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Camilla's Market Musings - Week 18

Hallo and happy first week of May to you!

This week we are delighted to be able to offer a fruit whose history goes back, maybe as far as The Garden of Eden - the luscious pomegranate.  This extraordinary fruit not only looks beautiful, with its luscious deep crimson seeds just bursting with flavour but is so packed with antioxidants that it is surely the queen of the superfoods.  Studies into what makes this fruit sing have revealed that it has properties that are anti-cancer, anti-inflammatory and anti-ageing.  Just one fruit contains 40% of your daily Vitamin C intake and it contains almost every type of anti-oxidant,.  Most importantly however, it tastes like a slice of heaven and makes a beautiful addition to salads and is an essential ingredient for Middle Eastern cooking.  If you have not yet introduced your taste buds to this incredible food, now is the time to treat yourself.

This week our supplier of pineapples has come up trumps, providing us with giant samples that pair up beautifully with their beautiful custard apples, complete with, as one of our market goers would say, the most wonderful "creamy crevices."  Add some of our freshly frozen organic passionfruit pulp and some homemade golden custard and you have yourself a dessert worthy of royalty.  Navel oranges have finally come out to play, and we also have a very limited supply of luscious ruby red organic strawberries along with island grown persimmons - life is truly sweet this time of year.

Sadly the spinach is a little thin on the ground at the moment, but we have made up for it with 3 different types of Kale - curly green, curly purple and our own fresh picked cavolo negro leaves, and the orange carrots are sweet, sweet, sweet!  The round red tomatoes are looking too good to eat, but twist my arm and I will happily combine them with my favourite farm basil and plenty of black pepper, just as a snack or cook them up into a flavour filled tomato and turmeric soup served with crunchy toasted olive and rosemary bread.  Yum!

Before I forget, for those of you that are mothers, wishing you in advance, the happiest of mother's days this Sunday and perhaps you can drop the hint that we have taken 5% off the price of our cheese making kits as well as our delicious range of organic chocolates.  I don't think we need an excuse to spoil our mothers, but I am always open to an official reason!

Well, that's about it from me this week - please don't forget to get your orders in by midday each Friday so that we can get cracking on creating you a box of organic food love.

Email orders:  theorganicmarketorders@gmail.com

Text orders:  0476 000 996

Yours in food love always

Camilla and all the happy folk that are The Organic Market on Macleay...

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Camilla's Market Musings - Week 17

Is it just me or is time spinning really quickly this year?  Week 17 already and the end of yet another month - no wonder I am hungry all the time!

This week our produce is a reflection of the best that this season has to offer and what better way to honour the season than by celebrating the arrival of the delicious Lemonade Fruit!  If you have never come across them before, this sweet citrus is a cross between a lemon and a navel orange or possibly mandarin, the jury still appears to be out on that one, and originally burst onto the scene in the 1980s.  Regardless of their obscure origins, as their name implies, they are as sweet as lemonade and whilst they look like a Meyer Lemon, they can be eaten straight, separating easily into segments just like a mandarin.  This versatile fruit can be eaten in many ways - sweet, savoury, raw, cooked, preserved or even pickled and like all members of the citrus family, are packed with Vitamin C goodness, so are perfect for fortifying the system as the weather cools and the winter bugs emerge.

Staying in the fruit department, another equally exciting addition to our organic seasonal produce this week, is the delicious Tasmanian Snow Apple.  These apples only appear for a short period each year and are a beautiful crisp apple with ruby red skin and snow white flesh and whilst they are obviously not locally grown, are well worth the indulgence.

On the vegetable front, yet again we have the most picturesque bouquet of Lettuces - Mignonette, Frilly and Cos, courtesy of our local Mt Cotton farmers and finally we have managed to get our hands on some beautiful plump round Tomatoes, whose absence over the last couple of weeks has left a hole in the flavour, texture and colour department.  I am looking forward to making a beautiful Napolitana sauce, loaded with organic onion, garlic, basil, parsley and rosemary to freeze, just in case they decide to beat a hasty retreat again.  Life just seems empty without the humble tomato to brighten up the dinner plate.  We also have some superb looking Fennel bulbs (but only a few), complete with fine feathery fronds, perfect roasted, turned into soup or eaten raw in a salad and those Jerusalem Artichokes are a wonderful addition to a warming Autumn stew.  Speaking of stews and soups, the Infinite Earth Store has an array of pulses well worth stocking up on at the moment including pearl barley, chick peas, lentils and black beans, so please let us know if you would like to add any of these to your weekly order.

Speaking of which, to place an order, please email us at:

theorganicmarketorders@gmail.com

or text:

0476 000 996

by 12.00pm Fridays and we will as always, prepare a beautiful produce box with that complementary ingredient, a bucket full of love.  Oh and if your order comes to $40 or more, we will even throw in a free box of tissues!

Yours in organic goodness always

Camilla and all the busy smiling folk at the Organic Market on Macleay

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Camilla's Market Musings - Week 16

 

Good evening to you!  We hope that you had a restful Easter break.

