Hinterland Homesteading with Racheal Pascoe
Recently I was fortunate to spend time at a cattle station in northern Queensland. After flying to Townsville, I drove for hours inland, along remote Flinders Highway, the bush either side was dry and told a story of harsh times. Seasons of intense dry, contrasted by incredible wet seasons where rivers swell and swallow it all. What a land Australia is.
Arriving at the station, the road was dusty and I was so tired from travelling. On approaching the main buildings, a helicopter lifted into the air not far away. Workers went about their day, fixing machinery, moving cattle etc. The sense of remoteness was in all of my thoughts. How on earth do people survive and thrive long term out here?
I had come to see our daughter Bianca, who is the Chef on the property. Each day she is challenged with how difficult it is to access fresh food easily. A big food order is made once a fortnight, so planning is necessary for meals for everyone. A veggie garden is adjacent to the kitchen and there isn’t any shortage of manure to keep it ticking along, but keeping it watered at times can be a struggle with the dry.
Homesteading is all about growing and processing your own food. On a cattle station, there isn’t any shortage of beef. They grow their own! The challenge lies in keeping the meals interesting and varied, while mostly still using beef. There aren’t any transport kilometres on the beef served at the station. It is very local, killed in the paddock and hung for a few days, then cut into useable pieces. That is real ‘paddock to plate’ right there!
Steak and mince are often on the menu but also corned beef for sandwiches. Slow cookers are always on with silverside and there is nearly always a roast for cold cuts.
Each day the ringers (cowboys and cowgirls) come in for brekkie, lunch and dinner. They are filthy dirty, famished and food offers some real joy in the day. Not only is the chef responsible for their nutrition but also bringing joy through the meals served.
Some of the staff take a packed lunch with them, as they can be working far from the homestead all day. The food needs be filling and something that can be wrapped or travel well.
The budget for the kitchen is $10,000 a month! This is to feed everyone nutritious meals and keep the ringers fridge full of yummy, homemade treats and snacks. It sounds like a lot of money, but items are so much more expensive in remote locations. It bumps up the cost of each meal and this is where the skill of economically planning ahead becomes invaluable.
Buying when items are on sale and in season, growing your own if you can, storing when you have bulk of something and generally building a store you can pull from. Homesteaders all do the smaller home-sized version, just working a cattle ranch is the bigger version of it all. It was great to see how it all happens!
I made a batch of 60 Anzac biscuits drizzled with a block of top deck one afternoon and by brekkie the container was empty! It made me laugh. Even at home here the good stuff disappears quickly!
I found one ringer who was the last at brekkie and I was sorry she had missed out on the biscuits. She smiled at me and said ‘Don’t worry, I hid some in the other fridge last night!’ She knew they would all be gone!
Hearty, soul warming food is served at the station and met with much enthusiasm. Cottage pie, beef stroganoff, savoury mince, enchiladas, hamburgers, pasties, curries, meatballs… and the list goes on!
Now I am back home again, my trip to the cattle station has made me appreciate just how readily available things at the shops are for us here on the Sunshine Coast.
How lucky we are. It’s no bother to pop into the supermarket on the way past, to grab some sour cream or fresh milk. It has given me a new sense of respect for all the Aussies working and living out west!
Happy Homesteading everyone – wherever you might be!
