COUNTRY STYLE IN ANY CITY KITCHEN
TREE CHANGE
He spent the past four years breathing in the clean, crisp air of Central Tilba (population 288), going from a rookie farmer to champion of the land while documenting his journey – along with Digger the dog – on River Cottage Australia.
But while chef-turnedfarmer Paul West took to country life like a pig in the proverbial, it’s a long way from the far south coast of NSW to Thornbury in Melbourne’s inner north.
“Leaving somewhere as beautiful as the Tilba district was never going to be easy, though sometimes you just have to go where life takes you.
“After River Cottage finished my family and I were at a bit of a loose end, my wife was close to giving birth to our second child and there isn’t a great deal of employment opportunities in Tilba,” he says.
“We decided to pack up the family and head first to Newcastle and then eventually to Melbourne.”
Paul says through his travels across Australia since the show wrapped he’s met people from all over the county who aspire to live the “River Cottage” lifestyle – and why wouldn’t they?
The focus on sustainability, seasonality, food provenance and community that Paul and the show highlighted paints a fairly compelling – and alluring – picture of country life.
For most, however, that life is just a fantasy lived out on the small screen.
“What I found particularly inspiring was that while most people will never live on 20 acres of rolling green hills, there’s stacks of people making the most of where they were in cities and towns,” he says.
It’s the power of community Paul says was the most enduring lesson he learnt from his time on the farm.
“Had it not been for the community around me in Tilba, the experience wouldn’t have been anywhere as rich as it was. Now that I’m in Melbourne I’m finding it the same. I like to describe (Thornbury) as close to the south coast as you could get in the city. Just in terms of the culture, how engaged people are with food.
“It doesn’t get the sea breeze in the afternoon, unfortunately.”
Part of the reason for the shift to the city, Paul says, is to see if he can transpose the lessons he learnt on the farm into an urban existence.
“The reverse tree change never gets much attention.
Our collective consciousness of people in the city is focused on one day moving to the country for a simpler life. It’s interesting for me to tell the perspective of someone who’s left the country and come to the city.”
COUNTRY STYLE
“After much pondering, I distilled what I thought of as ‘The River Cottage Experience’ into a few simple principles. Grow your own food. Cook your own food. Sit down and eat with people,” Paul says.
River Cottage is not just a place, but a state of mind.
VEG OUT
The first thing to do – whether you live in an apartment, a townhouse with courtyard or on a suburban quarter-acre block – is plant some herbs in a pot.
“You don’t need to convert your backyard into a giant veggie patch – at least not yet – to enjoy the benefits of growing your own food. Fresh herbs can lift any meal and when you’ve grown them yourself, you’ll relate to and enjoy the meal in a whole new way.”
Thyme, rosemary, mint and oregano are all hardy varieties if you’re a first-time grower. Then as your skills and confidence grow, try things like basil, coriander and parsley.
THE PLOT THICKENS
Join a community garden. If you don’t know how to grow anything, spend time with people who do. “You don’t have to leap in and start tending your own plot straight away, try attending a working bee first, it’s a great way to meet a few new people and learn something.”
Paul says joining the local community garden has helped him reacquaint to life in the city.
“I think it would be easy to be drowning in a sea of people here.
“There are so many people around but if you don’t have any connections it’s almost overwhelming.”
Paul is putting the lessons he’s learning on urban gardening for food into a book, which is scheduled for release next year.
GREEN IS GOLD
“I was lucky that the house I’m renting, there was an old Italian family who lived here before. Out back, I peeled back the grass and found seven vegetable beds with cement paths in the middle.”
While Paul is busy planting his winter crops – broad beans, leafy greens and brassicas – you don’t need full garden beds to grow your own veg.
“Leafy greens can easily be grown in a container on a sunny balcony, and when you choose varieties that are cut and come again, you only ever take what you need, no waste.”
SUPERMARKET SWEEP
Paul suggests giving shopping outside of the supermarket a go, even if it’s just one thing you’d usually get there.
“If you eat meat, then the butcher is a great place to start. The price is usually competitive with the supermarkets, but the knowledge and humour of a good butcher is incomparable.”
TRUE TAKEAWAY
There’s no delivery apps to bring food to your couch in the country, so why not try making your favourite takeaway food from scratch instead?
“Love burgers? Make some patties, a tangy sauce and some chips. Indian? Make your own curry sauce.
“It’ll be cheaper than takeaway, you’ll surprise yourself with how good it tastes.”
NOSE TO TAIL
“Experiment with some cheaper cuts of meat, or, gasp, offal.”
Paul says learning to unlock the potential of the cheaper cuts of an animal is a great way to pick up some new kitchen skills.
“A great place to start is braising a tough cut of meat in a rich sauce, it’s easy, cheap and incredibly satisfying with a big
bowl of buttery mashed potato.”
If you’re feeling a little more adventurous, and keen to try your hand at offal cookery, then a pate is good for beginners.
“It’s more butter than liver, so the flavour is more approachable,” he says.
SLOW FOOD
“Everyone talks about the need to slow down. Cooking food does that. When you’re preparing something like a pickle, there’s a fair bit of mundane chopping work that goes with it, but it’s a form of mindfulness. It might be a lofty assumption, but I think cooking is a panacea for much of the troubles of modern life.”
PRESERVE OF THE RICH
Preserve something – jams, relishes, sauces, take your pick. Get some friends together and make a day of it.
“When you do it as a group you won’t even notice the bit of work that you have to put in, you’ll be too busy talking and laughing.
“At the end of the day everyone gets to go home with a few jars and some fond memories that will flood back whenever the jar gets opened,” Paul says.
POT LUCK
“Cook something and give it to someone who could use a hand. Young family on your street that just had a kid? Old lady who lost her husband? It doesn’t really matter who,” Paul says.
“Cooking for someone when you aren’t obligated to is a beautiful gesture of generosity and humanity.”
TABLE TALK
Invite some friends over for dinner. “Sharing a meal and conversation with your favourite people really is one of life’s great joys, plus it’s a hell of a lot cheaper than eating out, it’s always BYO and you can choose the music. There’s so much that preparing a meal and sharing it with loved ones offers, on a real basic, human psychological level.”