In the News

Lake House Daylesford: leading regional retreat marks 40-year milestone 

by: Kirstie Bedford

Lake House Daylesford kickstarted regional destination dining when it opened in the 1980s. Four decades on, it has continued to retain its spot as a revered regional dining venue.

When Allan Wolf-Tasker and Alla Wolf-Tasker arrived at the site of Lake House in Daylesford in the 80s, it was a derelict paddock covered in blackberries with redback-infested car wrecks, but Alla had a vision that would change the face of regional destination dining as we knew it.

Her dream was to turn the site into a 40-seat, weekend-only restaurant to emulate her experiences of top-end French regional hospitality. Hand-built by Allan, it took four years before they opened their doors, and when they did, they not only kickstarted a new evolution of regional dining, they also put Daylesford on the global culinary map.

Alla says it was by no means plain sailing, with quality regional produce almost non-existent, forcing the couple to travel to and from Melbourne twice a week. But they continued to evolve, renovate, refine and remodel – and it paid off. Today the restaurant has achieved 76 chef hats and more than 100 hospitality and tourism awards.

Today, daughter Larissa Wolf-Tasker and her husband Robin Wilson oversee operations.

A founding member of Luxury Lodges of Australia, there are now 33 studios and suites nestled among meticulously manicured gardens overlooking the mystical Lake Daylesford. The property also has an infinity pool, tennis court, library, event spaces and a state-of-the-art spa with a focus on Ayurvedic treatments.

Interiors have been carefully curated by Larissa and include plush upholstered sofas, merino wool throws and carefully selected art, including her late father’s works, which pay homage to the Australian landscape.

The restaurant is still very much the heart of the property and through its many incarnations has stayed true to its original values, which Larissa says remain, “with the top button undone”.

These days the recently renovated dining room overlooks the lush gardens to the lake and outside rows of umbrellas shade guests as they lounge in the sunshine.

“It’s been white, cream, green and mauve. High back, low back, banquet seating. White plates, black plates, boards, and tiles. Never in response to fads and never at the expense of its original identity,” says Larissa.

“It continues a natural and organic evolution. A living breathing entity fuelled and moulded by the family vision and its current caretakers. As one guest remarked recently, it appears fresher each visit, as if with a facelift, flawless and ageless.”

Dairy Flat Lodge and regeneration

Just down the road is sister property Dairy Flat Lodge, Bake House & Farm, which sits on 16 hectares. It’s home to a regenerative farm that produces vegetables, herbs and flowers for Lake House restaurant. The property has six rooms, and travellers can either take over the entire property or you can book them one of six suites.

There are rare breed cattle, lambs, olive groves, beehives and an orchard. And this year it will produce its first pinot noir rosé, chardonnay and apple cider.

Lake House is dedicated to ensuring the sustainability of the land and the quality of the soil and has significant composting systems that transfer waste back to the land.

Guinea fowl and geese roam the gardens, and the bakehouse has a commitment to slow fermentation, non-GMO grains and local millers.

To celebrate its four decades of success, Lake House will hold a series of celebration events in August and December.

Story by Ute Junker

Check In You couldn’t ask for a smoother arrival. An hour after leaving Tullamarine Airport our rental car turns up the long drive lined with silver birches that leads to the Lodge at Dairy Flat Farm. The sister property to Daylesford’s acclaimed Lake House, which is just 10 minutes’ drive away, Dairy Flat Farm is a 38-acre regenerative farm that supplies produce to the Lake House restaurant, including bread and pastries from the bake house from beneath the Lodge.

The Look Step inside the Lodge’s sprawling main room and you instantly want to nestle in to one of the cosy seating areas; the only question is, which one? Perhaps you will head to one of the couches in front of the fireplace, or perhaps it is the smaller seating nook to the side where a bowl of tulips and a stack of glossy coffee table books awaits. There is an inviting kitchen to one side with a dining room table large enough to fit a football team. A library is on the far side. All of it decorated in the distinct Lake House style: an artful jumble of fabrics and furnishings, bespoke pieces and exquisite antiques, thick rugs and eye-catching art, much of it by the family’s late patriarch, Allan Wolf-Tasker.

The Room Dairy Flat Lodge is designed for families or friends travelling together, although single room bookings are available occasionally, so choosing which of the six bedrooms you will sleep in is part of the fun. Whether you opt for one of the four rooms in the main lodge, or one of the two rooms tucked into the former stables just behind the house, each is designed as a private sanctuary complete with king-size beds, deep-soaking tubs and excellent Wi-Fi.

Food + Drink If your idea of a good start to the day is a hearty breakfast prepared by someone else you are in luck – breakfast is included in your stay and the pastries are incredible. For many guests, cooking their own meals is part of the pleasure of staying here but if you want someone else to take charge of lunch and dinner, that can be organised. (We take the latter option and enjoy feasting on superb dishes such as spiced carrot and lentil soup and duck with Jerusalem artichoke mash.) Be sure to book in a meal at the two-hatted Lake House restaurant, still one of Australia’s best regional restaurants.

Out + About The Lodge concierge will help you organise an itinerary for your stay but with so many options available on the property, it’s smart to stay close to home. Take a farm tour to learn more about the vegetable gardens, orchards, hoop houses, olive grove and vineyard, or get fascinating insights from honey supplier Dan the Bee Man.

Workshops on gardening and baking are also available.

The Verdict This five-star farm stay offers a luxury escape to the country.

