Two amazing gourmet dinners will celebrate Tasmanian food and showcase the Tamar Valley region during the 2018 Farmgate Festival. On Friday November 23rd, the festival will begin in spectacular style with a 5 course dinner to be held at Strathlynn Wine and Function centre. Sweeping views of the Tamar Valley and an idyllic setting among the banks of the Ninth Island Vineyard will greet excited guests. Diners will indulge in an array of seasonal, local and organic produce in a celebration of Tasmanian flavours. Matching wine will be served for a truly sensational degustational experience. The following evening, guests will…

By Emma Elsworthy/Examiner Junction Arts Festival 5 – 9 September Launceston Taking place in the first week of Spring, Junction Arts Festival is an intimate festival which prides itself on showcasing Tasmania’s best and brightest artists. The festival, which is now in its eighth year, situates itself in and around the 19th century Prince’s Square including within the iconic Fountain Bar. Tasmanian musicians provide the musical delights of the festival while attendees will enjoy the world-renown Tasmanian produce including local cheese, wine and more. There’ll be interactive live arts, participatory and site-specific performances created specifically for Launceston in dance, theatre, live music, literature and installation.…

The 2nd annual Farmgate Festival will be held on November 24-25 at various locations along the West Tamar region. Patrons will visit a number of diverse farms and be taken on guided tours by enthusiastic farm operators. The aim of the festival is to educate people on how real food is produced and highlight the Tamar Valley region. Five new farms have come onboard as part of this year’s festival, joining eleven farms which participated in the inaugural year of the festival. Farms offer a wide range of experiences from tours encompassing production and processing techniques, product tastings, animal encounters…

Bring the kids along to Farmgate Festival and show them where their food comes from and what life is really like on a farm! Grab a Kids’ Activity Sheet from the Hub or one of the farms too – children must find the answer to one question at every farm. Drop your completed sheet in to any farm to enter the draw for a prize. Farmgate Festival is also proud to be partnering with The Children’s University. Children already taking part in the Children’s University program can complete the Farmgate Festival kids’ activity sheet and have it count towards their…

When Peter Farquhar and Kym Shilton decided to bring their three boys back home to Tasmania in 2015, they found the perfect 130-acre property in Legana, just north of Launceston. Bordered by Muddy Creek, which is much prettier than its name suggests, the farm had been owned by the Simmonds family for 70 years who worked it into one of the biggest apple orchards in the Tamar Valley. The apple industry in the north had all but perished by the 1980 but fortunately, 2500 apple and pear trees survived the cut and Peter and Kym inherited them all at Muddy…

Grey Sands is not just a vineyard, it’s a garden too! Owner and vintner Bob Richter has always loved gardening, so much so that he had his first garden at the age of three. Years later, while studying dentistry, he dreamed of having a cool climate nursery in the Dandenongs or a tropical nursery in far north Queensland. Then he met Rita, and everything changed. He was introduced to the world of wine and the more he learned, the more he decided that a cool climate vineyard would be the perfect way to combine his love of growing things with…