The Ginger factory.
I am always looking for fun activities to do with my little family. Now when the Buderim Ginger Factory came on to my radar I have to admit I was like, is this really something my small human is going to get into? Is my better half going to think I have gone mad? Or are we going to show up, they look at each other and be like, she's never choosing a family adventure again. To my shock they had such an amazing time. I also very much loved it it was really up my alley. We decided we would do all the factory had to offer. This included,
Ginger factory tour / Tasting
Live bee show / Tasting
Ginger Train
Overboard boat ride - watch the gingerbread man escape all around the world.
Gruffalo rainforest- find the Gruffalos house
The ginger factory tour was really interesting. And funny enough we ended up getting a VIP tour, not planned, with a fabulous tour guide. She explained the process and showed us the factory. She was inundated with questions from the small human. He was really interested in how it all used to work before the machines came along to replace the people power. The lady informed us that, even though the machines came along, not one person was laid off. They were trained in new areas of the factory. We got to see how the ginger was grown, harvested and turned into fabulous ginger products. After we finished the tour we where taken to a tasting room where we got to try lots of different ginger products such as their ginger marmalade and ginger cordial. There were a few more. I'll pop a picture down below of the ones we purchased.
After the delightful factory tour we went over to the live bee show and honey tasting. We found out a lot of different facts about bees and the social structure of a hive like, a drone is a male honey bee. Unlike the female worker bee, drones do not have stingers and gather neither nectar nor pollen. A drone's primary role is to mate with an unfertilized queen. Then there is the worker bees. They are all female, but are not capable of reproducing. They do all the work in the hive, and they control most of what goes on inside. Their jobs include housekeeping, feeding the queen, drones and larvae, collecting the pollen and nectar, and making the wax. And then there is the queen. She just lays baby bees, Larvae in fact, up to 2000 a day. How bloody crazy is she? Lol. We got to see a bee hive being opened up and got to have an up close look at the worker bees doing their thing. After this wonderful experience we went into the honey tasting room where we sampled 6 different types of honey. In all honesty, I was really into the Tasmanian Leatherwood. Safe to say, I cant wait to experiment around with this one.
We took a quick lunch time break, then decided that we would jump on board the ginger train. It took us on a lovely trip around the place, telling us all the different parts of the factory outside and showing us some of the old tools used. We then did a little shopping, looking through the beautiful gift shops they had. Inside found some teas. We got the Tutti Fruity flavor to try. It was yummy. Next we took the Gruffalo adventure to save mouse. Through the rainforest we went, following the clues and doing as the characters said until we approached the Gruffalo's home where we had to try very hard to scare him off to save mouse. It was a successful mission .
The day was nearing the end and it was at hot, 33 outside here in Queensland. So we headed over to the last attraction. We got on a little boat and enjoyed trying find the ginger bread man as he was escaping all over the world. The whole time all I could keep thinking was, run, run, run as fast as you can. You'll never catch me, I'm the gingerbread man, lol. We took the ride twice enjoying the nice aircon and they really amazing job they have done to create the different countries. We headed down to the ginger store afterward, where we selected a few products to take home. All of which I can't wait to try new recipes with. Here is some of what we got.
Ginger, lemon & lime marmalade
Original ginger marmalade
Sweet ginger sauce
Naked ginger ( uncrystallised)
Ginger cordial
Vodka and ginger beer
So watch this space, because my creative senses are feeling a vibe to make some interesting things.
Overall, this place really surprised me. It was well entertaining and just full of information. So if you ever get to the sunshine state, I would give this a solid 9/10.
Next week on the blog The Moreton Island Dolphin and Tangalooma Wrecks Snorkeling Birthday Adventure.
Xo Tieana
