LEARN ABOUT cooking & gardening workshop experiences
Meet Mickey Robertson, owner of Glenmore House, situated in the beautiful foothills of the Razorback Range.
Learn how Mickey discovered a collection of early colonial vernacular farm buildings and restored them into a unique and charming country property. Visitors can now experience an inspiring day at Glenmore House and its unique working garden with a range of cooking and garden workshop experiences.
Let’s start off with a little bit about you...
I was once a city girl and interior designer. I grew up in Sydney’s Eastern Suburbs dreaming of a country way of life…of gardens and baskets filled with vegetables and flowers, a kitchen filled with delicious food and muddy boots at the door. My dreams took me to the UK where I studied interior design in London. (Well…. gardens do need houses attached and I do equally love houses!). I worked and lived in London for several years, where I also met and married Larry, who promptly brought me back to Australia! Arriving at Glenmore just two years into our marriage changed our lives completely and gave me the opportunity, in time, to pursue those long-held dreams.
What about your business?
At Glenmore House I run workshops and events on an intimate scale…idyllic days in the country…where you can learn, dream, eat and be inspired. The concept grew from my own desire to learn how to grow seasonal, organic produce for my family; initiating the concept in 2009 that was ‘Kitchen Gardening at Glenmore House’. It has since expanded to include a multitude of topics close to my heart and imagination…allowing me to invite a range of experts in their field, broadening the scope of what the garden here have to share with the wider community.
Originally, it was my interior design business that I ran here from the Barn, which opened (post restoration) in 1993. That aspect of the business grew from my love of creating beautiful interiors to support the domestic lives of my clients.
Tell us a little bit about your cooking and gardening workshops
The only regular, repeat workshops are those centred around growing vegetables and usually named for the season, followed by ‘in the Kitchen Garden with Mickey’. They are comprehensive, full day workshops where we cover all aspects of kitchen gardening, from design, layout and aesthetic, through support structures and framework; veg family groups, companion planting, seed sowing and collecting, all aspects of growing and pest control to compost and soil. Along the way, we inspect every aspect, taste as we go, and eventually enjoy a delicious garden-inspired lunch.
What accomplishment are you most proud of?
I prefer the word care to pride…and I care about every aspect of what I do here…ensuring visitors have an idyllic day out, one to remember, one that makes a difference to their lives, one that has inspired them in some way and that they can carry away in their hearts and minds…that’s what I care about.
Do you have any new plans for the future?
The Field of Flowers Workshops are the most recently released workshops in my repertoire. They’ll be rolling out during the spring months so…keep an eye on the website as they are entirely weather dependent! They are completely unique...an exercise in blissful, colourful, sensory immersion…in flowers and scent.
Why Glenmore?
That’s a very good question! It wasn’t planned…but our lives took a little detour via Glenmore almost 35 years ago…and I guess you could say we put down very deep roots. Now, I can’t imagine living anywhere else on earth.
Do you have a favourite Dilly town?
Picton…for its charming architecture and surrounding landscape.
What's a must see in the Dilly?
The Burragorang Lookout…is breathtakingly beautiful. The scale of the view is overwhelming and in such contrast to the landscape one travels en route to get there. It never fails to surprise and I love when it’s so quiet and empty you could hear a pin drop.
