Spring has really delivered this week! Old School Farm have sent down the first of their spring garlic – if you’re not familiar with the various stages of the life cycle of garlic, early harvest fresh garlic looks basically like spring onion, then it bulbs up and gets bigger, and finally the fully bulbed garlic is harvested and dried for storage (which is the only form most supermarkets stock it in). Along the way the “scapes” – a long shoot with the seed head on top – are also harvested; these are solid rather 
than the usual layered interior of aliums, and have a pointy end. The great thing about fresh spring garlic is you can use absolutely every bit of it (maybe minus the straggly roots at the bottom).
Brandsema’s capsicums and sweet angel tomatoes have started this week – again, very early – and Hills Hydroponics, who are a fairly short drive away from Brandsema, are back in full swing again after a fairly lean couple of months, and have sent down one of my favourite herbs, dill, along with watercress for $40 boxes! $40 boxes this week also feature some rather lovely purple sprouting broccoli from Richmond Farm, which we’re hoping might be something we can include in most boxes while it’s still in season.
