North east tour - Day 3
Day 3 - Brown Brothers Winery and Red stag deer farm
Our first visit for the day was just down the road to Brown Brothers Winery at Milawa.
Here we were greeted by Brett who very kindly gave up his time to talk to us about what happens out in the vineyard. After a brief chat we grabbed some secateurs and heading out to learn about how different varieties of grapes and pruned to get maximum yield. Students were let loose on the vines to have a go and after 30 mins released that this job was much harder than first thought.
Once we had our head around the pruning techniques it was off to meet Tom who would step us through the process of wine making. Showing from when the grapes enter the processing hoppers to his role in the blending room to make new and old varieties of wine. Students where given the task of blending their own wine, by sight/colour only, not taste of coarse, to match on that Tom had prepared for them.
The winners of the challenge went to a very proud Brooklyn and Keira!
A quick stop off at Milawa for lunch and then we headed up the road to Eurobin to the Red stag deer farm, to see something a little different in terms of farming business.
Here we heard from Rob who owns and runs the farm and his been on the farm his whole life. If was interesting to hear his story and how he came about farming deer and emu's, later being apart of creating a 'game' meat processing plant just down the road.
The business now operates 7 days a week and its main focus is tourism.
We learnt about the amaizing products that come from the emu, from its eggs, to the emu oil which has many health benifits. Students had the oppurtuity it wander the grounds and feed the deer, emu and ostrichs, taking care not to get too close to the stags with their huge antlers. We thank Rob very much for his time and sharing his inspiring life story with us.
After a busy day we headed to the Moyhu for a fantastic dinner where we were able to catch up with some past students of the AFFE tour in QLD. Thanks to Hunter and Tom for making the effort to join us.
And to Melissa at the Moyhu hotel for catering for our large group and putting on such a great meal.