Who: Farmer and cook Fiona Billington, along with her husband Ben Spargo and their sons Angus and Zac,
Fiona, how did you get to making this delicious paste?
When I was growing up, Mum used to work at Abla’s Lebanese restaurant in Carlton. From the age of four, I was at the restaurant with the Lebanese women, watching what they did. I cracked olives, bunched parsley, and peeled garlic. They taught me how to make garlic paste. When I was older, I worked front of house. When I moved down here to the Surf Coast, we grew vegetables and I always grew extra garlic to make garlic paste for family and friends. The 200 cloves planted one autumn became 300, then a thousand. This last year I harvested 30,000 heads of garlic.
How do you make it?
It’s easy but very labour-intensive. I plant, grow, and harvest the garlic with the help of my family. I don’t use chemical pesticides. We dry and clean the garlic. I hand-peel all the cloves – this year I had the help of two Afghan refugee women from the Common Ground Project. I blend the garlic with non-GMO canola oil, lemon juice either from our farm or from neighbouring properties, and salt. It goes into the Robot-Coupe and there is the fresh garlic paste. I make it to order since it’s a fresh product.
You don’t call it toum. Why?
For all intents and purposes, it is toum – what we have come to understand as Lebanese garlic paste. But “toum” is Arabic for garlic. So I call it “garlic paste”.
Where can we get it?
Melburnians can go to Rhubarb Rhubarb Organics at the Preston Market, Ceres in Brunswick East, or Edi Grocer in Edithvale. A dozen or so stores around the West Coast stock my garlic paste. You’ll find them on my website, unearthedproduce.com.au.