This coming Saturday we won’t be at Eveleigh Markets. Some pretty ordinary weather we had several weeks ago has caught up with us, meaning we’ve had a shortage of product, and won’t be able to make up enough for a stall. Just one of those things that happens sooner or later when you’re working at the whim of the weather!

Just because we won’t be at the market doesn’t mean we’ll be putting our feet up however! There’s plenty of weeding, planting, mixing, spreading, raking etc to be done. We’ll be back next weekend with all our usual delicious and healthy organic produce.

Just a reminder that after our short break over Christmas, the weekly Eveleigh Farmers’ Market will be returning tomorrow, the 16th of January.

Despite Michael’s best efforts, the Baby English Spinach has lived up to its reputation of being very difficult to raise in summer, and will be missing from our stall tomorrow. We will have the rest of the salads however: rocket, wild rocket, mesclun and spicy bags will be available.

New additions include red and green capsicums – perfect for those summer salads, and purple beans, yes the ones that turn green when cooked!

Did you know that we’re now moving into valencia season? If you’re craving navels however, we still have them in stock – just as huge and juicy as they have been all winter (and making delicious juice!)

We unfortunately won’t have our usual yummy mushrooms tomorrow, but expect to in coming weeks. Our basil is looking wonderful and we will have kale – both scotch and tuscan.

We will have most of our usual summer stock (view our produce list for typical lines) but importantly (to many of you) we WILL have avocados – despite shortages elsewhere making them quite rare!

We look forward to seeing all our regular customers tomorrow!

Here is a scan of a recent Express Advocate, Central Coast News article featuring Michael. It referenced his recent appearance at the Food Fairness Forums. (Click to the image to see it full-size)

We have some special additions to our market stall this Saturday: corn salad or mache lettuce. We have been using some of the leaves in our salads recently, and after an enquiry by a customer last Saturday have decided to bring some along this week to try out.

Mache lettuce, or lamb lettuce is a great variation on your regular salad greens, but much more than taste and variety alone, it’s incredibly healthy: “high in folate, vitamin C, A, K. Iron, fiber and more. It has a tender nutty flavour that most kids and adults love”. There is some good information available online which I can save you the trouble of finding yourself: some great recipes here, and from the same site, a bit more information.

Other market news: the heat has gotten to the bok choi and all we’ll have is a couple of heads and some very young shoots. There will be some good tat soi however, and if we’re lucky, some cauliflower heads too (if our neighbour is able to get some to us in time!). We will have some endive heads (which Michael informs me are Rhodes but I can’t find much about them – ask him in person tomorrow!)

We brought along some dandelion leaves (or red-ribbed chicory as they are otherwise known). They were also in the weeds special in the Good Living article that featured Michael last week. Unfortunately the nettles are almost done for the season but the chicory should be around a while longer.

We thought it would be nice to introduce you to the gang who run our Eveleigh Market stall each Saturday, so who better to start with than Katie!

Katie, also known as the Pierogi Princess, has become quite a celebrity at Eveleigh Markets… so much so that many of our fellow stall holders (such as Pat & Stick) refer to the Champion Organics stall simply as “the stall with Katie on”!

How did Katie end up working on the stall? Well, Michael Champion and Katie’s dad used to work together in London back in the 70s. Katie recently moved to Australia to study Art Theory @ COFA. Being a bit of a foodie and practically part of the family what better place for her to work than on Michael’s organic food stall!

Katie says her favourite CMO produce is definitely the blood orange juice (which she proudly squeezes herself!).

What does Katie like best about farmers markets? That would be chatting to all our customers about food and sharing recipes. In fact Katie promises she will blog some recipes shortly (isn’t that right Katie? ). A rhubarb compote recipe in fact, so keep an eye out for that! If you don’t see her recipes soon make sure you leave an encouraging comment on the blog, or give her a nudge next time you see her on the the stall.

So, now you know who Katie is, say hello next time you see her at Eveleigh!

Summer has come on very fast this year, and a lot of things are going straight to seed. Last week in particular, our cold winter days mixed with hot summer temperatures made a lot of our winter vegies – bok choi, lettuce and cime di rapa for instance – very unhappy.

Other winter veg that are ending soon are our nettles and Cavalo Nero kale, as they are going to seed as well. You’ll see some of the kale on our stall already have young heads growing, but if anything they are even more delicious. One of our customers said it was just like broccolini – tender and tasty.

The good news is that soon we’ll be able to start on our summer crops – zucchini and lots of tomatoes amongst other things will be planted soon and will be ready later in the year. Michael’s delicious cherry tomatoes have made it through winter and will be replanted to last us all year round.

