From Scratch with Fiona Weir Sunday 19 March

Sunday 19 March 

Fiona Weir is a cheesemaker and goat dairy farmer in Gerringong NSW. From her family farm, she and her husband Adam run a cooking school teaching traditional food preparation such as sourdough baking, cheesemaking and fermenting, and in 2022 published a cookbook, ‘From Scratch’ based on those classes.

Fiona taught a class called ‘From Scratch’ at her farm cooking school for almost ten years. In a single day, she led people through how to make sourdough, yoghurt, butter, labneh, biscuits, crackers, jam, pickles and bone broth. She always talked about how although it seems like such a long list, that in fact everything, with the exception of the sourdough and yoghurt fermentation, is pretty quick to make.  

Of all the things on the list, crackers were probably the thing people were least likely to make themselves, which is funny, because sourdough – something many more people had attempted – is such a pain in the butt, and home-made crackers take ten minutes. It’s the can-I-be-bothered factor. It’s they-cost-two-dollars-at-the-shop factor. It’s the am-I-going-to-waste-my time factor. We’re all very busy. Why would you buy the ingredients when you could just buy the product in the next aisle? 

In a capitalist world, we are consumers first and foremost. All day every day we are consuming things people make for us: food, media, ideas. How wonderful to take yourself out of that system for a minute and make something. Are they ever just home-made crackers? Or are they a beacon of hope in a dark, dark world of boxed two-dollar cheese accompaniments? Without wanting to overstate it, might home-made crackers be the canary in the goldmine of twenty-four-hour, fluorescent-lit mega-supermarkets selling you all the things you think you want to eat, made who knows where and when. At Buena Vista we are all about sharing good food and the skills to make it and, encouraging people to make connections with where their food has come from, and how much nourishment it’s giving you.

Fiona will teach you how to make a simple cheese, buttermilk ricotta, and how to make zucchini pickles that will totally elevate a cheese sandwich. How to make simple mayonnaise that you’ll want to have in your fridge from this day forth as well as how to make an excellent and reliable wheat cracker and an olive dip.

During the class there will be brewed coffee, Pachamama tea and treats made in the school kitchen. The class will end with a lunch, including the crackers, cheese and olive dip you have made, which will be shared at the Moonacres school table.

You will take home a jar of the zucchini pickles and Fiona will give you all the recipes and inspiration you will need to get started making this simple, yet beautiful food at home.

The class is from 10:00am - 2:00pm and Fiona and the team at Moonacres school look forward to seeing you soon.