There are three weeks to go until we start harvesting for our CSA!! Even though it has been a grey, cold Spring with lots of rain, most crops are growing well and thriving. The greens and onions are loving the weather and we have managed to get on top of the weeds during the sunny days. And the polytunnel tomatoes are flowering and setting fruit.
Read MoreIn taking the time last year to thoroughly evaluate our business - reviewing everything from the health of our soil, the quality and variety of our crops, our business model and our financial viability, we thought alot about our CSA model, pondering the advantages and disadvantages. We are often asked why we do not have a farm store?
Read MoreA good rainy morning is a wonderful chance to share what has been happening this Spring on the farm. We spent the Winter reflecting on our farm, completing much overdue book work and looking ahead - setting new goals and refining old ones. Crop seeding began in early August and it has been a busy time as we nurture the heat loving crops in the greenhouse and wait for warmer nighttime temperatures to transplant them into the field.
Read MoreCSA SUMMER SHARE WEEK #12 The last week of the Summer Share...Thank you for your support of our farm and growing endeavours. You have been a vital part of our continued desire to grow nutrient dense food for our community in a sustainable way. We look forward to the next 12 weeks of our CSA season.
NOTES ON WHAT'S GROWING Tahlia Gregori, the intern that has been working with us for the past three months leaves next week. She has been a fantastic intern and we wish her the best in her growing endeavours!
We have started harvesting the first of the Autumn broccoli crops. If you did not receive any this week, you will next! All of the brassicas love the cool nights we have been having and the rain has been welcome, too. We have also started harvesting our third zucchini planting. We hope that it will be able to ward off powdery mildew and keep growing until the frost. The next corn planting will be ready next week.
The sweet capsicums are still coming on. If you are receiving more than you know what to do with, you can slice them and freeze them to use in stir-fries and sauces through the winter!
We will have lettuce this week and next and then there will be a gap in the head lettuce. We have planted many other greens so that this gap will hopefully not be felt in the boxes. The lettuce seed does not like to germinate when it is hot. We do several things to work around this but had three weeks of lettuce not germinate in the glasshouse. The current lettuce seedlings are doing well but not even in the ground yet.
All of the Autumn brassicas are glowing and the parsnips and turnips are growing well. The transition into Autumn is always softened by the great flush of Summer vegetables still enjoying the warm soil. The bean picking Tuesday was not as heavy as summer weeks. There will be more beans next week.
The tomatoes are starting to succumb to summer disease. We are still picking though! The cherry tomato crop is still producing for “Pick Your Own” during farm pick up times! Please bring your own containers. Limit a 1 kilo bucket per family.
Farm pickup is 2-5pm Fridays and 8-11am Saturdays. Box pickup is available at other times by appointment only. Cherry Tomato picking is only available during farm pick up times.
NOTES ON STORING THE HARVEST Please check out our Vegetable & Fruit page on the website to find tips on maximizing the life of your veggies. We envisage that many of the vegetables you are receiving this week will last for two weeks with careful attention to storing upon arrival. Although we do wash all the greens after harvest, we are washing to take the heat out of the plants and wash away some surface dirt, not to prepare them for consumption. We also spray a seaweed/herb brew about every ten days. While this will not harm you, it does have a taste. We do suggest washing your produce prior to eating.
Extras Broccoli Cherry Tomatoes Chilies – 'Pimiento de Padrons'. Eggplant Melons Zucchini
Roasted Sweet Potato, Sweet Capsicum and Carrot Soup - An internet find soup with delicious flavour Watermelon, Feta and Toasted Pumpkin Seed Salad Tassajara Warm Red Cabbage Salad - This is an adaptation of a fantastic Tassajara Restaurant recipe Broccoli, Capsicum, Carrot and Bok Choy Stir Fry - This recipe can include ay protein source - tofu, chicken, beef, mung bean sprouts. We made it with onions, capsicum, carrots, broccoli and bok choy and it was delicious! Bok Choy Salad - Crispy and delicious with roasted veggies and crunchy Asian noodles
You can search our recipes by looking for the key ingredients on our website recipe page
Please note - Photo is a randomly selected full share box.
CSA SUMMER SHARE WEEK #11 We started harvesting the leeks this week! Perfect soup weather with the nights cooling down and the coming of the Autumn equinox. In France the 'Galeux d'Eysines' pumpkin is mostly used for soups, sauces and preserves such as pumpkin butter because the texture of the cooked fruit is very smooth. One of the tastiest pumpkins!
NOTES ON WHAT'S GROWING The next plantings of sweet corn and beans are not ready for harvest yet. The broccoli is heading up...unsure if it will be ready for next week but definitely the following. The red cabbage is forming heads as well - Enter the Autumn brassicas! The third zucchini planting has many small fruit so we hope to able to start harvesting zucchini again next week.
Amidst tending the brassicas, curing sweet potatoes (sweet potatoes cured for a few weeks are sweeter then those straight from the ground!), harvesting all the potatoes and storing onions and seeding more greens and roots for Autumn, we are preparing areas of the farm for the green manure crops we LOVE! These crops make a winter blanket, protecting the soil from the wind and rain of winter while providing all of the soil microbes roots to continue to feed on. Then in Spring, they become the soil’s salad - a mixture of nutrient rich grasses, legumes and herbs which build the humus layer in the soil and feed the plants throughout the season. It is wonderful to watch the farm slowly transition from tired crops, to bare soil, to sprouting green growth.
