As Spring embraces the Bunbury Geographe region, visitors indulge in grazing boards brimming with local produce and savour a glass of local wine in the midday sun. This idyllic scene is easy to recreate, thanks to the region’s outstanding local produce purveyors, if you know where to find them.
Stop by a cheesemonger and stock up on sweet preserves and tangy pickles, or peruse fresh loaves from a local bakery as you collect juicy seasonal fruits. Better still, explore some of the many markets in the Bunbury Geographe region’s bustling hubs of artisan producers and makers. They’re brought together by common interests in good food, fine wine, and a sense of community and connection.
With boutique farms, bakeries, and dairies scattered across the region, it can be hard to know where to start. The cornerstone of your grazing board is a well-curated selection of cheeses — and Bunbury Geographe has no shortage of exceptional dairy farmers and cheese producers. Synonymous with the Bunbury Geographe region is the Hall’s Family Dairy Suzette cheese. While the creamy cheese, with its delicate smoky flavour, pairs well with local charcuterie, it really comes into its own on an after-dinner cheese board, says owner Suzanne. “Combine the creamy flavour of our Suzette cheese with several different types of rich dark chocolate, local ripe fruit like berries or pears, nuts, crackers, and local honey,” says Suzanne, who also recommends pairing the spread with a glass of local vino.
Harvey Cheese is another longstanding and award-winning cheese producer to add to your hit list. To start, there’s the requisite selection of aged cheeses, both natural and smoked, alongside brie, camembert, and blue. There’s also a range of marinated fetas, all boasting Mediterranean-style seasonings, halloumi, havarti, Swiss, and an Italian-style washed rind and smear-ripened St Duke’s red. The extensive selection guarantees to surprise, intrigue, and satisfy any tastes. Onsite, you may also be tempted to indulge in a locally distilled tipple. St Duke’s Distillery produces a selection of small-batch spirits using cow’s milk whey — a by product of the cheese making process plus local botanicals.
According to Melville Park co-owner David Doepel, the perfectly curated cheese platter requires just a soft cheese, a hard cheese, and one in-between. Melville Park, a historic farm that has been transformed into a farm-meets-dairy-meets-distillery, has made sure to cover all those bases. Through the recently rehabilitated dairy facilities, Melville Park is producing a camembert, gouda and an aged cloth-bound cheddar, as well as a pot set yoghurt — all made using milk sourced from local dairies. David’s best advice for visitors seeking out quality cheese in the regions? Make sure your cheeses are ripe. “If it’s a soft cheese, it should be soft. In an aged cheese, you want the crunch of the calcium lactate crystals that develop over time, that’s a good sign,” says David. “Some cheeses are made to be eaten fresh, and some are meant to improve as they get old.”
Having been on the search for the right property on which to live out their dream retirement, David, and partner Barbara Connell, made the move to the banks of Bunbury Geographe’s Brunswick River several years ago. They were taken with the rich soils and ripe orchards of the area. “We fell in love with the property, and then the region. It is a historic farm, and we consider ourselves custodians of it. We hope, in the time we’ve got it, to make it better.”
There’s also a carefully cultivated market garden and herbarium on site, where the team harvests seasonal fruit and vegetables, and the provedore selection is rounded off with eggs, nuts and baked goods, either made on site or sourced from local producers. David and Barbara proudly throw open the doors of the historic Melville Park barn to the public on Saturday mornings, with their plethora of fresh produce and artisan products available for purchase. Take a look at their Facebook page for the Friday Night Veggie Update detailing the latest scoop on what’s fresh from the garden. These adventurous producers’ haven’t stopped there. Their talents also extend to distilling and boutique cider production, too. You’d be forgiven for wondering where the link is between it all, but in actual fact, producing alcoholic beverages from fermentables is an age-old tradition among farmers. “You don’t waste it, you use it,” says David, who specifically uses his and Barbara’s home-grown sugar beets to produce their vodka, and apples to produce both their cider and apple brandy. Note: The ability to sell their beverages is currently pending approval of their producers licence. Until then, the brandy will continue to improve in barrel!
In the meantime, if it’s vinos you seek, many local wineries make it easy to pair your bottle du jour with local produce by having a selection of preserves and pickles available on site. Coughlan Estate, for example, not only stocks its own homemade preserves at its cellar door shop, but also: Yabberup Studio jams, relishes, pickles and preserves, Rickles Pickles, pastes and vinegars from Black Garlic Company, and New Leaf Orchard sparkling juices. Many cellar doors offer curated selections of the best local produce in the form of grazing boards to pair with their bottles. Sample tapas-style bites
at Green Door Wines, where a menu of grazing options accompany carafes of the Spanish and European-style wines. The Hall’s Family Dairy Suzette cheese features as a highlight, alongside gruyere, chicken paté, duck rillettes, tomato chutney, olives, pickles, seasonal fruit, and a selection of artisanal crackers, lavosh and warm bread. Similarly, St. Aidan Wines offers an enviable antipasto selection. Much of which is sourced on site, with the kitchen team foraging from the well-stocked veggie garden to produce house-made tomato relish, apple and ginger chutney, and a sparkling apricot jam.
Venturing beyond the venues, there are many farmers’ markets and farmgate stalls spread through the region. Having long been a popular stop with city dwellers on the road to explore the southwest, the Bunbury Farmers Market is iconic. Alongside an incredible selection of locally grown seasonal fruit and veg, you’ll find premium local seafood and meat, quality dairy products, and fresh pasta and homemade sauces. The pièce de résistance of the store are the seemingly endless shelves stocked with cream of the crop local produce — honey and nut butters, seed crackers and sweet biscuits, honeycomb and dried fruit, plus plenty more delights. The Bunbury Markets is another Bunbury-based hotspot for fresh fruit, veg and protein. Held monthly in the Queens Gardens, this long-standing market facilitates the paddock-to-plate produce experience, with local growers selling as fresh-as-it-gets produce to the community. Alongside the growers, local artists also exhibit their hand-crafted treasures, while buskers may fill the air with sweet tunes. If it’s the open air you’re after, Produce in the Park, also in Bunbury, operates the second and fourth Saturday of each month at Queens Garden and is bursting with produce direct from the farm to take home. Sample fresh donuts and a flat white, while picking up some eggs, honey, baked goods and more to take home.
Popular with the locals and all about healthy, fresh food to feed your family, Boyanup Farmers’ Markets is held at Boyanup Memorial Park on the fourth Sunday of each month. Expect crisp produce with minimal food miles, from apples, pears and stone fruit picked in season from local orchards to hand-made cheeses, olive oils and honey, to pasturefed meats such as goat and lamb. Not only can you buy fresh eggs at the market, you can even purchase chooks for your chook pens in all shapes and sizes, or add to your home-garden with a selection of herbs. Pick up a coffee, French pastry and make a morning of it.
Head further south, Bunbury Geographe becomes an endless trail of farm gates and roadside stalls waiting to be explored. As you meander through to region, stop in at Donnybrook’s Fruit Barn, pick your own produce at Karintha Orchards, or sample seasonal produce straight from the farm gates along South West Highway. Whichever corner of Bunbury Geographe you look, you’ll find it is bursting with tantalising delights to stimulate the senses
