DISPATCHES FROM THE FARM

Mizuna is used a lot in traditional Japanese cuisine with soups, hot pots, stir fries, steamed or as salad. It has a mild mustard flavour and is a member of the brassica family, like bok choi and broccoli. It has mid-dark green, serrated leaves and can be harvested when the leaves are quite small (perfect for loose leaf salad) or left to grow larger making it more robust for cooked dishes. It's a 'cut and come again' type plant like rocket but eventually it goes to seed, so we have to try to keep the crops overlapping to ensure a steady supply over spring-autumn. 

We find people often mistake it for 'wild' rocket because of the serrated leaves, but in fact they look very different next to each other...the mizuna serrations are much pointier and more numerous per leaf and aren't quite as darkly coloured.

We mostly use mizuna for lovely fresh salads with a tang! Most of our customers buy it for the same purpose.

 

As you know, we like to grow open pollinated heirloom or heritage vegetable varieties as much as possible. Beetroots are one of our favourites (to eat, grow & sell). At the moment we have several types in the ground, including Detroit (typical red beetroot colour & size), Bull's Blood (black-red colour with feint rings, very sweet & delish!), Golden (fab golden colour, soft texture, great in salads) and Chioggia (originally from a fishing village on the Adriatic coast, a.k.a. 'Bull's Eye Beet', it has dark red skin with alternating pink and white rings when cut.). I'll post some photos of the different kinds once we've harvested them...they're a feast for the eyes and inspire many dining ideas!

Apart from being gorgeous to look at with their brightly coloured skins and flesh, these babies are rich in antioxidants and other nutrients such as boron and I read that the ancient Romans considered beetroot juice to be an aphrodisiac - cool :).

I'll be back onto beetroots in the coming weeks to share more info about our new crop and delicious suggestions for eating them.

Also know as eschallots, shallots are prized by chefs for the amazing depth of flavour they can add to a dish, especially to sauces. They have a lovely sweet, aromatic, yet still pungent/onion flavour. They also go nicely finely sliced in salads.The deep fried ones used in Asian cuisine are also a delicious way to add flavour and texture to meals.

Often in Australia, you hear people call spring onions 'shallots' (I'm from Sydney originally and I think N.S.W is one of our states where this tends to happen!)...but the long green stalked, white bulb-based spring onions or scallions are NOT true shallots. 

Tim with a golden bundle!

You can see above some striped Romans, red and yellow pears, cherry and a few small Black Russians.

They always start off slowly but at least we get to enjoy an early season preview in home meals after our months of 

tender loving care. 

Within the next few weeks there'll be a bounty of these as well as other heirloom types we're growing this season, soon followed by the usual suspects we all love, Roma, Grosse Lisse and such like.

On another subject, Tim saw a baby rabbit closely followed by what was probably a sizable deadly Brown snake this afternoon (these dudes move a little too fast for Kodak moments!). We are hoping it's just the cycle of life...mainly that the rabbit was snake dinner and the only one in such close vicinity to the farm crops. Hopefully there's not a whole bunch of snakes hanging around either! We know they're there but we are both (us & them) happy to avoid each other. It's another aspect to life on the land and we personally subscribe to live and let live and sincerely hope the Glenlyon snakes do too :) in regards to us humans and Billy the farm dog.

Have a lovely weekend all!

In a few weeks we'll be picking an abundance of cucs. daily!

I know some folk manage to grow cucumbers around here in their back yards without any form of covering/temperature control but we can only guess their yards or a particular spot there in present a good little micro-climate for their cucumbers to grow well. The farm is much more open than that and because we rotate crops, we couldn't keep replanting them in the same location year after year even if we did have a specially protected location outdoors.

We planted the zucchinis back in November and they have just started to fruit. 

Zucchinis are also know by their French name 'courgette' in some European countries, NZ & the U.K.. 

They are actually a summer squash. They can be yellow, green or light green but we are only growing the dark green ones this season. They are rich in vitamin C and other anti-oxidents. 