Peter and I have been taking lots of pictures of the farm and posting them on instagram. There are small thumbnails on our website home page. You can click on these to see them bigger.
The cherry tomato crop is still producing for U-picking during farm pick up times! Late summer is a great time to see the farm with late blooming sunflower rows, 2m high corn stalks, Autumn brassicas, beans, Autumn peas germinating, the pumpkins ripening, chickens in the buckwheat green manure crop...It looks fantastic and abundant! Please bring your own containers. Limit a 1 kilo bucket per family.
Farm pickup is 2-5pm Fridays and 8-11am Saturdays. Box pickup is available at other times by appointment only. U-pick is only available during farm pick up times.
NOTES ON STORING THE HARVEST Please check out our Vegetable & Fruit page on the website to find tips on maximizing the life of your veggies. We envisage that many of the vegetables you are receiving this week will last for two weeks with careful attention to storing upon arrival. Although we do wash all the greens after harvest, we are washing to take the heat out of the plants and wash away some surface dirt, not to prepare them for consumption. We also spray a seaweed/herb brew about every ten days. While this will not harm you, it does have a taste. We do suggest washing your produce prior to eating.
Extras Cherry Tomatoes Chilies – 'Pimiento de Padrons'. Coriander Eggplant Lettuce Melons Radishes Silver beet Watermelon
PASTA WITH SWEET CAPSICUMS I find that sometimes the simplest of recipes allow each ingredient to be savoured. Ingredients 2 sweet capsicums sliced thinly into strips 2 cloves of garlic olive oil fresh basil leaves, ripped roughly salt and freshly ground black pepper Shaved Parmesian cheese Pasta of your choice (penne, bowties and angel hair really hold the flavours of this sauce) Method 1. Prepare pasta according to instructions 2. Put a generous jug of olive oil into a fry pan over moderate heat. 3. Add crushed garlic and sliced capsicums. Fry until the capsicum is soft and slightly carmelised. 4. Add to pasta with fresh basil, salt and ground pepper and parmesian cheese.
You can search our recipes by looking for the key ingredients on our website recipe page
Please note - Photo is a randomly selected full share box except fot the whole pumpkin (full shares received 1/4).
CSA SUMMER SHARE WEEK #10This is the time of year of making big compost piles and planning the green manure crops for winter. And then there is the huge harvests still to come of storage onions, sweet potatoes, potatoes and pumpkin. The weekly harvests and plantings for the Autumn share and there is still plenty of weeding to keep us busy!
We have had several members let us know how the box is working for them and send through recipes that they have enjoyed. We really appreciate the feedback (as we start planning for next season in April) and the tested recipes are a great addition to our newsletter! Please email or talk to us on the farm. We really do want to know what you are enjoying and what you find more challenging to work with.
NOTES ON WHAT'S GROWING We have been bringing in parasitic wasps to combat the many caterpillars in the crops at this time of year. Even though they work on the eggs of the corn borers, you may still find the caterpillars in the tops of your corn. Although they can make a mess, it is usually pretty simple to just cut off the top and have the rest of the untouched ear for yourself!
The cherry tomato crop is open for U-picking during farm pick up times! Late summer is a great time to see the farm with late blooming sunflower rows, 2m high corn stalks, Autumn brassicas, beans, Autumn peas germinating, the pumpkins ripening, chickens in the buckwheat green manure crop...It looks fantastic and abundant! Please bring your own containers. Limit a 1 kilo bucket per family.
Farm pickup is 2-5pm Fridays and 8-11am Saturdays. Box pickup is available at other times by appointment only. U-pick is only available during farm pick up times.
Our third zucchini crop is flowering. We hope that the cooler nights still allow the fruit to set so that we can keep having it for another month!
Although the tomatoes have slowed a bit with the cooler nights, the plants are still healthy and producing.
The second cucumber planting is succumbing to powdery mildew so there is quite a reduction in cucumbers this week. It is hard to say how long the planting will continue for. The third planting was really hit by the winds last week and although it has begun to flower, we are unsure if it will bear fruit.
We welcomed a new intern to the farm last week! Sapote Hudd heralds from NSW. She will be with us through Autumn.
NOTES ON STORING THE HARVEST Please check out our Vegetable & Fruit page on the website to find tips on maximizing the life of your veggies. We envisage that many of the vegetables you are receiving this week will last for two weeks with careful attention to storing upon arrival. Although we do wash all the greens after harvest, we are washing to take the heat out of the plants and wash away some surface dirt, not to prepare them for consumption. We also spray a seaweed/herb brew about every ten days. While this will not harm you, it does have a taste. We do suggest washing your produce prior to eating.
Extras Cherry Tomatoes Chilies Eggplant Melons Pumpkin
RECIPE SUGGESTIONS Cream of Celery Soup Carrot and Radish with a Moroccan Dressing Lentil Stew
You can search our recipes by looking for the key ingredients on our website recipe page
Please note - Photo is a randomly selected full share box except fot the whole pumpkin (full shares received 1/3).
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We acknowledge the Boonwurrung people of the Kulin Nation and their deep knowledge of and connection to the unceded coastal region of the now called Mornington Peninsula where we farm. We respect and feel great gratitude for the land, water and culture they steward - past and present.
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