As part of our journey we are embarking on a new venture to share our passions with our nearest, our dearest and any who enjoy stories of fresh produce, good food, and other related adventures. We warn you in advance, there may be references to knitting, woodwork, and other creative enterprises.
We will try to post at least once a week, and the main thread of our story will revolve around any fresh produce we can source and the various scrumptious ways in which it can be prepared (and when we say fresh, we mean grown with one hundred kilometres or so of where we live, and purchased from the growers - no mention of certain monopolising grocery chains here!
I should also point out that as we are great animal lovers and have no desire to satisfy our pensive palates with their deaths, we shall be exhibiting purely vegetarian adventures.
And so we begin...
This morning our intrepid adventurers ventured out early in order to catch the worm. Our first stop - Oberon Farmer's Market, held on the first Saturday of each month between 8:00 and 12:00. Although we have not yet moved to Portland, we wanted to 'preview' the kinds of things we wanted to be doing more regularly.
Catherine had high hopes of mountains of fresh produce. This was the country, was it not? Oberon is surrounded by farmland isn't it? I have to admit, at first sight I was somewhat disappointed. There were perhaps seven or eight portable gazebos and a severe lack of 'mountains of fresh produce'. I was however somewhat premature. There were two local wine producers which we skipped (as I don't like wine - I know, I'm a philistine - and Cath is in a delicate condition), a man who sold furniture and objets d'art of undressed timber - which I want to learn to build myself and the 'Marmalady' who had disproportionate amounts of pickles. We did nevertheless strike gold!
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| Our First Fresh Haul |
- A kilogram of fresh peas
- A beautifully green bunch of silverbeet
- 4 different varieties of potato
- Blueberries and raspberries
- Fresh farm eggs
Thus we have the inspiration! On the menu? Fritatta with spinach and tomato salsa with fresh peas.
The potatoes were the fun variety - yellow, white, pink and blue. I'm sure Cath knows the actual names.
As you can see, when sliced the colours run straight through. Fry up some onions with some fake bacon and parboil the potatoes for five minutes. Layer the potatoes with the onions and bacon mixed in and pour the egg mixture over the top, then bake in the oven and you end up with a delicious fritatta!
The potatoes add great texture and colour to the dish, and give you a great depth of flavour.
The salsa was very simple - some finely chopped onions, tomato paste and passata cooked together in the skillet, with silverbeet shredded and withered into the sauce.
The peas were so fresh as to be awesomely sweet even raw. They were blanched in water with vege stock and then lightly stirred through with butter.
Here you see the final product. The rice dish on the side is a chili rice of Cath's own invention - a wonderfully fresh flavour with chopped celery and spring onions.
A very satisfying end to the day!
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