SCENIC Rim producers and their premium products took pride of place at Brisbane botanical bistro Wild Canary's Producers Lunch.
Situated in the Brookfield Garden Centre, Wild Canary places a special focus on sourcing local, quality products to serve in their meals.
To tie in with Eat Local Week, they partnered with Scenic Rim businesses Kalfresh Fresh Vegetables, Freshwater Australian Crayfish Traders, Witches Falls Winery, and Fassifern Valley Produce, for the event on Wednesday.
Wild Canary head chef Glen Barratt regularly goes on-farm to visit producers and admires their resilience.
"We are so lucky, within south east Queensland in particular, to be surrounded by such a diverse range of climatic conditions to begin with and such rich soil," he said.
"We prefer to embrace the seasons and locality; everything we tried for lunch today, the carrots are just coming back into production again, the beans, the pumpkins and potatoes are coming through as well.
"We have a lot of respect for our producers and to have that connection - it's the next step - it makes it more satisfying to be able to go out to the farm and experience these things."
Joan Westaway, Moggill, and Kathryn Winton, Mt Mort, enjoying the Wild Canary Producers Lunch.
For Lynne Cray, Anstead, attending the Producers Lunch with a colleague was a rewarding experience.
"It's interesting to hear that a lot of the producers are now going into the more natural way of farming; they're steering away from all the chemicals," she said.
"The other thing I found interesting is they know a lot about their products and they're very passionate.
"The connection between the farm and the chef is really, really good."
Rob Hutchings, Freshwater Australian Crayfish Traders, Tarome, praised the Scenic Rim Regional Council for their ongoing support of producers.
He said the audience at the event had been fantastic and it had been a great opportunity to talk with consumers.
"Farming is a tough business to be in and when you've got the local community and local council behind you, psychologically it does mean a lot to producers," Mr Hutchings said.
"Fundamentally people out there do want to support Australian industries and Australian producers. They just need a little push occasionally to realise that there are faces out there and it's people behind it and that's really the catalyst I think."
On the menu
1. Canape selection on arrival. Pair with 2013 Witches Falls Wild Ferment Verdehlo.
2. Fassifern Valley heritage tomato panzanella, beans, olives, rhubarb. Pair with 2014 Witches Falls Wild Ferment Chardonnay.
3. Aratula freshwater crayfish, pickled daikon, beans, carrots, pecans, native finger lime vinaigrette. Pair with 2013 Witches Falls Wild Ferment Viognier.
4. Slow roasted Lillydale Black Angus beef sirloin, dauphinoise potato, Witches Chase Misty Mountain blue cheese, burnt carrot. Pair with 2012 Witches Falls Prophecy Syrah.
5. Carrot cake, cream cheese icing, rhubarb coulis, vanilla ice cream.
