Days have begun at 5.30am with coffee in bed before covering my pj's with a kitchen-friendly garment and starting cooking at 6am. At 9.30am I have been loading the car with morning tea, lunch and afternoon tea for 13 people and driving off on a ridiculous 50km round trip with it all.... to a nice room which has no cooking facilities. I serve the food, leaving them to help themselves to afternoon tea and I arrive back home at 2.30pm or so, unpack and wash all the dishes, then start cooking for the next day, ending usually by 7pm.....
Why would I do such a thing? For some crazy reason I offered to cook for 2 weeks for a permaculture design course 25kms from my home! I am being paid but not enough and I will not be doing it again unless it is in Cygnet or, better still, in my Garden Shed.
Actually I have thoroughly enjoyed it and learned a lot about remote catering, people, time-tables and working with some interesting organisational skills! The best bit has been the cooking though. For once, I can cook and cook all day, all the things I love, and have enough people to serve it to so that I can cook different stuff tomorrow and never run out of customers.
They all have asked for my recipes and this has kept me going through some challenges. One man has told me he has not felt so good for many years, all because of my lovely, healthy food and others have said its the best food they have had in Tasmania....
Before I started I sent out an email to all the Tasmanian people I have contact details for, offering them to come and cook with me; to learn about seasonal, local, organic food, and cooking from the garden and pantry, even in what is sometimes known as the hungry time of the year..... mid to late spring. In return I would get an extra pair of hands in the kitchen and some nice company while we cook together.
I was pretty surprised to get almost no takers.... and then my email was sent further on, it seems, and in the net I caught 3 wonderful women.... Cynthia, Carole and Marion. Three people so different from one another but such a pleasure it has been to get to know each of them although they have not met each other. It is so interesting the way life takes us on these pathways.
It was my intention to document all the cooking so I would have notes and photos for the blog and for any future cooking I might take on. However I have not done it; not one word or photo has been set down..... sadly. It has been hard enough to just remember to wash some clothes and feed poor Pickle, never mind getting some nice photos or writing anything down!
Well, its back to the kitchen for the last 3 days.
Bon appetit!
ps I wrote something for the KGI newsletter which you may like to read here
3 comments:
Lucky permaculture design students, having you to cook for them, Kate! Sounds like a great job for you, except for the distance.
I wish I had received your email, I would have loved to come and cook with you!
Oh Michelle, I wish you had too! I hear your cupcakes are legendary and can only imagine how much fun it would have been to cook together.... Maybe there will be a next time! If you are in Cygnet, call in. When I next go to the Sunday market in Hobart I will introduce myself.
Post a Comment