Poh & Co.

Poh has always dreamed of having an edible garden so when she and husband Jono decide to speed up the process of converting their house into a home they start outdoors.

The flaw in the plan is that neither knows about gardening, and so, leaving Jono and a mate doing the grunt work of clearing the front yard, Poh heads over to see her friend and chef Andre for some advice. Instead of staying an hour, she stays four and gets lessons in making focaccia and caponata – and in teaching chickens to act like chickens.

Poh and her best friend, Sarah, have dreamt about opening their own market food stall since their days together at art school. Now that it's a reality, they are constantly experimenting with new dishes, stocking the cart with a big range of delicious jams, cakes and pastries. Their respective husbands Jono and Matt are in on the act too.

Poh learns how to make traditional Chinese zong dumplings from her mother, Christina, but it's such a complicated and time-consuming task that she wonders aloud whether she will ever do it again. Andre Ursini takes Poh to visit his Aunt Anne's certified biodynamic farm, and the pair improvise several dishes. On the drive home, Andre dares Poh to come to Andre's Cucina and Polenta Bar and do what she's never done: a "proper service".

The front yard is ready for planting at last and Poh and Jono choose a big range of seedlings and young plants at the nursery, meet an adventurous young chef, then get some help from friends and neighbours Anthony and Liz. Poh makes everyone pork and cabbage dumplings to fuel the effort of getting everything into the ground. Beer traps are installed to capture the snails and the dogs are trained to keep off the raised beds.

Poh and Jono start building a wood-fired pizza oven to enhance their outdoor entertaining area, so of course Poh enlists Andre's help to find a good tutor in the art of pizza dough. Both end up getting a lesson from Mauro Gulli, an immigrant from Calabria who does Andre's commercial baking and used to be a pizzaiolo in Italy. It's a lot of fun. Later, Poh and Jono, and Rhino and Tim, escape the chaos at home with a picnic at the gorgeous beach at Port Willunga, south of Adelaide.

The garden is nearing completion and Poh and Jono decide to have a party to say thank you to everyone who helped with the transformation and to christen the new pizza oven. But Poh thinks the outdoor areas lack personality, so armed with custard biscuits she visits three inspiring gardens. That evening she serves curry puffs to all her favourite people before they tuck into the pizzas, which are a big success. Fast forward three months and Poh is very excited to be cooking with her first crop of tomatoes.