A New Year
Happy New Year to everyone.
After an ‘unofficial’ period of maternity leave, I am now back on deck and ready for a big year at The Farm Gate.
2011 was such a big year for many reasons. A biggie, was the addition of future farmer Harrison, aka ‘Harry’ to the Farm Gate family!
But 2011 was also a big year for many of our crops and harvests.
After the wipeout of all cherries in the Central West (and NSW) in 2010 we were hoping for a much better year in 2011. We didn’t quite get what we hoped for, with quite a bit of damage but it was an improvement for us from the 2010 crop. Unfortunately many of our colleagues were not so lucky as alot of the larger cherry producers in Orange still had quite a few issues with their crops in 2011.
We now look forward, to our 2012 crops! So far the crops are looking promising. We are hoping for a few more sunny days to get the color moving on our apples, but the apples, pears, figs and stone fruit all look good at this stage. We even started picking our Early Gold apples last week. The first apple harvest for 2012.
Our garlic harvest was completed just before Christmas. The harvest was great and the garlic itself has good size, form and structure! Even better, and most important, the taste of all varieties is amazing!!
Our 2012 spud crops are in the ground and many other of our heirloom vegie lines are either in or almost ready to plant.
We had quite a few stone fruit come on over our Christmas break and this meant they got sent to the Farm Gate kitchen for preserving. Christmas almost wiped out our preserving stocks! I was however in the kitchen before and after Christmas and our value-added stocks are well on their way back. We currently have stocks of our Whole Fig and Burnt Fig Jams as well as our Maripossa Plum Jelly, Jam and Sauce. We have the addition of new products; White Peach Sauce, Tomato and Apple Chutney and Apricot Chutney ready to be tested before adding to our shelves. We also managed to cook and preserve a small amount of our Morello Cherries before Christmas so we will have Spiced and Brandied Morello Cherries available at some point this year. We will also have the return of many of our most popular and favourites (including our preserved lemons, quince jelly, apple jelly etc) once the season is upon us and we can preserve more!
Our Cloudy and Clear Apple Juice will also be back in February.
A reminder that our Preserve and Juice range can also be found at A Slice of Orange and the Visitors Information Centre, both found in Orange!
Beau and John have spent most of the last 4 weeks catching up on farm maintenance, pruning and thinning of this years crops! We also had visits from some of our Sydney Farm Gate crew over the break to get some hands on ‘farm’ experience!
We would like to thank all of our many customers (again) for supporting us again in 2011. Without you all, we would not be able to make the trips to Sydney each week. So a BIG Thank You and we look forward to seeing you all in 2012 again!
We also look forward to what will hopefully be a year of lime light for many farmers! 2012 is the Australian year of the Farmer! Hopefully this will highlight many topics currently facing Australian Farmers!
Remember that you can keep more up to date with the farm, our produce and movement via Twitter (katiefarmgate) and Facebook (The Farm Gate by Nashdale fruit Co.).
Keep an eye out for many more blogs this year and over the next few weeks as I slowly get back in to it. We are currently hitting our peek harvest time so there will be lots to blog about and keep you posted on.
Katie
on behalf of Beau, John and The Farm Gate crew!
Ps. if u need to contact us please do so via Facebook, Twitter or mobile telephone! We are currently having some computer issues and can not access our emails.
Newest Addition to The Farm Gate
Introducing the newest member of The Farm Gate family:
Harrison (Harry) Warren John Baddock
Born: Saturday 21st May, 2:34am.
Details: 3.5kg (7.12 pounds), 51cm.
Weekly Seasonal Produce Boxes – Do you live in Orange, know someone who does or planning a visit?
Do you want to eat ONLY local seasonal produce or take home a box of some of the best seasonal produce from the Orange Region on your next visit?
From this Saturday, May 14th, you will be able to pick up a pre-ordered seasonal box of produce, supplied by The Farm Gate by Nashdale Fruit Co. at A Slice of Orange (ASOO).
