SEATED under a 150-year-old pecan tree, with cloudless skies and a crisp autumn breeze, 135 people gathered for the inaugural Southern Downs Harvest regional lunch.
The lunch was designed to celebrate the best of the region’s produce in a first class setting at Melrose Station, Killarney, the home and five-acre garden of cattle breeders, Peter and Colleen Lindores.
The menu featured food and wine from local suppliers, producers and growers, including LiraH Vinegars, cheddar from the Granite Belt Dairy, Wendland Olives, Junabee free range eggs, Suttons Farm apples, sourdough bread from Pittsworth’s Chalala Micro Bakery, pink fur apple potatoes from vegetable grower Mal Smith, rib roast of beef from cattle producers Gordon and Ann Goodwin, and wines from Robert Channon, Symphony Hill and Ballandean Estate, to name a few.
One of the chefs behind the development of the day the brains behind the menu, Jocelyn Hancock, of Jocelyn’s Provisions, James Street, and the chef behind Fortitude Valley’s Alfred & Constance menu, said it was essential the community realised the benefit of putting together such an event with produce that would rival any from other premier food destinations like the Barossa, Hunter Valley, or Tasmania.
“As a community it’s so important to support our local farmers, and it’s so important that we recognise the quality and diversity of the produce in this region,” she said.
Jocelyn, along with co-chef Bev Ruskey, of the Spring Creek Mountain Café and Cottages, and event organiser Peta Hawes, a Killarney local, saw the potential of showcasing this lunch to a wider audience, by channelling their passion for promoting fresh, local and wholesome produce of the Southern Downs region.
Guest speaker on the day, Queensland food consultant Alison Alexander, who regularly cooks with, and writes about the produce of the Southern Downs, said she was most impressed by the variety of food grown in the region.
“The diversity is what strikes me the most about this region,” Alison said.
“I am privileged to being at the first lunch and we can all see how the synergy of the region has come together. Today I acknowledge the beginning of a new idea in tourism for the Southern Downs and I can’t imagine a more beautiful setting in which to launch it.”
