Mudgee Farmer's markets

Owing to the fact that I am almost certainly slightly unbalanced in my endless search for fresh produce, today was the day that 'Mudgee farmer's markets' was circled in red texta on my calender. So, waking bright and early (sorry Brett), we showered, packed breakfast sandwiches (a must when one has to do a market run) and drove 97km to Mudgee along the Castlereagh Highway.
Having settled the internal disco of my little womb aquanaut with breakfast we oohed and aahed at the impossibly green scenery while I grinned at the flutters of delighted anticipation that always accompany Market foraging expeditions!
We arrived at St. Mary's catholic church grounds at about 9.30am and after squeezing my bump out of a narrow parking space, I trotted merrily towards the promising mass of summer-clad market-goers.
Hmmm. There was a community stall (produce-swap) with pig-fodder zucchini, -you know the ones that are the size of a small minibus, vietnamese mint and some fairly interesting tomatoes, a stall dedicated to potatoes (only two varieties), and a woman with a mouth-watering display of mediterranean produce (tomatoes, basil, capsicum and cucumbers). Other than that, a few butternut pumpkins and an endless variety of breads, pickles, jams and a singular purveyor of Goat's cheese products.
My plans of stocking up on summer veg for the week were somewhat curtailed...

 This was the final haul (along with some locally made sourdough...I didn't include it in the picture because (a) I forgot, and (b) I tucked into it as soon as we got home with some cheese and pickles for lunch. Delish!
I was more than happy to buy from this producer as unlike the recent Bathurst market fiasco, I believed that this was a selection they has definitely grown themselves. Small range, seasonal and logical that one family would concentrate on mediterranean veg that grow well under the same conditions. Adding to my demand for authenticity, some of the toms were split due to the ridiculous levels of rain we've been getting lately. No matter, I had plans for these beauties!

 Step 1: Preheat oven (with dodgy seal) to 150 degrees and chop tomatoes in half. Add olive oil, garlic bulb, sea salt and cracked black pepper and roast slowly for 2 hrs..(oh the smell of roasting fresh tomatoes and garlic! Heaven in a whiff:-)
Note: Dodgy oven seal not essential for cooking process, just one of the many joys of rental properties...

 Step 2: Add roasted tomatoes to 1/2 a red onion, 1 peeled apple, roasted garlic cloves, a generous handful of fresh basil, salt and pepper and half a left-over aubergine and 1/2 a litre of homemade stock and bring to the boil. Leave on a low simmer whilst taking a pregnancy-induced nanna nap for about 45 minutes. During this time a series of impressive storms rages outside while the tomatoey gooey goodness fills the house with a smell directly from heaven/nirvana/elysium/idyllic-afterlife-of-choice.

Step 3: Whiz in food processor with 1/3 cup commercial tomato ketchup and add seasoning to taste. Bottle in sterilized jars and feel terribly clever that 4 future meals are taken care of!
This meal will be a simple but terrifically wholesome and tasty combo of homemeade sauce tossed through wholemeal pasta with finely grated pecorino in its first incarnation, but may evolve into a lasagne, a moussaka and a casserole as the week rolls by.

Not that I want to finish on a down-note, but the rest of the weekly veg rations had to be sourced from...grrr...Coles. If they weren't constantly getting Mr-charmingchef-Curtis to bang on about their 'freshness guarantee' every 2 seconds, I'd be less furious at the patent lack of freshness that greets me from their sorry and pathetic displays. I mean seriously, zucchini (for example) is IN SEASON. There is no excuse for the 3 week old nobbly and withered items that greetd me today. In a fit of the aforementioned slightly unbalanced obsession with fresh produce I wrote and expressed my fury to the company. Humph. At least my future plans for a thriving market garden around my straw-bale house have been given new vigour!

