They
say Tasmania’s the kind of place where you can dream it and it’ll happen. You
want to grow peaches and start a little white café that sells flowers and woollen
socks on the side? Why not.
But
what is it about this state that allows so many creative businesses to
flourish? Is it the creative flow that springs so naturally from the stroke of
nature’s brushes, or the general willingness of Tasmanians to collaborate,
support and encourage one another? I chatted with two blogger-turned-cookbook
authors, one who made the move from Hobart to Sydney, and one who did the
opposite. They both shared with me the secrets of Tasmania’s creative success, and
how we can see this continue to thrive.
As
a child, Sarah Glover dreamt of picnics and ball gowns: an elaborate set up of
apple tart, quail, bellinis, flowers and rugs; all nestled in the wilderness
under the sun’s golden glow. She dreamt of all the different ways she could
combine laughter and friends and food: cooking pizzas by the sea, hosting
dinner parties in a field, frying breakfasts beside a river.
Image by Luisa Brimble
Nine
years after stuffing her teeny yellow beetle with 21 years worth of belongings
and trading her Tasmanian home for the big smoke, Sarah’s ‘dream it and it’ll
happen’ outlook is as strong as ever. And now, her picture perfect ideas are a
daily reality. These days you can find her cooking, creating, and loving people
through food as she collects stunning pictures, delicious recipes and epic
adventure stories for her cookbook in the making: Wild.
“My
lifestyle is very outdoors – I love surfing and cooking and fire so that kind
of just all mashed into what the book is now. Rather than being a stay at home,
cook it indoors sort of thing it’s all based in the outdoors… it’s about packing
a picnic, getting on the road and enjoying the land.”
But
if the outdoors are such a strong component of the book, why live in Sydney?
“I’m
kind of a fast-paced person. I love to use my hands and be creative but I also
like a quick turnaround on a project, so it was a natural fit”
Sarah
also pins it down to the community she found when she ventured north, who were all
completely welcoming and supportive of her. “They were really embracive of what
I was doing and where I’ve come from… Tasmania’s a bit of a hot spot at the
moment.” Alongside this, the connection she made with her photographer Luisa
Brimble has proven to be invaluable. “We got to know each other and decided we
wanted to write a book. She said to me, ‘What would you want to write if you
could do anything?’” And so the picnics and ball gowns began.
As
a Tassie girl who grew up surfing the turquoise waves and jumping off seaside
rocks with her seven brothers and sisters, the contrasting chaos and buzz of
Sydney has opened her eyes to a lack of appreciation for the simple things. Something
that was instilled in her through her Tasmanian roots. Something she is now hoping
to bring to the big city.
“I
guess living in a bigger city you start to realise how people get so consumed
with superficial things.” Work. Money. Drinking. Recovering. Repeat.
“It
opened my eyes for the need to inspire people to get outside; to escape. Life
isn’t all about working and money and stuff like that. We need to enjoy the
land and creation.” Sarah says the biggest thing she misses about Tasmania is
time. With the wilderness and an array of local produce right at her feet,
everything she now uses to draw inspiration from was once far more accessible
to her. “Being in Sydney you lack that. You don’t have as much space and it’s
expensive. But I don’t think I’d be writing this book or appreciate what I had
if I didn’t move to a bigger city.”
From
the beginning, Sarah’s food journey has blossomed organically. In a city where
the world of entrepreneurship is crowded and competitive, it’s her genuine love
of food, her unique style, and her desire to bring people together that makes
her sparkle amongst the rest. Sarah’s success comes from staying true to who
she is. She is unique because her ultimate goal is simply to bring people
together through outdoor adventures and meals around campfires.
“You’ll
find that the competitiveness will come when you step out and do things.” Sarah
says, acknowledging Australia’s tendency towards ‘tall poppy syndrome’ –
“People get jealous pretty easily and want to chop others down, but for me it
comes back to authenticity. If you’re doing something that’s authentic to you
and it’s original, then the competitiveness isn’t there. What I’m doing… it’s
sort of different to what’s in the marketplace. There’s a niche and a need for
it. I love to influence people with what I’m passionate about, and if it takes
off it takes off!”
There
is a beautiful image of Sarah with her feet propped up in a bathtub which is
situated in the middle of an open paddock, the sun rising behind her. It’s the
perfect picture of her underlying philosophy, which is deeply rooted in a
childhood dream. “I saw an episode of McLeod’s Daughters and they had a bath in
the middle of an open field. Since then it’s been a dream of mine to do this.”
“A
quick 15-minute meal in front of the TV isn’t really my thing.” Cooking beautiful
food without rhyme or reason, bringing people together, getting people outside,
talking and having conversation. That’s Sarah’s thing.
