Here, bee keepers and orchardists are neighbours to dairy farmers. Local food producers banded together and found that among their products were mustards, vinegars, horserdish, ginger, garlic and blueberries as well as cheese, milk and other stables. The taste of the Fleurieu is as much a  peice of yabbie pate or almond cake as a slice of venison mettwurst. Some locals say mullet and mulloway caught off that lovely neck of  sea and sand, the Coorong, are the finest fish. While others say it is the redfin taken in Lake Alexandrina and of course there is the farmed trout. 

The Fleurieu Peninsula is a place of extraordinary diversity where restaurants can and do offer an entire menu constructed from local ingredients, from damper to desserts.  It is a region that invites exploration, especially when toured in tandem with the overlapping Adelaide Hills region.  A bottle of cider, a bag of cherries, a dozen varieties of potatoes, a venison pie, a punnet of pick your own strawberries and cakes topped with marzipan. The climate is temperate encouraging a prolific output of delicious fare. 

Inside, Dave Hill, chef, owner and yarn spinner and daughter Mari will serve you with unnecessarily large scones with local conserve and cream, you'll enjoy the nutty aroma of your second or third brewed coffee. 
Come for lunch or dinner and you will settle back into the scenery for longer than you would expect, their billowing serves of local fine fare have been known to keep visitors pinned down for hours. 

If you are lucky, the official  tour guide (Bruce the dog) will take you on a stroll past the white doves and rosellas gathered in the garden through the dappled light in the fernhouse dining area and onto the trout stream further down the hill.