There’s no doubt the hot topic this March was ‘when will the tomatoes be ready?’ Families across the state, including ours, had been anxiously keeping an eye out throughout February, in eager anticipation of ripe tomatoes, with texts and calls making the rounds each week: Are they ready? The excitement of ripe tomatoes centre around our annual Basile & Co Passata-Making day, when the Basiles, with extended family and friends, gather to make sauce.

I recently spent five days alone at a friend’s home on a small bush block located just outside the quaint seaside town of Port Fairy on the south-west coast of Victoria. I say ‘alone’, but, in fact, I had the company of three alpacas, four chickens, one cat, and a large fruit and vegetable patch, which was bursting with organic life, and ready-to-eat produce.

Florence, capital of Italy’s Tuscan region, is well regarded for its historic buildings and churches, its overflowing galleries of art and sculpture, food, wine, rollings hills dotted with rustic villas and rows of vineyards. For me, it also became the location for a five-day Art of Writing workshop with Australian author, and long-time Florentine, Lisa Clifford.