What kind of heathen stands around waiting for a Saturday delivery of fat, sugary Nutella-stuffed donuts at the local deli, only to throw them in the car boot and drive up north to deliver to a producer of one of the healthiest products on earth? This guy right here, that’s who.
I’d been negotiating with Megan and Chris about a visit to their camel farm – the only camel dairy in Victoria and one of a small handful in Australia. I wanted to see what the recent fuss was about, get up close and personal with these humpy creatures. As for their carers, anyone who delves into an industry head first, obsessed about every aspect of their product, I want to know about it and today was the day. I get to pat a fluffy camel and they were in for such a hipster treat with these donuts, I felt like Birkenstock-wearing Santa Claus. At first.
The town of Kyabram sits about 200km north of Melbourne, just a stone’s throw from Echuca. It takes roughly 2.5 hours to get there or more than 3 hours if you happen to be so engrossed in vintage Iron Maiden that you miss your turn off. When they finally appeared, the road signs suggested I was WAY off track but instead of panicking, I took the opportunity to metaphorically stop and smell the roses, drink in the atmosphere of the countryside – a far cry from my besser block office that dominates my week. Then I do start to panic a little because I have no GPS. Modus Operandi: just keep driving until I get a signal.
I cut between freeways through two-lane roads, enveloped by gum trees and vast expanses of land, thousands of sheep and few cheeky goats then shazam! A sign to ‘Ky’, I arrived in the township just after 1pm. The first thing I saw? A cafe selling bloody Nutella donuts: insert chump emoticons here. Turns out I naively tried to peddle my sweet wares on to this region’s farmers, yet here they were in all their glory – front, centre and fresh in town. I bet every man and his blue heeler had tried a Nutella donut here, I bet they have them for dessert! Breakfast! For all I knew this is their place of origin, for crying out loud.
I was taken aback at how closed up everything was, it reminded me of my childhood when you made darn sure you had your essentials by Saturday midday when the shops closed otherwise you spent the rest of the weekend with the contents of your pantry or Choo-Choo bars and chocolate Paddle Pops from the local milk bar. What was open though was the local fish and chip shop and I swear to every planetary deity, it was the best hamburger and potato cake/scallop I’d had in 20 years. Even beetroot. At no extra charge. I KNOW!
After that transcendental dining experience, I set off 10 minutes in an easterly direction, cursing my GPS yet again when I looked over and saw a herd of majestic camels. When in Northern Victoria and you see a herd of camels, you really do have to look twice because it’s such an odd site; no sand, no oasis and frankly arctic-freezing on this late July day – far, far removed from any desert tales of my youth. They all seemed completely content, nibbling away on lucerne and throwin’ shade in the direction of my black hatchback. Megan arrived down the red-dirt road and after face-to-face introductions we set off across the farm to the dairy in her way more appropriate 4WD.
I tell you what, camels are real pretty. The nature of their faces means they’re permanently smiling and they have eyelashes that any Kardashian would be envious of. Sure they spit, which is highly uncouth but I didn’t witness any of this ghastly behaviour, they were just super chilled. Megan and Chris have about 40 camels on their property and every single one of them has a name to match their personality. The camels are milked when, and only when, the babies have had enough milk to see them through their day. This means that yield-wise, they aren’t producing enough to stock any major supermarkets before Christmas. To get your hands on this liquid gold, you have to farm-visit or buy online; it’s shipped to you fresh that day. If you happen to find yourself in Kyabram town centre, you can also buy some from a few select shops. It’s not what you know but who when it comes to seeking out the unusual.
Megan and Chris have both come from dairy farming families and spent significant time in the Northern Territory where they fell in love with the wild camels that roam the outback. When it came time to settle down and start their own family and business, they looked for unique opportunities that would not only put their skills to use also benefit consumers. Camel. Milk. At the risk of sounding like a television commercial, it’s vital to note the vitamin and mineral content of camel milk, otherwise your just going to be all “so what? Cow’s milk is good too?” Well, yes it is, but camels milk has elevated levels of omega 3 and 6, high in protein (hello gym junkies), high in vitamin C, vitamin B (hello, stress-heads, aka me) magnesium and potassium. All milk at the Kyabram property is pasteurised with the meticulous precision, care and cleanliness of an operating theatre.