Tonight, as the wind swirls through the trees and the temperature starts to drop, I am ever so grateful for the steaming bowl of minestrone that is sitting patiently by my side as we begin another journey into the world of organic fruit and vegetables brought to you by the Organic Market on Macleay!

Excitement plus!  This week heralds the return of that essential cold weather friend to both warming stew and soup, the humble turnip.  Well actually I should say the not so humble turnip as we took delivery of the most sculpturesque organic specimens, which together with the multi-coloured carrots, creamy potatoes and generous sweet parsnips are definitely the start to something special.  All three are packed with dietary fibre and vitamin C, making them an ideal way to protect our bodies from those nasty cold and flu bugs that love to come out to play at this time of year.  Meanwhile, if salad is still something you are craving, our local Mt Cotton farmers did not disappoint this week, picking a special assortment of picture perfect frilly green lettuces that would take pride of place in a bouquet of flowers, just for us.  We also have two types of crisp green cucumbers from which to choose, and I am already eyeing off the green field cucumbers for my next batch of cucumber kimchi, a wondeful Korean pickle that is super high in Vitamin C, B vitamins and pre and probiotics - nature's pharmacy really does provide all the healthfulness we need.

Over in the fruit "department", we couldn't help snaffling a few of the crimson seedless grapes when they came in - well we can't sing the praises of our produce if we don't taste test it - and it really was hard to stop at just a couple.  The Fuji apples are still going strong, and this week's delivery have an aroma worth bottling.  Citrus is also beginning to come into its own, with beautiful Ruby Red grapefruits, again high in Vitamin C and a great way to beat the cholesterol, the Valencia oranges are perfect for juicing, eating straight up or baking into an orange and poppy seed cake and the Meyer lemons are looking and tasting wonderful.  On the tropical front, the Panama passion fruit may have taken a beating from the recent wild weather, but inside the flavour is Summer personified, the bananas a startling electric yellow on the outside and creamy perfection on the inside and, if you didn't get to try the Custard Apples last week, they are back again this Saturday, but in limited numbers, and together with the sweet red fleshed Dragonfruit, and a generous serving of Barambah yoghurt are a great way to start the day.

Finally, just to let you know, in honour of Earth Day, this Saturday we are offering a 10% special off our range of natural cleaning products - a chemical free world really does begin at home.

As always, if you wish to pre-order one of our delectable boxes of fruit and vegetables, please make sure that you either send your order via

email: theorganicmarketorders@gmail.com

or

text: 0476 000 996

by midday Friday and we will do our very best to bring you the very best that our market has to offer.  (and yes, I have been a little bit sneaky, the time has been brought forward slightly as the number of boxes is steadily growing).

Have a wonderfilled evening

Yours in organic food heavenliness always

Camilla and all the merry people that are The Organic Market on Macleay

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Camilla's Market Musings - Week 15

Welcome once again to that time of the week when we get to select some of the finest organic produce that our local farmers are so happy to provide.

This week,when the produce arrived and I found my thoughts once again straying to steaming bubbling pots of autumn vegetable stews and soups, it occurred to me how truly lucky we are to have such a sweet orchestra of seasonally and,wherever possible, locally grown organic and chemical free produce from which to select each week.  More than that however, since Eleesa, supported by her extraordinary family, first acted on her vision for a chemical free, sustainable island community by opening the market and providing the choice to eat organically, 5 and a half years ago, the Organic Market has gone on to become a vital heartbeat that feeds a community; a beautiful network of people that choose to come together at the Organic Farm either by proxy, (by ordering one of our made with love produce boxes for delivery), or by being there in person every Saturday.  If as Hippocrates once so famously declared  we are what we eat. then here we are, a living example of the nurturing power of food.  Thank you for being a part of it all.

So now a quick tour through the world of Autumn produce.  My pick for Week 15 is the picturesque globe artichoke.  I get really excited when the first of these beautiful vegetables comes into season, as like most good food, they are one of those childhood favourites, boiled then gently cooked in the oven with loads of herbs picked fresh from the garden, homemade vegetable stock and steaming Dutch Cream Potatoes, that's my idea of Autumn heaven!  Not only do they taste beautiful, but their health benefits earn them the title of "Superfood!"

The colours of the produce this week, again are a reminder of the cooling of the day, and the wonderful meals that can be made to do justice to the nature given colour wheel.  From the rich orange of the Stripy Butternut and Jap Pumpkins, to the trio of purple, gold and bright Orange Carrots, the duskiness of the Sweet Potatoes to the delicious pop of the golden yellow sweet corn, the shiny purple coat of the Eggplants and the deep forest green of the English Spinach and the curly Kale, everything is singing "Autumn is here!"

