DISPATCHES FROM THE FARM

Lavandula Summer Lavender Harvest Festival

Thursday, January 07, 2010

On Sunday the stunning and bucolic Lavandula will host their annual summer lavender harvest festival. The seasonal festivals at Lavandula are a celebration of rural skills and artisanal wares, produce, music, food and wine. This weekend's festival will share the harvesting and bunching of fresh lavender ready for drying, as well as aromatherapy, skincare, body products and massage, and showcases local complimentary talents like us!

Lavender at Lavandula (photos courtesy of Lavandula)

Angelica Organic Farm will have a stall there, selling our garlic braids and bulbs and our beautiful new season's sunflowers. Come meet me and Tim in the flesh!

Lavandula is always lovely to visit and we adore sitting under the Ash grove outside their licensed La Trattoria cafe with a coffee or a bite to eat.

Around the golden, rustic Swiss - Italian stone buildings, they grow lavender, olives and grapes amongst an extensive old fashion garden and its birdsong. There are shady trees a plenty for relaxing under whilst often treated to a parade of geese or watching the chooks in their picturesque old-style farm yard, the donkeys and other members of the farm yard menagerie...

There's also a cute little shop in the old stone barn brimming with lovely things, including a comprehensive section devoted to skincare and health products made from Lavandula's own lavender products.

Oh and of course there's patanque if you so desire...

We've also been advised that COSTA'S GARDEN ODYSSEY will be filming on the day. We love Costa and would go so far as to say this dynamic Greek garden guru has begun to fill the void left by the retirement of the beloved Peter Cundell.

Your kids (& you) will love him!

Here's the low down for attending Sunday's summer lavender harvest festival...

Where: Lavandula, Shepherd's Flat, 10 mins. North from Daylesford on the other side of Hepburn Springs ...please see their website for travel directs: www.lavandula.com.au

When: Sunday 10 January, 10am to 5.30pm (wise to arrive early for ease of parking)

Cost: Gate fee is $5 adults & $2 school age children

We cordially invite any of you who live within driving distance to get along, bring a rug and celebrate bringing in the harvest, under the shade of old trees .

For more info on Lavandula & the Harevst Festival go to: www.lavandula.com.au

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Here comes the SUNflowers and their humble cousins!

Tuesday, January 05, 2010

Right now at Angelica Organic Farm, it's not only the lush weed crop (rain + warmth = weed-a-saurus) who are ushering in the new decade, but also our first flush of SUNFLOWERS, which are a grand way to start 2010.

Behold, a snapshot of the life cycle of the joyful sunflower:

Sunflowers are a summer flower and take a few months to mature in these parts - we planted these in October. They have really prospered with the regular rain we've been getting, followed by sun and humidity.

They are natural weed suppressors (although a few still get in, partic. the wild radish!), so they can be handy planted prior to other crops for helping break the weed cycle.

We sell our sunflowers from our farmers' market stalls - Collingwood Children's Farm this Saturday or on Sunday at the Lavandula Summer Harvest Picnic (Shepherd's Flat next to Hepburn Springs)

We also grow Jerusalem artichokes (Helianthus tuberosus), a tasty relation to the sunflower. Although delicious and nutritious, they aren't extremely well known vegetables, so I decided to explain a little about these knobbly little gems below...

Jerusalem Artichokes October 2009

Jerusalem Artichokes early January 2010

You can actually see a resemblance to the sunflower plants from the foliage of our Jerusalem artichokes above,

however, the actual artichoke is a tuber growing under the soil. When they flower, the flowers look like miniature sunflowers and like the sunflower, it is a member of the daisy family - a lovely way to end summer/start autumn before their eventual harvest. They are a root vegetable which grow similarly to potatoes and look a bit like a knobbly, pink-skinned ginger (I'll post pics. of the flowers and tubers as this current crop progresses ). They have a sweet, nutty flavour reminiscent of a cross between potatoes and water chestnuts.

Jerusalem artichokes are also called the 'sunroot' or 'sunchoke' and originate in the U.S.A.. They were first cultivated by the Native Americans long before the arrival of the Europeans.

Despite its name, the Jerusalem artichoke has no relation to Jerusalem, and it is not a type of artichoke either. The origin of the name is uncertain. I've read that Italian settlers in the U.S.A. called the plant 'girasole', the Italian word for sunflower because of their resemblance and it is speculated that over time the name 'girasole' may have been corrupted to Jerusalem.

The taste of its edible tuber is what gave it the name 'artichoke'.

Jerusalem artichokes are most well know in French cuisine for the gorgeous, silky, soup that can be made from them.

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Delicious Media and where's the sun gone!

Friday, September 18, 2009

Have you seen this months edition of the ABC Delicious Magazine? There's an article in it called Victoria's Spa Country which is a well written, beautifully photographed and generous piece about our region, featuring the ever flourishing 'dynamic dining scenes' of Daylesford, Hepburn Springs and Kyneton particularly. Some of the great restaurants/cafes and provedores Angelica Organic Farm supply rate nice mentions if you want to take a squiz, including Daylesford fixtures Frangos & Frangos restaurant and their cafe Koukla, the vanguard The Lake House, The Perfect Drop wine bar and scrumptious eatery, Cliffy's Emporium the delightful 'old shop' provedore and cafe and Slow Living in Kyneton, a charming rustic-chic organic wholefoods store and cafe.

Above: ABC Delicious Article September 2009

The fact is, the Victorian Central Highlands spa country is home to 80% of Australia's mineral water springs and has long been a polestar for premium food and healing waters. Our indigenous traditional owners, the Jaara Jaara people prospered here prior to colonisation and are believed to have been drawn here for the prized waters and the rich source of foods.

Above: Slow Living- ABC Delicious September 2009

I'll take you back to the farm next post. As I write this it's bucketing down rain again and the aformentioned arrival of spring seems to have recoiled as Mother Nature delivers us another moist and foggy, wintery day! The thing is we tend to get lots of toing and froing between winter and spring/summer weather here from this time of year even through to January some years. We have had to re-light the wood heater many a Christmas. Nothing like variety!