They have gorgeous golden, edible flowers (more about that another time). Botanically, the zucchini fruit is considered to be the 'swollen ovary' attached to the female flower. The flowers occurring on stalks without zucchinis are the male flowers. Plenty of bees are needed for pollinating zucchinis for the squash to be produced and to grow healthily. The bees pollinate from the male flowers to the female flowers, fertilising the seeds in the immature fruit. If the seeds aren’t pollinated, the plant won’t waste energy growing a non-viable fruit, so it just withers and drops off, and the plant tries again with a fresh flower.

Anyone who has ever grown zucchinis or cucumbers for that matter, knows they go mad with very quick growing fruit (& can be master camouflage artists!). Unless you want large gourd-type zucchs. and cucs., you really need to harvest them daily to get to the fruits before they become huge...one more day can result in zuch/cuc-a-saurus! Personally, we prefer the flavour of smaller-sized zucchs. and cucs..

So between the zucchs., the cucs. and then the tomatoes when they arrive in the next few weeks, we'll be busy each morning picking their fruits whilst it is at its best, ready for the chefs, local shops and of course our farmers' market stalls each week. 

Yesterday we got a wee mention in Melbourne's Sunday Herald Sun "Sunday Food" section where Wendy Hargreaves wrote a small feature on heirloom tomatoes, accompanied by a yummy recipe from acclaimed chef Guy Grossi. 

 

Actually, the tomatoes are more than 2 weeks away from being ready to harvest. 

We anticipate some to be ready in about 4 weeks time - so approx. mid February, then increasing in numbers and variety from there. 

You'll definitely be able to purchase them at all our farmers' market stalls (Daylesford & Melbourne).

Last Friday I snapped these gorgeous pics. of my two favourite boys harvesting sunflowers for market...

  

Well, only 3 more sleeps until Christmas Day...hard to believe another year has flown by so quickly.

A lot has been going on at the farm lately even though I haven't been writing to you much (that's why not much blogging has been happening!). We're still cleaning the new season's garlic bulbs in earnest and a lot of time over the past week has been filled with harvesting and other preparation for farmers' markets, doing our wonderful market stalls (bumping in!), packing up (bumping out!) and then returning  to the farm, unpacking the van etc and then doing it all again. It's a vibrant time of year and many vegies (& many more weeds...) are growing rapidly with the regular warmth and the blessed regular rain we've so luckily had.

Last Saturday morning we did our first Hawthorn Boroondara F.M. and rushed back home to do the Daylesford Xmas Twilight F.M. from 4pm. Our inaugural Boroondara F.M. was a ripper! Very busy and very welcoming...we had a great day. So lovely to see some regulars from our other Melbourne f.m.s and to meet lots of new people, passionate about locally grown, good quality organic produce, especially real, un-messed Australian garlic.

  

Our stall at the Hawthorn Boroondara Farmers' Market last Saturday.

  

The Daylesford Xmas Twilight F.M. was pretty laid-back and not really busy but we did get to catch up with and exchange Christmas greetings with our fellow stallholders and a number of local friends, which was a very nice added bonus. Plus, Santa rode in on the Daylesford CFA No. 1 fire truck, which all the kids loved and to be honest it 'tickled me pink' too! Some of the French WWOOFers who helped us clean garlic the other week were helping out on Don & Sue's stall and we commented that Santa's fire truck entrance was a uniquely Australian Christmas event and they thought it was great!

 

Our stall & Tim at Daylesford Xmas Twilight F.M.  

 

Tomorrow arvo / evening (Wednesday) is the super-dooper Slow Food Xmas Twilight market in the grounds of the gorgeous Abbotsford Convent in Melbourne, between 3pm & 8pm. It's promising to be smashing, with loads of great stalls (including us!)...great Xmas fare and gourmet gifts and a festive Xmas vibe :).  Come along if you can and join in the fun.

