It was an early rise for me on Saturday morning, the start of a long weekend and the first day of Golden Plains music festival. We packed up the car at 5.45am and headed to Meredith, a small town about an hour and a half from Melbourne. Meredith is the home of the goats that make my favourite goat’s cheese as well as a family-run farm that opens its gates to thousands of music fans and an impressive lineup of artists twice a year.
The early start was in aid of securing a prime camping spot near the (super)natural amphitheatre which is the centre of the weekend’s action. The strategy was successful, but we were left with time to kill between setting up tents and the first band picking up their guitars. Also, we were starving – getting up that early is hunger-making work.
Since moving to Kyneton my husband has taken to cooking scones, a country tradition. He had prepared a batch on Friday and packed it up with some butter and a container of home-made pear and vanilla jam (using pears from our own tree!), ready for morning tea on Saturday. Once our small tent city was established and the beer was chilling on ice, we gathered under the shade (it was hot, so very hot this weekend) and enjoyed a surprisingly civilised morning tea. The rest of the weekend wasn’t as classy, but it was a lovely way to kick off proceedings.
Festival Scones
- Plain flour, for dusting
- 3 cups self-raising flour
- 80g butter, cubed
- 1 to 1 1/4 cups milk
- Jam and butter to serve
Preheat oven to 200°C/390°F. Lightly dust a flat baking tray with plain flour. Sift self-raising flour into a large bowl.
Using your fingertips, rub butter into flour until mixture resembles breadcrumbs.
Make a well in the centre. Add 1 cup of milk. Mix with a flat-bladed knife until mixture forms a soft dough, adding more milk if required. Turn onto a lightly floured surface. Barely knead. The dough should be *just* combined (kneading can make the scones tough).
Pat dough into a 2cm-thick round. Using a round cookie cutter, cut out your scones. Place them onto prepared baking tray, quite close together (about 1cm). Sprinkle tops with a little plain flour. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until golden and well risen. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.
Recipe from Taste.com.au
More traditional festival food was on the menu for the following two days. A gaggle of food trucks lined two fields set aside as food courts. The Beatbox Kitchen is a regular fixture on the streets of Melbourne and always has a long line at Golden Plains. The Stereo Sauce – a rich, slightly spicy mayonnaise – is what makes the burger and chips worth the wait. Raph, the chef of Beatbox, keeps the Stereo Sauce recipe top secret, but he did recently share a recipe for a Magic Mayo on The Design Files, so we can attempt to recreate it at home. Which is where I am now – exhausted from a lot of fun and grateful for cool showers and soft beds.
Goat cheese, scones, food trucks. Mmmm…
Snap! I was here on the weekend too. You captured it well. There were no scones for me, but I loved the Beatbox Burgers too. I hope you had an awesome weekend!
Oh cool! I did have an awesome weekend – though would have paid a million bucks for an air conditioner in my tent
Hope you survived without sunburn or heat stroke!
I love scones, I’ll have to try this
The festival looks like fun, I’m ready for summer here in the US!
It was a really great lineup. I’m ready for the end of Summer – 9 days straight of 95 degree weather is enough!
This sounds like so much fun! And I had no idea one could so well under primitive circumstances. Morning tea (with homemade jam?!), burgers and fries with spicy mayonnaise…. Mmmm.
I am a fellow BYW classmate. I was drawn to your site because of the name – perfect for a boat name. I am so happy to have found you, really enjoy your vision.
Hi! Thanks so much for stopping by. Your blog is beautiful to look at. I love a good striped tee
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Hi Amelia
I’m also a BYW student, I love the bog, and hope it’s ok that I’ve included it in my eight blogs that rock.
Lovely to have found simple provisions, and I look forward to following your culinary adventures.
Jude x
Ps following your twitter and Pinterest too!
Hi Jude, lovely to meet you. I’m so flattered that you’re including Simple Provisions, thank you! Hope you’re enjoying the class.
Oh wow wow wow this looks like somewhere I need to be! I also agree with you about the Merideth Valley goats cheese. Seriously. Does a better cheese even exist? I doubt it.
I highly recommend Golden Plains and no, there is no better cheese!
This sounds like a perfect day! And yummm pears!
It was, and they were