Our smokehouse features in the Sydney Morning Herald Travel pages.

From the article by Mal Chenu on August 9, 2009

"And what better place to start than the local markets. I am staying at the superb Shangri-La Hotel on the Cairns pier and the Farmgate Market, which comes to the pier every Saturday, is in the same complex. As it happens, Mehigan is coming here too, so it must be worth a look. When I arrive, the place is full of locals and tourists hunting for something yummy to go with the Coral Sea views.

The Tarzali Lakes Smokehouse stall is doing a roaring trade, knocking out all manner of smoked meats including boar and water buffalo. Dave Hoffman is a third-generation butcher who has smoked more stuff than Bob Marley and his fresh bushman sausages are renowned in these parts.

If you prefer your smoked eel with lemon myrtle, this is the place for you. Other tempting morsels include chicken pastrami in mountain peppers and that perennial favourite, smoked pressed tongue. Gary's gonna love it here."

If you wish to read the entire article, please click here.

Eels are growing well with some good shooter specimens big enough for the Smokehouse already.

Smokehouse sales are steadily increasing with quite a few return customers. The Farmgate Markets are fast establishing Tarzali Smokehouse as a Tableland icon with Pete and Dave doing their bit, ably assisted by Paul's two sons Ben and Sean.

At the moment the Smokehouse is producing 15 consistant lines and we are having a great time trialing new products such as crocodile, smoked ribs and Thai fishcakes.

Platypus are very active at the moment and it has been great to see one of our long term residents ,Cassie the platypus, who can be seen frolicking from the Smokehouse Cafe. Platypus tours are now regularly leave at 11:00am, 2:00pm and 3:30pm.

It has also been a lovely dry season for campers at the farm. Visitors seem to be finding us from all corners of the world. A combination of word of mouth recommendation and internet seem to be working wonders!

        Dave Hoffman
    Smokehouse Master

It's Springtime at Tarzali

 Spring has arrived and Summer is just around the corner - so why not fill a pond full of eels? That is just what we did. About 150,000 of the little darlings each as long as your little finger and a bit narrower. Transportation of this large quantity of eels was quite a task and it took three return trips to deliver them safely to their new home.

If you happened to be listening to the ABC radio on the Saturday afternoon of the delivery, then you would have heard yours truly on a live interview en route.

It was a few days before the eels settled down but they are now accustomed to their new environment and are happily eating. We also took delivery of 3,000 Barra, which were introduced to the settlement pond and will provide anglers some good sport fishing in the coming months.

Pete and I set up a stall at the Taste of the Tablelands Festival in early October. Our smoked products sold out almost immediately with no time to spare. There was strong demand for our smoked eel and fish, chorizo, bush sausage and pastrami. It is great to see that our Aussie tastes are becoming more daring.

On the bush tucker front, our Milla Milla vine is fruiting at the moment. This is a relatively new flavour for me that I intend to experiment with a couple of basic sauces to develop our new product range.  Pete tells me that the possums love it and that makes them easy to find when doing his nocturnal tours.

We have had quite a few school study groups go through lately and it has been great noticing the interest and enthusiasm shown by these young people in Aquaculture and Environmental Science. Overseas visitors have been calling in for bird watching and platypus tours. They have confirmed that our area is world renowned for its wide variety of native birds and mammals, so I have decided to get myself a pair of binoculars to become more acquainted with our abundant wildlife.

Pete and Yuwadee are now a happy married couple and the wedding went off a treat (what I remember of it). We have a great venue here to host such occasions so if you are thinking about tying the knot, renewing your wedding vows or just having a wing ding for no particular reason...Tarzali Lakes is the place to go.

  
        Dave Hoffman
    Smokehouse Master

A Japanese Television crew that is producing a series highlighting the beautiful flora and fauna of the Cardwell to Cape Tribulation region, including the accredited the nature reserve at Tarzali Lakes, was on site on the 6th of October 2008.

As Tarzali Lakes is host to a growing platypus population, the crew contacted us to arrange a suitable time for filming these unique Australian natives. The crew were very happy with their sightings and emailed us the following letter of appreciation.

Dear Peter

Thanks very much for your cooperation for Japanese TV program.
They have finished all shooting and left to Japan.

We all appreciate your kindness and many efforts.
They are very happy because of the fine weather during the journey.

I hope the program would be very good promotion of Tarzali Lakes and Cairns.
On Air date has not been fixed yet. It might be early next year.
Once we get the copy of the program, we would send it to you as well.

I am looking forward to working with you again near future.

Best Regards

Kazuhiko Sakamoto
C.P. International Pty. Ltd.

Tarzali Lakes hosted and catered for a lovely wedding ceremony on the 20th of September 2008. Approximately 80 guests were in attendance. The couple and their family and guests were enthralled by the beautiful surrounds and facilities on offer.

The children were in particular entertained and well catered for, leaving the adults to relax and enjoy the special day.