December Produce Swappers Newsletter
This coming Sunday, 15th of December, is our final produce swap for the year. Where did that go?!
The November swap was bountiful as usual with offerings such as rhubarb, citrus, an assortment of home-saved seeds, eggs, herbs, broad beans, edible flowers and lush herbs and greens. Colleen and Brian once again brought us some of their gorgeous duck eggs and Jess donated some home-grown heirloom seedlings of watermelon, capsicum and eggplant.
If you are interested in volunteering on the stall we are looking for helpers so please feel free to sign yourself up to any shift on our roster.
Alternatively you can let me know at evearchbold@gmail.com and I will pop you on to the roster.
Something we are noticing is that, while everyone has been extremely generous in giving their wonderful produce, people seem shy to take much in return. On Sunday let’s encourage everyone to be more bold!
Rhubarb is still going strong at the moment and there are some great recipes around for rhubarb champagne. Great for the warm weather and festive season. The one that I am using this year is from Pip Permaculture.
A few people have been wondering how to use duck eggs. They are famed for their use in cakes and especially meringues and pavlovas (Hello Christmas!).
Alliums are definitely hogging the spotlight at this time of the year: garlic has just been harvested, onions are responding to the longer days by forming their fat bulbs, Russian garlic (also known as elephant garlic) is sending up implausibly high flowering stems while chives and garlic chives are at peak deliciousness. Egyptian walking onions are flowering and beginning to form baby onions in their flower heads. These will later weigh the stems down enough to bend to the ground, allowing them to plant themselves– thus ‘walking’ themselves into new locations. *If they are ready I will bring some walking onion bulbs to the swap next week and also some white bunching onions, another perennial allium that I wouldn’t be without in the garden.
If you happen to have a gigantic harvest of homegrown garlic and want to make a celebratory dish then this is the one.
I know, I know, another Ottolenghi recipe but, well, I can't guarantee that it will be the last.
IN THE GARDEN:
It’s been a difficult start to the season with some late frosts and unpredictable weather. Hopefully everyone managed to nurse their summer seedling through. Prime tomato planting time is behind us, however the bush (determinate) varieties can still be popped in now as advanced seedlings and pumpkins such as the bush variety Gold Nugget will still produce a crop in our shorter Malmsbury growing season. If you tried cucumbers or zucchinis from punnets early on and have lost them you can try direct sowing now as the soil has begun to warm up and they will germinate quickly. They respond especially well to a generous serve of compost mixed into their planting hole.
PLANT:
Cucumbers, celery, Brussels sprouts*, tomato (advanced seedlings of bush varieties), chillies (advanced seedlings only), kale, eggplant (advanced seedlings only), zucchini, sweetcorn and maize, summer broccoli, silverbeet, lettuce, climbing (Egyptian/Malabar) spinach, perpetual spinach, zucchini, late potatoes.
SOW:
Bush and climbing beans, beetroot, summer broccoli, carrot, cauliflower (ready for planting out in Jan – Autumn harvest), celery, eggplant, kale, leek, lettuce, salad onion, parsnip, pumpkin (too late for the larger varieties but Butternut and bush varieties such as Gold Nugget can be planted now straight into the garden), radish, swede, sweetcorn and maize, turnip and zucchini.
*The key to successful Brussels sprout growing in our area is very fertile soil AND most importantly, timing. They need a long stint of growing to establish the plant before autumn and winter. You want the ‘sprouts’ to form in the colder weather, slowly, on an established plant which means putting them in way before a cool change gets you thinking about brassicas.
Thanks and happy swapping everyone!
Novenber Produce Swap at the Malmsbury Farmers Market - 3rd Sunday of each month.