Food News – Mayfield Garden

Mayfield Garden is a grand folly. When the opportunity arose to visit the public-facing segment of billionaire Garrick Hawkins’ Oberon weekender for an Autumnal Harvest Feast, I leapt at the chance. Walking the long allée of London Plane trees to take in the obelisk pond, blue stone bridge and pale yellow water lily-filled ponds, I am struck by the sheer scale of things. The Water Garden is 6 acres, sitting inside the 160-acre private estate garden, which is part of a 5000 acre working cattle farm. While the intriguing private garden with its Chinese pagoda, cascade, amphitheatre and walled kitchen garden only opens to the public at certain times of the year, you can now visit the Water Garden, nursery, shop (selling locally produced food products, like truffle salt from the nearby Lowes Mount Truffiere) and Kitchen Café all year around. Their inaugural Autumn Harvest Feast ($110/person) celebrated the produce from the garden’s orchards and veggie patches, chook shed and herb garden in Italian-inspired dishes like pumpkin soup served in individual golden nugget pumpkins; pumpkin spinach and ricotta rotolo; and colourful bruschetta topped with tomatoes and olives, silverbeet and eggplant. After platters of porchetta and rustic bone marrow, guests were treated to a metalworking display by the garden’s on-site ironworker, before grand fig and caramel pavlovas stole everyone’s attention.
mayfieldgarden.com.au