Orders for the ‘seasonal produce’ boxes will be taken by ASOO by COB every Monday and pick up can be made from the store on the following Saturday.
The joint effort between The Farm Gate and ASOO is focussed on supplying the locals of the Orange region with the option of buying a produce box filled with only produce from the local Orange region or from no further than 100 miles, that is in season. The 100 mile diet is an initiative ASOO supports within their business. The joint effort is also an initiative to educate locals that they can eat locally and seasonally all within their local region.
The produce in each of the boxes will be supplied from The Farm Gate’s farm (located in Nashdale), or sourced by The Farm Gate from other local farmers in the Orange region or no further than 100 miles.
There are multiple box options available including conventional and certified organic options.
The seasonal produce boxes can also be complimented with other local products from the ASOO store including; meat, cheese, eggs, juice, preserves and bread etc to complete a weekly/weekend food shop.
If you are interested in one of the seasonal box options or placing an order please call or email a Slice of Orange for more details or an order form.
(Please note: above photos are a seasonal example, these items were available in February’11. Only some of these items will still be available in the current seasonal boxes.)
Figs are Back!!
The Figs have finally ripened and are starting to come off the trees. Start watching out for them at our market stalls. Their appearance will increase over the coming weeks.
Katie is preparing to get back to jarring the extremely popular ‘Whole Fig Jam’ that sold out in 6 weeks last year. There will also be a few new variations of our fig jam this year.
It is also a good time to have a look at an article that was written by Katie in July last year for Gourmet Rabbit. Enjoy!
Frost and Farming Figs (as first seen in Gourmet Rabbit, July 2010)
The bold autumn colours decorating our trees just a few weeks ago have slowly floated to the ground, revealing the bare branches heralding approaching winter. The cold has well and truly set in around the town of Orange in central-western NSW. The wood for the fires has been chopped and the gas bottles for our heaters refilled. The apple harvest has come to a close and our focus is now on our winter vegetables and, though the return of warmer weather seems impossibly distant, pruning the summer fruit trees ready for another bountiful season. For me, this time of year also means time in the kitchen to make the most of the remnants of our summer harvest, creating preserves, jams, and chutneys.
While I come from a family who has lived on the land and in country towns for generations, I have led a busy metropolitan lifestyle until now. This means that I am a relative newcomer to the ritual of preserving. Not knowing where to start, I collected multitudes of cookbooks, magazines, articles, spoke with a few ladies in the local Country Women’s Association and even tracked down my Great Grandmother’s cookbook complete with handwritten notes.
My first instinct was to get an idea of how things were done in the past: recipes tried, tested and true. Confusion arose when I found that many modern recipes use vastly different methods and ingredients to those of previous generations. The array of ingredients and utensils available to cooks and chefs today would once have been unimaginable to my Grandmother, her mother, and her mother’s mother.
As a member of a new generation continuing my family’s traditions, and while I look to the past for guidance, I am also seeking to forge my own identity as a farmer, a farmer’s daughter and a farmer’s wife. With this in mind, I decided to be bold and experiment, creating something new and individual using the best ideas from both worlds.
The fruit I most enjoyed experimenting with was figs. While I was always aware of the figs being harvested each year as I was growing up, I never thought much about them until they began to appear more widely in food magazines and on restaurant menus. Perhaps once more commonly found in the kitchens of Mediterranean Australians who have long cherished them and know the best ways to bring out their magic, the lucious qualities of this fruit are increasingly being celebrated by our best produce-driven chefs.
First, some farmer’s advice. There are a few important rules for selecting the best fruit.
• In contrast to many fruits, figs do not ripen after they are picked, so buy them from someone who cares about their provenance, make friends with your grower or grocer, and don’t be afraid to ask questions!
• Fruit at the peak of its flavour should be plump and not too firm.
• If you are purchasing figs for preserving, choose fruit that is juicy, soft and even split.
