Towac Valley Orange

From where I lie, a long streak of reddish-gold highlights the horizon, gradually spreading its golden hues into the valley below.
We’re staying in one of the stunning new Cider Suites at the far end of Borrodell on the Mount’s heritage cider apple orchard in the Towac Valley, 10 km from the Orange CBD.
Recently completed, these two suites have been built to retain the warmth of the sun’s rays, making use of recycled bricks and timber beams.  Even the polished terrazzo floors contain smashed-up pieces of glass from Borrodell’s wine bottles. Fitted out with all the mod cons, it is the panoramic view over the valley from every room through floor to ceiling glass windows which takes your breath away.
And what a valley!  If Italy has Tuscany, NSW has the fertile rolling hills of the central west, nowhere better exemplified than in the Towac Valley with its magnificent patchwork of vineyards and fruit orchards. Nestled in the lee of Mount Canobolas, Borrodell Vineyard boasts rich volcanic soils and its 1000-metre elevation ensures the best of cool climate wines, and fruit such as apples, cherries, quinces and plums.

Lesley Russell, Orange Regional Cooking School

I’m here to celebrate my birthday. Serendipitously, it’s also the beginning of the 10-day Orange F.O.O.D. festival, celebrating its 20^th year this year.
I actually remember coming to the first festival, an event which exceeded all expectations at the time, with over 4,000 people attending.  The idea was first mooted by Rhonda Doyle, who – together with her husband Stephen of Bloodwood Winery – used to hold seasonal dinners. Sydney chef, Tony Bilson, was asked to launch it while Phillip Searle was asked to cook the dinner, a five course degustation around local produce including Brook trout (and their milk/sperm), vension, chestnuts, goat’s cheese, walnuts, apples and grapes, mostly sourced by Rob Robinson from The Market Cat. Searle was particularly excited by the discovery of wild mushrooms in the area, including scotch bonnets, saffron milk caps and slippery jacks. Local wines were from Bloodwood and Canobolas Smith.

Rhonda and Stephen Doyle, Bloodwood Winery, Orange NSW

In many ways, it was the precursor of what has now become a strong vibrant movement throughout regional NSW to celebrate seasonal produce, and to honour the farmers, winemakers and chefs who create such bounty.
Back then, none of the places I visited this time around existed. Orange’s outstanding Italian-inspired restaurant, Lolli Redini’s, opened its doors ten years ago. Named after family friend Grazia LolliRedini, from the Tuscan village of San Gimignano, it serves contemporary Italian and French influenced food.  Its warm, eclectic ambience is very welcoming (I sat on a banquette lined with a riotous variety of red cushions), and the food both elegant and delicious.  Owner-chef Simonn Hawke  uses mostly local produce paired with local wines: my main course of Peppered Mandagery Creek Venison Tenderloin, Truffled Potato, Buttered Spinach, Asparagus and Pearls of Gold Beetroot served with a 2008 Mayfield Vineyard Pinot Noir was outstanding, the venison cooked to perfection.

Lolli Redini, Orange NSW

The Hawkes family is something of an institution in Orange. Next door you’ll find the Hawkes General Store, a fanatastic home and giftware store, opened by Simonn’s mother Fem 35 years ago and now run by sister, Coco.
The fabulous Union Bank Wine Bar and Wine Store, just up the street from Lolli’s, didn’t exist 20 years ago, nor did the monthly Orange Region Farmers’ Market or the Orange Regional Cooking School, run by the talented Lesley Russell.  Nor did Fiorini’s, a terrific Italian restaurant, or Racine’s restaurant – both just down the road from Borrodell’s.
Just four weeks ago, a dynamic young couple, Libby and Rene Reimers, took over Anything Grows, a picturesque nursery in Summer Street where they serve delicious fare made by local chefs.

