August is here! Can you believe it? Just like that, the day's are getting longer and before we know it the festive season will be upon us. We've had such a wonderful response to the new team's first edition of Lost and this month we're going full steam ahead as we increase Lost to 64 pages - all chockablock full of reasons to get out and about and experience all our beautiful region has to offer.
Read MoreA spinning Curtin Mayfield record booms in the foyer, as Michael Lelliot dawdles between portraits of Hells Angel bikers, religious icons and bottles of rum. Mike, as his mates know him, has a way of making chaos feel natural.
“Should we take the Rolls Royce out drifting?” smiles Mike. A contagious larrikin, Mike has the figure of an NBA star, wears stick-n-poke tattoos and maintains a bushranger’s swagger.
Read MoreTim Foster has learned the ways of Central Victoria in his five years running leading Kyneton restaurant Source Dining. Some days he turns up to work to find fresh produce left at the kitchen door – figs, sometimes, or maybe quince or lemons. “We won’t know who has left it. until a local is in having a meal and they’ll say, ‘Did you get that box I left for you?” he says. “It’s really lovely.”
There’s a delightful synchronicity that Foster finds himself embedded in a community upholding the old-fashioned food values. The promise of such a life is what originally lured him and wife Michelle to the area in 2013. “We grew up in South Australia – Coonawarra born and bred - but loved how the food scene in Victoria was so active and vibrant.”
Read MoreHot chocolate is like a hug from the inside, reads a sign at Atelier Chocolat, at once summing up one of the joys of a Central Victorian winter (just add crackling fire, and maybe cake) as well as the attractions of chocolate in warm liquid form.
And you rest assured that this is no ordinary hot chocolate. Laetitia Hoffmann, who opened her charmingly bijou Trentham handmade chocolate shop at the end of March, is a devotee of the bean-to-bar school, in which the cocoa beans can be traced back to an ethical source.
Read MorePut aside your hesitations and dig into this strawberry delight.
Read MoreModern Daylesford is idyllic, welcoming and, though we rarely stop to appreciate it, safe. Now tranquil and a prime holiday destination, residents and visitors in the Daylesford region will find little enough reminders of the town’s tragic past. As a community, Daylesford coalesced slowly in response to the fortuitous discovery of gold in 1851. Like so many at the time, prospectors and miners from all over the world converged, hoping to make their fortune. At the heart, this history lies a tale of three young boys, lost to the unforgiving bushland of colonial Victoria.
Read MoreThe word ceramics can be traced to the Greek keramos, meaning “potter’s clay.” In the foreground is the potter, humankind, who has left us with objects as vestiges of culture. Sometimes, as in the Nok peoples of Africa, ceramic objects are all that is left of a civilization—as though their spirit comes to life through our observance.
For Angie Izard the practice is a little more modest, she simply describes herself as a maker of things.
Read MoreTerrines, rillettes and pates are the holy trinity to any occasion that celebrates conversation and clinking coupes. For Cameron and Murvet McKenzie, the duo behind local small-goods favourite Max and Delilah, the essence of these rustic dishes is simple—for people to enjoy each other's company. For centuries, food has catered to that bond.
Murvet waltzes in, glowing with enthusiasm. We meet at Wine By The Country, the testing grounds for Max and Delilah. “Cameron was dead set against food names for the company,” smiles Murvet, “Max and Delilah are our two cats. Delilah passed away two years ago but Max is still kicking around.”
Read MoreWhere we choose to live can sow the seeds for what it means to be a family. For Jeremy and Jeannie Quinn, building a home in Glenlyon set the foundations for life’s blind-sighted moments—the stuff memories are made from.
We meet at Jeremy and Jeannie’s latest property in Richmond, an architectural splendour of the late Victorian boom style, that was once owned by Eureka Stockade rebel turned politician Peter Lalor. “We’ve always lived in Richmond, so we’ve never really had a backyard,” explains Jeannie, “We had a bit to do with boomerang ranch because the girls love horse riding.”
Read MoreNow I know what you're thinking; July - we're in the depths of winter, the weather forecast is looking dismal, and the last long weekend for the foreseeable future is over and done with... life is looking pretty bleak. Well, I'm here is to tell you otherwise. We are so lucky to live in such an incredible part of Australia, so magically beautiful all 12 months of the year. In fact, Winter has got to be our absolute favourite season here in spa country. Whether it's a cold night spent by the fire with a glass of local pinot, or waking up on a frosty morning with the landscape shrouded in fog; there really is no better place to get Lost in Winter.
