The Sugar Mill - Orange

I can honestly tell you dear readers, that I have been waiting in a state of extreme anticipation for The Sugar Mill to open in Orange since September!

At long last, I am pleased to tell you that the doors are open and the selection of homemade cakes, pies and other calorie inducing delights are now available seven days a week – heaven!

I have even found myself taking Dog A L’Orange on a new walking route past The Sugar Mill, so I can stock up on goodies and then work off a few calories on the way home! 

I can highly recommend the lamb, tomato & rosemary pie and also the hazelnut & chocolate cups.

Stacey and Darren, owners of The Old Mill in Millthorpe have opened their new Orange shop in the Summer Centre close to Dan Murphy’s. This brand new space is completely different from those familiar with The Old Mill building which has lots of vintage charm.

You can find all your favourites in The Sugar Mill including, the crowd pleasing lemon meringue tarts, pies, cakes, eclairs although not quite the range and selection as in Millthorpe – I’m sure this will build over the coming weeks.

As a huge fan of pretty much everything sold by The Old Mill, I’m thrilled that I no longer have to drive 20 minutes whenever I want a divine pastry treat. Fingers crossed, the gingerbread stars will be in store soon.

There is seating available should you wish to dine in, everything is bright, modern & tastefully decorated, with the only downsides being the view of the car park & no air conditioning. Also be warned there are lots of mums and babies there during the day so it can get quite noisy.

Located at 82 - 102 Summer St & open Monday to Friday from 7am- 6pm, Weekends from 9am -  4pm.

Tis the season to be jolly & eat cherries

You know it is getting close to Christmas in Australia when the big fat deep red cherries appear. Households everyone scramble to get a box at the best price and you see bowls of glorious shiny cherries everywhere you go.

Coming from the UK where a ripe cherry was a rare delicacy, I have to say I love the fact Antipodeans get all the best fruit just before Christmas, all we got growing up were mandarins and nuts!

Living in Orange we are lucky enough to have an abundance of orchards and berry farms, full of fantastic fresh produce ready to be picked. I've been wanting to get into some 'pick your own' action for ages but it has never happened until recently... 

I persuaded Mr L'Orange that picking our own fruit would be fun, we could eat plenty as we picked and we could get a coffee afterwards & perhaps even a wine tasting (a bribe never fails). 

The sexy cherry picking 'look'

We turned up at Cargo Road Wines nice and early (well, 10.30am is pretty good for us!) as the weather has been really hot here recently and who wants to be up a tree in the blazing midday sun? James Sweetapple, the owner gave us a brief overview on how to pick cherries and the best ones to go for. They even provide handy ladders for those hard to reach, super big cherries.

A cherried up James Sweetapple

To my surprise it is very easy to pick cherries and didn't take long to get a kilo of premium grade  cherries for $8 a kilo which is outstanding value. The cherries are really good this year, so load up while there are still plenty to choose from.

The whole experience was totally idyllic as families picked cherries together, a pet lamb wandered around, the friendly winery dog kept an eye on everyone and we ate cherries until we felt a bit ill. Then it was time for a coffee and relax on the verandah which has amazing views over the region before a wine tasting and home. 

Busy picking cherries

What a Sunday morning, I highly recommend it to everyone wanting to escape the Christmas frenzy and do something relaxing instead. Who is keen for this Sunday?

Autumn Photos Around Orange

We are so lucky to live in such a beautiful place, I've tried to capture the autumnal glory but have to be honest, my photos only scrape the surface - you need to come to Orange in person!

My trusty companion, Dog A L'Orange who put up with all the stops to take photos when all he wanted to do was 'visit' the ducks in the park.

Papier Mache Bowl Class with Josephine Jagger-Manners

Some girlfriends and I decided to do something different last Sunday and we booked in for a papier mache bowl making class with local artist and thoroughly crafty person Josephine Jagger Manners.

We drove over to Molong for the class (just 30 minutes from Orange) and treated ourselves to a lip smackingly good gelato beforehand.

Molong Gelato is a fantastic little shop, that gives very generous portions of gelato unlike some of the more stingy gelato places in Sydney, that feel 2 licks are all you need.. I went with my current favourite of Burnt Caramel, the other top picks of the moment were Ginger and Fig, Watermelon, Lychee and Coconut and Blood Orange.

You can also buy the pastes that make up the flavour base for the gelato in the shop so you can go home and replicate the delights for yourself.

Having satisfied and cooled ourselves with gelato we then headed to Josephine Jagger Manner's beautiful home for our papier mache craft class.

The start of the class

Enjoying the lovely verandah and Rose!

We all got settled on the veranda, put on our lovely aprons and got to grips with the basics of papier mache.

Josephine in action

My little bowl

Josephine is an excellent teacher, who is extremely patient and encouraging even with difficult non artistic pupils, like ourselves.

Crafty concentration

All the materials we needed to make our bowls were laid out ready to go, we didn't have to do any clearing up and it was pure bliss to have four hours of uninterrupted crafty bliss. 

Drying Time Milly the Dog

There is a lot of drying involved in making a papier mache bowl which ends up taking up a lot of time. However, it gave us the chance to enjoy a wonderful afternoon tea and biscuits on the verandah and get inspired for the design of our bowls.

Painting the bowls was my favourite bit, although my bowl has turned out a bit more fluro green than planned, however as Josephine kindly put it 'We can always paint over it and start again darling!' Everyone walked away with something beautiful that had been hand crafted using every ounce of our creative skill. I'm definitely going back for more!

We all had the most relaxing afternoon away from the stresses and distraction of home. Josephine Jagger Manners holds classes every month at her home with the next Papier Mache bowl class on Sunday March 10th from 1pm - 4pm.