Labour Day Weekend

.. So aptly named! Cos it was 17 years ago I spent the weekend giving birth to my very own Lima Bean!!! But, apart from a stunning high tea for his birthday (at which I forgot to take my camera), it was also a weekend of long, lazy mornings, and good food. So, here is the first in a series of half-a-dozen or so posts about my favourite place in the world, Melbourne's Mornington Peninsula

Flame tree in flower at Heronswood

We are blessed to have our holiday house, Chez Fur, so close to one of the Mornington Peninsula's greatest offering, Heronswood

Heronswood Dromana

105 Latrobe Parade
Dromana VIC 3936
Australia

Phone: 03 5984 7321
Fax: 03 5981 4298
Email: info@diggers.com.au
Website: Heronswood Dromana

Heronswood at Dromana on Victoria's Mornington Peninsula is a fabulous garden and the home of Diggers Seeds Club. You can spend hours just browsing around here, relaxing and looking at the view, the garden layout and rare and unusual plants. Its garden is a living catalogue of all the evergreen fruits and vegetables described in the catalogues and books. It is home to over 50 sub-tropical fruits integrated within flower borders.

At Heronswood there are five separate vegetable gardens and it is within these gardens The Diggers have rescued the best heirloom vegetables. The garden has extensive plantings of flowers, including perennial borders, dry climate and cottage, annual gardens.

Much of the delicious food grown in the garden is served in the wonderful slow food café so not only can you see all the wonderful and rare foods growing but you can taste them too.

Specialises in rare vegetables, flowers and fruits. The Heronswood garden is moving towards drought tolerant species and low water use, so it should be an inspiration for all gardeners. Plan your visit around a meal (with produce sourced from the garden) in the the award winning Heronswood Cafe - a great place to rendezvous with friends.

From VisitVinyards.com.au

Unfortunately, it being a long weekend, we couldn't get in for lunch, so we headed off to Trims, one of the loveliest, and relatively unknown gems on the MP.

Trim`s Of McCrae
691-695 Nepean Hwy
MCCRAE VIC 3938

(03) 5986 1669

(Directly opposite the McCrae Lighthouse)

One of the reasons I love Trims, is that you can pretty much always get a table, their sandwiches and baguettes are INSANELY good and INSANELY cheap, and they also stock a wet chai. It's made by a local lady, and the staff at Trims guard the secret of their supplier very VERY closely. Forget the crap powdered stuff that most people use as the ubiquitous "chai latte", and try this stuff. The spices are all hand ground and bleded, and mixed with organic honey. The result is am amazingly heady blend of floral and spice notes. Furry had a BLT, I had a lean lamb burger, Mme Mouse had a tuna salad on a bagguette, with an orange juice, a wet chai and a Zabaglione-flavoured hot chocolate, it was less than $60!!