Tassievore “Eat Local” Challenge

Last year I was vaguely aware of Tassievore Eat Local Challenge, which was a six-month challenge for participants to include as much Tasmanian food as possible in their diet.  I gathered that the serious Tassievores were intending to eat nothing but Tasmanian-sourced food over the six months, but that really the overall aim was to increase the amount of Tasmanian food people ate – and to raise awareness of how much great Tasmanian food is out there if you go out looking for it.

I’m the world’s worst meal planner and the thought of having to plan meals around what I could actually get locally and seasonally for six whole months terrified me!  So I filed it away as something that sounded great and that I’d love to do, but, but, but . . . [insert excuse of choice]

This year the challenge running again, in a different format.

The challenge is running over the month of March, with a different mini-challenge each week.  This sounded a lot more doable for me, so I signed up.

You can find details of the challenge on the blog or on the Facebook page.

The challenge for the first week is to try something new from Tasmania. On the Facebook page they say that what you do is totally up to you, but they have some suggestions:

1. Try growing something that you haven’t grown before.
2.  Try cooking Tasmanian quinoa.
3.  Try a drop of local cider, wine or beer that you haven’t tried before.
4.  Visit a restaurant or shop that you have heard does a good job of focussing on local ingredients.
5. Visit a local farmers market if you haven’t before.

I haven’t decided what I’m going to do this week that’s new, but I want you to know how dedicated I am to the cause, so this is what we did this weekend.

This weekend was the Open Weekend for the southern Tasmanian wineries, so we dutifully visited four local wineries yesterday to sample their wines. This doesn’t qualify for the Tassievore Challenge because I’ve been to them all before. One of them, Derwent Estate, many (*cough*) many times.

It was nice to get a chance to get to a couple of wineries that aren’t normally open to the public and talk to the people about wine, roosters and day jobs.

For the record:

• Laurel Bank – their Sauvignon Blanc is a particular favourite of mine 
• Stefano Lubiana – committed to biodynamic production, they have just completed their new Osteria, which was open for the first time this weekend 
• Viridian – with the fantastic ‘vertical tasting’ of Rieslings dating back to 2007 and I could have spent all afternoon there (they sell their wines at the Hobart Farm Gate Market on Sundays)
• Derwent Estate – we love this place and we’re looking forward to the opening of their new cellar door next month 

Today we visited another Tassie icon, the Two Metre Tall Brewery. Yesterday was for wine and today was for beer.

Farm Bar is one of my favourite things about living here, and we’re reasonably regular visitors. Today we had a nice relaxing time with ale, cider and beer-fed beef. Catching up with friends and sitting outside on a glorious autumn afternoon.

Again, this doesn’t qualify for the Tassievore Challenge, because it’s not new for us, so this week I’ll be trying to find something or somewhere that I haven’t been or seen before.