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Maggie's Table Maggies Table, ISBN 9781920989231 and books by Maggie Beer on sale at thebookshelf.co.nz Maggie Beer is a long–time resident of South Australias Barossa Valley. She is deeply involved in the food culture of the area as a producer, chef and enthusiastic champion of all the Valley has to offer. Here are recipes and stories that capture the rich flavours and colours of Maggies home. Season by season, we discover how she cooks with fresh, local produce for simple family dinners and large festive occasions. We travel with her to the local dairy for fresh cream to make ice–cream, to the butcher for smoked meats, and to the neighbouring beekeeper for delicious honey. The large wood oven in the garden is lit for baked lemony chicken and potatoes, a picnic is prepared to take to the local pine forest to search for mushrooms, and we join Maggies husband, Colin, on a crabbing expedition in order to make classic crab cakes in the electric frypan. Come sit at Maggies Table to celebrate the art of country cooking and to share the generosity and joie de vivre of one of Australias favourite cooks – the marvellous Maggie Beer. About the AuthorMaggie Beer operated the Barossa Valleys famous Pheasant Farm Restaurant with her husband, Colin, for fifteen years. Since closing the restaurant in 1993, she has established an export kitchen in Tanunda to develop and make products for domestic and international markets, and now devotes much of her time to researching and developing her range.Maggie is the author of four successful cookbooks, Maggies Farm, Maggies Orchard, Cooking with Verjuice and Maggies Table, and co–author of the bestselling Stepbanie Alexander & Maggie Beers Tuscan Cookbook. She is also a longstanding contributor of food columns to newspapers and magazines, and is co–host of The Cook and The Chef on ABC TV. ExtractIt was the luckiest accident of my life that Colin and I settled in South Australia"s Barossa Valley. If I believed in such things, I might say that fate had a hand in it all: it has always felt that it was just meant to be. Whatever the reason, the quality of our life here is so deep and rich, and so centred around the soil, the seasons and the community, that I now wonder I was ever a city person.We arrived in the Barossa in the early 1970s after moving from Sydney to "live in the country" and breed pheasants. The fact that we had also bought a vineyard – not knowing anything about viticulture – in order to provide income until the birds were established is an indication of our youthful idealism! Our site selection was equally romantic: we had chosen the Valley simply for its aesthetics as we loved the fresh, green landscape of vines we drove through en route from Sydney to Col"s family at Mallala. What makes the Barossa so very special is that the early European settlers, German–speaking Silesians who arrived in the Valley from as early as 1841, brought with them a strong food culture, a love of music and deep religious convictions that still allowed them to express those aspects of their heritage freely. These people were small farmers, in the Australian scheme of things – they tended to be self–sufficient, they married their familiar foods to the new climate and conditions, and their food was intimately linked to their seasonal celebrations, many of which still exist today. In my view, the fact that the food heritage of those early settlers is the closest thing we could have to a peasant culture in Australia is the Valley"s main and continuing strength. The Lutheran ethic still runs deep today, and the many beautiful Churches that dot the Valley are constant reminders of our past. But at a more basic level, it"s the butchers and bakers who, to me, keep alive the ideals of those early men and women. Lachsschinken, mettwurst, streuselkuchen and bienenstich are everyday items to people in the Barossa, yet they epitomise what is different about this very special valley to anyone visiting. The Barossa is surely one of the world"s greatest trademarks. No matter where I am, I need only mention I"m from the Valley and there is immediate recognition thanks to our legendary wine industry, our famous hospitality and now our small but internationally recognised Barossa Music Festival. The Barossa has a cachet I know others envy, but it"s not something that can be replicated easily. This love of food, wine and music, and the community"s willingness and ability to pull together as a whole, are so entrenched they are now recognised as being part of the Barossa ethic. It"s so rare to see competing businesses working with each other to help support their area as we in the Barossa do, not only during our festivals but at any time we"re showing the Valley to the world. I can"t tell you how proud I am to be able to say