The Australian Blue Ribbon Cookbook

There is still a little time to order the Blue Ribbon Mother’s Day special.

Special One:  The brand new Australian Blue Ribbon Cookbook, released in March, plus a copy of Liz Harfull’s best-selling Women of the Land – the stories of eight women running their own farms and their remarkable everyday lives.  Just $50 plus postage for both books.

Special Tw0: The brand new Australian Blue Ribbon Cookbook, plus the book that started it all, The Blue Ribbon Cookbook, about SA country shows and show cooks, which won an award at the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards in Paris in 2009. Just $70 plus postage, a saving of $10.

Pay online over the weekend and send Liz a copy of the electronic receipt, and your personally signed copies will be in the post on Monday.

For more details and to place an order email sales@lizharfull.com

The much-anticipated follow-up to Liz’s first award-winning book was launched last week to a sell-out crowd in Brisbane and is now available in book shops across Australia. The Australian Blue Ribbon Cookbook captures the stories, generational knowledge and first-prize winning recipes of 70 show cooks and show cooking families from around Australia.  Visit www.blueribboncookbook.com.au to find out more.

Follow Liz Harfull on Twitter, Pinterest and Facebook to see photos from the book and the launch, and keep up with her latest adventures. Or come and help Liz celebrate at one of a series of events and special appearances unfolding across the country:

Sunday, April 6 – Mount Gambier Rotary Book Fair.  Liz will be launching The Australian Blue Ribbon Cookbook in her home-town and leading a session on preserving family recipes and cooking knowledge. 1pm to 2pm, City Hall.

Saturday, April 12 – WA launch at the Kalamunda Show, WA, 2pm on the main stage, with Liz selling and signing books near the showground kitchen for most of the day.

Easter Saturday, April 19 – Robe Easter Fair and Car Boot Sale – Liz will be selling and signing copies of all her books at this popular annual event on South Australia’s Limestone Coast.

Saturday, May 3 – Meet the author and book signing at Big W, Cumberland Park, Adelaide, noon to 1pm.

May 30 and 31  – Campbell Town Show, Tasmania. Liz will be a special guest at this year’s show, celebrating The Australian Blue Ribbon Cookbook.

Order signed copies of Liz Harfull’s best-selling books direct from the author for Christmas 2012 and receive these special offers:

The Blue Ribbon Cookbook – $35.00 (RRP $39.95)

Women of the Land – $25.00 (RRP $29.99)

Postage not included.

Author Liz Harfull has added another ‘blue ribbon’ to her achievements. Her latest book,  Women of the Land has hit the national top 10 bestseller’s list for non-fiction.  The book brings together the inspiring and heart-warming stories of eight remarkable women from across Australia who run their own farms, or in the case of one, manages a cattle station on behalf of an entire community. Often juggling the demands of raising a family, they have overcome tragedy, personal fears, physical exhaustion and more than a little skepticism to build vibrant futures that sustain them and their families, in the process inspiring their neighbours and communities with their entrepreneurship, humility and determination.

Published by Allen & Unwin the book is available through good  bookshops across Australia, or as an e-book online.

For more information about the book and coming events with the author visit www.lizharfull.com

To coincide with the 30th anniversary of South Australia’s State Fruit Cake Championship, its founder Margaret Hurst has been made a life member of the Agricultural Societies Council of South Australia. It is quite an achievement, richly deserved, for the highly respected judge and show cook from the Barossa Valley, who willing shared her tips for making the perfect fruit cake in The Blue Ribbon Cookbook. The council has bestowed life membership on only two other occasions.

The presentation took place last week after Margaret finished judging the 30th annual championship as part of the 2011 Royal Adelaide Show. This year’s winner was Ann Colyer from Port Germein, who represented the Northern region of country shows.

Meanwhile another Blue Ribbon cook, Emma Kemp, from Hahndorf, finally pulled off her ambition to win the State Genoa Cake Competition. Emma has made the finals every year since 2007, and has built an enviable track record in the open cookery section at the Adelaide show. This year she won trophies as the most successful exhibitor in four sections – pastries, biscuits, large cakes and deserts – before taking out the overall most successful exhibitor award.

The show also held a men’s chocolate cake competition for the first time, with Vaughan Wilson, from Wistow, a regional finalist in the fruit cake competition, just pipping another Blue Ribbon cook, Rex Liebelt from Strathalbyn.

As the floods swept across so much of eastern Australia, country showgrounds often served as a gathering point for affected communities. But many show societies have also suffered losses, and their volunteers are working hard to rebuild and get ready for their autumn show. In Queensland alone, about 20 shows have been directly and immediately affected, and countless more are likely to see reduced entries as the year unfolds. So I would like to encourage you all to lend a hand where you can, and make a donation to one of the many fundraising efforts going on at the moment around Australia. As you might expect, one that has particularly caught my eye is News Ltd’s ‘blue ribbon’ campaign. It encourages people to buy and wear a blue ribbon as a ‘national display of compassion’. Another recent fundraiser was the Authors for Queensland program. In a remarkable effort, authors from across Australia and overseas donated books and services for an online auction which raised almost $20,000 the Queensland Government Flood Relief Appeal. Bidding closed on Monday but you can still visit the website or sign up to the facebook page.

A new print run of The Blue Ribbon Cookbook has arrived at Wakefield Press in time for Christmas. The best-selling book sold out a few weeks ago after another surge of interest was sparked by author Liz Harfull’s appearance on ABC TV’s Landline program in September. You should now be able to purchase copies through your local book store. Signed copies are also available direct from the author.

October is one of the busiest months on the calendar for show cooks, with the vast majority of southern Australia’s royal and country shows being held in Spring. For me, over the past two months, the focus has been visiting royal shows in Brisbane, Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth and Hobart as part of my quest for show cooks and their prize-winning recipes. I spent last week in Tasmania where I attended the cookery judging at the Royal Hobart Show before travelling around the State to meet cookery convenors and cooks at places like Bream Creek, Longford, Deloraine, Westbury and Campbell Town. The latter is apparently the oldest continuous show in the British Commonwealth outside the UK – quite an achievement, and remarkable indeed when you consider showgoers have to brave winter conditions in the cold Midlands area to attend the event which is held in early June. One of the non-show highlights of the trip was a quick visit to Oatlands, where an historic windmill has been restored and is once again being used to grind flour. An expert from Lincolnshire in England was brought in to help set up the mill and train the miller. The results of his efforts can be purchased at a new visitor’s centre which opened in the historic mill precinct just a few weeks ago.

ABC Gippsland Mornings producer Lucy Nash is certainly not scared of a challenge. The adventurous Lucy has decided to take on show cooking as a way of becoming more involved in her local community, having recently moved to this part of Victoria. To prove her worth, she has decided to tackle the ‘queen’ of show classes – the sponge. Lucy has put together a wonderful video, and is keeping a highly entertaining audio diary to record her adventures in the world of show cooking and learning to make the perfect sponge. In Episode 1 she interviews me on the traditions of country shows, and then she moves on to the really serious advice in Episode 2 when she chats to her Mum. Well worth having a listen…