Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Anyone attending in Perth 11-13 July. Looks like a great turn out.

I will be there with bells on. I love these things and my foodie side always gets tingles when it rolls around each year
The Riedel Wine Theatre and Paddock to Plate with Matt Moran will be my highlights I think. I spent a big chunk of my childhood in WA country towns so I'm looking forward to seeing what he's got to say about the rest of the country too.
Freo Sardines' stand will get a look in too

I will probably go...

Speaking of food and wine, went down to Manjimup yesterday with a mate, guess what I bought while I was there?



Yep, a truffle.. Never had it before, and as my mate was buying 100 trees inoculated with the truffle fungus to plant at his property, I figured I'd lash out and buy a real while while I was there..

Interesting to see how they do it all. They had all the truffles in an esky from the mornings picking, each in a separate paper bag. They weigh them dirty, then clean them with high pressure water jets and weigh them again, and record the weights of each one. This one I got was 53g, he then vacuum packs it in a small bag, grabs a foam esky you could put a 6 pack in, drops an ice pack in the bottom, lines the whole inside of the esky with silver insulated bubble wrap, drops in lots of those packing noodles, puts in the sealed up truffle, then more packing noodles, then fold over the silver bubble wrap, drop in a business card and recipe booklet, on with the lid and seal it all up..

All for a tiny 53g chunk of smelly fungus... No wonder they cost so much, this one cost $100, $2 a gram. When we got back last night sliced off a little corner as you can see, and to be honest... Just quietly... I wasn't really impressed. Wondering what all the fuss is about.

Still, I'm about to go and buy a whole Brie cheese, slice it in half fill with slivers of truffle, then put it back together and into the fridge to rest for a week.. Next weekend we'll have truffle brie cheese for starters, then the rest of the truffle cooked in a main dish.

Now I have to go and help plant 100 trees...

Lol, I'm a bit the same. I've had truffle quite a few times in various forms and I can't warm to it. I keep thinking maybe it was just how it was prepared and served but no, I just don't like it. I have a friend that wants to do as yours though and plant out a whole truffle oak grove, with a few hazelnut trees for good measure. You don't need to like them to make money from them I guess!

I wont be going to the show but it looks like some of my Trout will be. I just had a call from someone involved with the event desperately seeking some trout they could strip for caviar on stage. Luckily I still have a few females left that I havent stripped yet.

Very cool Troutman! If I'm there on the right day I will try and get some pics of a celebrity squeezing your fish for you :-)


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Thanks Kat. It will be Miguel Maestre doing the stripping and then using the caviar in one of his cooking demonstrations. I was told he will be doing it on both the sat and the sunday. There pretty keen for the fish as they will be driving down here on both days just to pick them up.

Wow that's a big effort on the organiser's part! Will definitely be watching then :-)


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Very cool, I've watched trout stripping on the net, imagine how yummy caviar would be fresh like that

Have you eaten more of the truffle Joel, watched a program a minute ago about them and still wondering why they are so expensive

Can you give us a link please Charlie, I could not find it and would like to see it.

It was some time ago slowboat but I'll see if I can find it for you. I'm pretty sure it was a salmon trout farm in tassie

Oh sorry didn't back read, I thought it was Gav's trout caviar.