Visitors to Tasmania’s glorious West Tamar Valley are invited to unearth real produce and get out onto the farm this spring with a brand new festival.
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The inaugural Farmgate Festival sees fifteen farms opening their gates to visitors on the weekend of November 25 - 26 for tours and the chance to meet the farmers and producers in person, hear their stories and sample their produce – fresh from the field, paddock, hothouse or river!
Fifteen farms will be open across the weekend creating a fantastic opportunity to find out what’s happening on Tasmanian farms in springtime!
Enjoy a tour of the farm, orchard or paddocks, meet the producers and hear their stories, find out more about what it’s like to run a small agribusiness in one of our produce heartlands – or just enjoy the magnificent landscapes and scenery!
“The main focus of the festival is the self-drive tours which will allow festival-goers to experience working farms, sample some produce and ask the farmers questions,” festival coordinator, Carol Bracken said.
“Every farm will be doing a 30-minute tour every hour, it will be a behind the scenes look at how the farm operates on a day to day basis, the tour will be given by either the owners or farm staff. “
Carol Bracken, who has been running her hazelnut farm, Tamar Valley Hazelnuts at Glengarry since 2010, said it was through her own passion for local producers that the festival came about.
“We conduct farm tours throughout the year, so it was something I was doing already people were always really interested to see how the orchard worked and I thought why not open this opportunity up to others,” she said.
“It was an idea that occurred to me in 2015, and at the time there was funding available through the Regional Events Start-Up Program, I applied with the farmgate tour idea and they loved it.”
With the festival a couple of years in the planning stages, Carol said reception from local farmers had been fantastic.
“The farmers have been so supportive, they love the idea of being able to bring people onto their farms to show and educate them how their business works,” she said.
Away from the farm activities, two exclusive ticketed dinner events will be presented in the evenings, showcasing the best of the valley and the region’s produce and featuring celebrated chefs from around the Tamar region and Tasmania.
On Friday 24th November, vineyard and farm Wines for Joanie will host a sumptuous dinner for twenty diners at their one-of-a-kind rustic cellar door. Intimate and delicious with wines matched from Wines for Joanie’s own cellars, the degustation event will be presented by local food company Hubert and Dan.
On Saturday 25th November, Hobart and Sydney based chef Massimo Mele will present dinner for eighty diners, hosted at West Tamar restaurant Timbre Kitchen, owned by Matt Adams, at Velo Winery, Legana.
With this year's festival a first of its kind, Carol is hopeful to continue to expand in the coming years.
“It is going to be an annual event, we have funding for three years and after that point, we will hopefully be sustainable to continue,” Carol said.
“We’ve had a lot of people that we couldn’t fit into the program this year because they were a little bit further out so we’ve had to turn a few people away.
“We are hoping to expand our reach in the coming years further up the Tamar or past Launceston, spice it up each year by introducing new farms
