The Sunday of the foodie tour of the Bendigo area had us consuming our sourdough fruit buns and olive rolls for breakfast, packing, and hitting the road on a most picturesque journey (with a 1/2 hr looped detour due to a wrong turn, but we did come face to face with a kangaroo as a result) through Mt Alexander into Harcourt.
The weather was glorious and the scenery made you want to run away from the big smoke.
A perfect lead up to sample the local ciders.

Henrys of Harcourt entertained all my expectations of foodie touring–visiting the production site, talking with the makers, sampling the range and enjoying buying from the producer themselves. We got some lovely crisp, dry cider that goes with salmon.
Bress Cidery was our next stop, and again my expectations were satisfied. Fun banter and discussion with the owners/producers and tastings was an enjoyable lead up to the purchase of two Brut ciders stashed away for Christmas.
Searching for coffee in Harcourt led us to the Skydancers Nursery cafe. Again in a lovely landscaped setting, having our pretty decent latte in amongst the plants.

Next was Castlemaine via the Red Apple produce shed, where apples and apple juice were purchased, naturally, but also my discovery of cold smoked garlic–smoked over apple wood.
It smells divine and is actually quite delicate in flavour. This has been used in risotto, and mushroom and smoked garlic salad already, with the aim of smoked garlic aioli some time soon.
Ail Fume has a bit to say on the smoked garlic scene.
Lunch time in Castlemaine at lunch time saw us searching around for a family budget friendly eatery that was a bit more substantial than the local bakery.
We ended up at a cafe never frequented by us before and had a relatively tasty pizza style topped flat bread each. Although one boy did go and buy himself two bakery pies.
A bit of window shopping later we officially called an end to the 2012 Bite, Bag and Buy foodie tour.
We headed home with a few goodies for the pantry, plate or party, but lots of appreciation for the glorious land we have at our doorstep, the hard working and creative producers of beautiful artisan produce and those who we love enjoying it all with.

Smoked garlic and Mushroom Salad

Fry about 600g sliced swiss brown mushrooms that are still firm and closed, in a good chunk of unsalted butter. Sprinkle in a few sprigs of thyme and fold in 2 cloves of smoked garlic. When the mushrooms are still al dente, take off the heat and fold in 2 more cloves (or to taste depending on smokiness) of chopped smoked garlic and a good hand full of chopped continental parsley. Of course this can be served warm, but I served it cold with spinach leaves mixed through as a salad to go with steaks or chicken.