YOUR HOSTS
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Zenergie was created by, was built by and is run by Jennie and Hess Strengers. Our journey began in the 60’s when we met at La Trobe University and when we married and moved to Orbost High school where Hess had his first teaching posting. Both of us were inspired by the back to earth (Hippie) culture of the times and we built our earth (pise de Terre) home in Meeniyan and raised our two children there. But we always dabbled in whatever seemed exciting and interesting. We grew our own vegies, had fruit trees, chooks, sheep, horses, goats, ducks, did pottery, spun wool and wove and knitted it, and, generally embraced life. In 1982 the chance arose to start a shop in Meeniyan, a place to sell our pottery and other crafts; South Gippsland Craft Merchants was born and took the next twenty years of our life. For three of those years we also ran another shop and café. It was our stepping stone to self employment and away from teaching. In 2002 we sold the shop in Meeniyan and were ready to sweep away all the old and restart. We sold up our earth home and shifted to Kongwak, the beginning of the rest of our lives. Thirty five acres on the edge of the town with glorious views and an old fashion English style garden and a fibro cement house clad with vinyl planks!!! It was a radical turn around. But we had big plans!!!! Zenergie began the day we saw the Kongwak property; we walked up the hillside and saw the entire picture…at least Hess did and Jennie was good enough (silly enough??) to go along. Zenergie opened on Australia Day 2008 and is pretty much Hess’ vision and effort. He is quite single minded!! ZENERGIE AND JENNIE Hess and I have always worked as a team. We built the house in Meeniyan together and we have worked together on most things through life. When it came to Zenergie I kept the home going while Hess pursued his dream but once Zenergie was finished my presence again became important to the project. The décor and homeliness of the villas are my input and the standard of cleanliness and attention to detail within them is mine. But my greatest contribution is just being realised. My driving passion has been cooking, diet and food and in 2009 as Zenergie was taking its first guests that passion took a new turn. As we both began a renewed interest in Veganism and Raw Veganism and as we learnt more and more about diet, lifestyle and health we felt the need to embrace these ideas into Zenergie. I collect cookbooks. I have hundreds and the recent ones are all on Veganism and Raw Veganism. Now its one thing to have books, or to make the recipes from those books BUT to make those recipes into delectable and awe inspiring dishes is another thing altogether. And that is my talent; to make varied, tasty, nutritious, attractive and just plain yummy food. Forty years of cooking and experimenting and reading and learning have culminated in a person who creates great meals. Preparing meals for other people is never easy. ‘One man’s meat is another man’s poison’, which means that the thing I like may not be the thing you like. Because we are all so individual in our food tastes it is hard to please all. But the countless meals I have cooked for friends, Zenergie guests, for those who have attended the cooking class days and the outside events like the vegan wedding, all these have shown convincingly that people appreciate the food that I have presented them with. They respect the effort, energy, love and care that have gone into those meals…..AND they loved eating it!! ZENERGIE AND HESS The ability to turn one’s attention to an area of interest, as Jennie has done with cooking, is an attribute both she and I share. We are both driven by a passion, interest and desire to extend ourselves to our full potential….. for its own sake. I was an honours graduate in Economics and my working life began in teaching. Then my life did this change and the things I became interested in were seldom mainstream, seldom conventional. Our house in Meeniyan was made of earth, the first recorded in the Shire. I was more passionate about growing trees and vegies then I was about teaching (..though I did it well enough!!) Zenergie is the culmination of my life at this stage. It is about passion, art, plants, ideas, philosophies and lifestyle. And all that I have been doing with Zenergie has been irrelevant to my formal education (except in so far as everything we do provides the stepping stone to the next thing!!). I have used every conceivable type of building tool, learnt the ins and outs of building, landscaping, plants, oriental philosophies and about my own body and what makes it tick. The journey has been interesting and is far from over. And there are so many things to experience that I have never been able to lock into any one area; I am the proverbial ‘Jack of all trades’ and I have learnt such a diversity of knowledge. So you will see me cleaning the villas, mowing the lawns, pruning the fruit trees, helping in the kitchen, serving meals AND conducting drumming, yoga, Pilates, Meditation groups and extolling the virtues of Vegan diets. I am also the bookkeeper, financial, marketing, advertising and photography person. While I am no expert in any of these things, I am driven by a passion to learn and master and, if necessary, to impart what I have learnt. The energy of Zenergie is what we bring to it; a desire to grab life with both hands and to embrace it physically and wholeheartedly. If we can help anyone else do that then we have given a small something back, If we have shown someone else that things are achievable….. if you want to achieve them! Then…. We have achieved something that we value. |
