Fresh Produce

The Vegie Patch

You will often see Adele, our head chef, knife in hand in our vegie patch first thing in the morning harvesting the herbs and vegetables for lunch that day. The Fowles Wine vegetable garden has been created to provide a continual supply of fresh produce to the restaurant. Planted in 2007, it is managed using organic principles – utilising natural balances of companion planting and encouraging “friendly” bugs, rather than the use of chemicals.

The garden was constructed to minimise water use and to allow for easy composting to create a “no dig” bed. 

With careful seasonal selection and planting the vegie patch can provide salad vegetables as soon as 10 weeks after planting, while other vegetables such as garlic can take as long as six months to mature. Our plantings include lettuce, cauliflower, broccoli, tomato, radish, onion, fennel, spinach, carrots, beetroot and more. While the vegie patches won’t supply all of the restaurant’s needs (you can’t predict a big wedding reception months in advance) these lovingly tended organic gardens will ensure a constant supply of fresh, crisp produce.

Larger plantings are available from the Fowles family property “Killeen”, 20 minutes from the winery at Longwood.  The vast gardens there provide an abundance of vegetables, citrus and stone fruits, together with the more space-consuming plants such as cucumber, pumpkin and melon.  Gardener Joe, will often be seen pulling into the back of the kitchen with a ute ladened with the freshest harvest.  The produce that doesn’t make it on to the plate for lunch goes into the range of preserves and relishes we make in house.

Our vegie patch is a showcase of our drive towards an environmentally sensitive and sustainable enterprise. We are working to integrate organic principles into our much bigger vegie patches – the vineyards. In the meantime, we get to share the products of our own gardens with friends of our food and wine.

Local Produce

In addition to our vegie patches, we are fortunate to have a range of great produce within a short distance of the kitchen door.  Greg trundles in with free range eggs from Nagambie, Scotty the butcher – from the (almost) famous Avenel Butcher – supplies his house smoked pork and fennel sausages and hams, as well as magnificent Hughes Creek lamb.  Our best kept secret is probably the Avenel mushroom farm.  Michelle works 25 hours a day 8 days a week producing the silkiest Swiss browns and glorious field mushrooms.  They can be picked at 7am in the morning and served at breakfast – butter seared – on our home baked baguettes with salsa verde.  Check out our produce shelves for a range of goodies produced by our friends in and around the Strathbogie Ranges including olive oils, honey and walnuts.