One of the best parts of my job (and admittedly it's sometimes rather difficult to call it a job when you find so much pleasure in it) is travelling around to different regional areas of Australia and sampling and buying the produce on offer in each corner of this vast country. I usually push my baggage allowance right up to the very last kilo bringing back bottles of lovely preserves, olives, oils, vinegars, dressings, chocolates, biscuits and drinks and when I get home I open up my suitcase and unearth it all like the most valuable newly discovered treasure.
The reason why I like buying regional products is because the products are often artisan handmade in small batches and contain only what you would use if you were making them back at home. There are multi award winning products because a lot of care is taken with the products to put the best quality produce in them. These producers can't stock their items in supermarkets because supermarkets require very large quantities of items among other reasons and so they usually just sell it on their premises and freight is another huge hurdle for these businesses. So eFarmer's Market consolidates these wonderful producers and sells the products on their behalf to help bring together the consumer with the artisan!
Their website (http://www.efarmersmarket.com.au) just launched this very week and you can buy items individually or you can package them up as a gift. Some of the products I've been lucky enough to try on my travels including a divine Gwydir Grove Agrumato lemon olive oil (agrumato is where they crush whole fruit along with the olives instead of using essences as flavour), Lynwood's fabulous caramelised onion marmalade, Bramble Patch eggplant kasundi or Mount Zero mixed olives which contain tiny and delicious little olives.
Thanks to eFarmers Market, five lucky Not Quite Nigella readers will win an $80 gourmet box of hand made goodies! Each box is worth $80 and winners will also receive a $20 gift voucher to use on the website for later purchases. For a chance to win this all you have to do is tell me which item from the below you would eat first and why! Simply add your answer as a comment to the story. The competition ends at midnight AEST 4th of June, 2011. You can enter this competition once daily and it is open to anyone in Australia.
The boxes will include:
Step 1 - Bartholomews Meadery - Honey from Denmark WA. Single source (forest/varietal) never pasteurised, hand gathered, hand bottled and award winning.
Step 2 - Tasmanian Gourmet Sauce Company: 3 assorted mini jars from Evandale Tasmania
Step 3 - The Fudge A'Fare - Wild Berry Fudge from Lutana Tasmania
Step 4 - Fare Gourment - Triple Belgian Chocolate Brownie from Sydney NSW
Step 5 - Matchett's Productions - Chilli Lust (Chipotle Peppers) from Goolwa SA. Smoked Jalepenos, red bell peppers and tomatoes.
Step 6 - More Than A Mouthful - Tomato & Olive Pasta Sauce from Surrey Hills Victoria. made with kalamata olives.
Step 7 - Beatties Xlent Biscuits - Cheescuits from East Trentham Victoria. Using mature cheddar, parmesan and Gippsland butter and flour with a touch of cayenne.
***The winners are:
Rod D. of Victoria
Jasmin W. of NSW
Cathy L. of NSW
Priscilla H. of Victoria
Natasah P. of Queensland****
Best of luck!
Lots of love,
Lorraine
xxx
**
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