This week’s boxes really feature Old School Farm, a farming collective located in picturesque Preston in the north-west of Tasmania. In addition to white cauliflower and cabbage, $20 and $30 boxes include some lovely mixed kale varieties and $40 box customers are very lucky to have purple cauliflower – we’ve always been on the lookout for special cauliflower varieties but have never been able to source anything like the quantity required to use them in boxes before.
$40 boxes also include cipollini onions (a mix of yellow and red) from New Tile Farm, split between properties in Hagley and Sassafras chosen for particular growing conditions. Cipollini onions have a characteristically flat shape, but their main claim to fame is the significantly higher sugar content that makes them perfect for applications like caramelised onions and roasting whole. We’re pretty excited to be trying them out ourselves, and the local chefs we supply have been snapping them up enthusiastically too!
Nicky, who supplied us with pumpkin, potatoes, broad beans and green tomatoes last season, has had a rather bad start to the year – whilst the Maydena farm escaped the ravages of the recent bushfires, the combined impact of the smoke on crops and the disruption to planting has really limited how much he’s been able to harvest, and sadly he won’t be able to supply us with any of his delicious pumpkins this year. However, we have been able to share his broad bean crop around $30 boxes this week, and we may also be including other produce from the farm later in the season.