Anything Grows, Orange

Sitting outside in the golden sunlight, surrounded by well-tended plants and falling autumn leaves , I had to pinch myself.  For me, this is as charming as anywhere in Tuscany – and just 3 1/2 hours by car from Sydney, far easier to reach any time than a long-haul flight to Italy!

Borry Gartrell

Situated high on a hill overlooking the prosperous Towac Valley, just ten minutes from the Orange CBD in central NSW is Borrodell on the Mounthttp://www.borrodell.com.au/, a 32-hectare property. Here Borry  Gartrell and his wife Gaye Stuart-Nairn grow vines (pinot noir, chardonnay, gewurtztraminer, sauvignon blanc), heritage apples, cherries, plums and truffles. As if that’s not enough to keep them busy, they also run an Italian-style restaurant called Sisters Rock, a cellar door for their wines, a wedding reception area and cottage-style accommodation.
A steep winding road threads its way through vineyards and roses up to the restaurant and reception area and the views from here over the prosperous valley and hills beyond are as good as any you’ll get in Tuscany. It’s also at the top of the hill where Borry proudly grows two hectares of heritage apples. The rich, red basalt soils and 1000-metre elevation ensure fabulous cool-climate wines and produce. Borry’s green thumb and aesthetic sense have also helped to transform the landscape.
“When I bought the property 40 years ago, it had been used for growing vegetables, which was inappropriate on these slopes, because every time they ploughed the soil, it moved a metre down the hill,” he says. “I spent two years shifting the soil back up and establishing a major dam on the southern slope which holds four to five years’ supply of water.”
He then planted the whole property with red delicious apples, a move he now says was a big mistake. “We were all given bad advice back then,” he says.  “It was about 30 years ago when the supermarkets were moving in and making significant marketing changes. They told us that people would buy only good-looking apples and that the red delicious held their colour well. Greengrocers just disappeared, which meant there was no one encouraging them to try different varieties of fruit.”
At that time Orange was known as the apple city but when the industry sank, many of the orchards were bulldozed and replaced with grapevines and cherries. “Luckily I’d grown up eating old varieties of apples from my father’s orchard and had taken cuttings from them, which I’d grafted onto some of the red delicious trees,” Borry says. “I did it purely for my own pleasure because I remembered the taste of those apples from my childhood.”
As friends and visitors to Borrodell tasted the grafted fruit, the pleasure spread and Borry began collecting heritage apples more seriously. He now boasts over 170 different varieties, including a good selection of cider apples, and every year acquires a few more.
One of his favourites is the Lady of the Snows, a pure white-fleshed apple with a very short shelf life, best eaten as soon as it’s picked. “Another really good eating apple is the Cox’s Orange Pippin,” Borry says. “It’s not a great looker because it’s orange in colour but the flavour is superb. And I like the Winesap, which tastes like wine and the Rome Beauty, which was once widely grown because it kept well. It’s no longer popular because it’s not a bright red.”
He also grows a number of cooking apples such as the English Bramley, the Scottish Dr Hogg and the massive Peasgood Nonsuch. “It’s a monstrous piece of fruit which grows as big as your head,” he says. “There’s a similar one called ‘Twenty Ounce’ because of its size.”
One of Borry’s missions – apart from making a great pinot noir and growing more truffles – is to educate people about the different tastes and textures of heritage apples.  “The seasonal nature of fruit has been lost and people are only interested in the colour, not the taste or texture,” he says.
At the monthly farmers’ market in Orange, you’ll often find him during apple season encouraging people to taste a slice of this or that apple. “I remember him turning up at our first markets five or six years ago in his old tractor with a trailer full of apples,” says Kim Currie, convenor of the Orange Farmers’ Market and executive officer of Brand Orange. “He’d be wearing his leather apron and turn up at the last minute with a great flourish.”
He’s still flourishing.
If you can’t locate him at the monthly farmers’ market, you’ll always find him out at Borrodell on the Mount where he encourages visitors to take a paper bag and walk around the property tasting and picking apples.