On common ground

Alice, Tom and I recently spent an afternoon with the Statham family of Rosnay Organic. These guys grow beautiful organic figs, olives and wine grapes and have worked hard to create themselves a gentle, clean lifestyle that leaves about as low a carbon footprint as you could get. The straw bale house (they built themselves) is the kind of place you never want to leave (ever). But we all had little people to feed so reluctantly I extracted Alice from the trampoline and Tom from the cubby house (there may have been a throw down involved in that latter part), and we drove home to have pasta with Rosnay olive paste for dinner (see below). Today I think I’ll start researching straw bale houses.


Sam and Simone Statham and their three children live on a 140-hectare Community Title cooperative just out of Canowindra. As Sam explains, this is a strata-style set-up, so each family farms independently but they share things like water distribution, buffer zones and roads. The farm was originally established by Sam’s parents Florence and Richard and their wine, fruit and value added produce are all recognised as some of the region’s best. We are particularly keen on the figs in syrup which are fantastic just on their own with a little yogurt or dolloped onto a cheese plate. You can purchase their produce either online or from these distributors.