What, no menu? No. Annie Smithers has decided that before you arrive at Du Fermier, her French farmhouse-style kitchen in the goldfields town of Trentham.

Your task is to be on time, order a bottle of plonk, and see what happens. On a winter’s day, Smithers sent out twice-baked cheese souffles followed by pork loin with crackling and the best cassoulet this side of the Dordogne.

Eating here in spring was entirely different because Du Fermier (“from the farm’’) is dependent on what its enterprising owner-chef can source from local suppliers and her own farm in nearby Malmsbury.

“If you like what we serve, great,’’ she says. “If you don’t … well, there are other places.’’

Du Fermier is housed in an old store. Timber underfoot, garden hoes on the wall. Very rustic. The service is affable. And if you’re dining on a Sunday, Smithers herself will probably serve you dessert. In our case, a cream-puffed yet airily light Paris-Brest.

Must eat dish: pork loin with crackling and cassoulet