A WEST Gippsland woman is making a name for her treats, writes SARAH HUDSON
Cow and chicken poo. That's the secret, says Cathy John.
"And we have brilliant soil here. You can put in 100 cuttings and you'll get an almost perfect strike rate," she says.
Cathy runs Clearly Delicious from her 4ha property in Lillico, West Gippsland, where she churns out a tantalising range of pantry delights, including elderflower cordial, strawberry and rose-petal jam and rhubarb and ginger preserve.
Most remarkable, however, is that she sources the vast majority of produce for her homemade, all-natural relishes, jams, pickles and cordials from her own organic garden, or from neighbouring properties.
"About 90 per cent of our products are made from my own garden or from others," she says. "We have a pensioner nearby who supplies zucchini and beetroot.
"The rose petals and lavender we use in the jams come from our plants, as well as the elderflower for the cordial, so we don't spray them at all.
"We do struggle with things like strawberries and raspberries. In February, with the bushfires and heatwave, we had to source our raspberries from New Zealand.
"Originally, we wanted to grow everything, but it's just not practical. We soon realised we couldn't get walnuts on demand."
Today, Cathy and her band of helpers have been cooking 18kg of Cathy's homegrown rhubarb, with about 7kg making rhubarb and ginger jam and 10kg going into a relish.
Cathy, who is something of a workaholic, admits that if she wasn't cooking seven days a week, she would spend her days in the garden.
Among her always-expanding garden of fruit trees and vegetables there is a chook pen and inside the pen is a row of elderflower shrubs, initially planted as a wind break, but now the flowers are used to make the cordial.
"Because they get the chook poo directly, they are very healthy plants," Cathy says.
"The flowers are like an umbrella, a cluster that are very small. If you pick about 100, add some water, sugar and lemon juice. You'll make about 20 bottles of cordial."
Cathy says she leads a charmed life in the Gippsland hills.
Operating alongside Clearly Delicious, her husband, Haydn, runs the Lillico Glass Studio on the same property, casting in lead crystal.
The couple moved to the area from Perth about 16 years ago.
Cathy was born and raised on a dairy farm in Wales and migrated to Australia 30 years ago.
"Growing up on the farm, we weren't very wealthy and my Mum made everything and everything she made came off the land. We just went to the shops once a week.
"I still use her recipes for many of my jams and preserves."
It was only after the last of the couple's six children left home that Cathy conjured Clearly Delicious.
"Because we had quite a few children I always baked and cooked," she says.
"Ten years ago, when the last child left home we had so much excess food and we could only give so much away and our waistlines started to expand."
With Haydn selling glassware from the nearby Rokeby market, Cathy joined him, selling her jams and preserves.
Five years ago, when her sister Anne also migrated from Wales, the two joined to create Clearly Delicious. Anne left about two years ago.
Cathy now sells hampers and her range of seven chutneys and 11 jams in about 60 retail stores in Gippsland and has recently launched her online store.
"Our philosophy has always been clean and green, which is why we wanted to source so much locally," Cathy says.
"We even ask people to bring the jars back."
Checklist
Clearly Delicious, Lillico Rd, Lillico, ph: (03) 5623 1592 or http://www.clearlydelicious.com.au/ and Lillico Glass Studio: http://www.lillicoglassstudio.com.au/
