Food brings people together in many ways, but for me almost the most important is sharing of the cooking process, especially preparation of fruit and vegetables where many hands really do make light work! I cry a little inside when I see bags of pre-cut onions at supermarkets (especially when they’re not so much cut as hacked to oblivion), although acknowledge that cutting them without welling up requires a little practice; but one thing that virtually anyone with fingers can do, whatever the age, is shelling peas. Peas really have a short season, especially in Tasmania, so they’re really something to enjoy while they’re available, and even better to buy in bulk or grow them yourself and freeze them for the rest of the year. We’ve been lucky enough to get a heap of peas this week from Matt & Ruth at Elphin Grove, lovingly handpicked by Matt’s junior Rugby team (who would have thought teenage boys would be capable of such delicate and exacting work!) – if you’d like some for your freezer, we can do 10kg lots for $55 (or you could buy them for $9/kg elsewhere…)
We’re also really pleased to have more produce to include from the lovely George & Hilary from Grown for Taste, who use a unique system of raised beds in poly-tunnels, in which the plants are drip-fed the exact nutrients they need so the plants are healthy enough to keep disease and pests at bay mostly left to their own devices. This week organic boxes get a real treat – delicious eggplant and heirloom tomatoes from GfT, along with certified organic beetroot, broccoli and cauliflower from Seven Springs Farm. Large organic boxes also get a punnet of organic strawberries from Longley Organic Farm, making them the only boxes this week to receive fruit – unfortunately issues with the weather have resulted in Jennings having to stop picking for the local market until the situation improves (we’re working on other fruit options for next week’s boxes if the strawberry drought continues.)
We’re also really excited to have the first of Brandsema’s red capsicums in boxes this week – they look absolutely beautiful – along with more of their delicious cucumbers, tomatoes and eggplant. The smell of freshly baked sourdough bread from Philadelphia Bakers, tomatoes and basil at the warehouse this morning was definitely intoxicating!
