Food & Beverages

Burnie’s Hellyers Road Distillery has been named 2022 Tasmanian Exporter of the Year at a gala event in Hobart ... Hellyers Road took out the title after being named the Small Business Award category winner earlier in the evening.

After six months of silence, steam from the sugar mill chimneys punches into a clear sky before quietly dissolving into the blue. It is a welcome and familiar sight for residents of the small riverside village. Finally, cane is being crushed again and its back to work at Sunshine Sugar in Broadwater.

The bakery, established in 1854, is one of the oldest brick buildings in town, with a rare wood-fired scotch oven. The concerns of some, recently posted on the Maldon Noticeboard Facebook site that the bakery was to be repurposed as a cafe, have now been allayed by new owner Rebecca Barnett. ... Rebecca will be restoring the original wood-fired scotch oven with the help of locals with extensive experience in working with scotch ovens.

Clarence Valley Council's Tourism team ... presented Clarence Distillery co-owner Adam Freeman with the 2022 North Coast Local Tourism Hero Award for the Clarence Valley. The many ways this Yamba business epitomises 'local' - which led to their nomination - include ... great collaborators who often work with other local businesses to showcase products from the region ...

Samuel Davis. Sly grog swindlers peddling cask wine and spirits are fuelling a spate of senseless and violent acts in western Cape York, angry community leaders say ... “The sly grog has been bobbing up for the last three weeks. There are people not turning up to work, threatening managers ... What is our community coming to? At the end of the day, it’s about personal responsibility": Pormpuraaw Aboriginal Shire Council CEO Edward Natera.

The last two and a half years have taken so much from so many, and so Mardi Brown and Pete Gurrie, owners of Sunday House, wanting to find a meaningful way to contribute to the community, have launched an initiative to donate fresh meals for every direct booking made. The money raised will go towards assisting vulnerable people across the country via the superheroes at SecondBite, one of Australia’s largest food rescue organisations.

Lockhart baker Steve Peters has awarded the first of his Blue Bird Cafe Restaurant scholarships to nursing student Holly Louise Fordham. Mr Peters is giving something back to the community by offering university students from Lockhart Shire the chance to receive some money from the scholarship incentive he is offering.

Have you ever reached for a bright yellow bunch of bananas over bruised ones? Or perhaps you’ve tossed a half-full packet of spinach into the trash to free up fridge space. Chances are at some point in your life, you’ve contributed to the global food wastage problem. And you’re not alone ... In his final year studying a Bachelor of Property at Bond University, Mr Creese launched Dehydrated Co, a business which transforms fruit bound for the bin into a dried garnish with a long shelf life.

Australia's beef and sheepmeat sectors can expect continuing demand from China despite its slowing economy and continued lockdowns impacting how the country consumes animal proteins. Speaking on a newly-released podcast, Is the Chinese meat market still firing?, Rabobank's Hong Kong-based senior animal protein analyst Chenjun Pan said China's lockdown policies have affected the population's protein consumption habits, with the major short-term change being where people are consuming food.

Boutique Hunter Valley winery, Briar Ridge Vineyard, wins “Other White (& Blends) Wine of the Year” with the 2021 Limited Release Albariño by winemaker Alex Beckett ... Winemaker Alex Beckett also recently took out the Riedel 2022 Hunter Valley Young Achiever of the Year award that recognises exceptional talent and contribution to the wine industry by winemakers under the age of 35.

Castlemaine Central Wine Store specialises in wine from small and medium-sized producers (mostly family owned and operated) from around Victoria. You will find a wide range of varietals such as Shiraz and Cabernet Sauvignon - surely specialties of our part of Central Victoria - to wines made from less well-known grapes including Durif, Grenache, Nebbiolo, Sangiovese, Tempranillo, Mataro and of course Pinot Noir.

Clarence Valley business HoneyBee Hives are buzzing with excitement after being announced as the runner's up in the 2022 Australian Rural Business Awards, for the Excellence in E-Commerce Award. The awards are designed to recognise the strength, resilience, and talent of small business owners in rural and regional areas who have, in the last few years alone, gone through droughts, bushfires, mouse plagues, floods, lack of tourism and a global pandemic.

Samuel Davis. Cold beer and refreshments can be savoured in Lockhart River again after the community’s new social club finally opened its doors to patrons ... The club, which opened its doors on Friday night, operates under a Restricted Liquor Permit that aims to provide a safe space to socialise and drink responsibly ... In a community with high unemployment, Cr Butcher said the social club provided more than just a gathering place.

The latest quarterly Consumer Price Index (CPI) data, has shown a continuing rise in Australian food price inflation, with June 2022 quarter food prices increasing 5.9 per cent compared with the June quarter last year. Rabobank senior food retail analyst Michael Harvey said this was the highest year-on-year increase seen in food prices in the CPI since the September quarter 2011, when yearly food price inflation had peaked at 6.4 per cent.

A taste of Bonalbo is on its way to a prestigious food show in the city. Simon and Emma Powick’s tomato relish won first prize at the Bonalbo Show and their lemon curd came second. They make and sell onion marmalade and beetroot relish as well.

Just back from three weeks overseas ... I thought I would write a few lines about booze overseas: quality, range and distribution ... Our first stop was the US ... We used to drink wine on our visits to the US ... Spent the first day in London walking the “Monopoly board”, stopping for a reviver or two in beautiful pubs.

An alliance between food industry associations across the food supply chain, from paddock to plate, has been formed to address key issues associated with ensuring reliable and affordable access to food for all Australians during this unprecedented time of supply chain disruption ... The Alliance includes: Independent Food Distributors Australia (IFDA), The National Farmers Federation (NFF), Australian Meat Industry Council, (AMIC), Master Grocers Australia (MGA) & Australian Association of Convenience Stores (AACS).

The past decade has seen a huge rise in gin consumption and one of WA’s newest distilleries is producing this popular spirit using a rather unusual product. The Cannabis Botanical Distillery (CBD) uses, as its name implies, cannabis as its alcohol base ... CBD’s owner, Matt Beaton, says he’d always had a dream to start a distillery and after joining his wife on her parents' 360 hectare Raintree Farm in the Great Southern region, that dream has become a reality.

With the only beer, food and music festival in Australia coming up in Adelaide in July (see the 2021 revellers), it's a perfect time to learn about the craft beer industry in the Barossa ... David Henderson from Western Ridge Brewing and Tom Ryan from Barossa Valley Craft Malt shared some insights about this bright young local industry with Australian Rural & Regional News.

A butcher’s shop in Lockhart has earned the proud accolade of making the best sausages in the Riverina and it has an award to prove it. Lockhart Gourmet Meats has made a clean sweep in the Australian Meat Industry Council (AMIC) Sausage King, Best Butcher's Burger and Smallgoods competition ... Lockhart Gourmet Meats owner Jared Walker praised his butcher Russell Gleeson for creating the winning recipes.

There is good news for lovers of Mexican food. Taco Love Bros restaurant has moved from Lismore to Casino. Chef Dylan Morris and partner Sappho Rose had already planned the move well before the floods hit in late February ... Six new shops have come to Casino including Lismore Watchmakers ...

There was a treat for food lovers last Friday night with Nyinkka Nyunyu holding a Dinner Under the Stars for around 40 people ... so much interest that a second sitting on Saturday night was added ... Diners on both nights were also able to participate in an Aboriginal art auction and a short film.