Hello again wonderful market supporters
It’s beginning to feel a lot like …. summer!
I hope you had a lovely weekend and found ways to stay cool.
I realised this weekend with warmer nights how lucky we’ve been so far, blessed with a mild spring and so many beautiful market mornings.
If the forecast stays true to its current reports it will be a little cooler by mid-week – perfect timing for another pleasant market morning.
With only FIVE weeks until Christmas let us all focus on buying from local growers, producers and artisans this year. More than ever before they need our support. To assist our local creatives we have invited our regular artisans back to the market this year. This week we have the Murwillumbah Mens’ Shed with all their very popular bread boards, platters and other wood creations for your enjoyment and gift giving.
From NEXT week and throughout December our local CWA stall pops up and each week we will feature other talented and creative locals coming to our market.
What’s News at the Market this Week?
Costanzo Apples have their delicious Pink Lady apples at the market now.
Pink Lady® is a trade-marked name for an apple variety known as Cripps Pink developed by horticulturalist John Cripps, by crossing the Golden Delicious apple with the Australian variety Lady Williams. That is why Pink Lady® apples have a crunchy texture and a tart taste with a sweet finish. The white flesh is juicy and crisp, and offers a “fizz-like” burst of flavour.
Cooking and eating tip: While delightful to munch into any time of day, Pink Lady apples are a great dessert apple because they not only retain their shape when baked in pies, tarts, and pancakes or poached in wine paired with cinnamon, nutmeg or vanilla but the flesh is slow to oxidize when cut. So this makes them especially suited to being sliced on cheese boards and into sandwiches and salads.
In fact it is such a great all-rounder that this sweet-tart apple offers a delicious flavour to applesauce and purees.
This is the second last week of Southview Orchard’s nectarines and peaches just in case you missed last week’s exciting news. John and Frieda are coming with even more stock of their HUGELY popular white nectarines than Mel had last week. YAY!! How lucky are we?
What’s GREAT at the Market this Week?
In abundance now are the very versatile zucchini or courgettes (a name of French origin) as they are called in Europe. I was fortunate enough to enjoy stuffed zucchini for lunch last Friday with my book club friend at Potagers – A Kitchen Garden restaurant. The chef stuffed the zucchini flowers with house made curds and toasted seeds, coated in native herb tempura and served with a delightful smoked tomato chutney. They were simply superb.
Zucchini flowers are loved by chefs but not available at our market as they cost a small fortune ensuring that they are unaffordable unless you grow your own. Instead our farm stalls all offer a range of zucchini from small to large Romanesque zucchini grown by Sylva Lining Organics. Sylva sent me a message about a large one that weighed in at 2.8 kilos. Wow that would feed a family especially if you stuffed it!
In May this year, Country Living wrote an article 60 Best Zucchini Recipes You Can Enjoy for Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner in which they said that “zucchini is inexpensive, nutritious, and its mild taste and creamy texture make it incredibly versatile……. From classic recipes like zucchini fritters with chilli lime mayo to more newfangled options (zucchini cookies with brown butter cream cheese frosting, anyone?), you’ll be surprised by the variety you can elicit from this one magical vegetable.”
So let’s be surprised and also a little adventuresome this week. I love raw spiralised zucchini – tossed with olives, capers and pesto served on a rocket base. But for lots of choice here are two links. The first is to: Grilled Garlic Herb Zucchini by Damn Delicious.
The second is to the 60 Best Zucchini Recipes mentioned above.