Bar Merenda is such a vibe! It takes its name from Patience Gray’s Honey from a Weed and it has a real sense of place. A feeling that you are actually eating from the soil. Like with that little French cantaloupe cultivar that Andy’s local mate dropped off to him. It was unreal, wrapped in some prosciutto from right down the road and swapped for a meal and some wine.

‘Each week we write a menu with what is available from our local farmers,’ Andy tells us. ‘We make terrine and ricotta using beautiful local pork and milk, we prepare simple vegetable dishes, often roasted in the pizza oven, and there's usually a substantial plate of the day—it’s all simple country cooking, we aren't inventing any new recipes but taking inspiration from the traditions of our friends in the Mediterranean, they know how to eat best.’

It is so true and it’s great when local growers step outside the box when it comes to seeds going into the ground. You see these crazy varietals of veg when you travel and you forget that, as long as it’s in season, we can probably grow that here too.

Which calls to mind a dream lunch in Lazio as well. The purgatory beans hand harvested down by the river and the local goat’s cheese, exchanged for a few bottles of our host’s skin contact wine. And those new potatoes! 

But it’s true that we can grow equally high-quality produce right here on local soil. Like the potato chips we love so much out in potato country—Robertson. In some respects, the globalised state of food today has spoiled us into craving out-of-season produce all year round. But imported fruit and veg on the supermarket shelves just isn’t the same as the vibrancy of local, seasonal produce. Those potatoes are the perfect example of why we should prioritise local and let ourselves be guided by the seasons. 

By sun as the rhythm. 

Sun / Soleil.

A star that gives rhythm to our lives and our seasons. The mind drifts to food like sunshine. To those summer lemons in Amalfi—big, sweet, and bursting with sunshine. To the beautiful fact that, while those are in season right now in the Northern Hemisphere, we have our own citrus harvest here in the Southern Hemisphere. Those of the orange-hued variety, to fill us with all the vitamin C we might need for the harsh winter months.

In a recent read, Matthew Evans’ book Soil, the author says that ‘flavour is a reflection of nutrient density, the best indicator we have of soil health when we ingest our food… seasons also have a strong influence on flavour, and hence nutrient density.’

Evans has a lot to say about vitamin C too, actually. Like how modern transport and storage methods often deplete the nutrients in our food. Apparently ‘broccoli can lose up to 70% of its vitamin C and beta carotene, and half its antioxidant activity, in six days after harvest.’

Which is so scary to think about! But which also makes sense, to be honest—that flavour would be on the level with freshness. Some of our fondest food memories are of fresh, fresh ingredients—vegetables grown in the soil right there and then or seafood caught on the line that morning.

A particular favourite would have to be picking a zucchini flower, lightly battering it and frying it on the cliffs of Tramonti near La Spezia on the Italian Riviera. The cliff house was off the grid, so it really felt as though we were getting back to the roots of humanity, cooking wise. Another big one was the bread at Brae.

Oh the bread! Made from wheat grown and milled on the property—a real full circle moment. In another pocket of Victoria, the town of Daylesford, we visited Bar Merenda—a country wine bar where most of the menu is made from simple, seasonal ingredients grown by local farmers or plucked straight from the garden of owners Andy and Clare Ainsworth.

It's crazy to expect the same vegetables year round, when you think about it. And it’s also so much more exciting to eat seasonally. When we lived in NYC, we would see ramps start to pop up in the restaurants in late April. Everyone would be so excited and the menus would all change and then six weeks later, they’re gone.

‘We have pretty defined seasons here in Daylesford [too],’ Andy adds. ‘So the only option, if you want to eat real food, is to eat what grows at that time of year. Nothing beats the flavour of the first asparagus and wild morels in spring after a long cold winter. [While] many veggies such as pumpkins and potatoes can be stockpiled over winter to ensure you don’t run out. You feel a little in more rhythm with nature when you eat with the seasons and understand why things grow when they do.’  

Here in NSW, we have a great asparagus season as well. Sure you can get them all year round, but if you hit the farmers markets in late August, you will really know the power of the asparagus. And if you're lucky enough, you might even find small quantities of white asparagus! The same goes for pine mushroom foraging and brokering deals for truffles in July. It’s just so cool when your entire kitchen transforms because you got your hands on some rare, delicious produce.

Lately, we have been loving the experimental joy of a weekly produce box from organic growers Duck Foot Farm. That was definitely the vibe when we lived in New York as well, because the access to fresh produce isn’t the same as it is here in Australia. But it has been a particularly interesting time to reintroduce that rhythm recently, with many food supply chains in disarray at the moment and the rising price of produce as a result. 

There is something so pure and simple about getting what you are given each week, based around whatever has just come out of the ground. It makes cooking so much more spontaneous and creative, allowing you to explore new flavours. And it feels more healthful too, because it has come from the local soil at a time when Mother Nature designed those cultivars to be harvested. 

This is when you start to really understand the concept of food as medicine. Like how honey from your local area is supposed to be helpful in warding off illness, because those local bees develop antibodies to the same strains of sickness that are circulating in your environment. 

Mother Nature knows. 

And if we can remember to tap into her seasons, then we can not only eat a rainbow of flavourful foods that support our health in that given moment, but we can also support farming practices that are more in tune with nature, too.

‘Eating locally direct from small scale farmers cuts out the middlemen and ensures the farmers get paid properly,’ Andy explains. ‘You know that your food has been grown with the upmost respect for the land, and it's fresh, vibrant, and seasonal. It makes a lot of sense to us.’ Which is why Andy and Clare have recently bolstered their impressive Bar Merenda wine list with the addition of their own A&C Ainsworth wines—made with the help of local friends Josh Cooper and Owen Latta, who helped source some amazing fruit from the Victorian Pyrenees. Another full circle moment.

Cyclical, natural, just like the seasons. For there is nothing quite as alive as a wine made with minimal intervention. Nothing quite so satisfying as a simple salad of fresh-as-anything ingredients, presented on a beautiful platter. Or as those seasonal lemons piled high in a fruit bowl centrepiece. Lately, we have been eyeing off the Soleil d’Hermès porcelain pieces in particular—just like sunshine on a plate. Which serves as a good visual reminder to use the sun as our rhythm.

The sun is the only star we can see during the day, the brand points out. ‘Crossing our skies, it paints our seas and oceans, our pines and our olive trees, our poppies and laurels, our clouds, so many blues and turquoises, greens and yellows, pinks and rainbows.’ A little like the rainbow on our dinner plate of late. 

 
fin.