Escape to the country
14 Jan 2017
Almost 10 years ago, SBS TV presenter Matt Evans from Gourmet Farmer said goodbye to the big smoke in Sydney and began a new life in regional Tasmania on his very own farm.
When you’re en route to Matt Evans’ Fat Pig Farm in Glaziers Bay, Tasmania, you’re struck by the great, green, rolling hills edged by tall leafy trees, the river sparkling in the sunlight and the clear, blue skies above. As you wind your way around, you pass by herds of cows lazily munching on grass in the paddocks.
But when we meet the farmer and SBS TV presenter himself, he’s talking on his mobile phone and a bit frazzled Matt’s now into the fourth week of the opening of his new restaurant and his lovely wife Sadie has gone overseas, leaving him in charge of booking reservations and running the farm.
“She’s much better at this than I am! She’s a much nicer person!” Matt insists, chuckling to himself.
The birth of Fat Pig Farm
As 593,000 viewers of Gourmet Farmer can attest, Matt’s real strengths shine when he’s got his hands dirty and deep in soil, when he’s feeding his 200-kilo sows or when he’s proffering his produce to customers at farmers’ markets.
Life was once very different for Matt. About 10 years ago, the former chef and high-profile Sydney Morning Herald food critic was living in inner-city Sydney and dining at the most exclusive restaurants, but in 2008, he decided to chuck it all in and moved to Tasmania.
And since Gourmet Farmer first aired in 2010, viewers have watched Matt learn how to run his own farm and adapt to a new life in the country. Over the years, we’ve watched as he took care of his first piglets, taught himself to build a pig sty, rolled sushi on a riverbank, built a smokehouse, made his own sausages, sailed to Maria Island where he and some mates cooked up fresh fish and wild abalone – and even fell in love and started a young family.
Now at Fat Pig Farm, there are several pigs, four dairy cows, a small beef herd, a variety of chickens, an olive grove, beehives, fruit and nut trees and a herb and vegetable garden. In addition to that, there’s the kitchen, a wood-fired oven, a smokehouse, a micro-dairy and now – Fat Pig Farm Restaurant.
“The idea is that it’s an extension of our farmhouse table. We thought, ‘well, let’s take the food from the farm, cook it on the farm, serve it on the farm’. As little as possible leaves the fence line before coming back and being served here,” Matt explains.
While guests dine in the restaurant, they can gaze over the gardens that the vegetables on their plates came from, the cows where their milk originated and the pigs and sheep that provided the meat for their meal. There are also plans in the works for a cookery school at the restaurant, where people can pick their own veggies and learn how to create their own fresh, in-season meals for lunch or dinner that day.
A taste of Tassie
From cheese artisans and saffron farmers to smallgoods owners and local fisherman, Matt relishes showcasing some of Tassie’s best producers on Gourmet Farmer. Years ago, the state may have been mistaken by some as being backward, but it’s since experienced a recent shift and local and international tourists are keen to enjoy its fresh produce, such as wild abalone, truffles, salmon, virgin olive oil and beef.
“The locals are very connected to the soil, the sea and the land. There is always someone who’s coming home with a crayfish or abalone!” laughs Matt.
“We can do really good quality things, like my neighbour who grows saffron, and it’s so good that we’re finally being recognised for it. It’s not just, ‘Yeah, we can do scones and doilies and a cup of tea’. That’s great, but we can do interesting, modern food as well.”
During Matt’s career, he’s seen many food trends come and go, but one of his favourites at the moment is the surging interest in the origins of food, which has led to the popularity of kitchen gardens and farmers’ markets, especially in urban areas.
“You might only do it that once or you might do it occasionally, but gardening connects you to the people who actually do it for a living. You understand what real food is, where it comes from, how it’s made and how hard it might be to grow it. It gives you an appreciation of why some food is better than others,” he observes.
“If you’ve got someone who spends more time on their soil, you’ll probably end up with a better carrot which just makes you a better cook. Someone who naturally matures cheese with good milk rather than just putting it in a plastic bag, then because they cared more about it, it’s a better product.”
Time for a tree change?
While Matt is passionate about his life on the land, he battled his way through challenges when he first made the transition from the big smoke in Sydney and he’s careful to warn others that escaping to the country isn’t always as idyllic as it seems.
“I think a lot of people see it through rose-tinted glasses. You come to a place like this and it’s achingly beautiful. I can understand why people would think, ‘I just want a piece of that’. That’s what I did. But the reality of it can be different,” he says.
“It can be hard in a social sense, because you’re leaving all your social networks. Unless you are inherently sociable or you join clubs [like Probus] or you have interests that will get you into a community quickly, it can take a while to establish friendships. That’s really hard for everybody.”
According to Matt, it’s important you find a small country community where you think you’ll fit in, explaining that a move to the country doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll automatically tap into a serene community like on [ABC TV show] Seachange.
“I really like my neighbour, but it’s not like we’re always visiting each other’s houses for dinner.”
And the good bits?
However, Matt has no hesitations in reciting the benefits to seeking out a life in the country.
“There are so many good bits. I mean, look at where we live. There’s the peace, there’s the air. Surprisingly, I’ve found that like gardening, farming is intellectually stimulating if you want it to be. You can be interested in the nutrient density and microbial activity of your soil and get as much mental stimulation as you want from doing that research,” he says.
“I also find that spending time with animals has been really interesting. I think people have dogs and cats for a reason, we’re hard-wired to be around other animals.”
3 cooking tips from Matt Evans
1. Eat close to the source
“Buy from a farmers’ market if you can. If you can have just one degree of separation between you and the grower, that’s great – that might even be your green grocer. When I lived in Sydney, my green grocer could tell me who grew his figs or where the zucchinis came from.”
2. Use a really good cast iron pan
“It will change your life. Once you’ve cooked in a beautiful cast iron pot, it just makes you a better cook. A lot of the time, I just want something good and simple, but I’ll be really lazy. Things that make you a good lazy cook are good cookware and ingredients.”
3. Buy in season
“If you buy in season, you buy something that has inherently more flavour and it will cost you less. If you can buy something in the right season from the person who has grown it very close to the time it’s been harvested, you don’t have to be very clever to be a good cook. You don’t have to do much to make a delicious meal because the hard work has been done in a good garden.”
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