On the fruit front, the Fujis are still the market crew (including Dweezel Dog)'s favourite apple with a crisp, and we are excited to announce the first baby steps of the creamy Custard Apple, along with some Panama Passionfruit and more of that aromatic Pineapple from our Sunshine Coast farmers.  For a change the grapes are crimson, but still seedless and perfect for Easter picnics served with some of the Organic Blue, Brie and Cheddar Cheeses that we have ordered in especially for the holidays, with a few slices of Packham or Beure Bosc Pears and dried organic fruit on the side.  Before I forget, the plums this week are deliciously sweet Moyas, irresistible fresh but also perfect turned into an old fashioned compote, baked in a cake or preserved as jam to be used over and over the winter months - I love the excuse to release my Inner Baker! Tea and cake anyone?

Finally, if you would like anything from the Infinite Earth Store or any of our range of Demeter, Kialla or other Flours and Rice, now is the time to stock up as we are having a 20% off Easter Sale.  Just let me know if you would like us to add any additional items when placing this week's order...

Box orders are generally due by 1.00pm each Friday but as it is Easter Friday, if you can have your orders in by 11am this week, we would be most grateful....

email: theorganicmarketorders@gmail.com.au

or text: 0476 000 996

From all the food dreamers at The Organic Market Macleay

Have a wonderfilled Easter

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Camilla's Market Musings - Week 14

Hallo and welcome to another mouth watering meandering as I take you on a journey through this week's wonderfilled market produce...and all I can say is Organic Spelt Hot Cross Buns!!!!

 

This afternoon, we just couldn't resist sampling these irresistible offerings from our favourite baker - well we thought it only fair that we tried them out on behalf of our customers, just in case.  As you can see from the picture, even Dweezel Dog got in on the act, snatching one from the hands of a distracted Eleesa, whilst she was engaged in conversation.  We have a limited number on offer this Saturday, but will be taking orders for next week and, for a change, words fail me - they are really too delicious for mere words!  If you want to try them for yourself, just make sure your orders are in by Tuesday at the very latest and we will put away an Easter stash, just for you.

Moving on to produce, this week we have taken delivery of the most exquisite little Fuji and Royal Gala apples.  Crunchy, sweet and pretty as a picture, they are tailor made for snacking.  Green Mutsus are also still on the scene, just for this week, and as the weather cools down what better way to end a meal than with baked apples crammed full of organic sultanas, a sprinkle of cinnamon and a smidgen of lemon rind, finished off with Barambah cream.  Heaven on a plate! 

On the vegetable front, the Cavolo Nero Kale is back and looking mighty fine, we have plump and shiny deep purple chemical free Eggplants courtesy of our wonderful Mt Cotton farmers, along with Okra and stunning bunches of deep green Eschallots.  The Green Beans are snap fresh, Golden Sweet Potatoes just begging to be added to a spicy dahl, simply baked whole or turned into chips, the English Spinach bunches are looking as fresh as, well, English Spinach and I can't wait to cook up a creamy mushroom and pesto risotto with the most perfect looking button mushrooms - well, I ordered flat whites, but they look more like big buttons to me.

Finally, in honour of Easter, our delicious range of Fair Trade Artisan chocolates are all on special this week, so beat the Easter Bunny to the chase by nurturing your inner child and indulge in dark Sicilian hazlenut, Almond, Mint or Coconut and Raspberry chocolate delights.  Don't you just love an excuse to eat more chocolate?!

As always, we are ready and waiting to take your box orders, so please send through your selection k by 1pm Friday afternoons to:

theorganicmarketorders@gmail.com

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or text us on:

0476 000 996

Happy week's end to you

Yours in organic food love always

Camilla and all your favourite people at The Organic Market on Macleay

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Camilla's Market Musings - Week 13

 
There is a saying regarding being careful what you wish for, and after such a dry summer, it seems that today there may have been a few too many of us wishing for rain!  On the plus side, the parched earth is ever so grateful, but on the minus side it has had a bit of an impact on produce this week.  Luckily I had been thinking on focusing on our staples of which we have plenty, and mighty pretty it is looking too.

Rain always takes me to my favourite cooking and eating staple which is a hot bowl of steaming soup.  In fact, as I write this the delicious aroma of borscht, a vegetable soup of Polish/Russian origins, made from the most magnificent organic beetroot, celery, carrots, garlic and ginger, is making my mouth water in excited anticipation of tonight's dinner.  Served with hot crusty bread and a generous dollop of sour cream, this easy to prepare soup was my grandmother's speciality, and I like to think that I do her proud with my own version, that has the added advantage of being based on a rich vegetable stock, made from the organic vegetable left overs that I dutifully freeze to make sure that nothing is ever wasted.

Whilst we are on the subject of food of Eastern European origin, this week we are spoilt for choice in the potato department with Dutch Creams, Sebagoes, Desiree, Melody and tiny Ruby Lous.  Whether you are into simple boiled potatoes served with lashings of butter and fresh farm herbs, the old comfort food a la mashed potatoes, potato salad with sweet red onions and sour cream or good old potatoes baked in their jackets with grated Barambah cheddar and more of that sour cream or yoghurt, there is no denying that the humble potato is a vegetable whose versatility is limited only by your imagination.