The Score Five Stars

Highlights Early riser? Wander down to the bake house for a croissant fresh from the oven.

Lowlights If it’s been raining, pack your gumboots so you won’t mind getting muddy.

Traveller article link here. 

After Decades of Passion & Perserverance, The Wolf-Tasker Family, Icons of Regional Australian Dining, Is Breaking New Ground,

Story: Brittany Smith  Photography: Marnie Hawson

“When we took over the property, it needed a lot of love. Inside The Lodge, we basically started from scratch. Dad and I worked on rebuilding to create our vision” – Larissa.

1.  Crates of produce provide a feast for the eyes and the stomach with beans, zucchini, leafy greens and squash.
2.  Parsley is grown alongside basil, mint, lemon balm, lemon verbena, oregano, rosemary, sage and thyme.
3.  In an array of hues, rainbow chard is as beautiful as it is delicious.
4.  Radishes have a wonderfully sharp and distinctive peppery flavour.
5.  Alpacas help care for the farm’s sheep, including Cliffy who is always front and centre to greet guests.
6.  Kohlrabi is not the prettiest or most well-known vegetable but it is tasty.
7.  A variety of tomatoes are grown.
8.  Freshly picked green beans.

Source book
Accommodation: Dairy Flat Farm, dairyflatfarmdaylesford.com.au. Restaurant: Lake House Restaurant, lakehouse.com.au.
PUMPKIN PATCH In season, the lower part of the farm garden is reserved for the pumpkin patch. Many varieties of pumpkins are grown here including buttercup, butternut and Golden Hubbard. The productive area of the farm supplies the kitchens at Lake House as well as The Lodge and Wombat Hill House, the family’s cafe in Wombat Hill Botanic Gardens in Daylesford.

Established by Alla & Allan Wolf-Tasker Almost 35 Years Ago, Lake House Continues To Go From Strength To Strength.

Words: Kylie Imeson Photography: Marina Gemmola

There is an alchemy in creating a getaway that is at once luxurious, yet feels like a home away from home, and where everything is taken care of for you but you feel instantly relaxed and at ease. This is the case at Lake House in Daylesford, Victoria. As Larissa Wolf-Tasker, daughter of founders Alla and the late Allan Wolf-Tasker, explains, “We want people to come back again and again; to feel at home. ” Lake House began life as a restaurant, opening in 1984, with Alla in the kitchen serving dishes made from locally
sourced ingredients, something that was considered groundbreaking at the time. Today the iconic 45-seat restaurant sources most of its produce from the 15-hectare, chemical-free Dairy Flat Farm, just seven kilometres from Daylesford, which is also owned by the Wolf-Tasker family. There are two hectares of vegetables, herbs and flowers, three hoop houses, a 300-tree orchard, 250 olive trees and two hectares of chardonnay and pinot noir vines. Make sure you tour Dairy Flat Farm during your stay- it’s impressive.

Accommodation was later added to allow restaurant guests to stay after their wonderful meal. The Waterfront Suites have generous balconies or courtyards to make the most of the Lake Daylesford views. While the ultra-private, recently refurbished Atrium Villa and Spa Villa can be booked together forming a complete house called The Atrium. Bliss. To book a stay, visit lakehouse.com.au

 

Story by Susan Kurosawa

The team at Daylesford’s Lake House has done it again with the launch of a posh farmhouse, ideal for group get-togethers.

The generous spread is composed not just of parish produce but ingredients from the sustainable organic estate beyond the window, across the fields and forests, towards the hills but not too far away. Yesterday, on a tour of the expansive holdings with farm manager (and agricultural engineer, late of Brazil) Pedro, I looked a lot of fruit, vegetables, herbs, olives and curious plantings straight in the eye. I pottered about in greenhouses with icy windows. I am now well informed on the mysteries of sharkskin melons and warty-looking galeux d’eysines pumpkins. I peeped into polytunnels housing 24 varieties of tomatoes, but such a figure was soon eclipsed by the 48 types of apples just casually hanging about in the orchard, which is also abundant with pears and stone fruit in season. For a fleeting moment I contemplated a spot of trout fishing in the private spring-fed dam, until I was diverted by the outdoor hot tub and fire-pit.

I walked through high-hedged outdoor “rooms” in the Vita Sackville-West style and passed by orderly rows of flowers in the cutting garden bobbing their heads in a brisk breeze as if to the rhythm of a metronome. To stay at this lodge is to feel immersed in an agricultural and botanical reverie. The temptation to overeat and then lie-down has to be tempered with country hikes, electric bike rides and vigorous strolls through the cool-climate plantings of Wombat Hill Botanic Gardens, resplendent with heritage trees. But all that is blown when a waft of oven-fresh bread is lingering on an early breeze and the trail leads to the on-site bakehouse where Domenico and his fellow magicians are rustling up slow-fermented sourdough, baguettes, brioche and glazed pastries. And there’s no need to venture into the frosty morn this time of year to visit those master bakers. Just pop down to the lodge’s wine cellar and follow a bunker-style tunnel to the ovens and simply draw up a chair.

But now, Mariana and I must discuss the therapeutic benefits of Portuguese custard tarts from her home city of Lisbon while she shows me how to work the gleaming espresso machine in case I wake with the kookaburras tomorrow morning and need to rustle up coffee for our small house-party of four. We are occupying just two double chambers in one wing of this six-bedroom country house. If we’d arrived with more friends, there’d be the possibility to spread across four guestrooms in the main residence and two vineyard suites in an annexe overlooking chardonnay and pinot noir vines.