Today Champion’s Mountain Organics features in the Sydney Morning Herald’s Good Living section. The story even got the cover picture on the print magazine, so look out for it (we haven’t got a copy yet!).

Michael was interviewed for the story on “Weeds” and their current popularity in cooking and culinary delights. Michael grows nettles, mustard greens and chickweed on the farm (not all of it intentionally!) and they have been getting quite popular recently. Here’s a couple of quotes from the article:

Champion has a following of intrigued home cooks and enthusiastic nursing mothers who have discovered the leaves’ positive effects on lactation.

If that doesn’t pique your interest nothing will! Head over to the SMH now to read the rest of the article.

Our only advice is to not let yourself get too influenced by all the “weeding” puns in the article! Anyway, I’m off to put the nettle on…

Anthony Wallis from famous Colo River farm has always supplied Champion’s Mountain Organics with his oranges.

Right now we are getting a good supplying of perfect Navels.

Anthony’s oranges have been left on the tree up to a month longer than the oranges you will find in major stores. The longer oranges are left on the tree the sweeter they become, and boy are they sweet!

Our orange juice is so bloody good right now we managed to drink about 12 bottles ourselves on the stall! (Oh dear, talk about stealing from yourself)

The flavour at this time of year is incredibly sweet, but still with a good zing (in contrast to our blood oranges which, this time of year, are deliciously tart!).

Colo River oranges are available at our Eveleigh Market stall in bags of 1Kg and 2Kg, or if its the juice you are after buy a bottle freshly squeezed. Please. Before we drink them all and die of some sort of Vitamin C overdose.

We get lots of questions about our Kale each week at Eveleigh Farmers’ Market. Cavalo Nero which literally translates as “black cabbage” from Italian, has many other names including: Tuscan Kale, Lacinato or Lacinto Kale, and my favourite, Dinosaur Kale (common name in America).

As you can imagine, with so many names its hard to write a label that pleases everyone!

Maggie Beer, from the TV show “The Cook and the Chef”, is a huge fan of Cavalo Nero:

“Cavalo Nero will always be at the top of my list – with its strong nutty flavour and my memories of finding it growing beneath the warmth of the Tuscan sun.”

According to Maggie, Cavalo Nero is an essential ingredient for Minestrone soup, so if the last of the cold winter’s days strikes this could be just the ingredient you need! And here is another classic recipe of hers.

Not only does it have a great flavour, but according to Peter Cundall of Gardening Australia kale is what’s responsible for keeping him so fit and healthy at a ripe old age of 80!

Kale is proven to be high in antioxidants, as well a lots of other essential vitamins and minerals. If you check out these stats I think you will be convinced this is truly a “super food”. Just look at those vitamin A, C and K counts!

Anyway, Michael Champion will have his own, locally grown, organic Cavalo Nero at Eveleigh markets tomorrow, but it sometimes sells out quickly, so be early!

It is only in season for a few more weeks, and then it won’t be seen again ‘till next Autumn, so if you haven’t tried it yet, this could be your last chance to eat local.

“Get in quick!!” says Michael

The Meyer lemon is a citrus fruit, native to China, thought to be a cross between a true lemon and a mandarin orange or sweet orange. If you like the tang of lemons, but not the pucker, Meyer lemons are for you. They are not nearly as tart as regular lemons, and their peel is slightly sweet. We’ve had them at our Eveleigh stall for a couple of weeks now, and try to keep them separate from regular lemons – make sure you check the sign to get the right variety!

Tomorrow we’ll be stocking the following:

Vegetables: Beetroot, Broccoli, Kale- Tuscan ‘Cavalo Nero’, Leeks, cup & button mushrooms by the kg, Pumpkin (usually Jap, Butternut and Queensland Blue), Rhubarb, Shelling peas (which are becoming more and more popular, so we’ll try to bring more), shallots – both red and white hopefully, and tomatoes – punnets of cherry toms, and round tomatoes by the kg.

Citrus: Blood oranges & blood orange juice, Lemonades, Regular Lemons & Meyer Lemons, Limes, Mandarins, Oranges & Orange juice

Fruit: Avocado, Kiwi fruit

Greens: Bok Choi, Lettuce, Mizuna, Giant Mustard, Red Elk, Rocket, Michael’s famous salads: Spicy mix; Mesclun mix; wild rocket; rocket & spinach; Red ribbed spinach; baby English spinach; and of course our wild card, Nettles! All salads come in a 100g or 150g bag, to suit all levels of consumption

Our other groceries: Free range eggs by the dozen and 1/2 dozen, fantastic marmalades (including ruby red grapefruit and Michael’s blood orange – sold out last week!)