A few pleasant surprises this farmgate trip

I look forward to our monthly farmgate trails - after doing this for two years it feels like we're visiting friends when we see everyone at M & A butchery at Wilberforce (a family business now passed down from the Dad to identical twin sons!) and then across to Riverview produce, another family who sell direct from the farm - you can see more about both here.

We went to the butcher first and I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw SALE signs at the front - because seriously, this meat that doesn't travel more than 200 metres (It's the only remaining Sydney butchery that has it's own abbatoir) is the best value for money out there - but yes there was a sale going on.

My monthly meat came to a whopping $130.  This included 2 whole chickens, big leg of boneless pork shoulder, 3 large pork chops (to mince) 2kg lamb forequarter chops (to mince) 3kg topside beef mince, 2 kg beef sausages, 1 rack of american style pork ribs, 1 pork belly, 2 kg yearling blade steak, 1 kg bacon.  Crazy right?

Then we got another surprise happening upon this sign:

I'm a sucker for a street vendor , especially if you're getting it direct from a farmer.  Especially if it's produce.. and even better for me, honey (I adore honey!).

And honey there was!

 Creamed honey and honey with honeycomb!  Beautiful isn't it?

$8 for the creamed honey and honey with honeycomb and $10 for a litre of regular honey - all from a family farm 10 minutes away - all whitebox honey too (delicious!).  I just couldn't refuse - and took one of each.  If you are interested - pop onto Castlereagh Road, Richmond and pass Crowleys Lane and the orange and honey bloke will be there if the weather isn't bad and it's the weekend.


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Then we went to Riverside produce to get our veges and eggs - and another surprise!  Daniel (the farmer's son who is 5) couldn't wait to show us the newest additions to his family - Goats!

Aren't they cute?  I love goats - can't explain why.. just do.

Daniel also showed us his chooks and bunnies too!

After the farm, popped by the local salvos and picked up some copper baking tins for $1 a piece too.  I love old bakeware....

Great day, and the bonus is I have all the inspirational produce to cook now!  Hooray for farmgate!

Farm fresh...

I took some photos yesterday on our farmgate trip -this is where we get the majority of our produce, Riverview produce.  So lovely and green isn't it?

Look at the lettuce and chives (amongst other herbs)!  They are planted in these irrigated tubes and come to life!

Harvest time!

Love the Leyland (next to the potato crops)

Bargains of yesterday:
Fresh picked silverbeet .99 a bunch
Fresh eggs $4.00 for tray of 30 (they are on the small side though)
Standard and Thai basil seedlings for $2.25 each (from the farm)
Granny smiths for $1.99 kg (from up the road at bilpin)
Gala apples $2.50 kg (from up the road at bilpin)
Navel oranges from the farm next door $2.00 a kg

Manly Farmers Markets (amongst others) Go this Saturday!

On cold wet Manly morning, we set off to the Manly Farmers market.  Manly is my home, where I grew up, went to school - so it's always a pleasure going there - a 20 minute drive away.  The beach, the endless streams of cafes and places to eat, the ice-cream strip and of course the markets.

Manly has a few markets:  Every Saturday and Sunday at the end of Sydney Road, right off the corso - there's Manly Art and Craft Markets - home-made jewelry, picture frames, fashion, food.  

Every third Saturday of the Month, Manly Village School Markets is on - this is your bric-a-brac - white -elephant-stall and plants, antiques kind of fare - it's fun.  I've been going for years, never leave with nothing. There's rotary and the Lion's club for food too - Sausage sangas or a steak sandwich with onions..

But today and Every Saturday we are at the Manly Farmer's Market.  It's small at the moment, but well worth a visit - especially when combining with the other markets - but you've got to be early as it packs up about 2-3pm.

Having a relationship with the people you shop from is the most enjoyable way of doing your shopping I think.  But there's a lot (a whole lot) to be said about understanding where your food comes from.  Then it's particularly wonderful if you have a relationship with your vendor AND you get some understanding of where the food they sell you originates.

The first stall we come to is a produce market - this family hails from Windsor/Wiseman's Ferry and bring a huge variety of fruit and vegetables from local producers.  If you ask the husband/wife team where each piece of produce is from, they will tell you.

I bought some mandarins ($4.50 a kg from Windsor) Sebago potatoes ($2 a kg from Wisemans Ferry) and something else... read further..