The decor differs within the accommodation inventory but there’s a cohesive country-chic feel of deep comfort, patterned fabrics, classy wallpapers, well-chosen furniture and fittings, and free-standing bath-tubs positioned, quite literally, to soak in the views. Every guestroom is ensuite, generous in size and has a TV and a king bed. Bed linens and accessories are what you’d expect in a five-star hotel, and vases and bowls of roses and dahlias add shots of colour.

Larissa, daughter of owners Alla and Allan Wolf-Tasker, has overseen the design and there are clear Kit Kemp-style touches in her tactile accessorising, high padded bedheads and mix-it-up colour combos. Allan Wolf-Tasker’s large-scale artworks feature in key positions and bronze animal sculptures by Anthony Vanderzweep add charm and whimsy. Fusty country gingham, this is not.

You could just stay put for an entire weekend and lord it up, rural manor-style, or enjoy Dairy Flat in the style of an Italian agriturismo experience and really explore the farm. But this is also a base camp for thorough exploration of the Macedon region, including nearby towns of Kyneton, Trentham and Woodend, all with good retail and dining, or focus on neighbouring Hepburn Springs with its mineral spas and excellent bath-house.

The Wolf-Taskers, who run Lake House inn and restaurant at Daylesford, opened the exclusive-use Dairy Flat Lodge & Farm in the hamlet of Musk, about 10 minutes’ drive from the mother-ship, in 2019, just in time for a ghastly bushfire season and for the world as we know it to close down. It had been purchased as a viable but “rundown” farm and olive grove, and the scale of the rejuvenation project might have broken a lesser family. But after massive improvements, umpteen lockdowns and setbacks, the property has hit its stride. While we’ve all been sleeping, the grounds, beehives and bakehouse, resident alpacas and livestock, have all been meticulously cared for. Staff have been trained in multiple roles; pivoting like a spinning top has become the new normal. The word “productive” hardly seems to cover the enterprise, which now supplies a significant amount of food to supplement orders from local producers for Lake House’s multi-award-winning kitchen and its nearby casual cafe, Wombat Hill House.

This year there are weddings and functions booked at Dairy Flat but it’s the house-party concept that will likely rule the roost. The feeling of a perfect getaway starts when motoring up a long drive lined with silver birch and maybe spotting, as we do, kangaroos bounding ghost-like in a wintry mist and shadowy alpacas craning their long necks. By the second day, there could have been llamas in pyjamas lined up and we’d hardly have blinked an eye. That’s just how otherworldly this place feels. So, splurge on a romantic weekend or gather a companionable crowd of 12 for a sole-use stay. There’s loads of space to spread out, no such thing as the worst guestroom and, to be fair, no point wasting an invitation on anyone who’s following a strict weight-loss diet. Bon appetit.

To-do list

VISIT

Istra Smallgoods for superb relishes, pressed meats, bottled sauces and nut-studded nougat. Also close by are Passing Clouds Winery and Daylesford Cider Company.

SHOP

For European-inspired homewares at eCasa, and natural fibre clothing at Manteau Noir. Cliffy’s Emporium cum grocery/cafe is an institution, full of wonderful clutter.

DRINK

Housed in a cottage and arranged like an apothecary, the Daylesford Hot Chocolate Company sells top-quality blends (dark ginger; dark chilli etc) to take away or sip on site.

DINE

Lake House for a meal is de rigueur and its supplies from Dairy Flat ensure a focus on vegetable-based dishes as well as best neighbourhood produce. Without argument, this centrepiece restaurant of the family-owned lodge, is the best in the region.

ESSENTIALS 

Dairy Flat Lodge & Farm offers sole-use bookings for up to 12 guests. Rates on application

By SUSAN KUROSAWA

Beehives, a bakehouse, vineyards and an heirloom orchard. Parish produce prepared by a private chef and an onsite concierge. It’s the rural idyll writ large and luxurious at this satellite property 7km from the Wolf-Tasker family’s Lake House in Daylesford, northwest of Melbourne airport.

The house, with exquisite country-luxe decor, surveys the 15ha farm and features four ensuite guestrooms in the main building and a pair of well-equipped Vineyard Suites in a courtyard annex.

There’s an on-site concierge and an abundance of indulgent extras. Go fishing for trout in the private dam, hop on an e-bike or join farm manager Pedro for a tour of the flowering gardens, flourishing herb and vegetable patches and groves yielding myriad variety of olives. Available for exclusive us.

Story by Michael Harden

Culinary doyenne ALLA WOLF-TASKER shares a taste of her latest project Dairy Flat Farm, where guests are invited to celebrate the seasons and relish simple flavours straight from the paddock.

Alla Wolf-Tasker is not one to rest on her laurels. Admittedly, she has always piled project upon project at Lake House, but Wolf-Tasker and her team were just beginning to cruise along comfortably when a new place suddenly popped up. “It had such good bones and spoke to everything we’ve been talking about at Lake House – about connecting people to the food they’re eating – that we just looked at each other and said, ‘we have to do it’,” she says.

The place Wolf-Tasker is talking about is Dairy Flat Farm, a 16-hectare working farm seven kilometres from Daylesford in central Victoria, home to her renowned restaurant and hotel Lake House. Since buying the farm in 2018, Wolf-Tasker and her family have turned the existing house into a luxury lodge for 12 guests and established a bakery in the cellar that supplies all of the family’s businesses with slow-fermented sourdough loaves and viennoiserie.

