See you on Saturday

Hello!

Long time no see.

So here's my idea; why don't you come along to the Collingwood Children's Farm farmer's market this Saturday between eight and one and see us for real. In person.

How much fun would that be!

We could chat, you could buy some gorgeous heirloom variety beetroot and some eggs, all certified organic and of course delicious. And while you are there your kids could dance around with the buskers, you could stock up on the freshest, seasonal, farmer's market goodies and make a morning of it.

See you there?

Hope so.

Market report.

We're back at farmers' markets.
Hooray!
We're starting the season at Collingwood Children's Farm farmers' market on the second Saturday of the month and will see how we go.

We packed the trailer and drove down to Melbourne.
We woke up really early and drove to the farm.
We took our usual place between Warialda Beef and Baw Baw Organics.
We put up the marquee and the tables and signs and prettied it all up with some bunting and table cloths.
We caught up with and chatted to fellow stall holders.
And then we drank coffee and waited for the gates to open.

We had the most wonderful market.
We caught up with so many friends old and new.
We ate pancakes and spanikopita and icy poles and ice cream.
We bought a whole crate of food for home.
We swapped lots of produce for eggs too.
Miss Indi worked on our stall and Miss Jazzy and Miss Pepper worked with Anne Marie at Holy Goat.
And we sold out of eggs before the end of the day.
We loved it.

The next Collingwood Children's Farm farmers' market is on on the 11th of Feb.
More details here.
We hope to see you there.

In the meantime there's a fantastic recipe for Herby Whole Egg Mayo on Ruth's blog today.
Check it out here.

See ya. x

Floods & dogs.

Our farm gate stall will not open this season.

The market garden is under water for the third time since September. When and if the ground dries out enough to plant a crop, there will not be a long enough growing season to ripen it.

You can still buy our certified organic, free range eggs and garlic from Tonnas and Harvest in Daylesford, from The Slow Food Farmers' market and The Collingwood Children's Farm Farmers' market in Melbourne, from The Ceres shop and from Organic Wholefoods.

Farmer Bren just emailed me this photo from his phone and as I type this the rain is crashing down.

This week's The Weekly Times's letters section has one that reads:

Man and his dog just clicked

I would like to compliment the photographer of the brilliant picture for October in The Weekly Times' 2011 calendar.

It is without doubt one of the best pictures seen anywhere in a long time.

I also compliment the gentleman in the picture for his compassion and appreciation, clearly expressed in the picture.

He has obviously spent considerable time and effort training this loyal dog-just look at the connection between the two.

The trust and appreciation they show for each other is very touching.

The composition is sensational-the brilliant colours and the way it captures the emotional interaction between man and his faithful dog.

Knowing the wonderful loyalty of Maremma guardian dogs, I appreciate the connection between this dog and master.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. It is impossible to put a figure on the number of words condensed in this picture.'

Gavin Wall

Mt Evelyn.

Thanks Gavin, you've made our day.

Thanks also Jane for letting us know.

And while we are on the subject of Maremmas, look who opened their eyes two days ago. Willow's six puppies are super cute little fat fluff balls. Their fur is white and thick and the pads on their feet and their noses have turned from pink to black. Their legs are still not strong enough to carry them, but they can certainly move around to get to their Mama. Willow is still being patient and kind with them although she is taking a break occasionally to lie under the house. She seems much happier for us to have a cuddle these days too.

And finally, our thoughts go out to all those affected by the devastating floods in the North of our country. Wishing you and your families safety, dryness and relief from it all.

2010 Delicious Magazine Produce Awards.

We had such a fabulous night last Monday night at The 2010 Delicious Magazine Produce Awards at Circa @ The Prince.

There were 18 finalists in our category, From The Earth. 18 amazing growers and managers who we felt honoured to be included among.

For most of the night we hung out at the cheese table eating what is undoubtably the best cheese in Australia, La Luna. The Holy Goat girls, Carla and Anne-Marie, won the cheese category again this year.

We watched the foodie world as they mingled and shmoozed all around us. There were farmers and growers and chefs and food celebrities and all sorts of food lovers.

I read somewhere online that morning, (but I can't seem to find it now), an article telling people not to bother going out for dinner in Sydney that night as all the best chefs were heading down south for the awards. And they weren't wrong it was a whose who of the food world and it was wonderful to be a part of it.

Our gorgeous friend Matt Wilkinson was the amazing chef charged with showcasing all the wonderful finalists' produce and he certainly did us proud.

Rather than include our heirloom vegies in another dish, he made them the hero.

Our rainbow carrots, beetroots and baby turnips were only slightly cooked and looked gorgeous standing up proud in all their glory.

We didn't win our category outright this year, we won a gold medal, but by the way Matt Preston was gushing about our farm and our heirloom vegies we felt like winners anyway.

Yay!

Miranda Sharp and The Collingwood Childrens' Farm Farmers Market won the award for the Most Outstanding Farmers' Market.

Yay!

I discovered that farmer's wives don't wear frocks (except me).

From left Vicki Sher (Sher Wagyu), Lizette Snaith (Warialda Belted Galloway Beef), me, Miranda Sharp (Melbourne Farmers' Markets).

Probably the best part of the night though was sharing dinner after the ceremony with these gorgeous women and their partners and Matt and a few other producers. Usually we see these growers at farmers' markets where we are busy working, so it was wonderful to relax and have a drink and enjoy the night with them.

And soon enough it was time to take the party shoes off, get the farm gear back on and come back down to earth.

