Over 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. What sets the bread baked at Cannibal Creek Bakehouse, as it is called, is that the bread is all made from stoneground flour, an ingredient that produces loaves of exceptional flavour and nutrition but is renowned for being hard to work with.

Co-owner and head baker Kane Warenycia says, “We have chosen the hardest way to bake bread. But the results are worth it.” Cannibal Creek Bakehouse breads are baked in a great cave of a wood-fired oven fuelled by offcuts of cypress from a local mill. After the fire has heated the bricks, the loaves made from long and slow fermented sourdough are baked on the hearth to produce loaves with great, crunchy crusts, tender crumb, and the most delicious flavours that extend from caramel on the crust to rich and sharp and buttery inside. Kane and his business partner David Rushton have turned the rear of the bakery into a 26-seat café with a further 26 seats dotted about the gardens outside under the liquidambar tree and native hibiscus. They continue their passion for fermentation in the café kitchen making their own sauerkraut and pickled cucumbers for their thick, meaty, delicious, toasted Rueben sandwich – the brisket slow cooked in the dying heat of the oven after the bread, rolls and baguettes have been baked.

Cannibal Creek Bakehouse, 41 Main St Garfield, Ph 03 5617 8286, cannibalcreekbakehouse.com.au

A short wander down the road is the equally exceptional Country Style Meats, a butcher specialising in the dying arts of smallgoods and whole carcass butchery. This means that owner John Preston does not buy in boxes of pre-cut steaks of fillets. He brings in the whole beast – always Gippsland bred and raised – and breaks them down into roasts, chops, steaks, and racks. “You don’t see much of this style of butchery anymore,” says the dryly spoken veteran butcher. “It’s all wrapped in layers of thick plastic.” Apart from grass-fed and free-range Gippsland lamb and beef, it’s John hams, bacons, kabana, and black pudding he is probably best known for. “When we first opened, people would come in and ask for old-fashioned smallgoods,” says John. “So we made them!” John has been canny, hiring internationally trained butchers from Europe to work at Country Style Meats. With them, they have brought their skills and adapted recipes for German-style sausages to preserved meats. It is John’s hams that people make their way down the Princes Freeway for. From small nuggets of boneless ham to great, plump entire golden hams, bone-in. Brined in a special solution of salt, sugar and spices the hams are smoked over European beech to give them a rich smoky tang and deep burnished hue. “We aim to make great quality products at a price that suits everyone,” says John.

Country Style Meats, 89 NarNar Goon Longwarry Rd, Garfield, ph 03 5629 2593, countrystylemeats.com.au