Read MoreThe Daylesford Football & Netball Club in partnership with the Chill Out Festival is proud to be hosting the inaugural Daylesford Pride Cup against Newlyn FNC. Other than the Pride Cup football and netball games, the club will be hosting a ticketed sit down lunch with guest speakers, kids entertainment and information stands from a wide variety of organizations.
This event will be held Saturday, July 13, 9 am – 5 pm at the Daylesford Football Netball Club: Victoria Park, Daylesford.
Read MoreSynergy. If there is one word to describe the partnership between Tony De Marco and Theresa Albiloi it is synergy. Business and life partners, this dynamic couple met later in life, yet together they have already accomplished more than many would in a long lifetime. We meet them at The Oxford, a large former guest house they recently refurbished and added to their portfolio of luxury accommodation properties, The Houses Daylesford. The Oxford is massive and sleeps 24. The walls are lined with over 90 original charcoal drawings by artist Derek Erskine. The main room is dominated by an impressive non-sectional double-sided upholstered banquette. "It was made for a house in Caulfield," says Theresa. "It cost them tens of thousands of dollars." Tony jumps in, "we paid a lot less than that," he says with a laugh. "It took a lot of work to reassemble when it arrived."
Read MoreIt is the middle of winter, yet the garden bears a plentiful bounty. Wood sorrel, chicory, cabbage, Brussels sprouts, Jerusalem artichokes, baby carrots. In the hothouse grows spicy red mizuna and the last of the bull horn peppers. This is Dairy Flat Farm, the kitchen garden of Alla Wolf Tasker's Lake House restaurant kitchen. It is part of Barcaldine House, a 15 ha property nestled in a bowl of rich volcanic soil at Musk. It is the realisation of a lifelong dream of the award-winning chef. "We have always had great produce from our growers," says Alla. "Now we are joining them. What is harvested in the morning is on the plates at lunchtime," she says. "There is nothing comparable on this planet to freshly picked vegetables."
Read MoreScientists believe that land on earth was once dominated by vast forests of mushrooms, each towering at a height of 8 meters, while the forbears of modern plant life struggled for life in their shadow. 400 million years later, it’s the diverse, diminutive descendants of these ancient fungi that populate forest floors all over the world, popping up in the shade of all manner of trees and plants. Mushrooms are noted for their remarkable ability to explode rapidly out of nutrient-rich soil, even appearing overnight at times. The spores from which mushrooms grow will lie, inert in the ground, waiting for the burst of rain and moisture that will allow them to grow.
Read MoreElna Schaerf-Trauner cuts a stunning figure. With her crown of gold curls, and dressed in a traditional Austrian dirndl, she sits down at the marble-topped table with a glass cup filled with coffee. The co-owner of Das Kaffeehaus in Castlemaine she looks around the great space inside the former Castlemaine Woollen Mill, now known as The Mill. Since 2015 this has been a popular part of the Castlemaine lifestyle. It moved from the Old Castlemaine Hospital when it was founded in 2003. “Both sites have chimneys, important for venting the aromatic output of the coffee roasters,” points out Elna.
Read MoreFashion designer Tiffany Treloar stops on a lonely road near Glenlyon. She takes out her camera. She lines up the lens on an old gum tree, tortured by the prevailing wind. “It is so beautiful around here,” says Tiffany. Around the corner, she stops by an old barn with a ramshackle windmill. “This is just brilliant!” she says. The Melbourne based designer uses photographic images of rural scenes, night skies, industrial landscapes and beautiful found objects to make designs. She manipulates the images on her computer and the designs are then printed on fabric and then hand made into women’s clothing. “I design here in Australia and I make the clothes right here in Australia,” says the vivacious designer. Last month she opened a shop in Vincent Street, Daylesford and is working on a range of locally inspired prints for summer in her St Kilda design studio. She has two other stores, one in Flinders Lane, Melbourne and another in Gertrude Street, Fitzroy.
Read MoreAbbie the truffle dog runs excitedly beneath the oak trees. She stops at a small mound of earth under a tree and gives a delicate scratch at the surface of the soil. Her handler Sue Daly looks pleased. “Another truffle,” she says. She takes out a small trowel and carefully digs around the mound with archaeological like delicacy to reveal the subterranean source of the bulge. It’s a truffle. A great big black truffle. A delicacy originally from Europe they are so valuable they are sold by the gram. Two dollars and fifty cents per gram. A decent sized piece to shave over your pasta will cost $25.
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