Walk around the beautifully decked out City Park in Launceston this weekend and you will be surrounded by some of Tasmania’s best food, wine and local produce.
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Festivale showcases everything from wine, beer and cider to Tasmanian platters, seafood and free-range meats.
Our food is no longer our best kept secret. Not only is it recognised nationally – it is now renowned globally.
Tasmania was listed in the New York Times’ Top 52 Travel Destinations of 2018, specifically because of the island’s world-class food. Sitting between Belgrave and Iceland at number 33, the state was listed as “attracting Australia’s best chefs”.
But it’s not just Aussie chefs who are drawn to our shores. On a recent visit to the state, celebrity foodie Nigella Lawson raved about the cuisine she enjoyed in Launceston and Hobart, like the salt-roasted potatoes with miso butter that she tasted at Stillwater, which she described as, “just splendiferous”.
From our weekly Harvest Market in Launceston to events like Festivale, Taste the Harvest, Taste of the North West and Taste of Tasmania, our connection to local food is becoming more and more accessible.
Drive along the Bass Highway and the overwhelming range of locally produced gourmet food seems endless – the Italian-style restaurant at Hagley’s hazelnut farm, Van Diemen's Land Creamery, the Raspberry Farm and Ashgrove Cheese at Elizabeth Town, the Conservatory at Sassafras, and the Cherry Shed and Anvers at Latrobe, to name just a few.
Heading in a different direction, and the Tamar Valley has a host of vineyards to stop in for award-winning wines and Tasmanian food.
Behind these gourmet spreads and elegant platters, there are quality ingredients, produced right here in Tasmania.
Our state grows some of the world’s finest food, with the North and North-West regions being the place to find Tassie’s agricultural roots.
While many regions and cities around the world are so far removed from food that some children don’t know where beef, milk or carrots come from, those growing up in North and North-West Tasmania are surrounded by it every day.
Our food and agriculture is something to celebrate, and annual events like Festivale, as well as weekly markets like Harvest Launceston, are testament to that.