But the core project and the reason for buying the property lies in the fields surrounding the lodge. Lake House has long championed locally grown produce, its menu and cooking classes focused on the best fruit, vegetables, herbs and meat being produced nearby. Now Wolf-Tasker is taking the opportunity to not only grow as much produce as possible for the restaurant and their Wombat Hill café but also to present guests with a “closed-loop” food and farm experience, where they can sample the food that is growing all around them.

Wolf-Tasker has created recipes for this issue of Gourmet Traveller based on the simple dishes they serve to lodge guests at Dairy Flat Farm, dishes that are driven by the season.

[Read more: https://lakehouse.com.au/lake-house-journal/gourmet-traveller-field-of-dreams-march-2021/]

Words and Recipes by Alla Wolf-Tasker

Forever seeking local produce, the Lake House’s Alla Wolf-Tasker now grows her own at her family’s regenerative farm, Dairy Flat.

As a revered chef, pioneer of locally sourced, seasonal food, and co-founder of the award-winning restaurant and hotel Lake House in Daylesford, Victoria, Alla Wolf-Tasker had enough on her plate already. But it’s the plate, as always, that she’s concerned with. That’s why she bought Dairy Flat Farm, a 15-hectare property in the hamlet of Musk, 6km from Lake House, to serve as a kitchen garden.

With two hectares of vegetable, herb, and flower gardens, a two-hectare vineyard planted with chardonnay and pinot noir, plus a 250-tree olive grove, a 300-tree orchard and a bakehouse – not to mention The Lodge, which can sleep 12 – Alla is busier than ever. Thankfully, she’s helped by husband Allan, daughter Larissa and son-in-law Robin, plus a team of more than 100 people. After Victoria’s extended lockdown last year, the properties are now bustling with guests.

Here, Alla reveals what led her to buying Dairy Flat Farm and also shares a few of her favourite recipes.

 

 

If the past few months have proved anything, it’s that there’s no place like home. The land of Oz is exactly where we want to be right now, and as the country reopens after lockdown, we’re excited to see a little more of it. This month, we’re gathering the friends and family we’ve been missing, and road-tripping to next-level holiday houses, such as Dairy Flat Farm & Lodge, Victoria.

Dairy Flat Farm & Lodge, Musk, Vic

This working farm is the brainchild of the team behind Victorian destination-dining institution the Lake House. Set among rolling hills, vegetable gardens, vineyards, olive groves and orchards, it feels totally removed from city life, even though it’s only a 90-minute drive from Melbourne. The Lodge is like a real-life storybook, where geese wander garden paths, flowers are freshly cut, and supermarket spit guards are far away. There is accommodation for up to 12 guests and an in-house cellar so you don’t go thirsty (guests are treated to a bottle of wine in their room each day). The kitchen garden is an abundant source of produce for the award-winning restaurant at sister property the Lake House, which is known for its hyper-seasonal menu. On site there’s also a bakehouse, which produces slow-fermented sourdough treats for guests to graze on throughout the day. Visit dairyflatfarmdaylesford.com.au

 

 

Story by Gemima Cody

Of all the wild conspiracies dreamt up to account for 2020, it’s surprising the good old wrath of god hasn’t had more airtime. Regional Victorian businesses faced drought, then bushfires and then a pandemic/plague. You’d forgive anyone watching their back for signs of locust swarms. But hopefully their luck is about to change.

Overnight stays are back on the cards, and our desire to help regional businesses intersects very neatly with our need to eat, drink and sleep anywhere but our homes. I would rent a windy barn at this point. But you can do better. Much better.

The week before the world swung off its axis, I was hosted at Dairy Flat Farm. The ambitious project has been years in the making by the Wolf-Tasker family, founders of Daylesford’s game-changing regional restaurant the Lake House. It’s a 38-hectare regenerative farm, replete with vineyards, orchards, a bakery and a luxury lodge. It had just launched when the summer bushfires saw tourists flee.

But if timing was initially against Dairy Flat Farm, lockdown has almost perfectly groomed us for the experience. Industry veteran Alla Wolf-Tasker has sung the song of sustainable, local, quality produce for decades. She climbed the mountain in Daylesford with the Lake House on a wing, a prayer, and a lake of sweat and tears. Dairy Flat, at Musk, about 10 minutes from Daylesford, was created by the same team, as well as daughter Larissa and partner Rob Wilson, taking the sustainable vision further with a fully immersing agriturismo experience.

You can tend bees, learn horticulture, or participate in the entire planet’s new hobby: sourdough baking with lessons in the onsite bakery with co-founder and former Tivoli Road king, Michael James. The converted cellar that is now the bakery is connected to the main lodge via a service tunnel. It has views across a gravel terrace, rolling vines and an Alice in Wonderland hedge maze. Imagine pummelling dough here instead of destroying your kitchen watching Youtube.

Before breakfast, you can grab fresh pastries and coffee from the bakery and take a wander through the cutting gardens (for blooms). Too lazy to walk? Electric bikes will slingshot you to local cideries or to pick up smallgoods from local hero, Istra.

An honesty bar is stacked with spirits from local makers like Starward whisky and X gin. A live-in concierge, Lucinda Tindal (who you might recognise from the floors of Coda restaurant or the late Town Mouse), can make them into cocktails for aperitivo hour.