• The riper the fruit, the higher its natural sugar and pectin content, making it perfect for preserving while still bearing maximum flavour.
We grow varieties including Black Genoa, Brown Turkey and White Adriatic – each unique in its texture and flavour.
• The Black Genoa is the most common variety grown and sold in Australia, identified by its black skin and prized for its lucious speckled red interior and sweet flavour.
• Brown Turkeys have brown speckled skin with a lighter red-orange interior, and are at their best early in the season.
• By the season’s end however, my favourite is the White Adriatic, a simply magnificent fruit. With striking bright green skin, many people mistakenly believe this fruit is unripe, as we learned from the inquiries of curious market customers.
Once the flesh is broken however, the seductive, sweet, red-pink flesh is revealed. After one taste, our customers came back week after week for more, thankful that I had not consumed them all during the picking process!
The rain and the cold in the central west finishes our figs off before many other regions. The rain got to our Brown Turkey figs first and then the cold to my beloved White Adriatics. Once the cold and frost hits us the fruit stops ripening on the trees, bringing the season to an end. The Black Genoas, with the longest season, were the most plentiful and the subject of most of my culinary experiments, one of which I am glad to be able to share with you here. Such is the beauty of jams and preserves that I now have a supply in the pantry to tide me over to next year.
Why buy apples that are Unwaxed? And what does Unwaxed mean?
We are gearing up for that time of year again where we are full steam ahead in apple harvest. What better time than to have a look at an article that was written in June 2010. The article below was written by Katie and first published in Gourmet Rabbit.
The Dirt on Apple Waxing (as first seen in Gourmet Rabbit)
In my first memory of being on a farm in Nashdale (Orange) I’m about 6 years old. It is an image in my mind of a fresh, ripe apple hanging off of a tree on a drizzly morning, drops of water slowly dripping from its bright red skin. And I remember my first taste of this beautiful fruit that has fostered a career and a love for me. I remember the sweet, crisp crunch and the juices exploding in your mouth so full of flavour. I think it was a “Bonza” – no pun intended. I’m sure I had juices dripping all over my face and chin while I grinned.
Every time I walk into a supermarket or fruit store these days and am confronted by greasy, unnaturally shiny, waxy apples, I cringe. You know, the ones you can practically see your reflection in? I think apples should be eaten as nature intended, and how they are picked straight from the tree – unwaxed.
I run several farms around the Orange Region in New South Wales with my dad John and my husband Beau. I’m not an expert on the types or techniques of waxing apples, we do not use it. The reason behind waxing apples is primarily vanity. When apples are picked from the tree they have blemishes; spots caused by minerality in the soil, proximity to other fruit on the tree or even simple sunlight! The apples we pick are bright hues of green, yellow, red and pink, not fluorescent lights lined up like plastic childrens toys. Our apples have an identity – and a taste to match!
I decided to do a bit of research into this waxed-apple phenomenon lately..here’s what I found:
USES:
According to Apple and Pear Australia Ltd (APAL) in their document “Apples and Wax”, the brushing and cleaning process that large commercial farms use to get their apples ready for market ‘removes the fruit’s original wax coating, so to protect the fruit, apple packers re-apply a commercial grade wax’.
HERITAGE:
Wax has been used on apples since the early 1920’s in Australia.
JUSTIFICATION:
It states that waxes are justified in several ways; to make the appearance of the apples more appealing, to protect them from losing crispness and moisture and to keep them longer.
THE WAX ITSELF:
APAL notes that the most commonly used wax in Australia is Carnauba wax which comes from Brazilian palm leaves. The waxes used on fruit are apparently certified by Drug and Food administrations in Australia and around the world.
Other uses for “Carnauba Wax” as according to manufacturers Strahl & Pitch are “Cosmetics, Glamour Products, Pharmaceuticals, Ointments, Tablet Coatings, Candles, Confections, Investment Casting, Auto, Floor and Shoe Polishes, Carbon Paper, Inks, and Paper Coatings, Fruit Coatings.”