'Hi' to everyone who told me they read this blog. Thanks for the offers to take photos for me and for the encouragement. I hope you are settling back into your real life ok.

Have a great Wednesday.

10 things.

10 things I love about farmers' markets - in no particular order.

1) I love that feeling of setting up the stall first thing in the morning and then stepping back and feeling amazed and proud that we've grown such gorgeous produce.

2) I love our wonderful helpers. Thank you John, Rene, Viv, Roscoe, Danielle and Mark! We couldn't do it without you. XX
3) I hate the feeling of knowing that the health inspectors are doing the rounds of the market. But I love it when they tick all our boxes and walk away.

4) I love selling our wonderful, colourful, tasty produce to people who care about and appreciate good food.

5) I love how every market we sell at has its own personality. I'm not sure if its the mix of stalls, the market managers or the different sites. But I do enjoy attending all the different markets we do.

6) I love thinking up exciting and innovative things for the littlies to do while we are selling our wares.

7) I love that most of the markets we do, and almost all of the stall holders at these markets, have been accredited by the VFMA. This means the public can be confident that the stall holder they are buying the produce from actually grew or made the product.

We buy and swap so much of our groceries from the other stall holders at the markets we attend and feel absolutely certain that we are buying the best there is.

In this photo Simone (market manager Daylesford Farmers' Market and Melbourne Show Grounds Farmers' Market) is awarding us our accreditation certificate. Yay!

8) I love it that our customers care about where their food comes from. They quiz us on how it was grown and how they should store it. And they discuss what they are planning to do with it.

Some growers sell their produce to middlemen/wholesalers. I cannot imagine not having this connection and feedback from our customers. We look forward to it.

9) I love that you never know who you'll bump into at the farmers market. So many of Melbourne's top chefs come and visit to find suppliers for their restaurants. As well as other celebrities, people I went to school with and family and friends always pop in too.

10) I love it when its all gone.

Please support the people who grow your food.

Come to your local farmers' market and say 'hi'. We'd love to meet you.

We'll be at Collingwood Children's Farm Farmers' Market this Saturday.

Henny Penny.

We are into the second week of winter and it is cold and wet in this part of the world. According to the weather station it is currently 4.2C outside. Brrrrrrrrrr.

This is the time of the year when all our flocks of chooks get moved to higher ground or to areas where they can get inside the hothouses.

We've been taking so many photos of the chookies lately trying to get a great one for our new egg carton labels that are being designed at the moment. If I didn't know any better I'd think they were posing.

Aren't they gorgeous!

Our chooks are laying like crazy at the moment. Every chance we get we are heading to the egg room to roll a few more through the sorting/weighing machine.

The boys are getting through quite a few of them at lunchtime every day but we still have a cool room full.

We'll be at Collingwood Childrens' Farm Farmers' Market this Saturday from 8am til 1pm with dozens and dozens of our free range, organic eggs, why don't you come by and say hi and get some for yourself?

Hope to see you then.

ps. Happy Birthday Roscoe! XX

Shortlisted!

We have been shortlisted for the Vogue Entertaining + Travel Produce Awards for 2010 and this is a photo of the produce we are sending to Sydney for the final judging next Monday.

Last year we won the From The Earth category for our heirloom vegies and won a gold medal in the From The Paddock section for our eggs.

Its hard to believe that a whole year has passed since we were in the middle of all this last year. Its all a bit exciting.

To taste some of this gorgeous certified organic produce, come and visit us at the farm stall here on Sunday, or come to Collingwood Childrens' Farm farmers' market tomorrow. To listen to Farmer Bren talking about heirloom vegies and eating sustainably, come to Melbourne Exhibition Centre tomorrow night at 5.30.

Hope to see you soon and have a great weekend.

Collingwood Children's Farm Farmers' Market.

We had a lovely time at Collingwood Children's Farm Farmers' Market this morning.

We sold close to a record number of eggs, we were visited by lots of lovely family and friends, we gossiped with other stall holders, we were helped by my Mum and barely had anything to pack up at home time.

We also launched our new postcards that introduce our farm gate sales.

Come and see us at the Daylesford Twilight Market this Saturday 19th December or The Slow Food Twilight Market on the 23rd to get your own. They will look great on any fridge and come with their own special offer.

Eggsellent Market!

We're home from Collingwood Farmers' Market, the baby is asleep, the big girls are eating their dinner and I am about to collapse but before I do I thought I'd give you a quick rundown of the day.

We had a fantastic market.

It started off slowly and the weather looked a bit dodgy but that just gave us extra time to set up, drink more coffee and catch up with our neighbours.

Before long the eggs were selling like hotcakes(?) and it felt great to be back after our 2 month break.
The Health Inspectors visited and ticked all the boxes.

We caught up with other stall holders and swapped produce.

Above is Kylie and her wonderful dips and below is Monique, her and her husband make the most amazing felafel and nougat.

After a while the wind picked up. It managed to blow a tent off it's frame, lift a marquee weighed down by twenty kilo sandbags and even pull some tent pegs out of the ground, but as far as I know there was no damage to person or property.

By 11am we'd sold out of 120 dozen eggs, a record in egg sales for us.

It was fantastic to meet Lindsey (the guy) and Miss Jane (I can't find your blog please send me a link). If anyone else came to claim their free eggs after we had packed up I am sorry and look forward to meeting you next time.

Thanks Mum for your help with the stall and the girls. Especially for the fifteen laps you did with the pusher trying to put Miss Pepper to sleep.

I hope you enjoy the rest of your weekend.