No question, this is a high thread-count experience, which extends to deep beds, deeper baths, and a house packed with Allan Wolf-Tasker landscapes (Alla’s husband is a painter), Fran Pidgeon Illustrations and earthy farmhouse tables by Greg Stirling. A shuttle service is available to take you to dinner or lunch at the Lake House, but the mission here is much more than a mere stay.

In the two hectares of gardens, hoop houses and greenhouses, they are cultivating heirloom fruit and vegetables destined for the two hat Lake House restaurant, and also sold through a farm shop and at Wombat Hill in Daylesford. The baking lessons – once restrictions lift to allow groups or non-guests to congregate – will be open to all.

The Wolf-Taskers created this experience to inspire and engage, but also drive home, in the most demonstrable way possible, the message that the loss of a meaningful connection with our food supply, and the mass industrialisation of crafts such as baking would have consequences for us all. This past two months has neatly underscored the point.

Whether you’re in desperate need of a great escape or have learnt how much you need to connect to food sources and get your hands dirty, this is the place. Run. You’re free.

The writer was a guest of Dairy Flat Farm and Lodge.

The lowdown
Where 238 Dairy Flat Road, Musk, 03 5348 3329, dairyflatfarmdaylesford.com.au
Cost Exclusive use of the lodge by groups up to 12 from $3990 per night. Couples from $665 per night when restrictions lift. Includes concierge, breakfast, bakery goods, farm produce, a selection of non-alcoholic and alcoholic drinks and facilities including telescope and spa. Classes are also available.

Pro tip The dream kitchen is yours. Bring empty Eskies and support local producers.

Story by Alexandra Carlton

This new retreat perfectly pairs coming together with getting away.

“Gatherings. They’ve always been important but now the word has a special poignancy,” says the legendary Alla Wolf-Tasker, co-owner of Dairy Flat Farm, the brand-new but old-souled luxury lodge and sister property to the Lake House restaurant, hotel and spa in Daylesford. “Starved as we’ve been of close contact and the opportunity for celebration with friends and family, the specialness of being able to ‘gather your tribe’ shall never again be lost on us.”

Dairy Flat Farm, less than 10 kilometres from Lake House and a 90-minute drive from Melbourne, was designed with the warm art of gathering at its heart. The central Lodge consists of six luxury suites, each with an ensuite, plus there’s a reading room, lounge and sitting areas, dining space and kitchen. It can be booked exclusively for one group or smaller groups (including couples) can make a reservation within six weeks
of their preferred date.

Outside, on the 15 hectares of sprawling grounds, you’ll find a manicured formal garden, fruit and vegetable plantings, olive grove, vineyard and orchard, perfect for hiding and exploring, as well as the Bake House, producing fresh sourdough daily. And beyond the property there are quiet country lanes for rambling on foot, picnic basket swinging, or using the property’s electric bikes.

Wake each morning as the birds break into song in a shimmer of fresh country mist and spend the day doing a little of everything or very little at all. In the late afternoon, bring everyone from toddlers to grandparents together and cook using produce picked directly from the garden, along with honey from the farm’s hives, fresh bread and local meats and fish that can be delivered to the lodge by your personal concierge. Or if you’d
rather indulge in each other’s company playing board games by the fire, allow the onsite chef to take care of the meal preparation for you – after your concierge mixes aperitivo cocktails to sip as the sun goes down. Then, as the stars glimmer in the night sky, venture out to enjoy a nightcap in the hot tub.

This comforting escape has family and connection baked into its bones. “It’s balm for the soul and the place to build a zillion precious memories,” says Wolf-Tasker.

Gather round.

 

Story by Jane Fraser

Stay at the iconic Lake House’s new hotel on a 38-acre farm; try a Negroni flight at a boutique gin distillery; drink lo-fi wine from an exciting new producer; and get generous pub meals by an open fireplace at a 160-year-old pub.

Our new travel series The Overnighter is all about ideal itineraries for compact but memorable adventures around Australia.

Daylesford has long been known as Victoria’s spa country, but with its volcanic soil and history of small-scale farming, the area is also a centre for excellent produce.
Pack light and leave room in your bags to bring home some of the region’s treasures, including farmers market produce, pantry goods, gin and cool-climate pinot noir.

While coronavirus restrictions are in place, some of these venues are takeaway-only, or in the stages of a gradual reopening, but are still very much welcoming tourists. When planning your trip, it’s worth contacting venues to see if bookings are required.

On the way: stop at Mini Mr Gisborne
If you need some sustenance to see you through the 90-minute drive from Melbourne, this eatery – the sibling to the original Mr Macedon cafe – is worth a quick stop. It’s about halfway between Daylesford and Melbourne.

Coffee is by Allpress and there are Dr Marty’s crumpets, poke bowls, scrolls from Kyneton’s Dr Scroll, and Zeally Bay Sourdough toasties filled with salami and goat’s cheese or roast veggies and Swiss cheese.

On Monday and Friday evenings, it’s burger night – try the Old McDonald with both fried chicken and a beef patty, or get nachos to share.

Shop 13/22 Brantome Street, Gisborne

mrmacedon.com.au

Friday 6pm: check-in at Dairy Flat Farm and Lodge
This new boutique hotel and 38-acre farm – from the owners of Lake House Restaurant – has only six rooms, set among olive groves at the centre of a rambling Alice in Wonderland-style hedge garden.

There’s an onsite concierge and private breakfast chef, and each suite is decked out in maximalist glamour with silky velvet furnishings, Victorian ephemera and embroidery.

