Today was a very long day filled with exciting visits to Wantabadgery Station, an angus beef cattle production, Kooringal Stud, a thoroughbred horse breeding farm, and Junee Licorice and Chocolate Factory (no need for an explanation here!).

Junee Licorice and Chocolate Factory is nothing like Hershey’s Chocolate Factory back at home. It is not as commercialized for starters! It is located in a small town 25 minutes from the city of Wagga Wagga. The factory was built in 1935 as a flour mill by the Druce family and in the 70’s was shut down and bought out by a commercial flour operation. The Druce Family owned about 1000 hectares of land for an organic farm operation named Green Grove Organics. It is one of the most world renowned truly organic farms. The family in 2002 opened the building again for a licorice factory because licorice’s number one ingredient is flour (30%). Licorice is said to:

•     Boost the immune system
•     Is a mild natural pain reliever
•     Aid endurance
•     Activate the liver
•     Rejuvenate the pancreas
•     Strengthen the respiratory system
•     Aid digestion
•     Cure ulcers
•     Fight tooth decay

Maybe I will start eating more licorice!

They started making chocolate as well to coat the licorice and make it taste better, which it definitely does!

The factory is nothing like Hershey’s but we still were able to do a lot of taste testing! We watched the ladies make the chocolate (we said looked like wombat poop which we learned about because it is sort of square). We then played a licorice bowling game and my team, along with two others, tied for the win! We then obviously had to go to the gift shop and bring back some chocolate for ourselves.

I think I like Hershey’s chocolate better, but like my host family says about vegemite “You had to grow up with it”. So I grew up with Hershey’s and some chocolate that is very bad for you, and the Australians eat organic Junee chocolate and licorice, which is “good” for you (in moderation of course).

Extra Photos of horses today!