Kate Burton

This is Severine Demanet and she doesn’t do things by halves.

Severine grew up in Sydney’s western suburbs and for the better part of the last decade wore a suit to work every day, drank at some of Sydney’s grooviest bars and had never set foot on a farm. Oh, and she can’t cook.
Two years ago, in the dead of winter and with a 4 month old baby boy, she moved with her husband to a farm in the Derwent Valley to set up and run one of Tasmania’s most innovative and environmentally responsible attractions – the Agrarian Kitchen. It’s a farm-based cooking school set on 5 acres at Lachlan in an old 19th century schoolhouse.

Sustainability is the philosophy behind the whole venture. Organic principles govern production in the vege and herb gardens, orchard and berry patch. Rare breed animals are maintained, including Wessex saddleback pigs and Barnevelder chickens. Heirloom varieties of fruit and vegetables are proudly used in the cooking classes and local farmers, fishermen, gardeners and artisanal producers also provide produce.

Her husband, Rodney Dunn, usually gets all of the publicity because he was apprentice to a bloke who can make a nice piece of toast – Tetsuya I think. But Rodney has other claims to fame, too. Such as being the former food editor of Australian Gourmet Traveller magazine. Like Severine, he had a steep learning curve on starting the business. Rodney had never built or worked in a vege garden but from the start the classes have used mostly produce from their garden.

On the day of my visit a sumptuous winter feast was planned (sadly, I wasn't participating. A salad sandwich was on my menu).
Consistent with the catchphrase for the Agrarian Kitchen, classes begin with a forage outside to collect the ingredients for the meal. In case of wet weather gumboots and rain jackets are provided.
After picking the ingredients the budding chefs return to the roomy sunlit kitchen to start their preparation – under Rodney’s guiding hand.

This is the beginning of ‘potato anna'.

And this will be the 'roast root vegetables with crisp capers and anchovy'.

The kitchen is an inspiration. Smoked meats and dried vegetables adorn the ceilings and walls.

On every bench lies something deliciously food-related to catch the eye or water the mouth.

When the guests have completed their cooking – which can take up to four hours – they retire to the dining room to enjoy their feast.
One of the more popular hands-on classes is called ‘The Whole Hog’. (As an aside, demand for this class was so high at one stage that an irate potential guest insisted that more classes be run. Severine had to explain, as politely as she could, that they could only run as many classes as there were hogs...) These pigs will star in a class in a few months’ time… But they don’t know it yet and for the moment live a delightfully wet and muddy existence. And I certainly wasn’t going to be the one to break it to them.

Severine filmed the first pig to be slaughtered on their land and when she told her father he didn’t believe it. ‘Severine, you can’t stand the sight of blood!’ ‘I know’, she told him, ‘but I have to be involved. This is my life now.’
Despite being a relative newcomer to Tasmania, Severine’s is a very Tasmanian story. For many people, this is a place of new beginnings. It is certainly a place that suits the kind of venture that Severine and Rodney have undertaken. Everything from the quality of the local produce, the growing conditions and the aesthetic setting makes their little business a big success. But, in a sign of the times, probably the real secret to its success is its philosophy of sustainability. It is getting harder and harder to ignore the fact that if we are to live well into the future we will all have to learn some of the lessons that this little farm could teach us. Even if we aren’t quite ready to go the whole hog.