Bathurst Farmer's Markets

So, it was out of bed nice and early yesterday to get to the monthly Bathurst farmer's markets. It was something of a contrast to the Oberon offerings a couple of weeks ago, but possibly not in the way you'd expect. Yes, we were greeted by mountains of produce and many many stalls, but I couldn't help noticing on the 'reconnaisance' round, that some of the stallholders were being quite naughty with what they were promoting as 'fresh'...particularly one elderly Italian couple who kept assuring me every 30 seconds as I perused their stall that 'everything fresh this morning!'...I harumphed internally and walked firmly away from the yellowing tops of their spring onions, shrivelled zucchini and other sub-standard offerings.

 I am incredibly annoyed by this particular phenomenon. I object to people trying to hoodwink me into buying unseasonal, non-local and aging produce (and charging a pretty penny for the privelege!). I go to markets to buy seasonal fresh produce from the grower. I don't expect strawberries in winter or even a vast variety on offer from each stall. Each display that looks suspiciously like a greengrocer should usually be avoided. They didn't grow all that, and chances are, they don't know who did. Kudos then to the lady and her son selling only tomatoes and various capsicum varieties, the cackleberry man, the lovely oferings from the berry farm and stone-fruits stalls, and the small but delightful organic veg and jams/pickles stall.

Despite my disappointment in the rapidly disappearing virtue of honesty in humanity, we did come away with a great haul this week! Free range organic eggs, blueberries, sweetcorn, kale, carrots, patty-pan squash, green beans, cauliflower, cabbage, onions, broccoli and banana capsicum.

Due to a certain foetal person causing me some discomfort, the meal derived from the above was pretty simple, but absolutely delicious! With actual fresh produce, the flavours are so zingy and intense that simplicity in preparation is always the best way to go.

So, corn fritters it was (Stephanie Alexander's recipe). The really special thing about these chaps is their fluffy consistency and crunchy golden outsides...due to frying them in clarified butter..eek! I decided to serve them with a simple fresh vegetable medley of carrots, zucchini, squash and broccoli simply drizzled in a white sauce. Honestly the simplest meal I've cooked in ages, but from Brett's various appreciative noises...a success:-)

The other adventure of the day was to make a spicy rich plum sauce from the mountain of Satsuma plums given to me by our neighbour, Betty. They're under-ripe but she's determined to get them all off the tree before the impressively large flock of cockatoos decimates the lot. Of course, no sooner had I put the sauce on than another bag of Betty-plums arrived courtesy of her son (our Landlord!)...yep, it's all a bit scary :-)
This is a very simple recipe but creates such a gorgeous rich sauce, it's worth the effort. Plums, cloves, allspice, peppercorns, brown sugar, salt, fresh ginger, chilli and white wine vinegar. You tie the spices in muslin bags (or in my case...Chux...don't worry, they do the same job), smash a few plum stones into another bag and boil for 2 hrs before a quick whiz in the food processor and then carefully

 funnel into cleaned and sterilized jars...carefully! This stuff is lava-hot! So, I now have plum sauce that I have no idea what to do with. Usually plum sauce is a great buddy to red meat dishes, especially as a glaze for a roast or a marinade for a BBQ...Hmm, maybe my best option is to just give them away to my friends and family? Any vegetarian plum-sauce suggestions gratefully received, I would like to try at least one jar ourselves:-). Oh, and before some bright-spark suggests selling them at my own Farmer's market stall,-this place is crawling with plum trees. Plums are bloody everywhere and I rather suspect that most women out here make their own plum sauce/jam and that a stall venture might be rather akin to selling ice to eskimos:-)

