The Farmer's Pantry Cafe, Mudgee

Is it possible that The Boy and I are the only people in Australia, possibly the World, to visit a winery and not look at the fine plonk on offer?  Or for that matter even taste a drop of wine?  Or even set foot in the actual winery?

Yes, I thought we were.

But the thing about wineries is that they sometimes also have really really good food and Mudgee's Burundulla Winery, home to The Farmer's Pantry Cafe, is no exception.

The Farmer's Pantry is an offshoot of Ormiston Free Range Pork, a local Mudgee farm where the pigs roam free and the pork is delicious! Ormiston is focused on sustainable and ethical pork farming which means your porky lunch meat has lead a happy life...up until the point it became your lunch meat. But, let's not think about that, OK?

Happy piggys = happy Miss Piggy!

The menu at The Farmer's Pantry is simple, and focuses on local produce.  There is a heavy leaning towards pork products - all Ormiston of course.  The Boy and I barely look at the menu as our waitress tempts us immediately with the 100 Mile Platter for Two ($38 - bargain of the century).

Platters at The Farmer's Pantry change regularly depending on what local produce is in...or out!  They really take the locavoire concept seriously here. 

Our jaws literally drop open when the platter arrives at our table as the plate is groaning with an over-abundance of deliciousness!  We don't know where to start - everything looks so tasty.  

We both fell in love with the Ormiston Pork Rillette - that's it in the little bowl topped with a splodge of quince jelly.  This is the first time either of us has had Rillette, but luckily I was paying attention to the last series of Masterchef as I knew it was a shredded pork dish perfect for spreading on bread - a bit similar to pate.

The Rillette is made on site at the cafe and we I practically lick the bowl clean when we run out of bread.  Lucky for us they also do take home containers ($12.00) that are frozen and will survive the journey back to Sydney without too much drama. There are also quite a few other pork products that you can buy on site to take home - so come armed with your esky and ice bricks folks.

I also really loved the High Valley Feta - so smooth and creamy!  The Hazelnut Dukkah was another lovely dish.  In fact if I'm honest there wasn't anything on the platter that we didn't like and I think the waitress was pretty impressed surprised when she came to collect our totally empty plate - not a crumb was left!

I'm so glad we decided to stop and have lunch at The Farmer's Pantry. It was the perfect, relaxing end to our long weekend with The Cattle Baroness and it allowed us to soak up the quiet country life just that little bit longer before we hit the road and headed back to Sydney.

The Farmer's Pantry is at Burundulla Winery, 234 Castlereagh Hwy, Mudgee (that's the Sydney Road, on the Sydney side of Mudgee).

If you like the sound of the free range pork products but aren't going to be in Mudgee anytime soon many of the Ormiston Free Range Pork products are available from the Village Providore at 115 Johnston Street, Annandale (Phone: 9660 1236).