There were a lot of yellow flowers all over the field. Very pretty.
We reached Orange after driving for 100km non stop. Quite tiring, maybe we haven't done this for a while.
We drove for longer period in New Zealand.
The place was name after this dude, I mean duke. Prince William VI of Orange, who became the first king of the Netherlands.
There is a farmers market happening on the 2nd Saturday of the month.
Anyone want to buy back an apple tree?
Orange is a well known fruit growing district, and produces apples, pears, and many stone fruits such as cherries, peaches, apricots and plums. Somewhat ironically, oranges are not grown in the area, as the climate is too cool.
It's of a much smaller scale, compared to the ones we have at Pyrmont. But it's nice to see that the people here know one another. Advantage of having a small community, I guess.
One of the stalls was selling Verjus, something which we never heard of.
It is actually made from the unfermented juice from unripe, or barely ripe grapes.
It can be used to replace vinegar in dressings, replace wine to deglaze pans or any cooking wine use, and flavour sauces. It can also be used as a fresh, zesty beverage as a non-alcoholic sptritzer.
Pretty versatile, eh?
Trees dressed in pink lined neatly along the road we were taking to the vineyard.
I had to stop and snap a few close up.
They were actually cherry blossoms (sakura)! No need to go Japan!
We stopped over at Ross Hill Wines for some tasting.
The owner, Terri served us personally.
Her son, James offered us some fig, crackers and cheese too. Really appreciate that.
As they are quite small, the service was very good. They sat down and chat with us, explaining how to tell which is a good wine and all. Very educational.
Our favourite was the Shiraz, famous for its rich spicy fruit character with hints of white pepper.
Get ready for this. Guess what's underneath the cover that Eiss is lifting up?
Snails!
Yup, these guys also run a free range snail farm at the back.
The species grown here is the helix aspersa (or petit-gris), grown for its perfect size, texture and taste.
Escargot au naturel!
In the evening, we went over to Eliss's company event, held in a local bowling club.
It was like a pot luck event as well, so we bought some Krespy Kreme as you can't find that in Orange.
Eliss with one her colleagues whom she has never met.
The night was filled with programs. A series of auction was happening to raise funds for the Ronald McDonald House charities.
These guys managed to auction this tube of chips away for $20!
Amazing! Good on you!
Someone got a basket load of goodies home for a good cause.
Some were made to donate gold coins, do push ups before they can participate in a draw.
Some just won easily with the winning number on their tickets.
As it was also a trivial night, team members on the same table cracked heads together to figure out the right answers.
One of our members nearly got all the answers right, except the last one. Sigh.
Better try next time!
The whole event lasted till almost midnight. We bid them farewell, before hitting the wheels for another long drive back to our hotel at Parkes to catch the Rugby World Cup.
The Wallabies scored 13 tries, 10 conversions and two penalty goals to Japan's lone penalty goal in the opening game in France.
A great start for Australia for the 91-3 victory!
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