DISPATCHES FROM THE FARMRSS

delicious Garlic!

Friday, April 29, 2011
The May edition of ABC delicious Magazine is due out. 



Go to page 38 to see who chef Matt Wilkinson, co-owner of  Melbourne's Pope Joan,  has selected as his 2011 Produce Awards 'Pick of the Crop' for May...



...it's Angelica Organic Farm garlic!

For this nice little plug, Matt made a sumptuous bagna cauda dip using our rocambole garlic.  



Thank you Matt for your appreciative words.

We are honoured to be in the running again and find it especially pleasing after the challenging season we've had.


Our much loved 17 y.o. cat, Charlotte, in the 'adopted' wood basket...best spot near the fire, MIAOW!!

Charlotte says "Buy Angelica Organic Farm garlic. It's yummy and good for you and my mum and dad work hard to grow it well for you!"


2011 Angelica Organic Farm Garlic Braids at the Xmas Slow Food FM.

Best of luck to all this year's nominees. May our following produce seasons be blessed by the fair weather gods and subsequently abundant and tasty as can be!
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2010 Garlic Harvest Round 1- Rosie Red Rocambole!

Friday, December 17, 2010
Howdy All! Phew...finally a breath and some time to post you a blog on the new season's rocambole harvest...

  
As most of you will know from my website updates and our subscribers from the e-newsletters, the 1st harvest of the garlic for the 'early season' red rocambole started on Dec. 3rd and we had it all picked and hung for curing by Dec.6.


The Rocambole Garlic hanging to cure or dry before full cleaning and trimming.

It is all fantastic quality and we can assure you it tastes absolutely delicious...such a treat after a number of lean garlic weeks in the kitchen leading up to the harvest! We've gone a bit mad, including it in pretty much everything we cook...Daylesford/Glenlyon locals can probably smell us coming from 20 paces! (Oh well :-))



After a couple of 'ordinary' weeks here on the farm, dealing with what has seemed like endless rain, the precursor for some washed away seedlings/new crops, delayed plantings, humidity, fluctuating temperatures, slow growing vegies and last but not least locusts, we have been enjoying a couple of sunny days (before more rain...) and a welcome 'up' vibe as we also realise the fact that our beloved garlic IS curing/drying very well, even if slowly, despite the ongoing damp climate - yee haa! It's a nerve wracking time, those first few weeks of our 'newborn' garlic's life as we harvest and see if everyone's plump and healthy and nurture it into the above ground world through it's curing phase and then onto giving it it's big clean up ready for online order dispatch and market sales. 


Some clean and un-cleaned bulbs...

We literally clean all garlic that's for braiding (i.e. stems kept intact) and selling as loose bulbs by hand with toothbrushes!


Braid stems in prep...

Cleaning has begun...

AND we also celebrate the 'Plait-o-pussies' (me and the lovely Cheryl) heralding our 2010 garlic braidorama festival!


Angelica O.F. Braid-o-rama is underway!



We will begin posting out your online garlic shop orders after Xmas (once somewhat more cured and when all is clean, braided and dry enough to pack and post safely).

AND we will have early, fresh, juicy AND pretty little garlicy gifts for Melbournites to purchase from us at the HAWTHORN BOROONDARA Farmers' Market this coming Saturday (tommorrow, Dec 18th, 8am TO 1pm) AND at SLOW FOOD Xmas Twilight Farmers' Market on Wednesday Dec. 23, 3pm to 8pm.

We'd love to see you this week at the Farmers' Markets!
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From The Earth...mmm Delicious Produce Awards 2010!

Thursday, July 22, 2010
We have some great news to share with you all...



On Monday night at Circa, The Prince in St Kilda, Melbourne, the winners for the 2010 delicious Produce Awards were announced and we are proud to say that we won a GOLD MEDAL for our beloved GARLIC in the "From The Earth" category. The delightful and creative Matt Wilkinson, head chef at Circa and his team put on a sumptuous cocktail party spread with as many of the Award entrants' produce as they could source this time of year and it was truly lovely. 