Now I’ll give anything a go once (apart from Vietnamese tarantula popsicles) but I really had no idea what to expect from camel milk.
Watery? No, camels can go for up to 30 days without a drink so they aren’t going to send redundant H20 to their daily milk stores.
Fatty? They are pretty lean beasts to be honest.
Creamy? Bingo. It was like full-fat regular bovine milk, absolutely delicious with a very slight salty after taste. Pretty stunned when Megan told me it only has two percent fat. I still don’t believe her actually*, and have included her in my long list of conspirators that keep me from my dream jeans.
As we drove back to my car we talked about the benefits of certain vitamins in our diet and eating healthy in general, Megan mentioned that she had recently had a donut which sent her blood sugar levels sky high. I broke out into a sweat. What kind of shamanistic sugar dealer was I? The woman was sitting there telling me the effects sugar has on her and I was about to hand over the mother load? Should I even mention them? Should I just shake her hand and be on my merry way? She’d been so gracious in showing me her camel operation, taking time out of her busy schedule (while heavily pregnant – like, h.e.a.v.i.l.y, past-due-date type thing), I couldn’t not give her a thank you gift. I knew I would eat all six if I didn’t hand them over and decided she could do with them as she pleased, even if that meant they were trash-can bound (Megan sent me a text later to say how delicious they were. I felt morally dirty).
I blew kisses to the mumma camels and their babies as I drove away from the farm, feeling completely content that they were living such a calm life. Megan and Chris love these creatures like they’re part of their family. When the camels stop producing milk, they live out their lives here on the farm with warm sunshine on their humps and more hay than you can poke a stick at. All the camels are surrounded by their brothers, sisters, friends and offspring, shooting the breeze and doing what camels do. How blissful, hey.
Staying true to my heathen ways, I travelled home with my super-vitamin milk and proceeded to throw sugar, cream and chocolate at it. You can absolutely make this panna cotta with any milk you desire.
*she’s telling the truth.
Notes:
- You can make this recipe as difficult or as hard as you like, I opted for the easy version. By all means, make your own meringue but I purchased mine from a bakery, picked all the colourful sprinkles of it and smashed it to pieces in a freezer bag. Talk about a time-saver.
- Persian fairy floss is available from Middle Eastern grocers and David Jones food halls. Totally accessible online and it’s worth it – the flavours are amazing.
- Some fancy food shops sell picked flowers in a tub for inflated prices. I just went to Bunnings. The flowers are for decoration only so totally optional.
- For panna cotta moulds, don’t rush out and buy darioles or anything; I used a variety of vestibules from my cupboards. Of course, for fancy occasions, try and get matching vestibules.
White Chocolate Panna Cotta with Meringue and Floss
Ingredients
600ml thickened cream
1 cup camel milk (or regular cow’s milk)
100g white chocolate
1 tbs gelatine powder
1 tbs hot water
1 tsp vanilla paste
50g caster sugar
meringue (shop-bought = timesaver)
Persian fairy floss
flowers, to decorate
Method
1. Heat your cream and milk in a saucepan until just under boiling point. Remove from heat and stir in chocolate, vanilla paste and sugar.
2. Whisk gelatine and hot water until gelatine dissolves (you may need a teeny bit extra water, see how you go) then stir into milk mixture.
3. Very lightly oil some moulds using a kitchen towel to wipe off excess oil then pour mixture in and let set four hours at least in the fridge, best overnight.
4. Turn the panna cotta out on to serving plate. Whack the hell out of your meringue and sprinkle it over the top, then add fairy floss and flowers if using. Popcorn also works well as a decoration. Too easy.
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