Unwind in the outdoor hot-tub, overlooking chardonnay vines, to get your weekend off to the perfect start.

Rooms start at $1330 per night for up to four guests.

238 Dairy Flat Road, Musk

dairyflatfarmdaylesford.com.au

Friday 8pm: dinner at the Farmers Arms Hotel
There’s something about getting out of the city that inspires a desire for country pub food, generous glasses of shiraz and open fires.

The Farmers Arms fulfils all those needs. It’s a cosy red-brick building that dates back to 1857. There are 16 mostly-local beers on tap, including the pub’s own Farmers Arms dark ale, a hefty, wintery brew.

The food is elevated but comforting. There’s eye fillet with pancetta; braised lamb shanks and mash; a vegan chickpea tagine spiked with harissa; and house-made chicken and vegetable pies served with chunky chips.

There’s accommodation here, too, just over the road from the pub.

The pub is currently recommending reservations for lunch and dinner. Rooms start at $245 per night, twin share.

1 East Street, Daylesford

thefarmersarms.com.au

Saturday 8am: breakfast at Wombat Hill House
Start the day with a wander through the lush fernery of the botanic gardens at Wombat Hill, which are built on top of a dormant volcano, then get breakfast at this cafe set in a 1940s caretakers cottage.

Kick back in an armchair by the open fire or sit in the glass conservatory among the planters. Coffee is by Allpress and the menu includes a breakfast pizza topped with eggs, mozzarella and caramelised onion.

Slow-fermented sourdoughs, lemon curd-filled doughnuts and feather-light blackberry danishes from Dairy Flat Bakery (headed up by renowned baker Michael James, who co-founded Melbourne’s popular Tivoli Road) are available to take home, too.

Currently only open for outdoor dining (seating is undercover and there are heaters) and takeaway.

Central Spring Road, Daylesford

wombathillhouse.com.au

Saturday 10am: stroll around Lake Daylesford
At just under two kilometres, this walk is a nice counterpoint to the area’s many food-focused attractions. The man-made lake is home to raucous cockatoos, egrets and other birds.

Use the trackside pump to fill your water bottle with water from the mineral springs. If you’re after a bit more exercise, this track is also the starting point for a few more challenging trails.

Start from Central Lake Reserve, Daylesford

Saturday 12pm: lunch at Pancho
This former butcher’s shop in a two-storey terrace feels like an indoor jungle, with potted plants and rambling vines on every surface. The regularly changing menu is omnivorous but plant-focused, with plenty for vegetarians and vegans.

Try the potato-and-leek rosti with soft-boiled egg, avocado, goat’s cheese and romesco, or the gently spiced cauliflower and hummus bowl. There are pretty house-made cakes, and slices might include dulce de leche brownies.

There’s also Wide Open Road coffee, a good selection of local beers, and a leafy, dog-friendly courtyard.

Currently takeaway only.

117 Vincent Street, Daylesford

panchocafe.com.au

Saturday 2pm: wine tasting and snacks at Musk Lane Wine
Hidden down a laneway in Kyneton, about a 30-minute drive from Daylesford, this is an unusual location for a winery – but this old hardware shop and timber yard has been turned into a contemporary, casual bar-slash-cellar-door.

Musk Lane has none of the stuffiness of some wine-tasting venues. Young winemaker Brendan Lane’s focus is on small batches of unusual varietals with distinctive flavour profiles. The 2019 Malvasia – a first for the winery – is a layered, complex, slightly cloudy white with hints of caramelised stone fruit and vanilla.

After Lane talks you through the hands-on process of making his low-intervention wines, you can buy a bottle, sit on the huge dog-and-kid-friendly lawn under strings of fairy lights, and order snacks from the old airstream.

Currently by appointment only. Reopening in July, weekends only from 12pm–4pm.

1 Turner’s Lane, Kyneton

musklanewine.com

Saturday 4pm: get relaxed and radiant at the Hepburn Bathhouse

If you need a break from all the eating and drinking, the Hepburn Bathhouse & Spa, at the site of the natural Hepburn Springs, has been providing therapeutic bathing experiences since 1895.

The larger shared pools are popular, so for something a bit more chill, consider booking a private bath experience. You’ll get your own dimly lit spa room, fluffy robes and various bath additives. Try getting coated in thermal mud from Rotorua, which leaves your skin exfoliated and feeling soft.

Mineral Springs Reserve Road, Hepburn Springs

hepburnbathhouse.com

Saturday 6pm: gin flights at Animus Distillery
Part cellar door, part cocktail bar, Animus is a gin fan’s paradise. One end of the spacious, high-ceilinged lounge is the distillery itself, its copper stills and winding pipes lending an alchemical vibe.

Animus Distillery uses both native Australian botanicals (pepper berry, lemon myrtle) and some from Southeast Asia (galangal, kaffir limes) to develop its gins.

G&Ts come garnished with red capsicum, ginger or rosemary, and there are gin-based cocktails, too.

For the full experience, start with a gin flight. If straight gin is too daunting, there’s the option to taste with tonic, or go the Negroni flight. It includes an excellent mandarin Negroni, with mandarin zest steeped in the company’s Ambrosian Gin.

Open Wednesday to Sunday, 12pm–6pm.

1/89A Piper Street, Kyneton

animusdistillery.com/cellar-door

Saturday 8pm: dinner at Lake House
Part of Australia’s first wave of regional destination restaurants, Lake House has been around for more than 35 years. Dinner here truly feels like a special event.

