Travelways

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On the trail of good tastes

BEN  Pyka plunges  a landing net into the tank. "You've heard of food miles?'' He lifts a couple of prime salmon from the concrete enclosure and gestures  to a nearby processing building. "Here, we measure them in metres.'' Food miles usually measure the distance a product travels before it reaches the consumer. By the time a salmon has emerged from the smoker at 41 South Salmon and Ginseng Farm near Deloraine, it's probably clocked 20 "food metres'' with another 60 or so to reach the property's retail outlet. The point's well taken. There's not a lot of waste in the operation Ben and his dad, Ziggy, carved out of a willow-infested swamp 11 years ago. The concrete holding tanks are gravity-fed water from Western Creek. The water, Ben Pyka assures me, leaves the property at least twice as clean, in terms of an E.coli count, than when it was borrowed. "We re-established the creek.'' Photos show the old days of crack willows clogging the waterway. The Pykas have built three lakes along a wetlands walk; more than 50 bird species, up to eight platypuses and various other creatures call the wetlands home. The platypuses are occasionally spotted by visitors as they pad between lakes. Tourists can pay $10 to stroll the wetlands and see the operation; a ginseng plantation has been nurtured in tandem but the main game has always been fish farming. A flood in 2005, when the tourism walks and facilities had just been opened, cost 10,000 fish that were nearly market ready and stripped away much of the hard building work. "We buried them there,'' Mr Pyka says, pointing to a wetland bank. The Pykas bounced back with a massive clean-up and re-established their operation. This visit last week comes after heavy rains -  the swollen South Esk is drowning trees at Hadspen and a torrent rages down Cataract Gorge - but, fortunately, there's no flooding at the fish farm. Back at the cafe, visitors are invited to taste hot-smoked baby salmon, a smoked salmon spread (rillettes) and a lively ginseng spice blend. The snacking continues with a stop at the nearby smallgoods factory of Thomas and Susi Beuke. The Beukes started and sold award-winning Black Forest Smallgoods and now operate the production end under a new name, Tasmanian Pure. The tasting plate sells me on some travelling-snack slices of spicy salami and wallaby sausage before a sweet stop at Chudleigh's Melita Honey Farm. This must be one of the few operations in the state where one of the core duties is cleaning bee poo off the outside windows. But that's the charm of the farm: the worker bees are stars of their own reality theatre for the glassed-in viewing pleasure of tourists. More about this hive of activity next week.