Short Street Kitchen – Made From Scratch

A visit to Short Street Kitchen for one of their workshops is a complete delight. It’s a lovely way to spend a few hours. It is run by a mother and daughter team, Robyn and Jess and they share their passion with their workshops, which promote health and well-being though living naturally and simply.

Classes are held in the Perth Hills, at the home that the family has owned for the past 40 years. The love and care that has been shown to the property and surrounding gardens during this time is apparent. It’s a beautiful, welcoming green haven. After what has been a relatively wet winter in the west, there is a real lushness to every garden bed and while some trees had lost their leaves, there were small signs that Spring was on the way. I can only imagine how stunning the Short Street Kitchen setting must be when everything that enjoyed a brief winter slumber springs back to life.

I’ll admit that I am a relative rookie when it comes to the specifics of a holistic lifestyle and while I know that I try to avoid highly processed foods (for the most part) and when I cook at home I endeavour to use the freshest and best quality produce that I can source, I was very interested to learn more and Robyn and Jess were very well placed to help with this.

They host a variety of workshops (which you can read about here), which are designed to be informative and hands on and they really want it to be a memorable experience.

All of our workshops begin with a delicious morning tea and introduction and all include a beautiful sit down long table lunch feasting on the delights of a shared platter and dessert.

I attended their Made From Scratch Class, because I do love to cook and I wanted to hear more about the importance of certain ingredients and potential small changes I could make to what I was doing that would have real health benefits. As they noted in the class outline on their website, which really resonated – You are in control of what goes in your body.

The morning started with a welcome cup of herbal tea and a range of delicious raw slices for those feeling peckish. It was a really pleasant group, with those attending sharing the same genuine interest in learning more about embracing a holistic lifestyle and to be honest they were all a lot further along in that journey than I was.

So at the Made From Scratch you learn how to make:

• Crunchy seeded crackers
• Fresh ghee – a very healthy alternative to oil in cooking
• Crunchy granola
• Fermented cashew dips
• Nut milk
• The tastiest salad dressing
• Raw chocolate

With the added bonus that you take home your produce, plus all the recipes and notes from the day.

The pace is leisurely and you can be as involved as you’ve like with the different recipes. Fine just to be an onlooker.

The raw chocolate session was a lot of fun, as they had a range of very tempting items you could add into your tailor made bar, including some amazing natural essences.

A few things I really enjoyed about the day was the opportunity to wander through the absolutely beautiful garden. I’ve never really thought I had wanted a vast garden, but as we walked past ample garden beds and row after row of fruit trees, including citrus tress currently heavy with fruit, part of me was wishing for some acreage of my own that I could fill with fresh fruit and veg.

I also found it helpful that all the information provided by Robyn and Jess was well researched and they were very generous with sharing their own personal experiences. They’ve been to do raw cooking classes in Bali, had tried juice and water fasts and provided helpful background intermittent fasting. I think for me I’d often thought of intermittent fasting as more of a diet technique and not appreciated that it provided the body with the opportunity to heal, instead of having to focus on digesting. It made me keen to learn a bit more about it…. because I’m conscious I don’t often give my body that  chance to rest.

Finally sitting down together at the end of the class to enjoy an absolutely stunning meal and chat more with the other attendees was a really special way to conclude the workshop. And seriously, what a spread! As colourful as it was delicious!

Be sure to save a bit of room for dessert too, because all those (raw) sweet treats are sooo tempting!

So my thanks to Robyn and Jess for having me along. It was real food for thought for me and always excellent to come away with a few new recipes and skills to try out. I very much appreciate the invitation to attend.

For more details of upcoming classes head to their website here.