Farm update 3.11.19
Well it’s now November and our Spring/Summer crops are well and truly coming along with our best crop of zucchini ever along with cucumbers producing bucket loads of both every day.
We’ve been finding all sorts of ways to make the most of our zucchinis at the moment with some really easy zucchini frittata/ slices, and using zucchini to make ‘zoodles’ using a nifty grater tool. This is a great substitute for anything you’d normally have noodles or pasta with or even just some zoodles on their own thrown into a pan with some already cooked up spring onion, garlic, chilli, stock (and we always add in an anchovie or two for that lovely satly kick!), throw in the zooodles and you’ve got yourself a declicious low carb meal!
Check out some of our pics below. We also have on the ‘to try’ list this week zucchini pickles and zucchini banana loaf - YUM! If anyone has any other recipes for zucchini please send them through to us, we love a tried and tested recipe from our friends of the farm.
Whilst this warmer weather brings so many wonderful crops we’ve missed (zucchini, tomatoes, eggplants, loofah, okra, chillis) it also brings with it some pest pressure.
A word of warning to any home veggie garden owners, it’s that time of year when your leafy greens will need to be netted to protect them from bugs. We’ve had the diamond back moth back in the garden and they’ve attacked a few beds of new young kale in a matter of days!
We will be going through the market garden to put row covers back over any susceptible crops, being mostly leafy greens. It’s tough to grow leafy greens this time of year with the heat let alone the bug pressure but the covers do keep the pests at bay and offer the crops some protection from the hottest part of the day too.
Good news for those customers who were purchasing certified organic chicken feed from us - we are now back in stock!
After a devastating loss of hundreds of dollars worth of our chicken grain, Farmer Darren has modified and ‘spec’d up’ the storage cupboard in order to protect the feed from the elements, from any moisture that could threaten to get into the grain turning it mouldy, as well as keeping out any pests too!
It was a really tough lesson to learn but that’s part of farming. You don’t truly understand how something works or what it needs until something happens and presents you with that learning experience. Losing our last tonne of feed was a tough one to swallow but we’ve learned so much since then on how to store the feed that we are confident our storage methods now are bulletproof.
Customers who were getting their feed from us for their chooks, you can order it from today in the ‘garden supplies’ order cycles (visit store here).
We got into the kitchen for a few hours this week and turned excess produce into jars of sauerkraut, mixed fermented veg and kimchi. We adore fermented veg! Not only do we get super pumped that we aren’t wasting any quality produce, we love the lovely tangy flavour and knowing we are eating something that is good for our gut health! There’s a few pics below (and that is only a fraction of what we made!).
That’s it for us this week folks. Enjoy the rest of your weekend!