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This week was a big one in our household. Taylor started kindy! And with that comes the joy of packing snacks and lunch that are appealing enough to actually be eaten, when the act of eating cuts into playing, learning, exploring. Taylor loves fruit, so I stocked up on pear, grapes and banana - buying more bananas than usual. Banana wasn't a hit this week though, so today I found myself with some sitting in the fruit bowl looking a little past it. But that's ok, because it means I got to make banana loaf... Hot out the oven with butter is hard to resist. We've used our 2017 Kitchen Garden extra virgin olive oil which has a fruity palate - this matches well with the banana and gives a lovely moistness to the loaf.  Here's the recipe we used: [download a one page PDF of this recipe here] (Adapted from 'Friends of Horicon Marsh' cookbook) Ingredients 1 and 3/4 cup plain flour 3/4 cup raw sugar 1tsp baking soda (bicarb soda) 1/2tsp salt 1 cup mashed banana 2 Tathra Homestead free range eggs 1/2 cup Tathra Homestead 2017 Kitchen Garden extra virgin olive oil 1/4 cup Jersey Fresh milk 1tsp vanilla essence Method 1. Heat oven to 180C 2. In one bowl mix flour, sugar, baking soda and salt 3. In a second bowl mix mashed banana, eggs, milk, olive oil and vanilla 4. Add wet mixture into dry mixture bowl and stir until combined 5. Pour mixture into loaf tin which is lined with baking paper 6. Bake for 40 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean [Baking time in our fan-forced oven, may vary in your oven]
We let the loaf cool on the rack for about 5 minutes before diving in with butter slathered on our slices. The kids love it, and because of the extra virgin olive oil in the recipe, the loaf doesn't dry out quickly so will be perfect for lunchboxes this week (if it lasts that long!). This recipe makes a loaf that is about 5cm tall. Quick, easy and delicious banana loaf (banana bread). Enjoy! 
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The last few years I've made something sweet to drop in to Taylor's childcare educators as a thank you at Christmas time. This year Taylor is old enough to do it herself, which has been brilliant to watch. She chose gingerbread, as she had one last week and decided she loves them. So she wanted to share gingerbread with those around us! So we got out our trusty kids cookbook and Taylor got to work.  Here's the recipe we used: [download a PDF of the recipe] (Adapted from Children's Party Cookbook by Hatty Stead and Annabel Waley-Cohen) We made one batch and were able to cut out 17 biscuits. Ingredients 250g plain flour 1 tsp ground ginger 1 tsp ground cinnamon 1/2 tsp ground cloves 1 tsp bi-carb soda 125g butter, softened 170g brown sugar 3 tbsp Sticky Fig Syrup (from The Figgery Kangaroo Island) 1 medium egg (a Tathra Homestead one of course!) Method Heat the oven to 190C In a medium sized bowl put in the flour, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, bi-carb soda and butter. This bit is a tad messy, as you use your hands to mix it all together until you've got a mixture that looks like breadcrumbs. Add the sugar, syrup and egg to the bowl and mix with a wooden spoon until combined well enough to form a ball of dough. Make a ball in the bowl and cover it with some gladwrap then pop into the fridge to chill. We left it for about 40 minutes.  Time to roll out the dough! On a floured surface roll the dough to about 5mm thick. Time to cut out your biscuits! Taylor used a Christmas tree cutter and a deer cutter that we got from our fabulous local shop Tiny Nest, along with a star cutter. Pop the biscuits onto a tray lined with baking paper and bake for 8-10 minutes. [side note] In our oven we needed 10 minutes, after checking them at 8 minutes they weren't quite golden. And interestingly some of the shapes really puffed and others stayed quite flat. Once done, take the tray out the oven and leave the biscuits to sit for 5 minutes to harden. Then pop them onto a cooling rack for 45 minutes - 1 hour to cool down before decorating. We used some 'writing icing' for the first time - just from the baking isle in our local supermarket. The little tubes were perfect for little hands and allowed Taylor to make lines, swirls and more. They took a bit of practice but she's excited to use them again for future baking projects! To go with the biscuits, Taylor has also lovingly painted some pictures for both her and Jack's educators. We hope the enjoy their presents and their well deserved break over Christmas. Happy Christmas from our family to yours.  originally written for Barossa Herald and published 13 August 2018
https://www.barossaherald.com.au/story/5577989/familys-farming-passion Three generations of our family are involved in all aspects of the business: from picking olives to collecting eggs, labelling dukkah to hunting for the finest tomatoes. We love our life on the western side of the Barossa Valley in our own slice of paradise. ‘Tathra’ is an aboriginal word meaning ‘beautiful country’ and was chosen by Kim and Joy as the property’s name in 1991 when our family moved in. The 64-acre property was previously farmed, with cropping and sheep, along with chickens, turkeys, pigs and cows. For nearly eight years, Kim researched tree crops including stone fruit, pome fruit and carobs, until settling on olive trees as being most suitable. During that time the family worked to reintroduce both plant and animal biodiversity to the property. We have seen some lovely results with the return of local flora and fauna. Kim's brother, Craig, joined the Tathra Homestead partnership and the family moved forward to plant an olive grove of over 1000 trees and in 2005 we were excited to finally bottle our first vintage of extra virgin olive oil. Today Tathra Homestead revolves around an olive grove, jars of moreish dukkah, vegetable garden, and our ladies, the free-range chickens. We are proud to be a part of the Barossa food culture, being members of Barossa Food and have a weekly stall at the Barossa Farmers Market. Hello! Welcome to the new Tathra Homestead website!
This has been a little project for just over a year now, and I am so glad to finally be able to share this with you. There are some great new functions including:
We hope you enjoy! Cheers, Jess |
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Mostly Jess, but sometimes another Darmody family member. Archives
February 2019
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