Local Business: Pollen Tea Room

I mentioned the other day that this is not a food blog. What I meant to say was, this is not a blog about eat places. There are so many amazing people out there talking about food in Hobart, where to go, what's new... I don't need to fill that space. However, I am happy to talk about growing food (as that's all part of having a garden and working towards sustainability - but I'll talk about that more another day), and I am always, ALWAYS happy to talk about tea. Drinking tea, making tea, the cool things to put tea in and accessorise tea... few things are better than a cup of tea. 

Which is why I am going to talk to you about Pollen Tea Room. Tucked into a beautiful old building on Hampden Road in Battery Point, I hear that Pollen Tea Room has been around for a while. I also have no idea why I've never heard of it before, but I am so grateful that I did! 

So my weekend involved my first visit, and it won't be the last. A warm atmosphere with a lovely outdoor area, Pollen Tea Room are more than just another cafe. Their tea menu is the most extensive I have ever seen, and showcases their own blends, with a priority towards organic and ethically sourced, as well as a focus on chai - my favourite!

The food menu is really pleasant, once again focusing on organic, seasonal and local where possible, and most intolerances/allergies catered for. 

Pollen Tea Room is the perfect spot for a quiet moment, or an intimate catch up with a good friend over the best thing in the world - tea. 

This is the blend I took home!

Even better, if you love the tea you've had, they sell all their brews in take away packets, and you can order online as well. There's also a beautiful range of handmade teaware you can purchase from their website. 

As always, I only mention a business on here that I love, I'm not getting paid or anything out of this review except for sharing something awesome with you! All pics except for the first one lovingly stolen from the Pollen Tea Room website :)

Apricots!

Living in a cooler climate means summer is a feast of local stone fruit, and for me, berries and stone fruit are something worth getting excited about. I can't remember if I realised there was an apricot tree in my backyard before or after I purchased my little house, but its definitely one of the things I love about my property and this year has been a particularly bountiful harvest. The thing with fruit is that it's all ripe pretty much at once which means a huge picking effort happened on the weekend!

Even after giving away bucket loads, I still had heaps left over so I popped a sign out the front and sold some to the neighbourhood! 

So my weekend was filled with fruit picking, grading and jam making! Oh I did have time to pop down to another market, which I will tell you about shortly. I have a dream of making a little stand out the front of my house and selling my excess jams, chutneys and other home made creations... maybe that's what my apricot sales money can go towards!

Summer is almost here...

A lot of my childhood memories revolve around fruit, and nothing says Summer to me quite like picking raspberries from the garden! Imagine my delight when raspberry canes suddenly appeared from behind a bush in the garden beside my driveway - a perfect compliment to the strawberry patch they are growing next to.

Lucky to last long enough to be photographed, I hope to be picking fresh raspberries daily for at least the next few months!

Fruit has to be the most satisfying thing to grow in the garden, and trust me when I say if I can do it, you can too, as these poor plants are ignored for most of the year until its time to start picking and eating!

Do you grow fruit? What is your favourite?