Covid career change for providore owners
Seasons Pantry Owner Abbey Bell in the old Branxholm Schoolhouse she and husband Richard Block are converting into a providore.
October 1, 2025
Covid-19 brought Abbey Bell and Richard Block to Tasmania and the beauty and potential of the North East has encouraged them to stay and invest in the area.
The couple will open Seasons Pantry at the old Branxholm School on October 12, shining a light on Tasmanian produce.
“The real champions are the Tassie farmers and makers and if it is made and grown in Tassie, I want to help them out,” Ms Bell said.
“I was always interested in this sort of thing. When I moved to Tassie I thought there would be more of this around but when you are driving past dairies they don’t sell anything so it will be nice to feature local produce.”
Ms Bell and Mr Block relocated to Lebrina in 2020 when Covid crashed their worlds.
She had been working in a front of house role at a restaurant while Mr Block was a chef when the city shut down and they lost their jobs.
They decided to head south to stay with her sister Kim Croker and her husband Daniel, who had relocated from Brisbane in March 2017, to raise Berkshire pigs in Lebrina at Fork It Farm.
“When Covid hit we came down to help her and haven’t left,” Ms Bell said.
Ms Bell and Mr Block established a food truck business Seasons Pantry just over 18 months ago and have been relishing the opportunity to provide fresh in-season produce to customers at a range of events including Festivale and the Tassie Scallop Fiesta at Bridport.
“We sell whatever is in season and we make everything from scratch like sausages and flat bread,” she said.
Now they are bringing the business to a new base in Branxholm, after buying the old schoolhouse which until recently had been home to restaurant Casa Pinocchio.
“We love it. We love the landscapes and the rivers and being so close to Scottsdale and Derby and St Helens,” she said.
“The good thing is we can live here too and do all of our production in the kitchen and just settle down.”
They arrived in Branxholm three weeks ago.
It is a world away from the UK where Mr Block hails – the pair met when Ms Bell was working there for five years.
“I met Richard and brought him back. We have been together for 21 years now,” she said.
While he’s been busy still working at Brooke Eden Vineyard, they’re putting their own stamp on the little building and will proudly display the old school records in their new business.
“We have changed the paint colour and will fit out the kitchen. The previous owners took everything except the kitchen sink so it has been a slow process. Rich wants to do some pop-up dinners once a month in here as well, so we need to get a food licence.”
They will sell works by local artists, with the first collection to go on the timber walls being work by deceased St Helens artist Graeme Cherry and Branxholm’s Joanne McGrath, who just last week won the major prize at the North East Tasmanian Art and Craft Festival.
“We will sell produce, books, coffee, tea, nuts, honeys, salt, vinegars, and I make a lot of preserves and pickles and frozen meals. We will have cured meats, milk in glass jars the old-fashioned way and cheeses.
“We will start by opening Monday to Friday and we really want to do weekends but we have foodtruck events booked in (Ringarooma Show, Lilydale Big Day Out and Scottsdale Spud Fest) so we will do those and see what happens.”
While their forced change during the pandemic was stressful, she admits it was a blessing in disguise.
“It makes you realise what you have got.”