Yesterday at the Royal Easter Show, in addition to getting a cuddle from an adorable Boxer puppy at the dog exhibit I bought a collection of jam samples from the stand of a berry farm which operates out of the Southern Highlands.

The Southern Highlands is a place that I used to like before encountering the Malignant Mathematical Mare of Mittagong, but that's another story and thankfully a past one. However I have assiduously avoided the region since, though in truth there are a few places that I'd like to visit down there including another farm where you can pick your own berries and buy berry pies. (Alpine itself is not open to the public.)

Mmmm, though that may not be a good idea, as tasty as it sounds.

In theory I wanted to drag myself out to photograph a dawn service commemorating ANZAC Day, which is what today's public holiday is. It recognises the first major Australian military operation, the disastrous amphibious landing in the Dardanelles in Turkey in 1915. In practice I had other matters to attend to and didn't make it out.

The other theme of the day (he says, patting his somewhat over-full stomach) was over-eating, which is why I opted for these jars as my subject. And why a trip to the berry farm may not be advisable.

That, and I wanted to play around with backlighting glass containers to see what results I might produce.

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Edit April 2025: The aforementioned "mare" means so little to me now that I can't even remember what she looked like, but I like the alliteration so much that I've left it in. My aversion to the Southern Highlands is also a thing of the distant past for the same reason.

Not that it matters in this specific instance because unfortunately Alpine Farms is no more, and has not been since even before The Bug. I couldn't remember their name when I went to the Show this year (for the first time since 2018) but I did remember their jams and this photo. Thus, I found the photo, found the name, and found... what's left of them.

Their Twitter account hasn't had any activity since January 2016. Their Faceplant page has vanished. The web server ( www.alpineberryfarm.com.au ) is no longer running. Further research showed that it was run by a couple named Jonathan and Alyssa Hatcher. Her LumpedIn page is gone. His has been dormant for years, but he has a second one where his principal vocation is shown as TAFE (Technical and Further Education) teacher and his past jobs include "Alpine Berry Farm, Full-time Aug 2002 - Jul 2018 (16 yrs)"

Included in that was "Sydney Royal Easter Show for 12 years - awards won for display"... including these very jars, it seems, but clearly in mid 2018 something hit the wall badly and the place shut down. It's always a pity to see that happen, doubly so when the product is good, as these were.

Last Year