The mouth-watering tapestry that is Barossa food weaves together old world culinary traditions with seasonality and Australian practicality. Sewn by many hands since its beginnings, it is a glorious abstract of colour bound by a framework of devotion and hard work.
Although the earliest land-owners were English with large holdings in the Barossa Ranges, it was German-speaking settlers, devout Lutherans, who had the strongest impact on the flavours of Barossa food.
They arrived with only a few meagre possessions but they carried a wealth of culinary traditions in their baggage.
They were hard-working folk who cleared land for farming and built old world style homes with wood ovens and smokehouses.
They planted orchards, vegetable gardens and vineyards, grazed animals and felled trees to fuel their stoves. Every home had fruit trees, vines and a vegetable garden.
Driven by the need to preserve the bounty of the land and a stoic belief in the waste not, want not principle, they smoked meats and dried fruit, fermented and pickled vegetables, made cheese and fermented grapes to make wine.
They celebrated the turning of the seasons and gave thanks in the spired Lutheran churches that still dot the Barossa landscape.
These early heroes provided the foundation for current day culinary champions such as Maggie Beer and Callum Hann, who today are among the many applying their passion for the varied treasures grown in or on Barossan soil.
