A Table in the Orchard

I dreamed of a rambling old farmhouse where I could grow my own food, learn how to bake cakes and make jam. I wanted to wear gumboots. Every day. Organizing cocktail parties at the Sydney Opera House sounds perfectly glamorous, and for a while it was for Michelle Crawford. But once she became a mother, the yearning to find her own little slice of heaven in the country could no longer be ignored. For years she had been daydreaming of a little farmhouse, with smoke curling out of the chimney, where she could slow down and grow her own food. Last but not least, she was hungry for a new adventure. An old farmhouse nestled in Tasmania's lush Huon Valley offered the chance to make that a dream come true--and adventure in spades, from her first doomed attempts at planting a veggie garden to raising a bunch of chickens with attitude, discovering the joys of a wood stove and foraging for treasure to make sloe gin, jam, and bake cakes. Lots of cakes. Warm, down to earth, and inspiring, and lushly illustrated with lip-smacking images and recipes, A Table in the Orchard is breathtaking proof of how seductive a taste of slow living in one of the most beautiful valleys in Tasmania might be. Like Michelle, you might be tempted to make your own crumpets--or run away to the Apple Isle.