Michelle
Crawford’s version of picnics and ball gowns is slightly different. Before
making the move from Sydney to Tasmania she dreamt of a country house and
chickens. She dreamt of wandering through a veggie patch in red gumboots with children
by her side, spending her days cooking, creating and writing. The story of her
transition from managing glamorous balls at the Opera House to living the
simple life in Tasmania is at the very core of her memoir and cookbook, A Table in the Orchard.
Now
strolling through her garden with her little four legged friend Patch strutting
along beside her, Michelle describes the move as nothing but pleasant. “When I
was writing the book the publisher kept trying to drag some sort of shock or
surprise out of me and I’d say, ‘no, it was really easy!’ I guess the most
surprising thing was just how welcoming and friendly everyone was, and willing
to share advice and produce and recipes. And Tasmania’s so inspiring. You just
can’t help but be inspired by the landscape and the produce, so it’s really
easy to write beautifully and photograph things really beautifully. You don’t
get that so much in Sydney.”
The
vibrant produce, the sweeping landscape, and the colourful seasons of our state
might have taken Michelle’s cooking to a whole new level, but it all started
with the humblest of beginnings. “It’s so cliché and everyone says it, but I
actually did love watching my grandmother cook! The Women’s Weekly cookbooks were my favourite books, and I just loved reading those and seeing what
cakes I could come up with.” Though the idea of a career in food had always
been appealing, it wasn’t until Michelle had her first child Elsa that she
really paused to think about what she wanted from life. “That was when my
husband and I decided to move down here, we thought Tasmania would be a great
place to pursue the life we wanted.”
Now,
Michelle’s lovely Tasmanian home is the perfect match for her underpinning
philosophy: “My number one rule, is that
there’s no point in doing anything unless it’s going to taste delicious.” It
sounds simple but in the age of raw cheesecakes, vegan cookies and
two-ingredient ice cream, the deliciousness of food is getting lost through our
obsession with expensive and often tasteless ingredients.
As
Michelle describes her ideal kind of cake for this time of year, her
inspiration flows from the seasons. “I’m just loving hazelnuts at the moment,
so I’d probably do some sort of hazelnut cake with browned butter, and… there’s
not much fruit around at the moment so I’d keep it pretty sweet with maybe some
salted caramel over the top… ooh but then rhubarb’s coming in so I might have
to have some rhubarb in there somewhere!” She laughs, “I love making big stacks
of cake which are impossible to cut but look amazing, so a big layered cake
with those kinds of flavours!”
Very
similarly, Sarah’s perfect cake is Spring-you-can-eat. “I’d make something with
florals in it given that it’s Spring and it’s warm! I’m quite driven by my
environment, so something with berries and flowers, maybe a white chocolate
butter cake with smashed berry coulis through the middle. Then a butter icing
with lots of flowers on top… general Sarah style!”
Image by Michelle Crawford
But
it seems Sarah and Michelle have more in common than just their inspiration for
cooking, or their mutual love of campfires and Land Rovers. It was Michelle’s
love for bringing people together through food and her down-to-earth stories
about family adventures and catching chickens in her backyard that attracted
publishers to her blog. “They said they loved the way it made them feel. There
they were sitting at their city desks living this really hectic life, and my
blog gave them time to slow down, take a deep breath, and read about this woman
living in the countryside. They said to me, ‘We want to take that feeling and turn it into a book.’”
Michelle
continues to write recipes and stories that are inspiring people everywhere to
stop and enjoy their surroundings. And to anyone contemplating a shift to
Tasmania, Michelle simply encourages them to do it. “We moved here with no
plan, no job, no house, no idea. We were really lucky that it all fell into
place.” It didn’t take Michelle long to realise that there’s something very
special and unique about this state. “Creative business-wise, you’ll do really
well. We’ve only been here for 13 years but it’s amazing how infectious that
sense of state pride is… we just sort of burst into tears every time someone
makes it! But you know, Tasmania really does pack above its weight. It’s such a
small population but when you think of all the amazing things it does, there’s
good reason for us to be proud.”
In
a country where speed and convenience are rapidly consuming our dinner table
laughter and conversations, Michelle and Sarah remind us that there are times where
we simply need dream up something good and somehow make it happen. We don’t all
need to become food bloggers or authors or creative business owners, but maybe
it’s time we stopped to appreciate the simple things. Whether this is baking a
delicious loaf of bread, making hot chocolate by the sea, or having a picnic in
ball gowns – we’re lucky Tasmania’s the kind of place where you can dream it,
and it’ll happen.
Image by Luisa Brimble
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