My friend Celia from Fig Jam and Lime Cordial does a monthly roundup of interesting things in her kitchen. She’s a cracker baker and chocolate temperer (erer?) so it is well worth swinging by her kitchen and checking it out. Every so often I actually manage to get organised enough to join in – like this month!
Fairy floss is something I thought I was well past in this life, although I do sneak the odd mouthful if I happen to be at the Royal Show, but a parcel which arrived in the post last week is about to change that. Genevieve Loxley one day wondered why you can’t buy passionfruit flavoured fairy floss and three years later Spun Fairy Floss was born. Now available in over 100 different and gorgeous flavours, Spun Fairy Floss is wonderfully fragrant and vegan friendly, gluten, fat, sodium, lactose and preservative free which I’m hoping makes it some kind of health food because I had it for lunch today!
Although I really did have fairy floss at lunch time, I lifted my game a little for afternoon tea after a trip to the fruit and vegetable shop. Once my blood sugar crashed I went looking for something a little more sustaining and came home with a loaf of the absolutely stunning pumpkin bread from Mylor Bakery in the Adelaide Hills. Not available in many places, their genuine sourdough bread comes in several different varieties and is worth looking for. This moist loaf has just a hint of nutmeg and I really can’t get enough of it.
While meandering around the greengrocers I discovered a new line of local Adelaide-made dips. Thia’s Dips are family-made in Norwood, largely using the fresh organic produce which is grown on the family farm at Virginia and are preservative and additive free. They are very new and won’t be found in the large supermarkets so, once again, you’ll have to look for them. There is a glorious image of a widely beaming Thia on the lids which makes them instantly recognisable. My favourite is the Eggplant & Spanish Onion dip which looks and tastes as if it was made this morning – and goes very nicely with the pumpkin bread.
Adelaide Showground Farmers Market and Willunga Farmers Market habitue’s will be very familiar with the gorgeous honey products of Silvia The Honey Lady and now she has brought her goodies up into the hills, opening her new shop last week in Hahndorf. She is making herself at home in a charming heritage cottage on the main drag where she stocks her full range of natural raw honey and honey blends. The Honey Lady also sells a wonderful range of hand blended herbal teas and will be releasing an all-natural honey-based range of skin care products in time for Christmas. I’ve had a little sneak preview of these and I fell instantly in love – I just can’t wait until these are available!
Silvia has developed quite a reputation with her blended honeys which include a vanilla blend, chai blend, licorice and turmeric. These are all popular home remedies for various ailments but are also splendid secret ingredients in your cooking. The sweet licorice honey will completely lift a pork dish up to the next level and the vanilla and/or ginger honey turns a panna cotta into something truly sublime. And, of course, they are perfect in a cup of tea – which is my favourite way to enjoy the ginger honey.
Amanda, I love it when have time to join in, and I really appreciate you finding the time, as I know how busy you are at the moment! x
Such treats – did you really have fairy floss for lunch? It must have been very, very good! I love all the labels this month – Thia’s dips and the Honey lady – both very beautiful. And the pumpkin bread looks very wholesome – I’m sure it more than made up for having fairy floss for lunch! 😉
Yes *blush* I did. It was coconut flavoured and made the whole kitchen smell divine!
All your produce looks lovely, especially that bread. What a feast you must have had!
I just love this series but like you, I don’t get involved every month because I need to be more organised. I keep hearing about the fairy floss that comes in a hundred different flavours. The only flavour I’ve ever tried is that sugar flavour you get at the Easter Show. I would love to try something a little more interesting xx
I wish I could have shared afternoon tea with you. The dip and the bread sounds absolutely heavenly
I think I’ll have to open some fairy floss. Paul and Gen give us a tub or two every time we go out to dinner together. If I ate it all I’d look like an elephant.
I’d love to try those dips with some of Celia’s crackers and that bread would make me very happy today.
Dear Amanda, so nice to see you have a tiny bit of spare time to play this month. If you had told me you were having fairy floss for lunch I would have flown over! Love it. The passionfruit one sounds amazing! I am going to have to check the web site. The honey sounds amazing too.
Wow, what a fantastic IMK post Amanda – such fabulous finds.
🙂 Mandy
Some beautiful excellent inspiring food items coming from SA and Queensland. i have heard about this floss from Maureen looks delicious . The bread looks very moist and lovely
100 flavours of fairy floss – I could not believe what I was reading !! What incredibly clever fairies and busy ones too !!
What a great stash in your kitchen Amanda. Needless to say they all look fabulous and worth a try 🙂
That fairy floss looks so good Amanda. No wonder you had it for lunch! I’m going to have to keep an eye out for it at the shops as I’m a big sucker for fairy floss. That pumpkin bread looks amazing too. I absolutely adore pumpkin bread.
Oh so many goodies indeed! I really love the sound of the licorice honey in particular- yummo 🙂
What is fairy floss? Can I make it at home? I have lots of passionfruit sitting on my kitchen counter. I must either find recipes to use them or freeze the pulp. HELP!
And that sourdough pumpking bread… wonder if I could create a recipe with my starter.
Love your informative blog, Amanda.
Isabelle – fairy floss is our name for cotton candy. Please share if you come up with a recipe for this bread. It is a very moist loaf and has honey and a hint of nutmeg, but I think would be delicious with maple syrup and maybe cardamom.
Everything looks good! I like the blended honey, I would be interested in trying those too.
Hi Amanda
I too was recently given some of that fairy floss. I managed one mouthful before passing it onto hubby who has the sweet tooth in this family. Far too much sugar for me! However the pumpkin bread and dip would have gone straight to my tummy – yumbo scrumbo!