It’s a polished affair that starts as you step through the leafy entrance and settle in for a pre-dinner cocktail in the library.
At weekends, choose from two degustation menus – one vegetarian, one for meat eaters – by co-owner and culinary director Alla Wolf-Tasker. Both menus focus intensely on provenance, using produce from Dairy Flat Farm, which is made up of 38 acres of restored pastures, orchards, vines and olive trees.

One dish, called Dairy Flat Farm Beans in Two Parts, is a thing of beauty: a tiny cloudlike feuilletée (knot-shaped brioche) with a silky broad-bean hummus and a salad of more broad beans, peach-leaf curd, walnuts and a tart sauce vierge made from olive oil, lemon juice, chopped peach and fresh basil. Buttery Sher Wagyu from nearby Ballan comes with kimchi made from mustard leaves and white lion’s mane mushrooms. In season, dessert might be just-picked strawberries with a sorrel granita.

The wine list is award winning, service is smooth. In short, it’s everything you’d expect from an established culinary icon.

4 King Street, Daylesford

lakehouse.com.au

Sunday 9am: recovery brunch at Cliffy’s Emporium
If you overindulged the night before, Daylesford stalwart Cliffy’s Emporium does a solid recovery brunch. The original 1950s general store has been through a few evolutions, but its floor-to-ceiling shelves are always stacked with local produce and pantry staples such as pickles and relishes, chocolates, honey and more.

This bounty also makes appearances on the all-day menu. Poached eggs and haloumi arrive atop house-made flatbread with garlicky cardamom yoghurt and smoked chilli butter, and there are excellent rustic house-made pies and cakes too.

Bookings currently required to dine-in, and takeaway is also available.

30 Raglan Street Daylesford.

cliffysemporium.com.au

Sunday 11am: stock up at Daylesford Sunday Market
A proper country market with a mix of offbeat knick-knacks and top-notch food. If you’re in the mood to wander, you can pick up everything from cheap houseplants and used vinyl to mysterious antique farm implements.

This is also the place to stock up on jams, heirloom veggies and foraged pine mushrooms. On-site snack options vary, but might include Portuguese tarts, roasted Glenlyon chestnuts and arancini.

Open Sundays, 8am–2pm.

16–18 Raglan Street Daylesford.

daylesfordsundaymarket.com.au

Sunday 1pm: lunch at Passing Clouds
It’s safest to book ahead for lunch at Passing Clouds. Despite its low-key vibe, the dining room is immensely popular with locals and visitors.

There’s no formal kitchen; everything is cooked over a half-tonne charcoal fire pit. The banquet is $60 a head and gets you three courses, starting with a generous selection of local charcuterie. Mains might be slow-roasted local lamb with polenta, walnuts and salsa verde, or porchetta with fennel slaw.

Later, work off lunch with a game of bocce looking over the vines.

Reopening June 20.

30 Roddas Lane, Musk

passingclouds.com.au

Sunday 3pm: pinot tasting at Attwoods at Glenlyon Estate Winery
The low-intervention, single-vineyard wines with which winemaker Troy Attwood made his name are on many of Australia’s best wine lists, including at Melbourne’s acclaimed Attica, and Merivale eatery Queen Chow in Sydney.

Located down a few dusty backroads with minimal signage, Attwoods at Glenlyon is something of a hidden treasure. The winemaker has restored a 25-year-old vineyard to grow pinot noir and chardonnay, and has opened a low-key cellar door. You’re unlikely to find wine-tasting tourist buses here, but you will get to taste the producer’s awarded Old Hog range, and get an insider’s view into contemporary winemaking.

Food-wise, it’s simple stuff, based on the lunches that apprentice winemakers eat in France. Accompany your tasting with toasted bread served with generous slabs of terrine, charcuterie and cheese.

This one is well worth the short detour north before you head back to the city.

Currently, tastings are only available with lunch, which is by reservation only, but the cellar door is usually open on weekends, and mid-week by appointment.

260 Green Gully Road, Glenlyon

Story by Michael Harden

The ever-evolving project that is Daylesford’s Lake House is taking another leap forward with the opening of Dairy Flat Lodge and Farm this December.

A 15-hectare working farm in Musk, about seven kilometers from Daylesford in central Victoria, Dairy Flat is the fulfilment of a dream that Lake House owners Alla and Allan Wolf-Tasker have had since they opened Lake House some 30-plus years ago: to grow much of the produce for their celebrated restaurant. (The Lake House was recently named one of Australia’s Top 50 restaurants in the Gourmet Traveller Restaurant Guide).

When the Wolf-Tasker family bought the property last year it was a run-down but viable farm that included an established olive grove, a vineyard and an eccentric house with an underground cellar space accessed via a tunnel.

“We’d been looking for a property for a long time,” says the Wolf-Taskers’ daughter Larissa. “We needed something established and while Dairy Flat needed work, we could see its potential. But Mum also fell in love with the silver birches that line the driveway – they reminded her of Russia and it taps into this romantic Chekhov country house dream she’s always had about this region.”

Just like at Lake House, which expanded from a small weekend-only restaurant to internationally acclaimed hotel, spa and cooking school, the Wolf-Taskers’ ambitions for Dairy Flat are greater than growing a few vegies.

In a year they’ve planted an orchard of 350 heirloom fruit trees and a cutting garden for the plants and flowers decorating the rooms at Lake House. They’ve established a bakery in the cellar, which will supply bread and pastries to all their businesses, and turned the main house into the Lodge, decorating it with bespoke furniture made by local craftspeople and offering luxury, private accommodation for up to 14 people.