Portland Produce

We are here! Finally we have arrived in Portland, and are beginning the next phase of our life.
The DEC paid for removalists for us, and they did a great job, but it was a two day job which left some logistical problems - specifically, our neurotic cat. After climbing through the dust and detritus under the house I finally lured her forth, and proceeded to break the painstakingly built trust between us by shoving her unceremoniously into her catbox. Cath's mother was called and an emergency trip to Portland organised so that we could keep Nimue under controlled circumstances. She moves very well, for a cat, but we are always nervous about it for a couple of days. I stayed and 'supervised' the removalists, and then headed up to Portland. Thankfully the truck driver graciously offered to drop off Cath's bed on his way to the depot.
Our first night - one bed, one lounge, two sleeping bags and an irate cat. It was like camping but without the sense of achievement.
6:45 am and we were off again. We removed part of the fence to get access for the truck and started unloading. We are now mostly unpacked except for the garage and of course our books. We donated about half of them and yet we still don't seem to have enough bookshelves.
On to more interesting things -
I have been working like a bastard to get the garden in for Cath, as she is constitutionally incapable of living in a house without a garden. We still have a long way to go, but the start has been made.
Steve from Portland Produce is our new best friend. He organised our gas cylinders for us, sold us fertiliser and mulch and is always on for a bit of a jaw. Country people so far are very polite and friendly (Except the guy who walked into the supermarket shirtless with a shaved head and swastikas tattooed all over him. I mean it, there were at least five. I'm JEWISH for crying out loud, of course I was upset!).

 This is the terraced area which we are converting to vegetable gardens. This is the before shot obviously. After about 6 hours work, 90 kilograms of fertiliser and half a bale of sugar can mulch it now looks like:

Obviously, for growing vegetables, this is better. We are hoping for a harvest of:

• Carrots
• Onions
• Broccoli
• Beetroot
• Brussels Sprouts
• Cauliflower
• Peas
• Celery

We have also planted Marigolds and Salvia to help confuse the bad bugs. Good bugs, like bees, will hopefully figure it out.

We have also planted a welcome garden by the front gate.

In this garden we have planted:

• Lavender
• Purple Easter Daisies
• Pink Butterfly Bush
• Alyssum
• A nice plant with bright red flowers whose name eludes me
• Flowering Thyme
• Kale and Parsley Seeds

These last two are because Cath cannot handle having a garden that doesn't have vegetables or herbs in it.

We also replanted a rose that was folornly stuck in the middle of this area when it was grass, and Stevia.

Stevia is an awesome herb that tastes like honey. I have a dream one day of making Stevia and Mint icecream. YUM!

We also have a birdbath. We've had it for three or four years now. I've never seen a bird in it. Maybe...one day...

What I think about what you think about veganism

OK. This is a reactionary post. I'll just admit it before I get started! It is my response to this blog:
http://famishedfox.blogspot.com/2012/01/here-is-what-i-think-about-veganism-and.html

Although I agree with this lass on many things (the barbaric treatment of animals for instance), I found many of her claims ridiculous and even downright misinformed. Although I am not vegan (merely vegetarian), a well-balanced vegan diet has been proven again and again in medical research to provide adequate nutrition, as well as having a high statistical correlation with the reduced incidence of many of our 'diseases of affluence'.

The Fat-Soluble Vitamins A,D,E,K.
The author implied that these essential micronutrients were absent in a vegan diet.
Vitamin A (as retinyl esters) are only found in animal products but vitamin A precursors are the carotenoids found in brightly coloured vegetables. Vegan bodies can indeed produce enough vitamin A through the conversion of carotenoids, but must eat far higher amounts (12:1 ratio).
Vitamin D is not really a vitamin as such, more a hormone that is synthesized by the body in reaction to sunlight exposure. 10 minutes 3x a week outdoors is more than sufficient for most people. In fact, Vitamin D toxicity is far more prevalent than Vitamin D deficiency.
Vitamin E comes primarily from vegetable oils.
Vitamin K is made in the GI tract by bacteria then stored in the liver. This process provides about half of what we need, the rest can easily be supplied by leafy green vegetables, and vegetables of the brassica family (cabbage, kale, brussels sprouts etc) easily.

'Saturated fat and cholesterol are extremely healthy to eat and essential for human life".