Personally I’m not sure I want the same sort of thing on my food that I put on my floor..
As I said Carnauba wax is FDA approved but that does not change the many stories our customers have told us. Many customers have hesitated when buying apples from us as “the last time I ate an apple I felt ill and couldn’t stomach other foods” or “I just felt queasy from eating apples”. Could this have been caused by the wax added to their apples? Those customers of ours who used to get sick believed so and now regularly buy apples from us.
These days we associate “natural” with “organic”, this is not always the case. Personally I am not stressed over whether or not the fruit I am eating is “100% organic”, “Organic” has a great deal of statues and legislative procedures and protocol inflicted on the producers which can often be more of a hinderance than a help. I am merely an advocate for fresh and great tasting produce, of any variety!
If you live in a metropolitan area and are not already buying apples from a farmers market (or a great fruit and vegetable shop), get yourself to one asap (even ours if you are near by). Ask the stall holder (who will hopefully be a farmer) lots of questions and choose fresh, in season produce. If you live in a rural area that has a great supply of fruit and vegetables, buy local. You will be doing yourself a favour by buying the best tasting and freshest produce and also supporting your community!
We just believe that unwaxed, fresh apples (conventional or organic) are the best!
Orange FOOD Week (8-17 April 2011)
The largest food event in Orange is almost upon us again. Orange FOOD Week is on from the 8th to 17th April 2011.
The official program will be launched and available as of Tuesday 1st March. This is also the day that you can start making bookings. Events do book out extremely fast for all events during FOOD Week. If you are interested make sure you get in early.
The program can be found here (from 1st March): http://www.orangefoodweek.com.au/F.O.O.D-Week-Orange-NSW.html
The Farm Gate will be holding events on the farm, on each of the Saturdays of FOOD Week.
Our ORCHARD TO PLATE – AN ADVENTURE ON THE FARM events will be held at 9am and 3pm on each Saturday of FOOD Week.
As per the FOOD Week Program – ‘Experience some time with the farmers. Starting with a farm tour, seasonal fruit or vegetable picking and followed by brunch or afternoon tea made with produce picked from the farm’.
Booking will be limited and essential so if you are interested make sure you book.
February 2011 – Important Updates
Announcing a NEW Market - As of next Saturday (12th February) we will be starting a new stall at Orange Grove Market, Leichhardt. The stall will have a selection of some of our most popular seasonal produce including our ‘un waxed’ apples, stone fruit, gourmet potatoes, heirloom vegetables and much more.
Orange Grove Market, Leichhart: Orange Grove Public School, Cnr Perry Street and Balmain Road, Lilyfield
Every Saturday, 8am-1pm http://www.organicfoodmarkets.com.au/markets.html
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Our Apple Season has begun. We will have Early Golds (similar to Golden Delicious) to start the season off.
John is back at his markets as of this weekend.
All our markets will be back to normal starting this weekend and for the rest of the year.
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Membership for Marrickville and Orange Grove customers (information and applications will be available as of the 12/2/11, 2nd weekend in Feb’11)
For those of you who do their weekly or even forntightly shop (at Marrickville or Orange Grove markets) may be interested in a new benefit we are trialing over the next year for our customers. It may not work for everyone but for those of you it does suit there may be considerable savings per year.
Details: You will receive a membership card which you can use once each week/weekend and it will be marked weekly by one of our staff. You will receive 10% off your total bill each week as well as other weekly/monthly reductions on certain seasonal/bottled/packaged items.
Cost: $50 per year. To start this yearoff, if you join up during February, you will receive the benefits for 13months, February 2011-31 March 2012. We are doing this to start the program off but also to allow for the weeks that we do not make it to the markets because of market closures (i.e. over Christmas/New Year) or because of lack of produce (which we will provide plenty of notice for if/when this happens), which is approximately 3-6 weeks per year. We estimate this could be a saving for some (weekly regular shopping) families or individuals by around $150-$200 a year.