“This style of accommodation is all over Europe but it’s not so common in Australia,” says Larissa. “You have the whole Lodge to yourself so you can gather your tribe together in one place and you don’t have to sacrifice any privacy or luxury.”

Dairy Farm Lodge has six ensuite rooms, a library, a lounge with an open fireplace and private outdoor spaces, including a formal garden with established hedgerows. Two concierges are on-site to mix cocktails, serve breakfast and lunch and organise beekeeping or gardening workshops at the farm. Guests are also encouraged to immerse themselves in the day-to-day running of the farm, such as tending to the vegetable gardens, hoop houses, olive groves and vineyard.

The entrance to Dairy Flat Lodge.

Larissa says Dairy Flat provides an immersive, closed-loop food and farm experience for guests. “There’s always been a huge interest from our guests in food and cooking,” she says. “And now we’re able to provide them with a direct connection to the land.”

Story by Larissa Dubecki

It might come as a surprise to learn that Alla Wolf-Tasker, the one-woman revolution who created Daylesford’s iconic Lake House out of a weedy paddock more than 30 years ago, has anything left on her to-do list. But despite running the lauded restaurant along with its boutique accommodation and spa, its sibling Wombat Hill House cafeì and being an all-round champion of central Victoria – with the Order of Australia to prove it – Wolf-Tasker still longed for the authenticity of her own freshly-baked bread.

“It was a dream of mine to offer a larger variety of good bread to our guests at Lake House but our kitchens were operating to capacity,” she says. “With the Bake House we’ll be able to produce slow-fermented sourdough breads as well as beautifully laminated croissants, viennoiserie, donuts, breakfast buns and all sorts of deliciousness.”

The Bake House is part of a bigger story in the Wolf-Tasker world. It’s part of Dairy Flat Farm, the latest passion project for Alla, artist husband Allen and daughter Larissa. Located in the picturesque town of Musk, seven kilometres south-east of Daylesford, this 38-acre property features a huge established orchard, vegetable garden, vineyard, olive grove and the beautiful farmhouse itself.
Housed inside a cellar accessed through a tunnel beneath Dairy Flat’s six luxury-suite Lodge, the Bake House has lured the singular talents of baker Michael James, from Melbourne’s renowned Tivoli Road Bakery, to collaborate in its operation and run regular sourdough baking classes for Lodge guests. “He’s an amazing chef and a great teacher,” says Wolf- Tasker. “When the property came on the market, I had all kinds of notions whizzing about in my head. I visited Michael for a chat and it turned out he and his partner were selling Tivoli Road and he was interested in getting involved in new projects… so it was all Serendipitous.”

Wolf-Tasker envisages a broad symbiosis between all arms of her empire and the Bake House. Its produce will be served in the Lake House restaurant and Wombat Hill House, and guests will be able to visit the Bake House as part of farm tours and workshops. Guests staying at the Lodge at Dairy Flat Farm will also be able to order sourdough crust pizzas.

“I imagine that guests going on a morning ramble around the farm might pop in and chat to the bakers over a coffee. It’s a beautiful space and overlooks some of the gardens around the Lodge. A long avenue of herb plantings leads away from the bakehouse to the olive grove and vegetable gardens beyond,” says Wolf-Tasker, who believes Dairy Flat Farm will be unique in Australia in having its own bakehouse.

Also on the cards: Open days and market days during prolific growing periods at the farm when visitors will be able to stock up on beautiful fresh vegetables as well as good bread and pastries. People attending these bucolic events might not realise they’re part of another gentle food revolution.

“I’m old enough to remember when all the old country bakeries around here were bought up, their beautiful wood fired ovens destroyed and all bread began being distributed from a centralised industrial baking facility,” says Wolf Tasker. “What a terrible loss for our heritage and food culture. The sooner we move back to more small-scale baking operations, producing good bread throughout villages and local communities, the better.”

Story by Christine Mccabe

Farm to plate will soon have a luxurious new incarnation at Dairy Flat Farm and Lodge, courtesy the team behind Victoria’s iconic Lake House gourmet retreat, the Wolf-Tasker family.
Opening early 2020 on a 15ha regenerative farm with established gardens just 6km from the Lake House in Daylesford, the exclusive-use, luxury lodge will sleep up to 14 in six ensuite bedrooms with a live-in concierge to organise the ultimate farm experience.

Dairy Flat Farm includes an extensive vegetable garden, olive grove, orchard with 350 heritage fruit trees, beehives and bake house; enabling guests to immerse themselves in the day-to-day life of the property attending workshops on gardening, baking and bee keeping.

Guests can observe or “dive deep depending on their level of interest in getting their hands dirty”, says Lake House co-owner and Culinary Director Alla Wolf-Tasker AM.
But in true Wolf-Tasker style there will be cocktails at the end of each day and an enviable apres farm atmosphere in the urbane lodge, which had its own cellar, custom furniture and commissioned artworks including paintings by Allan Wolf-Tasker and lush botanical paintings by Alessandro Ljubicic.

The farm was established to supply the Lake House kitchens and provide an exciting laboratory for experimenting with unusual varieties. The onsite bake house is up and running also operated in collaboration with Michael James, formerly of Melbourne’s Tivoli Road Bakery, and supplying slow-fermented sourdough breads and pastries to the Lake House and sister café Wombat Hill House in the Botanic Gardens in Daylesford.