, created Morrisons of Glenrowan Winery.
It would be hard to find more passionate people about their wine and their community than the Morrisons.
You can experience this love and care each bottle of their unique Glenrowan warm climate wines.
While this ‘beyond living memory’ wet season has proved really challenging for most farmers and producers, the location of the Morrisons vineyard coupled with this unseasonably warm and wet years has seen the grape canopies forming and flowering in early October and bud burst happening in late October.
Di and Bob see this augers well for a fantastic vintage in the coming year.
Di’s recommendation for the perfect wine to accompany your Fling into Spring Market Trail Charcuterie Board is the Morrisons of Glenrowan 2021 Rose -consider getting a couple of bottles !
Click here for their online shop
Stop 5: Stone Hill View
Stone Hill View from Allan’s Flat, the other side of Yackandandah, is known for its luxurious recycled wool tartan blankets and woollen pet pillows.
But did you know they also produce award-winning extra virgin olive oil hand-picked and pressed on their farm under the Laughing Labrador label after their trusty hound, Fletcher!
Jayne and David’s approach is to produce what they love to use.
Moving from Melbourne ten years ago, they hit the ground running on their new property, going straight into olive harvesting the week following their move – and they haven’t stopped since.
All their products are made sustainably and with authenticity.
The Stone Hill View approach is working!
Not only are Jayne and David creating unique, high quality lifestyle products but they are winning awards, bagging a Bronze Medal at the 2022 Australian Golden Olive Awards.
Click here for their online shop…
Stop 6: Blue Ox Berries
Blue Ox Berries was a tree change for Helen and Wayne 23 years ago and in good humour, Wayne says it’s a journey they continue to learn on!
In picturesque Oxley, in the Milawa Gourmet Region, Blue Ox Berries is an cherished institution with their distinctive label found in every self respecting local providore throughout the North East.
Helen and Wayne grow raspberries, boysenberries, blackberries and blueberries on their small farm.
The berries are handpicked and available fresh in season from December to March, or frozen and in jams, sauces and relishes all year round.
Wayne recommended Blue Ox Blueberry Chutney as the perfect addition to the Fling into Spring Charcuterie Board. He said blueberries are well suited to the cold winters of our local climate and ripen in early summer.