FARM FRESH
A passion for locally grown Thai ingredients drives Palisa Anderson’s holistic approach to cooking, with Boon Luck Farm in northern New South Wales at the heart.
It started off as a joke with our neighbour, John Picone. John is a fruit grower whose reputation extends well beyond his northern New South Wales region. The climate and the soil here are just right for growing temperate, subtropical and tropical produce, and John’s orchard is filled with rare and delicious fruit, which he grows as much for himself and his family as for the local farmers’ markets.
It was the variety of fruit at John’s stand that caught my eye at the Byron market, but it was the green Kampot peppercorns that made me stop and take a serious look. I work in Sydney, with my husband Matt, on the Chat Thai group of restaurants founded by my mum, Amy Chanta, and we almost never see green Kampot pepper in the markets down south.
We struck up a conversation with John, trying to impress upon him how much we wanted his produce. This led to a friendship which has developed over the years during our annual visits to Byron during fig season – April – which I think is the best time to enjoy Byron in its prime.
After a few years, John suggested that we try growing our own Kampot peppercorns just across his fence line. The next day we went to inspect the property and not long after, settled into growing exactly what we wanted.
Boon Luck Farm, which we started in 2015, has made for a challenging and eye-opening reckoning with how our food system works. Mum started our restaurants in 1989 and over the decades we’ve moved closer and closer to working directly with farmers to source our fresh produce. Growing our own has brought us the quality and quantity that always seemed beyond our control. In learning about land management and natural farming, I have become deeply passionate about growing nutrient-dense food, which goes hand in hand with responsible land stewardship.
Through growing our own produce we have developed a greater holistic approach to cooking for ourselves and our guests. These recipes are a snapshot of how we like to eat at home – food that is fresh, uncomplicated and mostly vegetables.
You will be able to source most of the ingredients for these dishes from the supermarket, and if not, it’s food that is forgiving of substitutions. But buying fresh produce from local organic grower’s markets will make a noticeable difference.
Much of Thai cooking is about gathering the ingredients and the prep – the work you do before you fire up a pot or wok. With that in mind, if you’d like to push the envelope further, as we are trying to do, challenge yourself by growing some of the ingredients at home – start with the fine herbs, which can be done in pots, then get brave and grow some eggplant; if you have a shady spot, betel leaves are your next step – you’ll enjoy this food so much more, I promise you.
Boon Cafe and Jarern Chai Grocer, 1/425 Pitt St, Sydney, NSW, (02) 9281 2114; Chat Thai has several Sydney locations; its Thaitown HQ is at 20 Campbell St, Sydney, NSW, (02) 9211 1808.