Hello, I’m Julia
I’m a cook, writer and gardener living in Tasmania’s Huon Valley. My working life has taken a rather circuitous route through food, teaching, writing and growing things, but the common thread has always been an interest in the way food connects us to place, season and one another.
How I got here
A long time ago, I used to be a town planner, but discovered that I was much better at cooking than planning. Gradually cooking, baking, and preserving became more than hobbies and really took over my life. I started selling at a local farmers’ market, studied gastronomy, had a café, taught cooking classes and judged baking and preserves at shows around the country.
In early 2020, we swapped the hot, humid weather and sub-tropical produce of Brisbane for the cold, wet weather and short growing season of Tasmania’s far south. We moved into a 1890s timber cottage on a couple of acres in the little town of Geeveston. There is a large vegetable garden, an orchard in progress, chickens and sheep, an ever-expanding collection of herbs and usually far too many things waiting to be picked, preserved or cooked.
Tasmania changed the way I cook. Living somewhere with such distinct seasons, surrounded by small growers, orchards, roadside stalls, and an abundance of produce, made me pay much greater attention to what was growing around me. That way of cooking eventually became Apples & Elderflower.
What I’m doing now
Today, Apples & Elderflower brings together the things I enjoy doing. I write about seasonal life in Tasmania’s far south, make preserves, cordials and other small-batch things from the kitchen and garden, and sell them at Farm Gate market in Hobart and from The Little Black Shed outside our home.
Much of what I do begins with the same question: what can I make with what is growing around me right now?