Once again this week, we have a wonderful trio of colourful orange, yellow and purple carrots that will brighten up your dinner table with a splash of healthy colour and the rich orange of the sweet butternut pumpkins, is just begging to be combined with creamy Meredith Farm's marinated goat's cheese sprinkled with sunflower seeds and fresh basil and popped onto one of our margherita or 4 cheese pizzas to make a quick and easy meal guaranteed to delight both the big as well as the little kids in the family.

In the fruit department, those spicy Mutsu apples are back for a brief visit - so please get in quick as after this week they surely will be gone.  We also have beautiful Cavendish and Lady Finger Bananas, a last hurrah from the Torpedo Watermelons, sweet kisses from the modest honey dew melon and more of those incredible crimson seedless grapes that literally flew off the fruit display at last week's market.  Williams pears are always perfect for snacktime, Sunshine pineapples are in full sweet swing, and why buy orange juice, when you can squeeze organic Valencias daily, for a wonderful hit of Vitamin C?!

As always, if you wish to pre-order a box of organic goodness prior to Saturday's market, just send your order through no later than midday on Friday to:

theorganicmarketorders@gmail.com

or text us on 0476 000 996

and we will happily create you a box of organic food love.

One final note before I go, just a reminder that you are warmly invited to come and share High Tea this Sunday afternoon between 3 and 5pm, to celebrate the opening of The Healing Room at the Organic Farm with island naturopath Mary, along with island homeopath me, Camilla.  It will be wonderful to see you there.

Until then, stay dry and don't forget to eat more soup!

Bye for now from Camilla and all at the Organic Market on Macleay

Camilla's Market Musings - Week 12

(expected produce mentioned for this coming Saturday subject to availability)

Here at the farm, we have all been floating on an air of tranquillity, still feeding off the good vibes of The Organic Farm's shining (literally) Autumn Equinox Festival last Saturday.  So in honour of the festival and all the amazing people that made it possible, from conceivers to organizers, volunteers to stall holders, to the fabulous people who came and enjoyed themselves and to the weather that chose to smile a brilliant blue, it is only fitting that we dedicate this week to being all about organic food love...

Starting with magnificent mangosteen love - don't they look beautiful?   Their season may be brief, but the positive impact that they can have on both your tastebuds and your health will be amazing!  If you haven't tried them before, you're in for a treat as you peel open the smooth skin to reveal pearly white segments of a fruit that is almost like eating a bowlful of grapes and sweet strawberries with just a hint of citrus.  High in vitamin C and other antioxidants, mangosteens are prized for their cholesterol lowering ability and have been used in both Ayurvedic as well as Chinese medicine for centuries.  They also freeze well - just sprinkle them with a bit of lemon juice first to preserve the colour - and then you can enjoy their benefits long after the season has ended.  They taste great added to a smoothie or fresh juice.

 (some of the purple mangosteens we'll have available at market on Saturday!)

Another market favourite to join the mangosteen this week, is the beautifully aromatic guava. When speaking about organic food love, what's not to love about this beautiful sweet tropical fruit.  Introduce the guava to the mangosteen, along with some farm raised sweet and creamy bananas, plump crimson seedless grapes, deep red organic strawberries and a generous dollop of Barambah yoghurt and milk, and that smoothie is starting to really talk to me...

In the vegetable department, we have the most beautiful bunches of English radishes (but only a few are available so if you are a radish fan like me, get in quick), along with bunches of English spinach , plump round red tomatoes, huge bunches of celery and crisp heads of Cos lettuce.  We are still loving that trio of carrots: the orange, yellow and purple, and this week the modest Melody potato is back for a visit.  We have both Stripy butternuts and Jap pumpkins, throw in some okra, organic chickpeas and lentils, and we have the beginnings of a beautiful dahl. Or...change your spice mix to cardamon and dried orange peel with a touch of fresh mint and you will swear your taste-buds have taken you to Persia!

Anyway, thats probably enough waxing lyrical from me today, so please, if you do wish to order a box of produce, please email your orders through to:

theorganicmarketorders@gmail.com

or text us on

0476 000 996

by 1pm Friday afternoons and we will do our best to bring you the best as always!

yours in organic food loving bliss and gratitude

Camilla and all the wonderful crew that are, The Organic Market and Farm Macleay.

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Camilla's Market Musings - Week 11

(expected produce mentioned for this coming Saturday subject to availability)

Hallo and apologies for the late delivery of this week's produce list.  It has been all hands on deck as we are all busy, busy, busy excitedly preparing for our Autumn Equinox Sustainability Festival happening in conjunction with the market this coming Saturday.  If you haven't yet been to one of our festivals, we encourage you to come and sample the myriad of activities and stalls that this year's festival will have on display. Oh and don't forget to come and say hi to us market crew - it will be wonderful to see you!

This week's produce is reflecting the festive autumnal spirit, with magnificent striped butternuts that are just begging to be stuffed and baked, or turned into a delicious spicy pumpkin pie, or that eternal favourite of busy mothers, good old pumpkin soup.  Want to dress that pumpkin soup up a little?  Just add a dash of cumin, a handful of chopped organic garlic, yoghurt and market fresh  organic coriander, served with this week's offering of olive and rosemary or fig and pistachio bread and your taste buds will be jumping for joy!  