I won't blog you until after Christmas now, so from us to you and your families and loved ones, WE WISH YOU A SAFE & BEAUTIFUL CHRISTMAS. MAY SUMMER BE A GOOD & RELAXING TIME FOR YOU & US, FREE FROM FIRE DANGERS & MAY 2010 BE A PARTICULARLY FABULOUS YEAR FOR US ALL! :)

Best wishes from Deri-Anne, Tim & Billy

 

Tim bunching some just picked garlic in the field.

 

The trailer getting filled with garlic bunches to be transported back to the drying shed and out of the sun.

Piles of garlic bunches awaiting their spot on the hanging rack!

  

Fresh 2009 garlic just hung for drying and curing, Glenlyon dirt intact. 

 

First lot of garlic stems cleaned for plaiting. 

 

Let the plaiting begin...plait-meister Cheryl in action (not just another hand model!). Cheryl is our dear friend and occasional farm hand. A lady of many talents, a fellow garlic and fine food groupie with the biggest heart who is my plaiting guru/buddy. She also brings a large dollop of love to our mix in Angelicanian creations!

 

Plait-o-rama well under way (...and already 'sold out' online!) .

  

Then last week we were blessed with the French and Italian 'Connection' for a day to help kick off the garlic bulb cleaning festival! Our mates Don and Sue from Timber Benders shared their  WWOOFers (Willing Workers On Organic Farms) with us for the day, which was a great help and good fun. 

Billy got spoilt with loads of extra love and cuddles! Unfortunately my dream of taking him out for dinner in Paris was dashed when the guys broke the news that it wasn't likely to be able to happen in reality- oh pooh! 

We got our first lot of online garlic orders posted out the other day and all has reached its destination in good shape and with fabulous feedback coming in- thank you :)

And back on the 'ranch' the garlic bulb cleaning continues in earnest....

The Daylesford (1st sat.) and then Collingwood Children's Farm farmers' markets have been fantastic the past couple of Saturdays (sorry no pics!). It's great to be back in the f.m. 'saddle' for the new season.

Please come and visit us this coming Saturday at the Hawthorn Boroondara Farmers' Markets (8am-1pm) or the Daylesford Christmas Twilight Farmer's Market (4pm-8pm) and maybe pick up a gorgeous garlic braid as a Christmas present to-boot?! :)

      

Hello All! Here is a wee preview of the 2009 garlic crop.

    

As you will see from the various website updates, THE GARLIC IS IN NOW...woo hoo!!

We'll have a selection of the freshest and most flavoursome culinary herbs such as coriander, parsley, oregano, thyme,  mint, sage, rosemary, bay leaf and lavender, as well as premium spicy rocket and zingy mizuna leaves (for salads/pizza/stir fry), beautiful red curly kale leaves  plus maybe a small quantity of other vegie morsels to get us back on deck for our new seasons produce. 

A feature of our stalls are our mixed herb posies - they're both pretty and practical!  These mixed herb posies were borne from our own experiences of buying full bunches of single herbs for various recipes, only to find we had too much wastage when we couldn't use them all quickly enough. After trialling the idea last season, we did indeed discover that many people have had the same problem and were delighted to be able to buy farm fresh, mini-bouquets of a selection of 3-5 herbs and they're even organic! We hope to see you at our fragrant little 'ol display on Saturday!

HOLD ON TO YOUR HATS, your culinary desperation is almost over...our new season gorgeous, gourmet GARLIC will hit the stands by December markets, just in time for the festive season and all those shared meals with loved ones. Of course we will have our new hand crafted garlic braids (AKA plaits or ropes) and grappes (decorative bunches), which really do make the loveliest gift for people who just love quality and attractive epicurian delights to brighten up their tasty creations and their kitchen .

    

• Re-sellers of fruit, vegetables or any other farm based product
• Re-packagers of any food or drink
• Art and craft stalls
• Bric-a-brac stalls