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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