We also have a wonderful colourful trio of carrots on offer this week: standard sweet orange, deep yellow and yes, purple carrots have finally arrived - a feast for the eye and the palate.  The red capsicums look magnificent this week, as does the sweet corn and our local Mt Cotton sprout king has come up trumps with punnets of radish microgreens, as well as his traditional offerings of mixed microgreens and salad sprouts.  Not only are these sprouts a perfect food from a nutritional perspective, they are packed with flavour and texture making them a wonderful finishing touch for any salad.  Speaking of salad, we have both our ever popular salad mix as well as baby spinach leaves to choose from this week, and knowing that there are those of us that have a weakness for the grown up bunches of English Spinach, we have also made sure that there is a limited supply on offer.

In the fruit department, with Autumn breaking into its stride, all I can say is apples, apples, apples.  Ever tried a Green Mutsu?  The favourite of the most upmarket  chefs, these green apples are crisp with a slightly spicy flavour, making them perfect for baking in a pie, a cake, turning into fritters or, if you come from my family, you can't go past a delicious apple strudel, stuffed with walnuts and sultanas and finished off with a generous serving of whipped Barambah pure cream.

The sultana grapes are back, after a week's hiatus and are as sweet as ever, as are the sugar plums and the just ace plums are still waiting for the jam makers among you to come and transform them so that you can still enjoy that beautiful plum flavour in the winter months.  Dragonfruit are still fruiting, farm paw paws still pawpawing and despite the harsh summer condition, the farm lemons are full of flavour and combined with Stradbroke honey, ginger and garlic, perfect for helping the body adjust to the transition from summer to autumn.

As always, I remind you that all orders need to be in by 1pm Friday afternoons, so that our team of farm goddesses can don their magic wings and put together your box of goodness in time for delivery (or pick up) on Saturday.

Just send your orders through to:

theorganicmarketorders@gmail.com

or text the market phone on 

0476 000 996

and we will be more than delighted to help make your start to the weekend a delicious one!

Hope to see you on Saturday at the Festival, but if not, just keep your eye on Facebook and Instagram for snapshots of the day :)

Yours in health and wellness and great organic food always

Camilla and all the other magic people that together help make The Organic Market Macleay the coolest place to hang out on a Bay Island Saturday.

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Camilla's Market Musings - Week 10

(expected produce mentioned for this coming Saturday subject to availability)

At last we are starting to feel the first caresses of autumn in the air and with it the beginnings of the cooler weather foods.

This week once again, okra and yellow carrots are playing a starring role (go the green and gold!), and we also have a brief appearance of those magical purple beans.  An unexpected abundance of roma tomatoes means that this week we will be cooking up a passata storm and to help you along, we have beautiful bunches of flat leaf parsley, oodles of garlic both white and purple, and more of our beautiful farm grown basil and rosemary.  I can hear that pasta pot boiling now!  

English spinach has made a return this week - who can resist a beautiful spinach soup - or perhaps mushroom soup is more your style?  Either way, I am looking forward to soup season and the combination of those tomatoes, zucchinis and sweet corn, with a generous sprinkling of Barambah cheddar and loads of garlic means I can feel a serious minestrone coming on!

In the fruit department, we are so happy to be able to offer those sweet strawberries that when eaten cold from the fridge are better than any strawberry icecream, an abundance of sweet and crisp autumn apples, yellow peaches and delicious farm grown pawpaws.  Oh and before I forget, if you are a jam maker, we have a special on the Just Ace plums, which are perfect for either jam or plum sauce.

 

As always, if you do wish to order a box of organic produce from us please email your orders through to: theorganicmarketorders@gmail.com

 

or text your order to: 0476 000 996 before 1pm Friday afternoons, and our merry team of farm goddesses will get to work immediately!

 

Oh and don't forget, that delivery is part of our service at no extra cost to you.

Thank you for sharing in our food enthusiasm!

Yours in abundance

Camilla and the rest of the awesome Goddesses and Godlets at The Organic Market Macleay

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Camilla's Market Musings - Week 8

 (expected produce mentioned for this coming Saturday subject to availability)

And so it is that time of the week again, when we get to revel in the beautiful organic produce provided by our hard working farmers.

This week, once again, the lebanese eggplants are looking just beautiful, and their versatility in the kitchen provides a wonderful culinary journey around the globe.  Combined with the world's sweetest organic roma tomatoes and olives, tossed through pasta, and you will find yourself in Italy.  Dry cooked with nigella and mustard seeds, cumin and tumeric and just a touch of chilli and you will be transported to India, or alternatively, create a perfect dip for these warm end of summer nights, by char grilling the eggplants and combining them with garlic, lemon juice and tahini,  and let the flavours feed your imagination as you relax on a Greek island surrounded by clear blue water and clean white sand.  Food truly is inspiring!

