Hello Everyone

Good news! The baby spinach is back, at last you might think! Michael thinks so anyway! Ready and looking fabulous. It will be in both markets in plenty.

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With this constant rain & damp the snails are rampant. Wish we still kept ducks! Mind you, they do love cherry tomatoes & some of our other produce too much!

Here you can see the damage they are doing! Very little one can do about it except wish harder for drier weather.

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For your further enlightenment this week here’s photos of the bad ladybeetle! Remember in Abbotts rant about there are good and bad guys? Well the good lady beetles are carnivorous and their larvae eat insects like aphids. The bad ones (for us) are herbivorous and eat leaves off plants in the Solanum family, eg tomatoes, potatoes, eggplant. This stops the plant functioning (photosynthesis, etc for those that know) so it dies or certainly can’t fruit well. This first ladybeetle is on Michael’s hand and it was with the other on wild Solanum Nigrum. It has heaps of spots, reputedly 22, but heaps! But nature has it sorted! The omnivorous, good lady beetles eat the bad ones! No need to interfere providing you have lots of different plants so there is biodiversity.

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New, crispy cos lettuce is ready and will be on sale at Taylor Square and Eveleigh markets on Saturday. Look at it, brilliant!

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All the usual produce that I mention every week will be on the stalls, so get in early and get the best.

If you haven’t heard Dr Shiva listen to this link ‘Planet on a plate’ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swGJllTqbWU

Have a healthy week, eating fresh salads and vegies.

Nancy