Tasmanian food writer tells the story of the Huon in her new book
Mercury Taste columnist Elaine Reeves has released a new book, A Table in the Valley, which celebrates Huon-grown produce with a collection of recipies by Tasmanian chef Steve Cumper.
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Tasmanian food journalist Elaine Reeves remembers a time when most Huon Valley locals had “freezers full of salmon”.
“People in the Huon would be swapping recipes for salmon patties or salmon chowder – recipes for what to do with all the yards of salmon you had,” says Reeves, who moved to the Huon Valley from Sydney 30 years ago and is the Mercury’s Taste columnist. “They had a huge number of escapes. The nets weren’t so good then.”
Reeves tells the story of salmon, from the perspective of Frances and Peter Bender of Huon Aquaculture, in her new book A Table in the Valley, which celebrates Huon-grown produce such as Berkshire pork, abalone, fruit, vegetables and more with a wonderful collection of recipes by award-winning Tasmanian chef Steve Cumper.
The pair began working on the book in 2014 while Cumper was head chef and owner of the Red Velvet Lounge in Cygnet. They wanted to produce a hybrid coffee-table book with beautiful photography, recipes and stories about the Huon Valley’s many and varied food producers.
“It’s all kept short for dipping into. You don’t have to read it cover to cover,” says Reeves.
“Stories emerged from conversations over the years. It’s a bit like my column in that my stories are about the people who grow or make the food [and beverages]. The Huon Valley has that tradition of very old industries, with families going back generations in the same business, and then there’s the new people coming in.”
The result is testament to the inquiring and open mind of the author, whose stories share her delight at discovering new people doing intriguing things and her long-held interest in better-known foodies and farmers, such as Matthew Evans of Fat Pig Farm, Masaaki Koyama of Masaaki’s Sushi in Geeveston, and the Benders.
Local and personal histories — both generations-old and more recent — are told visually through wonderful historical pictures as well as words and photographs by publisher Paul County and Nick Osbourne. Reeves’s rapport with her subjects is evident throughout. There’s a generosity of spirit shown by individuals featured, such as Gillian Ryan of Cygneture Chocolates and dairy farmers Aiden Direen and Graeme Gorringe, who share their stories openly.
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Reeves says she was surprised to discover producers she had never heard of virtually living on her doorstep. “If I was short on a particular person [retailer and farmer] Bec Bovell at the Cygnet Garden Larder [who is featured in the book] could put me onto someone,” says Reeves. “Even though he’s a near-neighbour of mine, I didn’t know about John Donohoe, the potato grower [at Lymington]. He’s a lovely man. He’s one of the old guard. He’s on a farm that his great grandfather got as a soldier-settler and he supplies Bec with potatoes.”
In her story about him she writes: “John remembers being taken from school to the town hall when fires raged through southern Tasmania just after he turned 10 in 1967. ‘They called out the names of people whose houses were lost in Lymington, the first was Susie Coe.’ ... In the barn, sows suffocated, but the piglets, closer to the ground, survived.”
The stories of orchardist David Cane of Franklin and Dover fisherman John Careless also captured her imagination. “David Cane the stonefruit grower at Franklin has a most marvellous orchard,” Reeves says. “They start off early in the summer with berries, then onto apricots, nectarines, peaches and plums and they only have help with the apples. Chefs from town go down there with their empty vehicles and fill them up.”
She says she was “very impressed with John Careless, the fisherman with the lovely name”. “He just wants to fish. He goes out all on his own and then as he’s coming back with his catch, he texts his mum and says he’s coming in and he’s got such and such and she puts the word around by email or text-tree and then everyone just turns up at the [Dover] wharf to buy fish.”
There’s a lovely portrait of Careless on his boat with his dog. Reeves writes that he sells whole fish and will scale, fillet and cut fish whatever way the customer likes. She advises: “those just passing through could keep their eyes peeled for a couple of signs that John’s mum Astrid or his girlfriend Kylie Clark put out on the road as he ties up”.
Reeves has met many young couples trying new things in farming and food and wine production, such as winemakers Paul and Gilli Lipscombe and Jim Chatto and his wife Daisy. “There are so many stories in here about clearing away blackberries and so many of the stories are about young couples starting from scratch,” Reeves says. “They are here for the challenge.”
There are recipes throughout the book, grouped according to the season, starting with autumn and ending with summer. The spring recipes feature produce that’s in season now and include ones for lamb with harissa, yoghurt and quinoa salad; bucatini Swiss chard, spring onions, chilli, garlic and pangrattato; and crayfish roll with saffron aioli.
“Steve as long as I have known him — when he was at Peppermint Bay, and then at the Red Velvet Lounge — has always made a point of using food from nearby; at least from Tasmania but as nearby as he can get it. He’s a big supporter of local produce and using it when it’s in season,” says Reeves.
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Cumper’s recipes add to the story of the Huon Valley. His introduction to each reveals a little of his own life. “As a kid I always enjoyed fish fingers but as I’ve aged I’ve become more astute about the provenance of ingredients,” he writes of his salmon fish fingers, pea puree, chips and coddled egg sauce dish.
“Combining my love of the fish finger with a Huon Valley success story like Huon Aquaculture salmon is a win-win,” Cumper says. Likewise, A Table in the Valley’s combination of recipes and stories offers a taste of life in the valley.
A Table in the Valley: Food stories and recipes from Tasmania’s Huon Valley ($49.95) will be launched at 5.30pm on Thursday, December 6, at Fullers. Published by Tas Food Books it is available at all good bookstores and at
www.tasfoodbooks.com
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