It's day 2 of our stay at Wilderluxe Lake Keepit and it's a day spent eating. From a sun drenched breakfast on our star tent's balcony, to a picnic by the lake foreshore and a wonderful farmhouse cooking class and dinner at Carroll Gap Farmhouse, this is a birthday to remember.
The collective noun for pelicans is a squadron, or as I prefer to call them a "pouch" which helps to inform and visualise these unusual creatures. "There are more pelicans here than the rest of the world," says Dan the general manager at Wilderluxe.
The sun streams into the tent and its warmth wakes us up. There's no sound of traffic or neighbours, just the sound of pelicans on the water outside on Lake Keepit. After a solid 9 hours sleep I pull open the curtains and sunlight pours into our tent. I put together breakfast using the provisions in the fridge. Granola is paired with vanilla coconut yogurt. There's fruit bread and apple danishes as well as fresh fruit. I make coffee using the machine and we enjoy our repast on the balcony, the morning chill offset by plush robes and the warmth of the sunshine.
The morning is all about relaxing and this afternoon we have a picnic lunch and a cooking class. Mr NQN has availed himself of one of the house bikes and has had a ride around the property. He arrives back just before lunch as they deliver a picnic basket to our star tent.
We take this down to Lake Keepit's foreshore. The lake's capacity is 425,000 megalitres, we are told almost as large as Sydney Harbour. We watch the pelicans while eating cheese, charcuterie, pate and homemade chutney and jam with Reverence Sourdough from Gunnedah. We finish with fresh fruit and madeleines baked by Jan Dirck from Carroll Gap Farmhouse where we are headed to this afternoon for a cooking class.
13 years ago a tiny red cattle pup came to the Dirck's farmhouse, exhausted after being on its own for three days and made himself right at home. That sense of coming home is the vibe when you reach Caroll Gap Farmhouse, where Jan and Bob Dircks host people for breakfast, lunch, dinner or cooking classes.
Jan was a high school teacher who found it hard to reconcile teaching children who had little interest in home economics. Two years ago when she retired, she decided that she loved being at home and having people around her that were interested in learning about cooking. People have loved being welcomed into her home ever since and she is busier than ever.
When we arrive mid afternoon, the kitchen is bathed in warm Autumn light. There are so many things for the eye to rest on; there’s the enormous Aga stove in one corner, the Falcon stove in the opposite side as well as two other ovens and vintage kitchenalia. Jan's large walk-in pantry and cool room supplies the cooking school as well as lunches and dinners that are booked by guests of Wilderluxe and local patrons. We are booked in for a cheese making class and 3 course dinner which is priced at a very reasonable $120 per person.
Their tiny kitten Pepper sleeps in front of the stove while Rusty the dog stretches out in front of the fire that Bob starts every afternoon. This fireplace is where they will cook tonight’s dinner for us. Yes, that’s right cooking steak on the fireplace. But more on that later.
We start our afternoon with a cup of tea and some homemade cake that Jan has kindly baked for my birthday, as well as homemade cranberry scones and butter croissants. Then it’s onto a cheesemaking class. She measures the milk, heats it and then adds the lipase and rennet to make feta cheese. Jan started making cheese as her cow Clara was providing so much milk every day. In her classes she makes Ploughmans cheese (like a cheddar), feta, camembert and halloumi. "Jan's camembert is up there with the best," says Bob, proudly.
We visit their garden with Rusty in tow to see the dozen chickens that provide the eggs and to pick vegetables for tonight’s dinner. They grow a wide variety of vegetables and fruit from mushrooms, asparagus, fennel, mandarins, orange, blood oranges, both types of artichokes, olives, mulberries, finger limes and pecans. The closest place to buy food is 45 minutes away so they grow a lot on their 100 acre property.
Jan is softly spoken, warm and modest. She asks almost shyly if I’d like to grind some grain for the delicious sourdough crackers we are making. I jump at the chance and we sort the chaff from the wheat and she shows me how to grind their local Bindaroi wheat from Jan's neighbour. Then we get to peeling quinces for tarts for dessert and strain yogurt in cheesecloth to make labne with lemon and garlic.
Jan disappears for a few minutes and returns with some native pin cushion hakea flowers from the garden and arranges them in a vase. She arranges a cheese platter for us to nibble on with a variety of cheeses, home cured olives, and delicious sourdough crackers made using sourdough discard, ground wholewheat flour and rye bread spices like coriander caraway fennel seed. Jan bakes some sourdough baguettes that come out beautifully blistered and bronzed.
Bob and Mr NQN get to talking about all things mechanical in front of the fire. He is a keen inventor and one of his inventions is a grill plate on a hinge that they can grill food on in the fireplace. Jan toasts slices of her sourdough bread on the grill rack and tops them with oven roasted tomatoes and garlic lemon labne for our first course.
After the entree we prepare some roast vegetables from the garden and check on the feta and then Bob starts grilling the Jacks Creek steaks. These award winning steaks are local from Tamworth and Bob cooks them perfectly medium rare.
And for dessert are rubied quince tarts with sour cream pastry and orange custard poured at the table. It's 10:30pm by the time that we leave after 8 hours cooking, talking and eating but time as they say, has flown by in great company. Jan and Bob are so generous with their time and we leave with a packet of sourdough crackers and some feta cheese as souveniers of our time in Big Sky country.
So tell me Dear Reader, do you make cheese at home? What sort of cooking class would you like to do?
Next up: the perfect place to stop halfway between Sydney and North West NSW!
NQN and Mr NQN were guests of Wilderluxe but all opinions remain her own.
Wilderluxe Lake Keepit
Keepit Dam Rd, Keepit NSW 2340
Phone: (02) 4072 2013
https://wilderluxe.com.au/retreats/lake-keepit/
Carroll Gap Farmhouse
3373 Rushes Creek Rd, Somerton NSW 2340
Phone: 0429 658 804
https://www.carrollgapfarmhouse.com/
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