Farm Gates, Tasmania

If you've seen the Gourmet Farmer on SBS or Tourism Tasmania's real food TV advert, you'd be forgiven for thinking that you wouldn't be able to move without seeing fantastic local producers.

We did find a few great places to visit, but they took a bit of searching out. Here were my favourites:

If you drive through Shefflield on your way to Cradle Mountain you can't miss the adverts for cherries. A lovely lady sells Grade A Tasmanian cherries from her front porch. They were packed full of flavour and sweetness. The cherries were so good we stopped on the way to Cradle Mountain and on the way back again to buy some.

Raspberries are my favourite berry. Nothing comes close. I couldn't drive past the Raspberry Farm in Railton without stopping for a punnet. They were full of flavour and had a lovely tartness. I was in heaven munching my way through them. I think Marlina would have preferred them sweeter, but I think a good raspberry should be tart.

Following a recommendation from a colleague just back from  Tasmania we visited Kate's Berry Farm while we were staying near Wineglass Bay. More of a café than somewhere to buy fruit. The servings of ice cream were enormous. I really liked the raspberry sorbet, although the blackberry ice cream didn't have a lot of flavour.

We also went for some warm homemade scones with blueberry jam. The scones were short and crumbly just like a good English scone would be.

 Following a tip from another set of friends we stopped by the bakery in Coles Bay for an afternoon treat. The owner of the bakery is French and apparently bakes a mean croissant, however, as it was three in the afternoon I went for the cheesecake. It was a rich cheesecake that would have held it's own in the big Habberfield taste off.

 
In amongst the gems above there was quite a lot of over priced mediocre wine and a few highly commercialised operations. I was disappointed we couldn't find any wonderful local cheese producers. Our most comedy moment came when visited one of the largest fish markets in the south east to find they only sold three different types of fish. It really was a sight!

Perhaps my farm gate expectations were a little too high. Or, as one local told us, people grow and catch enough for their family meaning they shop less frequently and consequently there are less places for us tourists to visit. The slightly harder than expected search made the raspberries all the more enjoyable when we did find them!