Peas in a pod – food takes off

I think I may have been to Pod Food only a few times, possibly even only once, before this visit – and that was many years ago. It was good enough back then – but now it is something a whole lot more impressive.

Pod Food is in the heart of the slightly ramshackle gardening and nursery hub of Canberra, Pialligo , adjacent to the burgeoning exercise in urban growth called Canberra Airport – Canberra International Airport, no less. It was always the place you went to get large pots and even larger apples.

The entrance to Pod Food, formerly part of an operating nursery, is the sort of garden I eventually want to have.

Of late it has attracted some serious culinary action, with Pialligo Estate Farmhouse Restaurant, and its associated Smokehouse, going from strength to strength.

Smoking for broke beside the Molongolo

Where the market gardens that supplied Canberra as far back as the 1820s used to be a small fortune has been spent turning 86 acres overlooking the Eastern end of Lake Burley Griffin into a superb regional restaurant, Pialligo Estate Farmhouse Restaurant.

We had a fabulous lunch there as a small pre-birthday celebration. The place is superb, absolutely high quality. I couldn’t take my eyes off the copper guttering and downpipes – the owners John Russell and Rowan Brennan have not spared a cent. I thought all the loose copper in the world had already been stolen but clearly it’s still available.

The renovated building at Pialligo Estate that houses the main restaurant

I’d been following the development of the place since we used to buy superb bacon, smoked salmon and home-made baked beans from two charming Irish guys at the Epic Farmers Market, at least until they’d decided to give it a miss and move on.