We realise this may not be cost effective or a great deal for everyone so please do your figures and see if it is beneficial for you/your family.
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A reminder that we also now have a page on Facebook. This page contains many more photos than our website, which are updated weekly.
So if you are on Facebook be sure to have a look and ‘Like’ the page for updates.
http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Farm-Gate-by-Nashdale-Fruit-Co/132029803505491
It’s a New Year (2011)
Happy new year readers! 2010 was a year of ups and downs for The Farm Gate, as is the nature of farming. We started the year with almost dry dams and streams and ended the year with more water than we knew what to do with. Even today one of our main dams (which has all but been completely empty for the past 10 years) is still overflowing from a small amount of rain we received over the last week. Our three-month-old Indian Runnner ducks are loving their transition to the full dam.
(from left, Indian Runners at 1 months old and one of the full dams)
Unfortunately all that rain also meant the end of what was sure to be an amazing cherry harvest in November and December. Luckily John and Beau were on top of things and just managed to get the garlic crop out of the ground before it too was ruined. Somehow they also managed to plant the 2011 spud crop in a period of four straight days of sunshine during the rainy period.
(from left, garlic harvest drying on drying racks and Beau checking the potato crop)
We are now looking forward and are starting the clean-up once again from all the rain. The figs, which we were quite concerned about, seem to be looking quite good at this stage, and we have our fingers crossed for a good crop. The apples and pears are being thinned as I type and are too looking fabulous.
(from left, young black figs and young granny smith apples)
The men have pulled some stone fruit off the trees in the last couple of days and it is amazing. My kitchen is currently filled with an incredible aroma from the white peaches Beau has bought home for me to cook. Watch out for an upcoming blogpost on the first cooking adventures of 2011 and the new bottled goodies made from our wonderful summer and autumn fruit that will be appearing at our markets in the coming months.
We have lots planned for 2011 including farm tours during Orange FOOD Week in April 2011. Keep an eye on our website for updates about this and other news, events and issues.
We would like to thank everyone for their support in 2010 and we look forward to another great year in 2011.
See you at the markets!
Many Thanks and Happy New Year
Katie, on behalf of John and Beau and the whole team at The Farm Gate by Nashdale Fruit Co.
2011 Market Update:
The end of 2010 also unfortunately saw the the end of our presence at the Manly Farmers Market. After 2 years Beau has decided to finish up at the markets, an extremely hard decision which came down to the extra hours he was spending on the road. We will especially miss all of our wonderful customers. Please do come and visit us at one of our other markets!
We will return to the markets in January 2011 as follows (and then as usual from February onwards):
Marrickville: Third, Fourth and Fifth Sundays, 16th, 23rd and 30th January
The ‘dirt’ on Farmers’ Markets! Who are you buying from?
Hawkesbury Harvest, led by a board of volunteers including Nashdale Fruit Co’s John Reynolds, is responsible for several initiatives which have been instrumental in raising the profile of this important growing region. In addition to running the Hawkesbury Harvest Farmers & Fine Food Markets at an ever-increasing number of locations including Castle Hill, Penrith, Rouse Hill and Richmond, Hawkesbury Harvest has developed the Farm Gate Trail which promotes producers and allows visitors to learn about and buy produce direct from the source.
Organisations such as Hawkesbury Harvest are also instrumental in developing and regulating standards to govern their markets in the best interests of producers and consumers.
Phrases such as ‘farmers’ market’ and ‘growers’ market’ are important, as they distinguish markets as being places where consumers can buy directly from producers. How meaningful are the words ‘farmer’ and ‘grower’ though? Unlike regulations which require vendors to clearly label produce as ‘organic’, ‘chemical-free’ or ‘conventional’, there are currently no formal requirements for stallholders to identify whether they’re genuine growers or resellers, beyond the initial process of securing a market stall. This means that in some instances, producers bringing their goods direct from the farm may retail alongside vendors who source their produce from places like the Flemington markets, with no way for consumers to easily distinguish between the two.
