Diversity
is the key to what makes dining in the Swan Valley such
a pleasure. Sunday champagne breakfasts overlooking the
vines and lively Friday nights at the Mongolian barbecue,
blending your own organic olive oil or watching chocolate
being made, cafes with playgrounds so you get to dine
in peace and a lively German bierhaus where you most assuredly
will not. All these experiences and more are available
less than half an hour’s drive from Perth.
Visitors are always surprised at just how close the Swan
Valley actually is. Drive east from the city and it all
comes at you with astonishing haste. One moment you’re
driving past brick and tile, the next you’re surrounded
by paddocks of pig melon, banana palms and horses kicking
up the dust.
And because the good folk of the Valley grow grapes like
you or I might raise roses, the inevitable glut of fruit
ends up for sale at roadside produce stalls. All of which
gives the place a terrifically rural feel. Turn a blind
eye to the cockatoos and eucalypts and you could almost
be driving through rural France.
One of the Valley’s best-known produce sellers is
Edgecombe Brothers. Here you’ll find local avocados,
vine-ripened tomatoes, just-picked asparagus and anything
else grown locally and in season - and most of it for
less than you’d pay in the city. You might also pop
into the Swan Valley Cheese Company for a lump of the
crescenza - a creamy, stracchino-style farmhouse cheese
you won’t find anywhere else. Squished onto fresh
bread and topped with some grapes (local, of course) and
a drizzle of peppery olive oil, it’s lunch fit for
the gods and us lesser mortals.
The Valley’s ethnic residents have been making EVOO
(that’s trade talk for extra virgin olive oil - take
note and impress the hell out of your foodie friends)
for decades but not until recently in commercial
quantities. Valley oils are of excellent quality and well
worth seeking out. Look, too, for a local wild table olive
reminiscent of the Ligurian variety. While lesser known
than some, it has a delightfully intense flavour. Which,
now I come to think about it, sums up the Swan Valley
rather nicely, too.
by Jane Cornes - Freelance Features Writer
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