I"m from the Barossa. Living in the Valley has certainly taught and given me a great deal. Born into a family where food was always important, I guess my eyes and ears were wide open when I first arrived here, I learnt quickly about the rhythm of the seasons, how to delight in fruit and vegetables picked ripe and at their best, and how to maximise the potential of not only what can be grown here but what is available in the wild. To share in a community as a city person was particularly special, but to find myself in a place so devoted to my own passions – food, music and wine – made it seem, soon after arriving, that it was meant to be. The whole idea of farming pheasants was a pretty wild idea, given that most of the population wasn"t familiar with game birds when we started. But in 1977 Col was awarded a Churchill Fellowship to tour Europe and America and study the rearing of game birds. Within months of our return from that tour, we opened a farm shop to sell our produce direct to the public, as we"d seen done in Scotland. Shortly after that the shop became the Pheasant Farm Restaurant, which showcased Barossa produce and was to dominate our lives until 1993. None of this, nor our subsequent expansion into the export market with our range of food products, would have been possible had it not been for the food culture and work ethic that permeate the Valley, or the marvellous support networks that run through the community. Creating a sense of place and permanence is as much a part of the Barossa make–up as is the willingness to have a go, and another legacy of those early settlers. By the mid–1980s, living and working at the Pheasant Farm was taking its toll. And then, on a weekly horse ride with friends, I saw a tall old German–style cottage set on the side of a hill near Tanunda. This became the ride I"d urge the others to take – the road was so steep we used to let fly and gallop up the hill to gather our breath at the top, overlooking the valley. I don"t know how many times I rode past this cottage before I stopped to ask the owners if they had ever considered selling. From astride my horse I could see a dam at the bottom of the garden surrounded by mature willows and gums, and three huge pear trees. The farm sheds mirrored the design of the high–roofed cottage – all unspoilt and very beautiful. The rest, as they say, is history: two years later we bought the cottage and its surrounding nine hectares. Having an orchard had been the dream of my country life, but the poor soil and lack of water at the Pheasant Farm had made it impossible to grow anything but quinces, olives or grapevines. The soil on the cottage block was deep, sandy loam and we now had the luxury of mains water – finally I could have my orchard. Was this another case of "this was just meant to be"? Even though I thought it unusual that the cottage didn"t have its own orchard, I realise that starting from scratch was even better, as it gave me the freedom to choose the varieties I most coveted. Both the orchard and kitchen garden are pretty close now to what I originally imagined, and they have provided a balance to our life here and to my cooking. There is nothing more engaging for a cook than to work closely with the freshest of fresh produce. I love wandering out in the early morning to choose fruit for breakfast or to walk through the orchard on a summer"s evening, when the scent of the fruit declares its ripeness, to pick asparagus or artichokes that will go into the pot within minutes. This is such a luxury in these busy times, whereas it would simply have been an everyday part of life for the Barossa"s early settlers. This book, then, is a celebration of the life I share with Colin, our family and our friends in the Barossa. It is a celebration of home, a region and its seasons, farmers and their produce, traditional bakers and butchers who enjoy new challenges, and it is about community. And the essence of that life is sharing our table. I love to cook, whether it"s with our little grandchildren at the end of a frantic week, or for a midweek meal with Col, a supper after a concert or a feast for a crowd of friends. "Going with the flow" has become my catchcry, and simplicity the key. With two passionate cooks in the family (our elder daughter, Saskia, is the other, while her sister, Ellie, has a great palate), there are lots of "I"ll bring this" and "You do that". We love cooking and eating outside whatever the season, and over the years our food has got simpler and simpler, involving everyone as much as possible. This book is my way of saying thank you to the Barossa for welcoming me so warmly all those years ago, and for giving us the freedom to realise our dreams. I invite you now to join my family and me at our table.
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 "Maggie's Table")