To address this issue, the Hawkesbury Harvest board is introducing a Produce Point-of-Origin Policy. [http://hawkesburyharvest.com.au/imagesDB/news/GenuineGrowerPolicyPackV1.pdf]
The aim of the policy is to ensure the clear identification of ‘Genuine Growers’, ‘Genuine Producers’ and ‘Resellers’, to allow customers to make informed choices about who they wish to purchase their food from.
So, why buy directly from growers? Hawkesbury Harvest succinctly summarises this issue in their policy document:
In recent years there has been a tremendous increase in consumer demand to purchase both fresh grown and value added produce, directly from the grower and or producer.
Farmers markets are an avenue where the grower/producer can supply this demand. Farmers markets effectively do away with the need to involve a middleman, who traditionally has taken a significant proportion of the farm income.
To maintain this growing support it is extremely important grower/producer stallholders, and therefore farmers markets, are seen as being authentic.
As an awareness of the ethical and environmental issues surrounding food production and interest in provenance continues to increase, buying directly from growers allows consumers to make informed choices about the food they buy and the farming practices behind its production. Buying direct from the producer also ensures that customers aren’t paying for the extra handling involved in other kinds of retail, which also means a better deal for the farmers. For farmers like us, being able to serve our customers directly is also one of the most enjoyable aspects of our work, allowing us to educate, provide people with a glimpse of farm life and swap recipes! In short, buying directly from the grower is what farmers’ markets are all about.
A similar initiative, the Victorian Farmers Market Association (VMFA) Accreditation Program [http://www.vicfarmersmarkets.org.au/content/vfma-accreditation], has been extremely successful, with Victorian farmers’ markets enjoying a reputation as some of Australia’s best. In New South Wales, there are also other individual markets developing their own policies, including the Sydney Sustainable Markets at Taylor Square and Eveleigh Market.
Should New South Wales move to implement a state-wide initiative such as Victoria’s accreditation system; should we even go so far as to have one national policy? We, and many of our fellow farmers, are concerned about these questions and are keen to further these discussions. Through our work with Hawkesbury Harvest and other farmers’ markets across Sydney, The Farm Gate is committed to working with fellow producers to boost the integrity of our markets.
Next time you visit your local market, don’t assume you’re buying directly from the farm. Have a chat with the person you’re buying from, ask questions, and be prepared to eat seasonally. It is this interaction, and the community we create with our customers, which make farmers’ markets a special experience for everyone!
Seasonal – Best Recipe – September
The winners of our August Monthly Seasonal – Best Recipe challenge are Ella from Manly for her Beetroot recipe and Dan from Castle Hill with his Orange recipe. The recipes will be added to our site next week and will be able to be viewed in the ‘Gotta Go Cook’ section of our blog.
Think you can do better? Why not enter your own recipe in our September challenge for your chance to win a box of fresh fruit and vegetables (worth $50+).
This challenge is not only for those who attend our market stalls but for anyone!! You must however be able to collect your prize from one of our markets in Sydney or from Orange.
August’s seasonal ingredients are *drumroll*…… Swiss Brown MUSHROOMS and GLOBE ARTICHOKES .
Fresh Swiss Brown Mushrooms and Globe Artichokes can be bought from The Farm Gate by Nashdale Fruit Co’s weekly farmers’ markets stalls.
The only rules are that the recipe should utilise seasonal Australian ingredients as much as possible (ingredients sourced from your local farmers’ market are especially encouraged) and be an original recipe.
We will then post the recipe on our blog for all to see and try.
Send your tried and tested recipe and pictures (if possible) to: the.farm.gate@optusnet.com.au. The winners will be announced at the end of September and will be able to collect their prize from any of our markets or if you are from the Orange region we can arrange a pick up/drop off option.
Have fun and get cooking! We can’t wait to see what you come up with!
