Our visit to the farm

We visited a farm in Cobram, Victoria recently.
Joe and Pat take great pride and care in their small hobby farm and are also fantastic cooks who enjoy eating their produce daily.

We were very excited to be able spend an afternoon and over night there and to wake up to a fantastic country breakfast.

When we arrived, we were greeted by a cheerful Joe and Pat. Such a dynamic and happy Italian couple in their late sixties.
They took us for a tour of the farm, proudly showing us the produce grown which was thankfully protected from hungry and dectructive birds using some Bird Deterrents supplied by us at Bird Control Australia.
They had a few Visual Scare Hawkes placed up high on poles. Then they had lots of strips of Holographic Bird Scare Ribbon Tape cut in strips. These were tied on rope which ran between the posts. They were also hung loosely in the fig trees.
They also talked about how well the SuperBird Xpeller Pro V1 worked for them when they were on acreage too. This was very important to them as they used to supply a large supermarket chain with fruit and veg before they retired and bought the hobby farm.

We enjoyed afternoon tea on the deck looking over the garden. We had some apricots and nectarines. Must say we have never tasted apricots and nectarines quite like that before! Just delicious, so full of flavour!

For dinner Pat prepared one of my favourite dishes, Pasta e fagioli ( pasta and beans) made from their gorgeous flat green beans, fresh tomatoes, garlic and basil.
We also enjoyed some Melanzani Ripieni (stuffed eggplant), zucchini flower fritters and olives, all produce from the farm.
Home made wine made from grapes from a friend’s vineyard completed the meal. Yumm!

Life on the farm is wholesome and rewarding but boy do they work hard! We learned that you need to plant certain veggies twice in one season so that you can get the first crop and the second crop, for example broccoli.

We also learned that certain fruit and veg would need to be watered at certain times of the day. Joe would walk around the block with a portable timer which would be set to remind him of when these times would be.
Collecting the seeds and sowing was another essential and important process.

Waking up in the farm was so peaceful and such a pretty site. It was very different to waking up in a Sydney city fringe apartment with bustling cafes across the road.
Of course the morning would not have been complete without a delicious breakfast.
We had Pat’s homemade apricot jam on toast, dried figs and fresh fruit from the farm!

It was time to head home after breakfast as we had a 6 hour drive ahead of us with our 13 month old. We were a tad nervous as our little boy is quite active!
Of course Pat packed us a fantastic picnic lunch to take with us consisting of leftover stuffed eggplants, zucchini fritters and some beautiful small goods.
We also had the privilege of picking some tomatoes and basil to take with us. This is when we learned about how many varieties of tomatoes there actually are! The ox heart tomatoes are so wonderfully meaty and taste fantastic in a caprese salad or insalata di mare ( seafood salad) with delicious red onion.
Happy to say we had a fantastic drive home. Frankie slept for the first 3.5 hours.. bliss!
And we had a great little picnic in Gundagai!
I’m pretty sure I was starting to annoy my husband after that with my singing “ on the road to Gundagai”

What a pleasure it was to spend time with this great family who’s backyard is their pantry!
So glad to also know that we at Bird Control Australiahave contributed to this somewhat in the very smallest way.