After almost 40 years, Peppermint Ridge Farm is an extraordinary display garden, café, education centre, native bush foods plant nursery, and place to exchange ideas. “To grow bush foods commercially, we need to replicate natural systems, and learn from the chaos of nature,” Anthony says.
Read MoreTara and Ross Cheesewright grow good apples. They grow apples that taste like real apples. Old-fashioned apple varieties like Granny Smith, Greenstein and Golden Delicious. Amongst their 800 or so trees on their orchard at Bunyip on the Princes Highway 70km east of Melbourne in West Gippsland. What sets Sherwood Park Orchard apart from other orchards in this apple-growing region is that customers bring their own bags and boxes, picnics and picnic rugs, pick their own apples and picnic under the trees.
Read MoreThere has been a reinvigoration in rural agricultural shows. The focus has moved from the rides and fairy floss to good old-fashioned fun and fierce competition to see who can grow the largest zucchini. One of the state’s longest-running is the Bunyip Show which handed out its first blue ribbon in 1900. It is held in the sprawling recreation reserve in the West Gippsland town of Bunyip, a short walk from the V Line train station.
Read MoreCannibal Creek Vineyard is one of the best winery experiences in Victoria, but it's just 20 minutes past the eastern edge of Melbourne. You'll find Cannibal Creek winery on a bend of a treelined lane, a short drive off the Princes Highway. This is the place for a long quiet lunch or a structured wine tasting with food to match
Read MoreOver a century ago, almost 70 tonnes of bricks and steel were assembled in the West Gippsland town of Garfield, 80km east of Melbourne, to form the town’s wood-fired oven. It was similar to hundreds across the state. Today it is one of a handful left standing and one of even fewer fully operational.
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