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!)

Michael’s first blood oranges of the season made a fantastically ruby red juice last Saturday at the markets, unlike some commercially available organic blood orange juice. We sold out well before the end of the market, with some people walking off with as many kilograms as we would sell them.

We have broccoli in for the first time – only a few heads, so first come first served!

Our stock list is about the same as last week. We’ll have half kg bags of Kiwi fruit, punnets of mushrooms, and our cos whole lettuce is in fantastic form.

Granny Smith Apples; Lady Williams Apples; Avocados; Beetroot; Blood orange juice; Blood oranges; Bok Choi; Cucumbers; Eggs; Fennel; Herbs; Jam; Kale, Tuscan  ‘Cavalo Nero’; Kiwi fruit; Leeks; Lemonades; Lemons; Whole Lettuce; kaffir & regular Limes; Mandarins; Mizuna; Mushrooms, Organic; Mustard; Mustard, Red Elk; Orange Juice; Oranges; Pine Mushrooms; Pumpkin; Rhubarb; Rocket; our regular Bagged Salads (100g & 150g); Shallots; Shelling peas; Cherry Tomatoes; Truss Tomatoes.

For a couple of weeks now we have been pleased to sell some fantastic marmalade, made from the produce we sell on the stall by one of our most loyal customers. The cumquat has been running out the door, so there are now two sizes – a large jar for $12 and small for $8. In the next couple of weeks we’re also going to have delicious blood orange marmalade!