As well as eggplants, this week we have more of the sweet farm fresh basil on offer along with crisp bunches of celery, green beans, and sweet baby beetroots. Santa Barbara pumpkins are also in, delicious carrots, Dutch Cream, Sebago and Desiree potatoes,  golden sweet potatoes, heirloom radishes and for something completely different, you can always try crunchy sunflower sprouts, brought to us by some of our favourite Mt Cotton growers.

In the fruit department, sadly we have had to say farewell to the figs, but the sultana grapes will definitely ease the pain and go down a treat in the school lunchbox!  Rockmelons are back to play with the pineapples, giant star ruby plums and if you haven't yet tried the oranges, you really don't know what you are missing.  Apple season is still in it's infancy, but both the Summer Delicious and Royal Galas are great for a snack and please don't forget the humble banana. Whether Lady Finger or Cavendish, bananas are one of those fruits that can be enjoyed as they are, as well as used in cooking (banana and walnut muffins anyone?), or combine with some of our beautiful frozen berries, yoghurt and cinnamon and you have a smoothie that is not only delicious but oh so good for you.

As always, if you do wish to order a box of organic produce from us please email your orders through to:

theorganicmarketorders@gmail.com

or text your order to:

0476 000 996

before 1pm Friday afternoons, and we will make sure to provide you with a box of food that makes both your taste buds and your heart sing.

Oh and don't forget, that delivery is part of our service at no extra cost to you.

This is one of the gorgeous custom produce boxes made for one of our lovely customers last week...

Thank you for buying organic and supporting both our market and the local growers. Together it is truly amazing what we can achieve!

Yours in good food and wellness

Camilla and the rest of the extraordinary team at The Organic Market Macleay.

Camilla's Market Musings - Week 7

 (expected produce mentioned for this coming Saturday subject to availability)

Week 7 brings with it the arrival of some new guests in the guise of delicious Rattlesnake beans and magnificent Black Muscatel Grapes. Rattlesnake beans are an old variety of bean with a curious mottled appearance that magically disappears once cooked, transforming them into a sweet and crunchy treat.   They go perfectly with olive bruschetta, or try them slow cooked with tomato, basil and red onion  served with crunchy spelt toast on the side.  As for the Black Muscatels, they will turn any cheese platter into a 5 star event!

The pineapples continue to impress with their sweet sunshine aroma, the nectarines are looking (and smelling) beautiful and if you have been enjoying our figs, you better get in quick as their season is sadly coming to an end.  We also have sweet Royal Gala apples, more of those crisp Summer Delicious, along with Sugar Plums, Red Delicious Pears and Nashis.

On the vegetable front, my pick is once again the eggplant, white, Lebanese and globe, great for making dip, moussaka, adding to a curry or pasta sauce and we have another showing of English spinach.  The beautiful local Elizabeth has come through with her Shiitake mushrooms and we have beautiful Cos lettuce to form a wonderful basis for any salad, along with plump tomatoes, tender baby spinach, basil bunches, cucumber and spanish onions.  Just add a sprinkling of sunflower seeds and sprouts and your summer meal will be complete!  

If you're interested in ordering a produce box and be placed on the 'produce box' mailing list (where you'll receive an email each Thursday evening with the full produce list) please email:  

theorganicmarketorders@gmail.com

or send a text to the market phone 0476 000 996

Orders are due by 1pm each Friday afternoon and we will be sure to prepare your box for delivery (or pick up) Saturday.

Yours in good food always,

Camilla and the rest of the crew at The Organic Market.

Going Organic - February 2017

 
Going Organic

with Eleesa Zlatic of the

 The Organic Market, Macleay Island.

(monthly column from The Friendly Bay Islander magazine - February 2017 edition)

Well we are right back in the swing of things at The Organic Market. The market has been incredibly busy and vibrant with lots of locals and visitors to the island. It is great to meet so many new people either moving to the island or considering purchasing here. They all seem very pleased that we exist and that they can buy great organic produce, and meet like-minded locals. 

The Fruit available now is delicious, particularly the local figs and lychees. I tried lychees in a tin as a child and was completely put off, seriously there is nothing more luscious & sweet than a fresh lychee. They can be added to a variety of desserts and cooking… but our stash is devoured the moment the skin comes off.

If time is short for you or your away, why not try ordering a box of fruit and vegetables each week. We make up boxes to set amounts and you receive a great selection of seasonal fruit and vegetables. Just send an email to theorganicmarketorders@gmail.com or msg us on 0476000996, and we will happily arrange one for you. We deliver the boxes to the Ferries and also provide free delivery on Macleay Island.

The Organic Coffee Hub is a great place to enjoy a Turmeric Latte, a variety of Teas, or Organic Coffee. It is also a great place to catch up with friends, or grab a takeaway. We have the most divine gluten free cakes available, they melt in the mouth.

