Regan's Ridge

I guess we're now officially farmers.

We got picked up just after 10 this morning and were driven around an hour into the West Australian Bush by the owner of the farm, Catherine. She drove us to the Shire of GinGin, Sounds like Lord of The Rings. Gin Gin I think is the name of the nearest town which is about 20 minutes away.

We arrive at the house which has 4 rooms and a Bath!!! Finally a bath!! A huge lounge and really sweet veranda area that overlooks 23,000 olive trees. And a back garden that overlooks a bush forest. This place is stunning. Except for it rained all day. Poo...

So we started work after some lunch. We went to the 'cold room' which is a stones throw from the house and transferred a container of fermented Olives to another container to rinse them. The olives are fermented for around 10 months in Brine, then jarred with Olive Oil. We sorted the Olives, and put them into jars which also had some garlic and chilli in them. We did this for around 3 or 4 hours listening to a fantastic medley of Abba, Sting and Delta Goodrem songs.

So after our afternoon of work Catherine thanked us for our help and left to go back to Perth, so we headed back to the house to get settled. I thought It'd be a good Idea to get a fire going as the house was freezing. Holly made the coffee while I attempted to retain my basic manly instincts by trying to create a small fire. I failed...MISERABLY...so I retreated to a corner with some chocolate while Holly also attempted to make a fire. She belted out demands for KINDLING...I NEED MORE KINDLING..I had no idea where to find it, or what it was, then Daryll arrived, showed us where the kindling was.

Daryll is the farm manager. A great Ozzy Bloke if you ever saw one. We will be spending a lot of our time with him over the next few months, he seems like great fun. After helping us with the fire he showed us where all the olive products were in the house. Oil, table olives, Olive Tapanade...so many olive products! All very good with cheese too :)

So we're going to settle down for the evening now. We just ate some pasta with Mint Peas that Holly made (With Olive Oil of Course) Very Nice and will watch the Pursuit of Happiness.

Take Care,

Holly & David