A produce update

Hello, on this beautiful sunny Autumn day.

Today is the last day for a few weeks that we'll be having produce from Peter of Cooranbong. He has his next lot of crops in and they won't be ready for a while. That means his lovely corn, potatoes, cucumbers and heirloom pumpkins are finished. :(

However, as one door closes, another opens, as we have Bill's butternut pumpkins coming in from today, as well as his superb eggplant and some tomatoes. We are also getting in tomatoes from Glen and Peter, plus figs, herbs, persimmons and some trial melons. The cauliflower, broccoli, leeks and cabbage today is from Kurrawong Organics. We have those lovely apple cucumbers coming in from them as well, to join with cucumbers from Peter, "blonde cucumbers" from Rob, and our new local supplier, Virginia. We Figgies like our cucumbers! Great for munching and juicing or even making delicate cucumber sandwiches if you wish, they are a very alkaline forming food. (AKA, good for our health.)

The watermelon is from Pat, who is in conversion to being organically certified. Hooray for another organic farmer! Ed is supplying some zucchini, and Michael has lots of wonderful greens. Just don't ask him about lettuce! The last lot were weather affected and he planted more, telling us very enthusiastically that the next lot were nearly ready - just to have them wiped out in the rain and storms this week. Farming sure is a gamble. Luckily he has other produce in the ground as well, and that is arriving at the co-op today. Jean's basil continues, and we never knew how much bees loved basil until we grew some of our own and observed the mass of activity each year, perennial basil in particular.

We have local limes today in small quantities, also some lemons, and the valencia oranges are still available. Russian garlic from Bailey's farm up the coast is in today. They tell us they have been planting next year's crop and estimated they'd put in 8.5 kilometres of garlic. That's a lot! They're also diversifying into other crops as well; what started as a part time venture is moving into bigger production. Hooray there as well.

In this year, the UN International Year of  Family Farming, we need to encourage them as much as we can, more than ever.

See you at the co-op...

New suppliers, great produce

The FIG box contents for tomorrow are 100% local. We've increased the quantity of some items to fill your boxes. Two are from Kurrawong Organics however the rest are from between Mangrove Mountain, Narara, Avoca and Somersby. Items for the extras table are a mix of local and further afield. Bananas have been ordered and our fingers are crossed they do arrive; they have been in short supply since the recent cyclone.

We're planning some farm and backyard inspections very shortly for new suppliers coming on board. We are also very excited about the heirloom tomatoes and eggplant which are new on the list the last couple of weeks, and there's talk of our newer suppliers growing more in time for FIG.

There were no juicing carrots or juicing apples this week again, however we have some of those lovely little local gala apples coming in which are great for juicing and eating. There will be some in the FIG boxes and on the extras table.

This week we're trialling the final ordering working out a little earlier of a Sunday, and already we're liking the idea - an early night for a change!

See you at the co-op...