Sharon Porter will serve up warm curried egg on her homemade sourdough, or top off a big brekkie roll with her homemade sauce. She also makes up hampers that are sold to people all across the country. Photo: John Thistleton.
Sharon Porter and her nephew Michael Rumph are run off their feet on Friday nights making pizzas at Tallong, 32 km east of Goulburn.
Their vegetarian pizzas come with halloumi, spinach, mushrooms, Kalamata olives, roasted capsicum and roasted pine nuts. They also make Mediterranean, barbecue meat and supreme pizzas, in the little village of 900 people along the southern rail line.
“People love to grab pizza on their way home and put their feet up, maybe with a beer in front of the television,” Sharon said.
Sharon bought the general store in 2017 and renamed it The Midge, after a tiny, endangered orchid only found in Tallong and the Shoalhaven Gorge. She says because the midge orchid depends on other local natives to survive and is durable, it’s the perfect emblem for the family’s cafe.
She has the perfect point of difference to other roadside cafes that offer exactly the same food – she loves to cook.
“As the eldest daughter in a large family it fell on me to help Mum with the food,” she said. “Almost every weekend I would love to bake. I attended Hawkesbury Agricultural College where I studied food technologies and teaching. I managed a motel and restaurant for a number of years, have taught hospitality and am now living the dream of turning my hand to artisan food making, and running a small cafe.”
The Midge opens at 7 am during the week, and 8 am on Saturdays and Sundays, with shelves and benches covered in her jars of stewed peaches, nectarines and pumpkin chutney.
The smell of coffee and bacon and egg rolls mixed with the warm aroma of a wood fire wafts up to windows that look out over tall gum trees and misty paddocks.
The hamburgers and big brekkie roll – filled with bacon, egg, lean beef pattie, and hash brown – come with Midge-made sauce.
Previously a hospitality teacher in Goulburn, Sharon has lived for 15 years at Tallong where she and her husband Jeremy and sons Brandon and Joshua are members of the Tallong Rural Fire Service. Jeremy is brigade captain.
Homegrown peaches freshly stewed in jars await labelling at The Midge. Also on offer are Sharon Porter’s nectarine and pinot noir jam, kiwi and pineapple jam and pumpkin chutney made with pumpkin, apple, onion, raisins, vinegar, ginger, chilli and allspice. Photo: John Thistleton.
She gets involved in anything happening in the village. Her first and second place ribbons in the Mrs T apple day bake offs are on the shop’s noticeboard. “I believe this ribbon (first) was for a novelty sour apple lollipop with dipping sherbet,” she said. She makes her own lemonade too.
Unable to source locally made bread, she has started making her own sourdough and focaccias. Her fig and blue cheese focaccias are proving to be popular.
“I grow fruit that I preserve, herbs and I have started my own bush food garden,” she said. “This does have some way to go before I can harvest though.”
Sharon and Michael, who is from Collector and did his cooking apprenticeship at the Hyatt Homeland Rydges Hotel in Canberra, make preserves, healthy take-home frozen meals, and have expanded their gluten-free goods.
“We also cater for weddings, birthdays and other events,” she said. “We do gift hampers that we have posted all round Australia. Everyone loves to get real food made with love and no nasties in it.”
The Midge sells local honey and any other locally produced fruit and vegetables.
Farmers, tradies doing jobs in the gated community at Tallong, parents dropping children off at the primary school and mine workers are among her regular customers.
In spring and autumn day-trippers from Sydney, Canberra, Goulburn, Wollongong and the Southern Highlands come in and sample the food. “People often meet here as a halfway point,” Sharon said.
The Midge is often a meeting point for people on road trips between Canberra, Sydney and Wollongong. Photo: John Thistleton.
She still finds time to enjoy Tallong’s tranquil afternoons, the sound of birds calling, smell of new flowers and sight of kangaroos bounding into the distant scrub. And people.
“At The Midge there’s always time for a chat. It’s heaven on earth,” she said.
The Midge is located at 90 Caoura Rd, Tallong. They’re open from 7 am until 11 am on Monday, 7 am until 4 pm Tuesday to Thursday, 7 am until 8 pm on Friday and 8 am until 3 pm on Saturday and Sunday. To keep up with them or for more information, check out their website, Facebook page and Instagram.
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