HOORAY!! MY FAVOURITE SEASON HAS ARRIVED!!
Autumn is such an exciting time of year. Things are cooling down which means it's nicer to be outside farming, and our produce is much much happier.
On our farms
The farm team have been cracking into the new season with gusto, even in the hot days, prepping and getting seedlings ready for the big start.
Our farms run all through summer, but the bulk of our growing season happens between March and November. Although Summer certainly surprised us with all the cucumber, eggplant, capsicum and more.
A lot of work over summer is on regenerating soils, cover cropping and adding lots of nutrition for the season ahead. We're expecting a big delivery of certified organic compost this week - meaning our beds will get a good coating before we start the big planting.
Did you see our instagram post about our germination issues due to the heat? Thankfully we've rectified this now and we've got a lot of trays of veggies getting ready to plant over the coming weeks.
We're currently enjoying:
- basil
- cucumbers
- eggplant
- capsicum
- salad
- ginger (a lot)
- choi
- lettuce
- jalapeno
- thyme
- oregano
Veggies
Veggies, veggies and more veggies. March sees more variety as our southern growers start to come through - beans, broccoli, leeks, silverbeet, and cabbages should start to be more available. Cauliflower should also make a comeback soon and hopefully a little more accessible in pricing too. We should also see carrots galore, and hopefully a good celery season from our NSW growers.
Garlic would typically be abundant and well prices at this time of year however a number of farms had a tough garlic season in 2022, which means there is less available and its priced accordingly. Side note: April is the best time to plant garlic at home for the season! Its super easy - be sure to try it out.
Eggplant from our farm along with beetroot, pumpkin and sweet potato from our friends in the Lockyer valley and Gympie, means Autumn tray bakes for the win! Corn is also available although intermittent in supply so hopefully will be here for another few weeks at least.
Capsicums Green are abundant both on our farm and from other growers, but unfortunately Red Caps are limited and super expensive :( Our red caps were very exciting for the bugs so we have been harvesting the green instead of providing a feast for the bugs.
Noosa Reds are back in full supply! Yay! The tastiest tomato available :) We're also enjoying cherry tomatoes from Noosa Reds, and some beaut baby roma's from our friends down south.
Onions are finally a lot better quality but still not super abundant meaning the price is a bit higher than usual :(
Zucchini seems to be in stable supply although ours on the farm has all but finished we are lucky to partner with some great organic growers to get this fresh and direct to you.
So what's missing? Well, Avocados are currently out of season but should start up again soon and we have a few certified organic farms we work with on these so supply will be good. Expect these in April.
Fruit
This is where things get a bit tricky. March means shifting seasonal availability away from summer fruits and into the winter fruits. We will start to see slowing down of watermelon until ours is ready in a few weeks, stonefruit is all but finished bar a few plums here and there, and cherries are well and truly off the menu :( It was such a tough season for our stonefruit and cherry growers!
Pineapples are apparently abundant locally, but it's hard to find a grower who isn't spraying them with yucky toxic chemicals so we won't have any for a while. Another thing I encourage you to grow in your home garden! They're very easy but just take a while.
Citrus is not yet started locally, meaning our oranges are coming from cooler climates. Just a reminder to store all citrus and apples in the fridge year round for maximum shelf life. Lemon supply is limited to the green skin Meyer Lemon variety, which are still good, just confusing in colour!
New Season apples are starting to come though as are autumn pears just in time for some yummy peaches or stewed fruit on some oats for breakfast.
Mangoes are mostly finished (sad face), and Papaya are not available for a month or so (double sad face).
We're also mid berry season so strawberries are not available until local supply starts in April. Blueberries are also not available :(
We have been enjoying Grapes, especially for the lunchboxes. The red's seem to have finished for the season but Green Sultana Grapes are in good supply.
Banana keeps being its steady self, however we have had some ripening issues of late due to the intense heat. Hopefully this will be a thing of the past as the temperature cools. As always if you have any quality concerns or ripening issues, please let us know!
