Tag Archives: eating seasonally

Loving Spring

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Loving…

Noticing the tomato plants, poke their head up again, after a brief winters sleep.

Stopping to actually chew food rather than gulp. Who knew that could be so enjoyable.

And adventures.

New adventures. While this space will keep quietly ticking on over, I’ll also be over on insta, hopefully giving a sneaky peak into a few other things that are also happening.

Loving…

The soft scent of spring in the air, the air not as cold. Growing surprise jasmine that along with wild freesias, completely infiltrates the house with its soft fragrance.

New blossoms growing from sleepy branches.

And bees, so many bees. Get the morning light right, stand still and watch the whole garden come alive with tiny buzz of busy insects.

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[“Often life’s pleasures pass us by simply because we don’t take a moment to focus on them… Make a point of noticing everyday something that uplifts your spirit or tickles your heart… Stop to breathe in the joy of this moment and then tell someone about it. Share your joy and revel in it. When your joy is savoured, and then shared, it is magnified…” ROBIN GRILLE]

Pumpkin and Jerusalem Artichoke Soup- ELC #6

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pumpkin and jerusalem artichoke soup || cityhippyfarmgirlOn a weekend out of the city recently, there was talk of visiting a local farmers market. I quite like talk like that, even if I’m the one who initiates the talk (ahem).

So to market we went. Buying up on some lovely locally grown organic vegetables, a succulent for $2, and a chopping board. Now I’d been on the look out for a little board quite awhile now. Time was passing, calendar pages were changing their years and still, I hadn’t found quite the ‘right’ board. I knew they were easy enough to make, but I just didn’t have access to any decent wood.

Then I came across ‘The Man at the Markets’, a man who who knew his chopping boards, and every tiny piece of the different woods behind them. After a general chit chat about the weather and the local area, we started talking about the boards he had for sale. Giving each one a run down on the type of wood it was and how to look after them, and what I was going to do with it.

It was this little one that caught my eye though, asking him about it, it turns out it was from an old skirting board from an equally old house just a short distance away from the markets. You can still see the nail holes if you look closely.

It seems I had found my board. It was locally made, recycled, looked good and seemed to fit pretty well with the pumpkin soup I had planned to serve with it. (What type of wood it is, I’m embarrassed to say I have no idea. The man did tell me, but it seems I forgot as soon as I stepped out of the market area….lovely wood I think it’s called now.)

pumpkin and jerusalem artichoke soup || cityhippyfarmgirl

Where is my food coming from?

Pumpkin- Red Bank, Eurobodalla

Jerusalem Artichoke- (Crave Natural, Apple Tree Flat)

Creme Fraiche- (Pepe Saya, Sydney)

 Interested in taking the challenge?

Just how local is local? Well this depends entirely on you. Only you know how you and your family eat. Raise the bar just a little from what you already do. If making sure the majority of your meal includes solely food produced in your country, than make that your challenge. If you want to make it a little trickier, go for produced in the same state…trickier still within 160km.

My aim is to really know where my food is coming from for at least one meal a month, (where I will be posting here in the last week of the month).

Eat Local Challenge #5

Eat Local Challenge #4

Eat Local Challenge #3

Eat Local Challenge #2

Eat Local Challenge #1

eat local challenge || cityhippyfarmgirl

Eat Local Challenge #3

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corn and chilli || cityhippyfarmgirl

corn || cityhippyfarmgirlCorn, chilli and lime.

It’s a cracker of a combination, and that’s a known fact. But the issue was I needed a little butter or something like it to get the finely chopped chilli to stick onto the corn. I didn’t have any and refused to step outside my Eat Local Challenge so I was left with…

1/ squeeze the lime juice on the corn and nibble delicate little pieces of chilli off at each mouthful…hmmm, not a great idea. I like my food hot but these little chillies are quite beastly on their own.

2/ I could finely, finely chop them and roll the corn in it, hoping some would stick.

3/ I could delicately drape the chilli over the corn, admire the contrasting colours and then push my hot little garnish to the side. Yep, I’ll do that. (On thinking later, I should have cut the chilli and gently rubbed it over the corn cob. It would have given the bites a little zing, but not the kick in the pants that a big one would have given.)

So with the corn sorted, what did I have left? While I do love corn, there still needed to be a little something else to the plate.

