2024 🥧 Tour
Review no 47
Farina Underground Bakery
(Farina SA)
With the Claire Valley area done and dusted I was on the road again and slowing made my way up through the picturesque Flinders Ranges, eventually making camp at the famous SA ghost town of Farina.
The Farina cemetary was last used in 1960 and by the 1980’s the town was abandoned. The rail line closed in the 1980’s and was removed in 1993. Farina was initially the head of South Australia’s Northern Railway line, 600km north of Adelaide.
At its peak, the town had nearly 600 residents, two hotels, a school, a church, two breweries and a fully operational bakery. These days the original 1880’s underground oven is still there but this once vibrant town only comes to life 8/9 weeks a year between May and July thanks to the Farina Restoration Group Inc
The restoration group was first formed back in 2008 and the army of volunteers come from all over Australia spending 2 to 3 weeks each helping with various projects. These projects include restoring and maintaining the old buildings from the 1800’s. Another project is to operate the underground bakery that was first established back in 1888.
It was there I met head baker Kerry. This legend has been baking for over 50 years and spends the full 9 weeks at Farina. The underground scotch oven has been fully restored and the team pumps out fresh bread daily from this epic underground oven.
For a volunteer run bakery there is a good variety of 🥧’s on offer. As soon as I pulled up, a few 🥧 punters out the front strongly recommended I give the “Cheese & Bacon” a go, so that’s the 🥧 I ran with.
🥧 THE REVIEW 🥧
1. Value for Money – At $9 yes it’s up there, but you need to have a look at where you are (middle of nowhere) Also this is a fully volunteer run bakery with all profits going back into restoring this ghost town. The 🥧 was a decent size in both weight and diameter which was pleasing. Look it’s a smidge on the high side, but still very affordable. 8/10
2. About 95% full, only a couple of tiny holes to be filled, but nothing that major. You’d be pretty happy with the fill in this 🥧. 9.5/10
3. Flavour – Every bite was sensational and got better and better. You could taste every ingredient in this 🥧 right till the very end. The melted cheese on the top was the exact amount and the mince was cooked perfectly. Only negative and this was minor, it was that the flavor was a little salty, but this was minor. This could have been the type of bacon used too. I actually loved the flavour in this 🥧. Well done team. 9/10
4. Pastry – The color was terrific as was the stability. I loved the top bake color in particular and the shape was right up there as well. The pastry flavour was superb from the first bite to the last. The top bake was a little thick but it was baked right through which was a real positive. Base pastry thickness was spot on, but could have had about a minute in the oven, it was slightly underbaked. Not much wrong with this one only a few tweaks needed 8.5/10
5. Serving Temperature – No issues the temp was perfect. 10/10
Overall Rating
🥧🥧 45/50 🥧🥧
To be fair there wasn’t much wrong with this 🥧. Given the remoteness of this bakery, the 🥧 totally surprised me. The flavour in particular was terrific, and the pastry was also top notch. The price tag was affordable and the meat ratio was on song. The 5 scoring categories, were very consistent and there wasn’t much that needed to be tweaked or changed. Kerry and his team did a wonderful job with this one, in fact this 🥧 was that good I smashed another one shortly after.
To Kerry and the entire Farina restoration team, a massive thanks for your incredible hospitality. As mentioned earlier Farina has been a bucket list destination of mine for quite some time and oh my God the experience was incredible. The dedication, commitment, teamwork and most of all the camaraderie I saw in all these volunteers was very special and truly inspiring. This bakery and the restoration of the old Farina township would not be possible without these amazing people and I cannot wait to get out to this magical place again.
The ghost town of Farina totally blew my mind away and it’s a place everyone should visit at least once. The history in this old railway town is phenomenal. The Farina campgrounds are a epic place to camp up. It’s got heaps of space and only a short stroll from the bakery, very highly recommend.
