Introduction

Food, Family, Farms and Friends. When we were thinking about what we liked about our lives and living in southern Tasmania, that summed it up pretty well.

Food because, well food is just great isn’t it? And when it’s produced and prepared with creativity and love, it’s even greater. It also a powerful connector – bringing us together as family and friends to find, prepare and eat it, building our sense of community and place as we meet local farmers and producers, appreciating where it comes from and where we live.

And what is better than sharing life with family and friends? That’s what sparked the idea for doing this blog as a collaboration between a dad and his two eldest sons. We like food – growing it, knowing it, preparing it and eating it. So we thought what a great theme to work on together here in Tasmania, where the “good life” is not a retirement fantasy but our every day reality.

We? That’d be us: Paul Gilding (the dad, writer, sustainability activist), Callan Back (the oldest son, IT nerd, photographer, new dad and cancer survivor) and Asher Gilding (son no 2, chef, artist and all round creative guy.) Asher moved to Tasmania six years ago and slowly but surely the extended family has followed him, so there’s now 15 of us spanning four generations – not counting pigs, dogs, sheep, geese and chooks.

What can you expect to find here? Well, it’s best summed up in food, family, farms and friends. That means our thoughts and experiences of life – particularly around food, finding it, getting to know it, preparing it and sharing it. Some of this will touch on our path to find a happy life, translating our world view and understanding of global trends into the every day.

You’ll see lots of great photos, courtesy of Callan. That will give you insights into the food and farmer side of things but also just the sheer beauty of life in Tasmania. He takes a good pic and has quite some material to work with. We’ll make sure they’re not all of his new daughter (Paul’s first grandchild) but no doubt some will slip in. Oh look, here’s one now…

Callan Back, the photographer.

We’ll also take you to meet some local farmers and food producers, thanks to Asher’s great knowledge and network, built first as a slow food caterer and now as head chef at the wonderful Apple Shed in Huonville. You’ll hear a lot about The Apple Shed and their food (and organic cider), where Asher gets to fully express himself – producing extraordinary taste and visual creations while staying focused on simple, local and sustainable food.

Asher Gilding, the chef.

Paul will do the writing, he is an author after all. That means you’ll read about the big issues in the world, climate change, food supply and consumerism, but translated into local and personal relevance. He’s promised to keep it light.

Paul Gilding, the writer.

Why are we doing this? Because we’re passionate about life and about the world. We get great pleasure and fun from appreciating the simpler things – a great morning fog, a slow cooked wallaby stew, feeding the pigs on a frosty winter’s morning, fishing at sunset and doing all that with family and friends. We also care a lot about the world and people, so exploring how we can all live better and more fulfilling lives – without messing up the planet or each other – is a life long passion and something worth exploring.

We hope you like what you find. Of course we’d love to hear from you – so add your thoughts on our posts or via email, tell us what you like, what you’d like to hear more about and how you see the world. Then we’ll explore it together.