This time of year truly feels special. Early sunrises, getting started on the farm before it gets too hot (most days its a 5am start to ensure the harvest stays fresh), and then enjoying the late afternoon with a beach walk 🐶
We're certainly lucky to live in paradise. 🌴
As a preface to this lovely December seasonal update is an important reminder about your fruit bowl at this time of year!
Please be sure to store most of your fruit and veg in the fridge - it's simply just too hot.
The only things that should be in the fruit bowl are Bananas, Avocados, and Tomatoes until they are ripe. All Apples, Oranges and Citrus should be stored in the fridge pretty much year round in our region. This prevents early spoilage and mould which can happen quickly with these temperatures and humidity.
Also, the fresh taste of an orange straight from the cool fridge is the best! Yay!
Now onto our December Seasonal Updates....
On our farm
I'm always surprised that we can grow anything in this hot weather 😁 Nature is really amazing. While some things suffer through the heat of summer, other things grow like wild! This season is no exception. Our vast range of leafy greens starts reducing at this time of year, leaving our ever abundant Leafy Cut Salad Mix, Cos Lettuce, some Coriander, Parsley, a few Choi and Head Lettuce. Soon the bugs will start enjoying their fill of Choi, but our Salad especially should run through the summer if the rains play nicely.
Over on our second farm (also at Woombye), our Cucumbers and Zucchini are producing in bulk (I'm thinking of a yummy salad for lunch with some spiralised Zucchini in it!).
Interestingly Zucchini can literally double in size in the space of a day or even less, meaning if we miss harvesting it one day (the Zucchini might be hiding under those scratching leaves), the next time we go through it will be a jumbo size!
Our Watermelon, Capsicum and Eggplant should be ready in the coming few weeks!
Overall the farm also enjoys lots of cover cropping for soil regeneration at this time of year too. It's like a little chance for it to breathe out and rest for a while before we all get ready to grow lots of yummy leafy greens again in a few months.
Veggies
Summer vibes often means less veggies in favour of salads, and the overall variety of veg reduces when the weather heats up. We're pretty lucky to work with a bunch of organic farms directly across the state and further south, who at times can fill in the gaps in terms of supply when things change in the seasons.
Sadly, our friends down south have had a tough start to their season becasue of extreme rainfall, meaning there will likely be shortages of Broccoli, Cabbages, Beetroot, Cauliflower, and leafy greens (Kale, Silverbeet and more). Hopefully the weather improves for them soon. At this stage we are still seeing good supply of staples like Carrots & Potatoes, however Sweet Potato and Pumpkin are limited.
Green Beans have become limited, along with Asparagus, and Baby Broccoli. Onions should become better quality as the weather and paddocks dry out, and we are still enjoying lots of Celery, although it does seem to be a bit on the skinny side it still produces great juice yield and tastes crisp with some almond butter on top. Finally, Corn should start to become available this week or next - yay!
Fruit
This is where things get very exciting! We have so many yummy fruits available and more on their way! Oranges are super juicy and fresh, as are Lemons -perfect for a little start to the day pick me up or squeezed over a fresh zingy salad with some feta. Mangoes continue to fill our fridges and bellies, so much so I'm thinking of trying a Mango fruit roll up for a sweet little holiday treat.
Watermelon have been the star of the show. We've been getting a couple of varieties including these sweet little "personal" melons, the perfect size for the family to enjoy - or just yourself ;) Blueberries have started making an appearance in time for the Christmas Pavlova boards, fingers crossed decent priced Strawberries won't be too far away either.
Stonefruit such as Nectarines, Peaches and Plums are becoming available however as they are early season they're not super tasty yet. They are also priced a bit too high for our liking too. Cherries too are appearing but at astronomical prices unfortunately (more than 2.5 times the usual price). Here's hoping that pricing and supply changes in time for Christmas. At this time of year our Apples move to southern supply from cooler climates until the new season starts in Stanthorpe again early next year. This may mean a change in varieties available so more on that soon. We are also looking forward to Grapes soon too!
Phew! That's a lot to keep up with! Remember if you ever need to know more about seasonality just shoot us a message either via socials, on the web chat, email us (boxes@goodharvest.com.au), or ask one of our super smiley market crew.
Thanks so much for helping us to grow together today for a healthier tomorrow.
Much love
Kel x
