DISPATCHES FROM THE FARM

March 1, 2010 gave birth to the new late summer edition of Slow Magazine ...

Featuring a really well written article about us and our beloved garlic...

...Jacqui Mott, the editor of this fairly new but unique and very classy publication, took great efforts to get this article 'right'

and we are delighted with the final results. We extend our thanks to her for her commitment to quality journalism and for her warm and genuine manner.

The piece even includes a tried and tested recipe for my French garlic tart...yum, yum!

As I said it is a unique magazine, and is interestingly formatted, with clever and useful features. It is very attractively designed/presented too. Slow Magazine is based in Castlemaine, just 30 mins. up the road from Daylesford but draws on the wordly strengths and experience of its creators I think.

Slow Magazine is available from Borders bookshops and good newsagents or you can visit their website and set up a subscription. 

We have a small number of our beautiful hand crafted garlic braids left and would like to make a SPECIAL OFFER tomorrow (Sat. 13 Feb) at Collingwood Children's Farm Farmers' Market to our loyal blog followers who live in Melbourne. All you have to do is visit our stall and mention that you read this on our blog to receive a garlic braid discounted to $22 instead of the current general special of  $25 (They were $28 full price at f.m.s).

       

Hope to see you at the market tomorrow!

This humble little root vegetable has suddenly become in vogue both overseas & here. We've noticed chefs (both celebrity & otherwise!) are getting very creative with them & they are more popular this season at farmers' markets with regular shoppers than we've noticed in the past. No longer are they only used as kitsch garnishes, left largely to the domain of pedantic 'old school' chefs who spend hours carving them into all sorts of flowers & other objects!

  

We particularly grow spicy, colourful salad radishes from heritage seed (as above)- most commonly Scarlet Globes & French Breakfast but sometimes the other mutli-coloured heritage/heirloom varieties. We try to harvest only up to a certain size to retain their texture & maximum flavour- we think the spicy 'kick' is the best thing in salad radishes! 

We aren't surprised radishes have made a 'come back', as we've been enjoying them for ages ourselves to enliven our salads & as a crunchy, healthy snack any time & very nice with drinks or as a palate cleanser between courses. They are also apparently good 'weight loss food' because they energise the digestion & metabolism.

We like them simply washed & halved (or not cut at all) with fresh ground black pepper & sea salt.

But they are very nice thinly sliced, seasoned, dressed & served as a stand-alone dish or added to various salads & meat dishes. But really, the sky's the limit with things to make from radishes!

It was a lovely day in all respects...good weather, welcoming environment, excellent produce stalls and hordes of keen consumers and connoisseurs of all types - chefs, restauranteurs, foodie media and lots of others who enjoy passionately & thoughtfully produced, quality  food & wine.

Unfortunately, my digital camera was on the blink, so we were unable to take any photos at all...these ones are from the archives sorry. We may shortly be sent a few pics. from other people's cameras, which I can share with you when they arrive.

We had a great day both both in terms of enjoyment & having a great forum for sharing & promoting our farm's produce, especially our garlic of course. We want to extend a sincere thank you to all of you who attended, bought our goodies & gave us such encouraging feedback. 

Also a big thanks to Alla & Larissa Wolf-Tasker & their staff at The Lake House who do such a professional job of promoting & hosting this event (& many others!) each February. We appreciate their long standing commitment to championing local, artisan producers.