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!

We will be at the market as usual with all our usual yummy, fresh, and low-carbon-footprint (local) food. Recent highlights have been, of course, the new organic mushrooms. Ranging from button to cup, all are incredibly tasty. Just ask the girls working on the stall – if they’ve left any for the customers!

The satisfyingly empty stall being packed up, 1pm last Saturday. In the background is Anthony of Colo River Citrus (who supplies us organic oranges and mandarins) dropping off some more boxes to be sent to Organic buyers groups in Newcastle

We will also be seeing the first blood oranges, from Michael’s orchard. We will also be juicing them on the spot – a fantastic tangy taste for breakfast! If you’ve never tried it, drop by for a sample of both the fruit and the juice.

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; Truss Tomatoes.

Drop by and say hello!

On Tuesday 7th July 2009 we were excited to pick our first Avocados for sale this season. This is about 4 weeks ahead of last year’s first pick which was in August.

Avocados from our area on the Central Coast (only 78km’s from Sydney CBD) would have to be the first locally grown Avocados to hit the Sydney Markets each season.

Usually there aren’t many local Avocados available at this time of year because Avocados only ripen after they have been picked from the tree and most of the local growers here don’t pick their crop until much later in the season when the Queensland supplies start to tail off.  So these will be some of the very first locally grown Avocados available this season and some of the few local ones available perhaps until October or even later in the year.

When are Avocados ready to be picked?

We need to ensure the Avocados have the right dry matter content to be palatable so we start picking one or two weeks before we think they may be ready and try them out. We are Avocado lovers and actually like them before they are quite ready for sale, they have a more bitter and stronger taste with a watery/rubbery consistency (not creamy) so are not generally palatable at that stage.  Once our two Labradors start helping themselves to the new season fruit we know they are just about ready!  This was the case just over a week ago and sure enough the ones we picked for our last taste test were delicious.

Jean and Alan MacLeod Trading as Tuckerflora

ABN 84 786 354 526

Certified A Grade Organic Registered Producer No 783 OGA

130  HALLARDS ROAD : CENTRAL MANGROVE   NSW   2250

Phone: (02) 4373 1387   -  Mobile: 0418 978 547  -   Fax: (02) 4373 1440

email – macleod@idl.net.au

On Tuesday 7th July 2009 we were very excited to receive confirmation of organic certification for our Mushroom Growing operation. This has been a huge challenge that has taken years! We are continually building up our expertise on growing organic mushrooms in a commercial quantity and gaining organic certification has been a priority for a couple of years now to enable us to add them to our list of certified organic produce that we provide to our customers.

We have at last accomplished the first step in our vision and even though our operation is still very small in comparison to large conventional mushroom growers we look forward to expanding production as soon as funds become available. Perhaps one day we will be able to make a bigger contribution to alleviate the huge short supply of certified organic mushrooms that has been experienced in Sydney in recent years.

There have been so many pitfalls and frustrating delays in all aspects of the process, it is great to at last have achieved the first step of our vision. Our farm on The Central Coast is only 78km’s from Sydney CBD so delivery of fresh picked organic mushrooms will be a delight for our customers to look forward to. We aim for our customers to be able to buy fresh locally produced certified organic mushrooms that were picked the day before their purchase so as to maximise the benefit to them of all the wonderful qualities organic mushrooms have to offer.

Jean and Alan MacLeod (Trading as Tuckerflora) work closely with Michael and supply the Eveliegh markets with delicious avacados and mushrooms.

ABN 84 786 354 526

Certified A Grade Organic Registered Producer No 783 OGA

130 HALLARDS ROAD : CENTRAL MANGROVE NSW 2250

Phone: (02) 4373 1387 – Mobile: 0418 978 547 – Fax: (02) 4373 1440

email – macleod@idl.net.au

The season for Valencia oranges has ended, but luckily Navels are here to stay: they’ll be with us until at least December.

Michael will be at Eveleigh Farmers’ Markets as usual this Saturday, with a stall full of local fruit & vege, picked fresh the day before.

The full stock list:

Salad Greens: Mizuna, Red Elk Mustard, Rocket bunches, cima de rapa, Lettuce (baby cos, small iceberg, fancy)

Citrus: Lemonades, Lemons, Limes, Orange Juice, Oranges, new season navels

Bagged salads: Nettles; Mesclun mix; Spicy mix; Wild rocket; Rocket & Baby Spinach; Red-ribbed spinach; Baby English spinach.

Vegetables: Beans – Italian Heirloom ‘Roman’, Bok Choi, Cherry toms, Cucumbers, Fennel, Kale (Scotch & Tuscan,  ‘Cavalo Nero’), Leeks (bunched baby & single), Shelling Peas, Pine mushrooms, Pumpkin, Rhubarb, Shallots, Silverbeet, Snow Peas, Sugar Snap Peas, Tat Soi, Roma, Truss & Round Tomatoes, Zucchini

As usual we will have stock of free-range eggs (which are moving towards organic certification), and a range of herbs (including bay, sage, rosemary, thyme, dill, chives, coriander and both flat and curly parsely).