The plans for the Infinite Earthfest Autumn Festival on March 18 are under way, and we are looking for stallholders who create recycled goods, eco-friendly products, produce their own preserves etc, or if you are an artist we would love to have you join us.  We are also interested in talented local musicians to come on board, we can provide the space if you would like an audience. Please email us to secure a place: theorganicmarketinfo@gmail.com

The Organic Market started as the first point in a larger dream, and now with the additional festivals we are adding the next level of wellness opportunities for our customers and friends. Starting very soon is the ‘Healing Room’ a lovely space to access the talents of Mary Veitch (Naturopath) and Camilla Gold (Homeopath).  Combined with a chemical free diet, the services these women provide will give you the opportunity to address your health problems and find solutions that treat it holistically. We are all very excited about this, so please watch our facebook page for updates.

If you are looking for plants, worm juice, or worm beds the Evergreen Garden group have a great selection available each week, based at the “Garden Shed”. You can also purchase garden charts, organic seeds, garden themed cards, and the current Pip Magazine. Val, our artist in residence, can be found most weeks painting exquisite aboriginal dot work on plant pots. They are for sale and make a unique and beautiful gift. 

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We are always looking for volunteers for the various jobs around the farm and market, so if you would like to join our tribe and contribute to the future projects please pop down to the market and let us know and add your name to our volunteer register.

Personally, I would like to thank the island community for all the support it gives us each week. The offers of help have been fantastic and very appreciated. We really do have something special living on these islands, and it is you that contributes to that… thank you.

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Camilla's Market Musings - Week 6

 (expected produce mentioned for this coming Saturday subject to availability)

Can you believe that it is week #6 already? 

Well the days have been hot and hotter and so it is that we take our hats off to our local farmers, who have had it harder than us but have still managed to work with Mother Nature and her quirks to continue to deliver us magnificent Summer Produce.

This week we say goodbye to the Mendlee seedless grapes and hallo to magnificent biodynamic seedless Diamond grapes which team up perfectly with Ian’s sweet lychees, dipped in organic chocolate or served with the Divine organic brie.  Valentine’s Day delight perhaps? We are also pleased to see the return of those crisp Summer Delicious apples and the first of the Royal Galas have finally made an appearance.  Most exciting of all, the Sunshine Coast Pineapples have finally started appearing, and the drop in price and increase in flavour will be greatly appreciated by all.  We even ordered in some mint for those of you (ie me), that love the combination of pineapple and mint!

Our local farmers have reduced the price of their sweet Lebanese cucumbers, so we are happy to be able to pass these savings on to you – they make great kimchi!  English spinach is back (in limited numbers so be quick), local bunches of silverbeet and fresh bags of salad mix.  The roma tomatoes have finally arrived along with a new order of Meredith Farm Goats cheese, and whilst the summer days are trying for some, thankfully the hot conditions have inspired the basil to flourish, and tomato and cheese just wouldn’t seem right without the basil!  

We are extremely proud this week to have a new comer in the vegetable department - beautiful white eggplants (great addition to Indian dishes and also make great baked chips) along with bunches of heirloom radishes.  Baby beetroots are back to play as well as display worthy bunches of beetroot for those of us that love to eat the whole plant, little butternut pumpkins and sweet Portobello mushrooms. In the potato department along with Desirees, Dutch Creams and Sebagos, we are pleased to offer local Melody potatoes, great in a potato salad with Barambah labna,sour cream, eschallots, mint and lashings of black pepper!

As always, if you wish to order a pre-prepared box prior to market day on Saturday, just send your order through by 1pm Friday to:

theorganicmarketorders@gmail.com.au

If you wish to place a special order, add any items from our dairy or fridge/freezer selection or groceries from the Infinite Earth store, please feel free to either add it to your email or just give me a call on 0476 000 996.

Until then, happy eating!

Camilla and the other gods and goddesses of the Organic Market  

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Expected produce this week for Saturday 4th Feb

This is the first of our new weekly 'incoming produce' (subject to availability)

 blurbs from Camilla. 

And so it has been another beautiful week of summer sunshine and singing cicadas.  I hope that it has also been  a good week for you.

At the farm, animals are keeping their cool by hiding in the shade, and the permaculture garden is blossoming and buzzing with bees, making the most of the summer harvest.  They must have been inspired by the early rumblings of the Autumn Equinox Harvest Festival coming up on March 18th!

This week we are excited to take delivery of the first of the Williams pears.  Perfect for popping in the lunchbox, poaching, slicing and adding to a salad of fresh summer baby spinach, red onion, sprouts and fennel marinated quark, or goats cheese and walnuts.  

Summer fruit has certainly come into its own and this week we have both blood and mariposa queen plums, beautiful cavendish and lady finger bananas, more of those refreshing sweet and juicy lychees and seedless grapes, torpedo watermelons, sweet honey dew whose scent should be bottled, as well as beautiful crisp summer delicious apples.

