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...

A brief update...

Mandarins (or mandarines) are back! The first local mandos will be in the boxes this week. Still a little sharp but still very good, and full of crucial vitamins and nutrients.

The weather seems to have been stable - oh, for about a week! - and our farmers are busily planting their seedlings and new crops. It was too wet to pick the local potatoes and we're not sure if we'll get any more local spuds this season. Oranges are soft but sweet and juicy, and are nearly finished, so grab some whilst you can. It will be a few weeks until the navels are coming through. Sadly, Jean's local avocados are finished for the year. We shall miss them!

We're seeing Tamarillos, or Tree Tomatoes, in from the backyards of members, and some good ol' chokoes too, plus some hot red chillies and some mild green ones. Yum! One of our members recently brought in some perilla leaves, another had white mulberries, and yet another shared some Australian Native Finger Limes with us: absolutely delicious, with an explosion of citrus in the mouth! It's great to see the range of produce coming through the FIG doors between the efforts of the farmers and our members.

For the bulk orders, organic Granny Smith apples are back, although these are not local, of course. Bananas are now cheaper in price, thank goodness, and we continue to order them in from NSW and Queensland for the bulk orders and the extras table.

Royal Gala apples have been arriving from Kirkconnell and we're informed Pink Ladies will be on the list soon - woohoo! These had the most amount of positive feedback of any produce in all the history of FIG with members of all ages telling us that they were The Best Apple Ever! Bosc pears are back, too, and in the boxes this week.

We're currently taking organic seedling orders from Delightfully Fresh Organics, so prepare those garden beds and ready yourself for planting!

See you at the co-op...

A long time since Easter!

It's been a few weeks since Easter and we've all been rather busy, running the co-op and ensuring, to the best of our abilities, that it goes along as smoothly as possible - and haven't returned to update the blog. Dearie me!

Our special Easter week co-op at Jilliby went well. Whilst there was a reduction in numbers due to the distance some of our members would need to drive, and no public transport, we still had orders for at least a third of our usual number of boxes and many of those commented on the beautiful surroundings, the peaceful valley and the great hall - and put forth the suggestion that co-op was held there every week! One of our Wyong members was overdue in having her baby and wasn't sure if she'd make it there that day. She did, but perhaps driving over that fairly short piece of rutted and corrugated road stirred up something more than a desire to get some land for her family and live out of town, as the very next day her baby was born! Congratulations to all.

The weather is growing colder as one would expect at this time of year and the more sensitive produce is slowing down or stopped for the year. Our Kirkconnell growers had 15 cms/6 inches of snow last week, and I think we were feeling the affects here on the Coast at the time.

Cold, frosty weather is good for sweetening up the oranges, we're told, so look out soon for yummy Navel oranges in the FIG boxes. We've already been enjoying mandarins, lemons and limes for a while now.

We've been trialling some potatoes from south of Sydney and they've been great, although a bit more expensive that what we normally pay. As with the produce from Kirkconnell, the potato farmer delivers to the Sydney organic markets and our driver collects them early Monday morning and then delivers it all to us. It's a great system and means no extra fuel or time is spent obtaining their vegetables. One trip does it all! For those of you keen to eat within a 160 km radius (as per the "100 mile diet"), both the Kirkconnell and Southern Highlands farms scrape in within that distance from Ourimbah.

This week we are going to be trying some Pink Lady apples from the Kirkconnell region as well. We've had some of their Gala apples and also a few Fujis, and Pink Ladies, a favourite of many, will be in the boxes today and tomorrow.

We're also hoping to have a few dragonfruit on the extras table to try, although they aren't grown locally. Kel will again be supplying his beautiful coriander and purple radishes and those superb turnips. Turnip leaves and nettle recipes will be posted here shortly.

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See you at the co-op...

January 2011

Well, we're all back into the swing of things at the co-op... Wyong has begun and Ourimbah folk are filtering back after holidays. Summer rain has finished some veggie crops early, or put a dent in the harvesting for a while, and washed away the biological controls farmers used instead of synthetic chemicals and caterpillars have been munching steadily!

This week we hope to have more of the scrumptious and nutritious local blueberries, picked the morning of the co-op, and activities coming up are the weekend Living Foods Workshop, picnic to Peacock Grove (FIG BD olive, oil and beef supplier), and later on, helping with the olive harvest there as well.

See you at the co-op (s)!