Eat Local challenge || cityhippyfarmgirlTo avoid a line up of wrinkled noses and pouty lips I didn’t bother serving this one to the rest of the family. Brussel sprouts is an acquired taste it seems and every one in this household? Well, they haven’t acquired it yet.

So what’s on the menu and where is it from?

Brussel sprouts- Kurrawong Organics, Kirkconnel (175km)

Radishes- Rita’s Farm, Kemp’s Creek (50km)

Granny Smith Apple- from Orange

Sheep’s Curd- Willowbrae, Chevre Cheese– Wilberforce.

Olive Oil- Lisborne Grove, Hunter Valley

Eat Local challenge|| cityhippyfarmgirl

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How about you? Interested in taking the challenge?

Just how local is local? Well this depends entirely on you. Only you know how you and your family eat. Raise the bar just a little from what you already do. If making sure the majority of your meal includes solely food produced in your country, than make that your challenge. If you want to make it a little trickier, go for produced in the same state…trickier still within 160km.

My aim is to really know where my food is coming from for at least one meal a month, (where I will be posting here in the last week of the month).

For Eat Local Challenge #1 see here.

For Eat Local Challenge #2 see here.

eat local challenge || cityhippyfarmgirl

Cauliflower, Leek and Potato soup- Frugal Friday

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cauliflower leek and potato soup

If I had opened our vegetable box as a kid, and seen cauliflower looking right back at me- I may well have wept a little.

At the very least I probably would have silently gagged.

Not now though. Now, when I see a little cauliflower peeking from a corner, in the Foodconnect box I do a little happy dance. I can’t get enough of it. Teamed up with some leek and potatoes also from the box, (and locally grown) you have yourself an easy peasy seasonal dinner. 

Cauliflower, Leek and Potato Soup

one chopped large leek

3 chopped large potatoes

half a head of a large cauliflower

1 vegetable stock cube

about 500mls water

salt and pepper to taste

Saute leeks in a couple of good slugs of olive oil, then the rest of the ingredients and cook until soft. Then blitz, with a hand held mixer.

Serve with pangritata and capsicum chilli sauce.

cauliflower, leek and potato soup

(Remarkably similar to last years cauliflower and potato soup…that’s seasonal eating for you!)

Sydney Sustainable Markets

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A hot sun is out, city traffic is building, and bleary eyed Friday night clubbers are slowly making their way home. It’s Saturday morning and Taylor Square has been transformed to it’s weekly sustainable markets. It’s not the biggest market around, but it has plenty of options for creating oodles of deliciousness for your dinner table, (and your it sure beats doing your Saturday morning shop in a supermarket.)

Seasonal, local, sustainable, organic…it’s all there.

 

Each stall holder has a sign showing who they are where they are from and how far their food has come.

A communal space to meet friends for a coffee, eat a little bakery goodness, read the paper and then go home with all your fresh food.

This rice is delicious. If anyone thinks that rice is rice, and there really isn’t much of a taste difference. Well they are wrong. I’m hooked on the Koshihikari rice at the moment. Yes, it’s more expensive than your supermarket rice, but it’s fresh, grown within the same state, hasn’t been stored for lengthy periods, it’s organic, and all from a family run business. That’s quite a lot to like isn’t it.

Stall holders change a little from week to week, and this week The Urban Beehive was back again. The taste comparison between a general commercial honey and this stuff is rather big. There are hives dotted all around Sydney, and within those hidden hives they make the most delicious honey. It really does wonders for my soul, drizzling some of the golden good stuff on to toast, knowing that this was created so close by. I can’t have my own backyard hive, so this really is the next best thing.

Sydney Sustainable Markets

Taylor Square

Saturday 8am-1pm

Summer Roasted Tomatoes- Frugal Friday

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Roasted Summer

some summery heirloom tomatoes chopped in half

a small roughly chopped eggplant

a few cloves of seasonal local garlic

some great local olive oil drizzled all over

pop in a few potatoes/ sweet potatoes if you feel like it

then roast at about 200C until it smells wonderful and looks how you want it.

Just before you finish the roasting add some

ripped up basil leaves

and sliced soft fresh mozzarella (not the salty waxy yellow type)

Eat with some chunks of sourdough for mopping up those juices.

Simple, seasonal, locally produced, frugal… oh and tasty.