Lockyer Valley visits

One of the nice things about living where I do in Brisbane is that it's not a far drive to get out to the Lockyer Valley, the large vegetable and fruit growing area between the city and Toowoomba.

Yesterday, we drove out to the Mulgowie Farmer's Market, which is held only on the first Saturday of every month, and even then only from 8 to 11am.   It was the second time we had been there, although we have now had a few trips to the Lockyer Valley in the last 6 months, for various reasons.

There is nothing else to see at Mulgowie - it has a (not very physically impressive) pub and a country hall beside it where the market is run.  That's it.  No shop, no school; but it's a lovely setting, closer to the hills than at many other parts of the so-called Valley.

The reason to go there is that it is genuinely a farmers market - there are several stalls with people who grow the produce they sell, and the freshness of most of what is on offer is really like nothing at any other market I have been too.   Yesterday, we bought beans, lettuce, corn, daikon, potatoes, radicchio, and the osso bucco we had for dinner.  The earth on the potatoes smelt fresh as I peeled them last night; the beans were as crisp as if picked from the yard.  The quality is just great, the price modest, and the stallholders all happy to talk about what they grow. We also had some nice olives, grown almost within sight of the market.

It's not the largest market around, and it feels a bit like a secret that you don't want too many people to know.  But from where we live, it's an easy and pleasant drive of just under an hour (I recommend going through Rosewood, if anyone is coming from Brisbane), but it really doesn't feel far.  I love it.

In fact, maybe I was a farmer in a previous life, because I just generally get a bit of a thrill from driving around fertile farm areas like the Lockyer, and guessing which vegetable or produce is in which field.*  The soil is a fantastically fertile looking black all around the region.  Some of the smaller roadside farm vendors are also worth visiting - yesterday we got some great strawberries from one of them, and the woman was able to point across the field to where they had been grown.

The region was badly hit by the 2011 floods.  Perhaps part of reason it is so fertile is that it is a bit of a flood plain.  But the bigger towns of Laidley and Gatton don't seem to be doing too bad.   We also drove into the Gatton University of Queensland campus yesterday, where they teach veterinary science and other agricultural related things - it has some pretty remarkable old buildings, but I didn't take photos.  Worth a look if you are in the area, though.  

*  some actual comments from me in the car:  "Look:  that's beetroot!...What's that?   Cabbage I think....Hey, we could recreate the cropsprayer scene from North by Northwest in that patch of dead corn stalks! ....Put away the iPod will you and look out the window you two!!"