There was the 'who's who' of  top chefs, including the awards' judges. Some we spotted and/or got to speak with were Maggie Beer (Barossa food legend and a hero of ours!), Matt Moran (ARIA), Neil Perry (Rockpool), Sean Preslin (Saki), Cheong Liew (The Grange, Adelaide Hilton), Stephanie Alexander (Stephanie's & the school Kitchen Garden Scheme) and our own Alla Wolf-Tasker (The Lake House). I said to Tim, "I wonder what Sydney-siders are dining out on tonight? Many of their best chefs are here!" 

The magnificent Matt Preston hosted the awards presentation in his usual sartorial splendour and great humour. He was very generous in posing for a photo with us and chatting about our work and it was so nice to finally meet him. He is in our esteem a very talented food critic and personally I adore cravats! I have to mention that Matt actually looked damn finer than he has come up in our photo below...sorry Matt...our phone camera is very unkind (the digital camera jammed earlier in the evening).




All the other winners and medalists for the various categories and awards are listed at the attached ABC delicious magazine website. Several of this years finalists and winners are from around our region, which is really lovely to be a part of...Fernleigh Farms, Wurrook Super Fine Prime Lamb, Holy Goat Cheese, Meredith Dairy, Mt Alexander Fruit Gardens, Daylesford Organics, Sher Wagyu, Warialda Belted Galloway Beef, as well as several other great Victorian producers.



We extend our sincere congratulations to all finalists and the winners and we feel honoured to be amongst such a great bunch of passionate, sustainable producers. We really appreciate how hard everyone works and what kinds of risk factors can be associated with farming and food production, so cheers to all the hard work and big hearts and for the generosity and support a few of you in particular have shown towards us since we started our long held dream of organic farming.

We are also thrilled that the Collingwood Children's Farm Farmers' Market won the 'Outstanding Farmers' Market' award (for all Australia!). Established in 2002, this community-owned market brings more than 70 Victorian producers (such as us) to inner-city Melbourne on the 2nd Saturday of each month and was one of the first farmers' markets to be accredited for stallholder authenticity. It was really wonderful to see Miranda Sharp our market co-ordinator accepting this award, as we truly appreciate the commitment and many hours (years!) of work she has put in towards making this market and others a success and an experience consumers can rely on for quality and integrity as well as an enjoyable environment. Go girl and go CCFM!



As I was discussing with a colleague and friend earlier today, one of the best things for us about winning this award, is that both me and Tim have been 'obsessed' with really good food or ingredients in one way or another (i.e. different aspects at different times) since our teens and although winning awards is by no means our 'why' for becoming organic food producers, it IS very nice to be recognised for being premium produce growers (esp. GARLIC of all things for us and being a 'small holding' farm enterprise). We have dreamed for decades in a number of ways, about becoming premium, artisanal producers, prior to starting Angelica Organic Farm 5 years ago, like our heros in France and Italy, like Maggie Beer and many others here, who have inspired us for such a long time. To be also doing it by biological/organic means is very dear to us. During my early 20s, whilst I was working in Sydney restaurants, I read a book called 'The Chef's Table: an Australian gourmet in the great restaurants of France' by Aussie chef Barbara Ross. In her book Barbara journals her working holiday around France, for which she organised in advance with a number of top restaurants (often Michelin Star or 'hatted' restaurants), volunteer cooking positions, so she could learn from and experience the best chefs and produce France had to offer. The anecdotes about the regional produce and growers and the respect with which the chefs utilised it just made my heart 'sing' and has inspired me forever more. Watch out France when we get over there!!

Thanks to everyone who has supported, encouraged, taught, respected and believed in us - family, friends, colleagues, competitors, customers, local business groups such as DMP and the local community in general. It is cherished and of great help as we 'rock on' into the future with our little farm, lovingly growing our natural produce.



This is just the 'tip of the iceberg' from us folks...we've got a lot more 'in the tank' to come and we can only get better at what we do!


One of the beautiful displays at Circa for the awards.




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