 Saturated fat, or low density lipoproteins have had such a vast body of research dedicated to them, that surely I don't need to repeat their horrors here? WHO nutrition recommendations include " reducing saturated fats and increasing Omega-3 fatty acids"....but what would they know?....
Maybe she meant mono and polyunsaturated fats? These are indeed extremely important to health (not least, the transport and utilisation of fat-soluble vitamins).
Omega-6: vegetable oils (corn, safflower, sunflower, cottonseed), nuts, seeds (pumpkin, sunflower)
Omega-3: Oils (flaxseed, canola, walnut, wheatgerm), Walnuts, flaxseeds, soybeans

Saturated and trans fats raise blood cholesterol.*1


Cholesterol
 The liver manufactures cholesterol from fragments of carbohydrate, protein and fat. Endogenous cholesterol (that manufactured by the liver) = 800-1500mg per day. Our need for exogenous cholesterol sources is therefore less than 300mg/day.

The famous Framingham Heart Study*(2) found that;
* excess fat & cholesterol in food caused a rise in blood cholesterol
* excess fat and cholesterol consumption caused atherosclerosis
* high blood cholesterol might predict and/or cause heart disease
* most of the world's population didn't have heart disease, and those heart disease-free cultures had radically different dietary patterns, consuming far less fat and cholesterol.

"Americans dutifully reduced saturated fat and cholesterol in their diets....Heart disease and cancer now abound".


I think there's a confusion here between correlation and cause. Virtually all of the diet related conditions encountered in developed countries like Australia and America have a multi-faceted aetiology of which diet is only one possible contributory factor and not a necessary cause. (*3)
While it is true that meat consumption, for example has fallen, the consumption of Energy dense, rather than Nutrient dense foods has skyrocketed, exercise levels have decreased and the consumption of chemical additives has grown enormously thanks to processing and packaging. To imply that Heart Disease and Cancer are a direct result of a reduction in saturated fat/dietary cholesterol alone is poor reasoning at best, lazy science, and downright dangerous at worst.

I am in total agreement about the disgusting monopoly of companies like monsanto, but it should be remembered that the vast majority of soybeans are grown to feed animals in factory lots, NOT (as is implied) to satisfy the vast quaffings of soy products in vegans/vegetarians.

In conclusion, I suggest that the author take her own advice and "think" a little harder. Some of this thinking would be well-directed toward research.

1. Rutishauer, I.H.E (2002) Nutrition assessment and monitoring. In M.L. Wahlqvist (ed) Australia and New Zealand food and nutrition (p499). Sydney; Allen and Unwin
2. Morrison, L.M. Ateriosclerosis. JAMA 145 (1951) 1232-1236
3. Fieldhouse, P. (1996) Food and Nutrition. Customs and Culture (2nd Ed, p 122). London; Chapman and Hall.

Fun with grains

This entry is mainly due to a request for the Broccoli Polenta recipe. If you haven't tried this yet, do yourself a favour! The broccoli gives the polenta a gorgeous texture and a sweet, nutty taste. It's great served with a marinara or Puttanesca sauce, or just aside proteins instead of rice or mashed potato. For extra oomph, you could add finely grated parmesan and chilli flakes to taste, but in my humble opinion, it works beautifully as it is. There are about a gazillion clever molding and cooking methods to decide between here too!

* Grease empty clean tin-cans and press mix in. Refrigerate for 2 hours, then slice into 2 inch rounds and griddle...or even worse, crumb and shallow fry:-)
* Grease a muffin tin, spoon mixture in, refrigerate for an hour and bake at 180 degrees for 10-15 mins.
*Grease a square cake tin and spoon in mixture. Refrigerate for an hour and then cut into squares/rectangles/triangles and griddle or char-grill.
* Serve as is (after boiling) for a more traditional soft polenta mash.

Personally, I usually cut and griddle as I have a penchant for lovely griddle lines on the finished product, and using my endlessly awesome George Foreman grill means I get the prettiness with no added fat!
Anyway. anyway, the recipe!

