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First came an ambitious plan to turn an historic guest house in the NSW Central West into a boutique hotel. Now Sunrise star Edwina Bartholomew and her husband Neil Varcoe have embarked on another new chapter together – as cafe owners.
A denim overall-clad Edwina shared the news with fans in a candid Instagram video on March 22, revealing she and her husband – who separated geographically so Neil could undertake the renovation of their Carcoar hotel, Saltash Farm, in 2023 – had also purchased the village coffee shop.
“It’s super, super exciting. It’s going to be all local produce,” Edwina shared in the clip, which was filmed in the red-painted interior of the new Village Grocer.
And it seems Edwina and Neil – a former digital media executive – didn’t any time with their latest venture. While Saltash Farm is set to open later this year, just two weeks after announcing the cafe’s purchase, it was welcoming its first customers.
“This is the beginning of @saltash__farm and we couldn’t be more excited,” Edwina shared in a post to Instagram, leading her Channel 7 colleagues to share their thoughts on her wild new adventure.
“This is so fantastic!!! Do you sell petrol,” The Morning Show co-host Larry Emdur quipped, referring to the fuel crisis currently impacting the world economy.
“Amazing!! Open for business. Congrats,” Kyle Gillies’ commented. Meanwhile, Sunrise weather presenter Sam Mac added, “It’s like ‘we bought a zoo’, but it’s a cafe. So cool.”
After a successful first day’s trading, Edwina took to social media again to share how she and her husband had been “blown by the community support”.
“The town was buzzing. All the shops heaving. The pub packed,” she wrote, adding that Neil had spent time manning the cafe till on the first day of trading.
“See you for breakfast tomorrow*,” she continued, before clarifying that she wouldn’t be there because she “has breakfast on Mondays with Sunrise of course”.
Edwina opened up more on the couple’s decision to open a cafe in her latest column for Country Style.
“We know it’s not possible to build a project like our hotel in isolation. It only works if it’s built with and for the community that it sits within,” the star explained.
“The town’s shops need to thrive, and the main street needs buzz. People need a reason to turn off the highway, and sometimes a good coffee and a sandwich is a good start.”
The Sunrise star admitted that she and Neil “feel a bit mad”, but they had taken inspiration from the town of New Norfolk in Tasmania which has become a tourist destination in its own right.
Certainly, the couple’s new chapter comes at the right time – a year and a half on from Edwina’s announcement, live on Sunrise, that she was suffering from chronic myeloid leukaemia, a blood and bone marrow cancer.
Following specialist help and daily medication, the traces of leukaemia in Edwina’s body are “almost undetectable”, and the star now works more flexibly – from the office and at home, with the support of Channel 7.
She and Neil may have had little experience in renovation, but they are – quite literally – building their dream.
“We have learnt a lot about heritage restrictions, septic systems, power poles and small-town politics,” Edwina told Country Style in January 2026.
“We have also fallen even more in love with the town we will all eventually call home.”
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