During the second week of November we were so happy to welcome Brigidine College back to the region. This is our first school visit since COVID hit and we have missed our visiting school tours. It was so great to be out and about showing these students where their food comes from and supporting local farms and business’s.

This year we had a group of about 40 Food Technology, Hospitality and Business studies students who stayed at the ‘Old Vic Inn’ Canowindra.

The tour started at Mulyan Farms with Ed. He took them to see beetroot being harvested and the processing lines. They were able to see and hear first hand about food safety and the different ways this business is working to utilise everything harvested, value adding where they can. The students also hand picked their own beetroot to cook up as part of the evenings dinner. Many of the students had never experienced this before.

That evening the food technology students cooked up a feast for all with local fresh produce including Rayz Organic Lamb and the beetroot they had hand picked.

Day two consisted a tour of Rosnay Organic to learn all about growing figs and olives organically. Next stop was ‘Belmont’ a mixed farm in Canowindra where Stuart McDonald showed them his crops and the machinery that is used to harvest. At ‘Oatleigh’ Scott Hickman went through his grazing operation for the ladies and they were able to see the shearing of some sheep. They were also lucky enough to visit La Barre olives processing facility at Canowindra.

On day three we started pretty early with a visit to the lovely guesthouse Eddy’s of Canowindra and the awesome Muzzy’s Quality Meats where the team demonstrated how a lamb is cut up to make all the cuts you see in store. Last but not least on their way home Scott and Peter organised with the Carcoar Saleyards for the ladies to come and see how a saleyard works.

Thank you so much to everyone involved in making this an experience the ladies will never forget and giving them such important hands-on information that will be invaluable for their studies. It is such a great way to bridge that city-country gap.

Check out the video below of a couple of the ladies describing their experiences.