In the savoury department, Macleay local Elizabeth is back on the scene with inspiring shiitake mushrooms whose health benefits are boundless, and add a wonderful nutty earthiness to any meal that calls for mushrooms.  Dutch cream potatoes are on their way out at the moment, but this week you could try some beautiful Ruby Lou portatoes that are similar to Desirees and are a wonderful potato to include in a summer potato salad, with eschallots, garlic, basil and sour cream.  Celery is also in again, baby spinach and a limited number of my favourite English spinach, Cos lettuces, Roma tomatoes and new season Apple Cucumbers. Goats cheese and spinach pie with lashings of thyme and salad is definitely on the menu for us this week!

If any of this sounds appealing to your tastebuds, please don't hesitate to contact us and place an order.  As always, just email it through to me on the market email:

theorganicmarketorders@gmail.com

or text it through to 0476 000 996

before 12.00 tomorrow (Friday)

and we will be happy to make up a beautiful organic box for you.

Finally, just a reminder, we also make set  "surprise" organic produce boxes starting at $40.  These standard boxes contain basics such as potatoes, onions, carrots, garlic, salad items, fruit and seasonal produce.  We provide both mixed boxes as well as just fruit or vegetable boxes and to make your shopping life even easier, we also offer combined grocery and produce boxes.  Our Infinite Earth Store range of products is extensive and includes environmentally friendly cleaning products, organic and natural toiletries, natural medicines such as martin and pleasance tissue salts, colloidal silver, vitamins and minerals etc as well as a range of dry goods such as Demeter freshly milled organic flours, both gluten free and wheat pastas, an array of sauces and condiments, beans and pulses, dried fruits, confectionary and much more.  As grocery items are tailored to your individual needs, if you are interested in ordering a combined box, please email/text through your order or feel free to give me a ring if you wish to get a better idea of our range of products.  Special orders can also be accommodated.

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Happy wishes!

Camilla Gold BHSc Hom at Infinite Earth 

M: 0476 000 996

E: theorganicmarketorders@gmail.com

Going Organic - January 2017

Going Organic

with Eleesa Zlatic of the

 The Organic Market, Macleay Island.

(monthly column from The Friendly Bay Islander magazine - January 2017 edition)

Hello 2017! What do you have in store for us all?  The past year certainly brought some big changes with it! A few people have commented to me that it was a horrible year for me, but it honestly wasn’t. The end of the year was the most difficult time I have ever had to endure, but throughout the year I had some of the most amazing experiences of my life.  The common thread seems to be change coming in and creating new experiences. I must admit with my partner of 23 years passing over, I have not been very happy about the notion of change, in fact I was downright angry about it occurring, plus the incredible sadness that seems to overtake your whole being.

During the last months of the year, it was the generosity and kindness of our island community that gave me strength. I can’t imagine living anywhere else.  I have lived in various places during my life, and have never found a community like this one. I am sure there are lots of lovely communities out there but I never resonated with the ones I lived in.  Here it is different, it feels like living in a big extended family.  There are so many good-hearted people living on the Islands, and I feel honoured to know them.

The offers of help, the messages of support, and the genuine caring shown to my children and I has been overwhelming in the most positive way.  We are very grateful to everyone.  It hasn’t just been people we know, I have met so many new people who are showing their support by volunteering and helping at the farm. You are all amazing, beautiful people!

Thank you to everyone who supports The Organic Market, your commitment to the cause, and your beauty shines through each Saturday. It is such a lovely place to gather, there is a genuine feeling of love resonating in that space each week.  I have stepped out of the market for a time while I heal emotionally, and am very grateful to the beautiful team of goddesses and friends who run it.  I still lend a hand, and love to be there on a Saturday, but am honouring myself with some much needed time out, to be gentle on myself.

 

At this time of year, the New Year’s resolutions are made, and many of them include becoming healthier. I am the first to admit that mine includes this.  I am going to commit to a box of organic fruit and vegetables each week, to ensure it is in my fridge and easy to access for meals and snacks.  Our ‘box creation goddess’ puts a lot of time into each box ensuring it has a good variety of organic and chemical free produce in it.  The right combination of things to make great meals and salads throughout the week.  The fruit and vegetables are seasonal, so the box contents change to suit what is available locally. Apart from what we grow at the Organic Farm, we also support local Redlands Farmers and your box order may include locally grown, eggs, mushrooms, kale, lettuce, eggplant, avocadoes, mangos, lychees, cucumbers, beetroot, paw paw and leeks (to name a few).  How good does it feel to support local farmers, doing the right thing by growing chemical free produce and not poisoning our beautiful Redlands, Islands and Moreton Bay… now that is a good investment!  I am very passionate about the concept of spending money on the things you wish to support, and our health is the first priority, followed almost equally in importance by the environment… as it’s health runs hand in hand with our own.  What a great legacy to leave our grandchildren.

I feel blessed to be able to access this quality of food on the Islands, and to be able to do a majority of my shopping at the market.  I know with every bite that the food is chemical free and the produce tastes so much better than conventional chemical laden produce. 

This year I wish for us all, perfect health, abundance, and love. That everything we do is filled with joy and that we follow our passions in life until our heart sings!  I look forward to seeing you at the market this year.
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