Noosa Yoghurt Story

"Make today legen-dairy."

-Noosa Yoghurt

As a first year college student, I attended a sponsored dinner by the class of ‘66 during pre-orientation. The dinner was catered at an outside amphitheatre on a beautiful late summer day.

I sat next to the ‘66 class president who had recently retired and moved back to our small college town. We clicked immediately as I peppered him with questions about his time at the school and why he had returned to the area.

After our first meeting, I ran into him on campus frequently as he audited classes he’d not been able to take as a student, and he helped me understand and navigate some administrative politics. He and his wife also invited some of my friends and I over for dinner at least once a term, and in the summer we were always welcome to pick blueberries on the little hill behind their house. He and his wife quickly became my college parents, and their home a place I could escape to when I needed to get off campus.

During the fall of my second year, my college parents got an Australian Shepherd puppy and named him Webster after Daniel Webster, a famous alum from our college. I first met Webster on campus at the homecoming bonfire, where he stole everyone’s heart, including mine. He was the absolute cutest fluff ball!

I watched Webster grow during my 3 remaining years at the college, and I still see him at least once a year. He lives a dog’s best life, freely roaming the hills of Vermont. He is quite the foodie, and prefers cooked hamburger or salmon on top of his kibble. He is also known to chomp on the blueberry bushes for a snack as he heads down to the pond for a swim. More importantly, however, Webster is known to poach food from the counter or table in stealth mode if you turn your back for any short amount of time.

When I drove up to look after Webster for a couple weeks at the beginning of fall, I was so excited to spend time with him back in my old stomping grounds. We did everything together--hiking, driving to the town’s general store, visiting campus, taking the trash to the dump, and picking up some organic veggies at the farm down the road. We also ate together, and sometimes, unexpectedly, the same food!

I cracked open a Noosa one morning for breakfast and mistakenly left the yoghurt on the table for all of 10 seconds as I got up to grab my water from the counter. Webster quietly and carefully stood on his back paws to get a taste of the yoghurt not realizing that the sound of his licks would incriminate him. Let’s just say he is a fan of Blueberry Noosa, and who can blame him? So it only made sense to include Webster in my Noosa shoot. Appreciating Aussie recipes is probably in his blood, right?

Webster recognized Noosa almost immediately the next day when I pulled out a tub for breakfast. He waited patiently beside me as I ate it, hoping for a chance to swoop in and enjoy some for himself.

It was a little cold to enjoy outside, so we went inside, where Webster never left my side.

The problem is that Webster knows how to turn on the puppy-eye look. You know, the one that can control the fiercest of humans. It was so hard not to cave. But I stayed strong…