BROCCOLI POLENTA
Original recipe from "The Veganomicon" (Moskowitz & Romero 2007).


Serves 4-6

3 1/2 cups vegetable broth or water
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup polenta
2 tbsps olive oil
4 cups very well-chopped broccoli, stalks, florets and leaves (if you can get them).

Bring the water and salt to a boil in a medium saucepan. Add the polenta in a slow, steady stream, mixing with a whisk as you pour it. Add the broccoli and olive oil, and reduce heat to low. Beware hot lava-esque spatters!  Cover and let simmer for 15 minutes, stirring often. Turn off the heat and let sit for 10 more minutes, stirring once or twice. Refrigerate as per chosen method.

I'm only including the Chilli Rice recipe because I rediscovered it yesterday and am currently in obsessive throes. It's spicy, crunchy, flavourful, extremely nutritious (B-vitamins galore, thiamin, fibre) and has absolutely zero fat content. If you're worried about salt, just use a low-sodium soy sauce instead of the full throttle variety. I have been known to have this for breakfast, lunch and dinner :-)

CHILLI RICE


Serves 4


1 cup brown rice
4 tbsp Savoury/Nutritional Yeast Flakes (you can find these in most health food stores)
2 tsp chilli flakes or 2 small fresh chillies, finely chopped
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tbsp soy sauce
2 tsp massel chicken stock
3 cups water
2 celery stalks, finely chopped
2 shallotts/spring onions finely chopped

Add all ingredients bar celery and spring onions to a microwave safe pyrex bowl and nuke for approximately 30 minutes (depending on your microwave power). leave to sit for 5 mins then add celery and spring onions.
If you want a touch of naughty (and who doesn't?), add 1/3 cup of crushed peanuts to the mix. Yes, it ups the fat content, but it also ups the Omigod-that's-delicious factor considerably :-). if you'd like to add some serious calcium with your fat, substitute the same quantity of roasted sesame seeds (crushed). I will often just serve this with steamed bok choy or gai lan with 3-2-1 sauce...(3 tbsp soy, 2 tbsp mirin, 1 tbsp brown sugar) and as I usually add 2 tbsp of roasted sesame seeds to the sauce, I skip it in the rice.

And So It Begins...

Catherine and Brett will shortly be packing their bags and fleeing the rat race to settle in the tiny village of Portland, NSW. The move is motivated by the desire for a simpler life, a new teaching job for Brett and a country upbringing for our impending joy, Gabriel.
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!

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!

Quitting, babies, IVF and making the best of it.

It's a "Spring thing", I'm sure of it.
Statistically speaking, more people make large changes in their lives during spring than in any other season. So,...at the risk of repeating myself, Monday (tomorrow) is the day of saying goodbye to the cigarettes, the day of getting our bodies healthy for IVF treatment in January, the day of saving cigarette $$ towards new house and most importantly, the day of reclaiming myself.
Uni is finished for the year so I quite literally only have to worry about going to work and coming home each day.
The major reduction in stress-load should mean I have time to clean, to cook, to garden and to walk...this is the plan at least...
This afternoon I shall remove all uni materials from sight, re-make beds, and clean the house. It's not nearly as much fun in this abode though. In the marvellous old days of being "Burra-folk" cleaning the house and cooking was sheer unadulterated pleasure. Here, it's something that has to be done. period.
Oh how I yearn for our old house and garden. It's a grief.
This garden must be fought with every inch of the way. No beautiful surprises in the garden. What is there is only there because I put it in. No surprise saffron-caps in autumn, no pear-tree theatre, no enormous garden beds bursting forth with veges and vines. No, I am not happy in this property. I don't sparkle and there is no room for quilting, entertaining, or quiet contemplation. There is no fire, no gently sloping garden curves, no happpiness.
Perhaps this is what they call "despair"...?