DISPATCHES FROM THE FARMRSS

So this is Christmas...Have a great one from us!

Tuesday, December 22, 2009
WE WISH YOU A BEAUTIFUL CHRISTMAS & A HAPPY & ABUNDANT 2010!!

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.  

 
Santa, lollies & our local kids next to Dford CFA 1!. 

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
Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0) | Permalink

To Market, To Market...We're back PLUS VFMA Accreditation!

Friday, November 13, 2009
NEWS FLASH...Announcing Angelica Organic Farm's return to FARMERS' MARKETS for 2009/2010...For our first market stall of this season, we will be at COLLINGWOOD CHILDREN'S FARM FARMERS' MARKET this SATURDAY (Nov. 14, 8am to 1pm). 

  

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 .

We had hoped to have a lot more produce variety for our first market back but Nature dictates to us when things will 'happen' NOT us to Her, hence the highly variable and mostly cold so called spring season this year has hindered the rate of growth of almost everything as I have mentioned in a previous blog post. Things are cracking along now though with the current warmth :).

Never the less we felt it time to make an appearance after our winter 'hibernation' and what better day than the launch of the Victorian Farmers' Market Association (VFMA) Accreditation for stall holders? On Saturday, the accreditation launch will occur across Victoria at the many farmers' markets and is likely to attract a fair bit of media coverage.The accreditation process has been introduced to provide standards for farmers' markets and their stallholders with the aim to ensure the authenticity and high quality of the markets and primarily the produce sold at them. All current a prospective stall holders are required to demonstrate via a written and signed application followed by an on-farm &/or production premises inspection by an independent auditor that they are the actual growers or producers of what they sell and can verify that their products are precisely what they tell customers they are.  We are one of the first farms to achieve VFMA accreditation and along with all the accredited stallholders will now display our accreditation certificate or sign at our stalls, so people can shop with total confidence. 

    
All VFMA Accredited farmers' market stallholders are to display their accreditation certificates and this 'Farmers' Market' sign, so it is clear to all market patrons that stallholders are ligitimate.

An authentic farmers' market is defined as a "predominantly fresh food and produce market...which...provides a suitable environment for farmers and food producers to sell their farm origin product and/or associated value added primary products to customers".  

The basic standards for Accreditation dictates the following will NOT be permitted:
  • 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
To achieve accreditation, metropolitan farmers' markets must have 90% of stallholders accredited. The gist is that stallholders must either grow and/or make the produce themselves OR make value-added products from scratch using raw, predominantly locally grown ingredients and be making the products within Victoria or within 100km of a state border and at least one person selling at any market stall must be involved in the business and have an intimate knowledge of the products. Furthermore, the words 'organic'and 'free range' must NOT be used to promote a business or its products unless the business is certified to do so by a recognised certifying body. 

So, the upshot is that VFMA accreditation is there to ensure everyone gets an honest and fair deal; farmers, value-adders, consumers and hard working, authentic market coordinators. Angelica Organic Farm says 'here, here'  and 'thank you' to that!

Wherever you are, enjoy your weekend (i.e. if you're not working!) and we hope to see you Melbournites at the Collingwood Children's Farm on Saturday :). 

   
Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0) | Permalink

Cute Chicks!

Saturday, October 31, 2009
Last weekend we got 6 new 8 week old pullet hens for our home yard. This was very exciting for us as we have missed having chooks, our own fresh daily eggs and on-site scrap composters since Mr Fox plundered our previous girls just before Christmas last year. After years without any fox attacks, they got in through or made a tiny hole in the fence on a very wet and windy night and the next morning's find was a gruesome and very sad one for us :( ...they'd taken 2 and left the other 6 dead.


New girls...they settled in immediately to their new home & began foraging.

Our new hens are a cross breed developed for commercial egg laying,  from a number of good laying types, such as Isa Browns, Leghorns and Australorps. So we have 2 red/brown (Rusty & Freckles), 2 white (Lucille & Harriette) and 2 black (Nigella & Collette). In about another 12 weeks or so, we'll be blessed with fresh laid eggs. We think we'll get a couple of other breeds as well, as we adore Rhode Island Reds and Light Sussex for example.

  
Freckles, Rusty, Nigella, Collette, Lucille & Harriette in the 'hood' with their 'homies'!

Apart from providing excellent weed control and fertilising for our home yard garden, we'll be able to add occasional doses of their manure to our farm compost, when we clean out their bedding hay. 
Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0) | Permalink

1

Recent Posts

Tags

Angelica Organics Cool climate veg growing Food ethics seed raising Rocambole Japanese Mustard Greens Golden Shallots Farmers' Markets organic tomatoes soil preparation Swiss Italian heritage cucumbers Lavandula Matt Wilkinson Andrew Blake, Blakes Feast Blumin organic weed managment Summer produce home grown tomatoes website Melbourne Farmers' Markets Pigs Will Flog Community Blog garlic harvesting organic pest control Angelica garlic harvest Christmas 2009 Monsanto Vogue Entertaining and Travel Produce Awards heirloom tomatoes garlic update blog home made preserves Blakes Feast Catering Corn Dollies garlic sales online Daylesford Tonia Todman Genetically Modified Seeds Snow Worldwatch Institute ABC Delicious magazine ABC Delicious Produce Awards 2010 seedlings Daylesford Victoria Vic Central Highlands Weather organic farmer bok choi VFMA Irrigation Lake House Heritage Beetroots organic vegetables eschallots mulching heirloom shallots heritage tomatoes Daylesford-Macedon Harvest Festival 2011 Pope Joan cafe garlic braids GM Foods garlic bulbs Joel Salatin The Chefs Table roses and herbs old fashion tomatoes rocket organic industry Andrew Blake heirloom vegetables culinary herbs organic garlic garlic plaits sharing Compost Barbara Ross organic farmer, website, blog, sharing Organic chickens Fertiliser zucchini flowers Australian garlic new season garlic autumn produce GE foods Spa Country Jerusalem artichokes mesclan salad zucchinis capeweed Ethical eating rain bird scarers Spring soil food web green manure crop open pollinated Angelica Organic Farm Boroondara Farmers' Market new season Victorian Farmers' Market Association Accreditation relocalisation backyard poultry Winter Warmers lavender harvest herb bouquets Sunflowers lavender farm

Archive

Coeus Knowledge Systems

Copyright 2009. All Rights Reserved