Look at these beautiful artichokes!

continuing my fig obsession, I bought some of these figs - they were 6 for $5 and delicious - I used some for my fig, date and walnut cake.

Next stall up is Brasserie Bread.  I am totally and unashamedly hooked on their sour cherry sour dough, so we pick up some and also some morning tea:  plain and praline croissants.  Hubby also picks up some of the Olive and Rosemary Loaf.

As you would expect, the service is friendly, and the bread is amazing.  A special weekend treat.

Next we're onto Nashdale Fruit Co stall - Beau and Katie operate many markets in Sydney along with Katie's Dad - we visited them at Marrickville on a Sunday - but it's lovely to know they are close by down here at Manly.

Nashdale have recently launched their own blog - so you can see what they're growing, how they do it and where and when you can buy their produce.  It's got recipes and all kinds of stuff - check it out!

Their apples are wonderful, and I just can't leave without a couple of kilos.  I buy some pink lady and granny smiths.  ($4.50kg) and some broccoli with the side stalks (raab - $4.50) which I used for yummy chinese broccoli this week.

I also treated myself to the lovely sweet mini zucchinis (I think $3 a kilo)- which I used to make my zucchini  ricotta and thyme muffins last week.

Look at this beautiful seasonal produce!  So inspiring...

And here's lovely Lil - who comes along for the ride sometimes from Nashdale - she's such a sweetie and my frills just adored her.

Lastly, Nashdale bring a variety of organic eggs - depending on weight will determine the price but basically $6.00 for a doz 60gr eggs.

So well worth the effort you do find yourself just enamored with the produce - dreaming up ways to cook/eat it so - make it a day out - tomorrow will have all three markets going - perfect time to go! Even if you're not a local, come for an adventure, a walk on the beach - come for the icecream!

Map:

Frenchs Forest Organic Markets - Every Sunday!

Even though Frenchs Forest Markets are literally less than 10 minutes from my house, I haven't visited for at least a couple of years.

C'mon Mum!

What's to like?
Loads of stalls, variety of produce.

All the baking stalls are great - highlight:  Brasserie Bread.We buy sour cherry sour dough, caramelised garlic bread and croissants.

Lots of options for breakfast:  Coffee, bacon and egg rolls, chorizo and egg rolls, steak sandwiches, plus of course, the baking stalls.  There's gozleme too. Of course.

My breakfast - Steak Sandwich $6

If you like to grow your own, there's options - we found good quality seedling $3 each or  5 for $10


Some other highlights:
Organic Milk from Over the Moon.  It is seriously wonderful.  I know now what everyone's on about!  The double cream is REAL.   It doesn't move if you hold the open tub upside down.  It tastes like heaven.  We also pick up some (the last bottle of) strawberry milk.  You need to be early for these guys - they sell out.  It is worth the trip for the milk and cream alone!

Produce of Note:
Mushrooms - these are cultivated in an old railway tunnel!  We bought some swiss browns - but they had just about everything - well worth a visit.

These old guys - from Dural run a 'conventional'(i.e. not certified organic) backyard vege garden stall.  I bought a fabulous cauliflower I shall be using for Season Savvy for $4 and a huge pumpkin for $8.  Lovely guys.

If you're desperate for strawberries, these are direct from the farm.  At this time of the year they aren't in plentiful supply and they're a bit bitter so you want to really want them and be willing to pay $10 a bucket (no the bucket is in the second picture, not the first....

The most entertaining part of the day was visiting birthday boy Gary at his meat van.   A very affable scottish-aussie, he processes his meat here in Sydney and is able to pass on the discounts to the public by doing so.  It's not as cheap as M&A, but it is cheap for the good quality and it's closeby if we need a stop-gap.  We bought some duck and orange sausages and some pork and fennel sausages.

I was also able to source saltbush lamb locally now, Drovers'choice who I met at the Richmond Markets, sell at Frenchs Forest too.  Friendly blokes there.. will go back to see them!


So, the verdict?
Last time I visited it was pretty sparse and I remember it being a tad on the expensive side.

Mostly, it has changed, some things have not - and again I found most of the certified organic stalls very expensive.  But to me, I buy fruit and vegetables direct at the farm, so it's not surprising I find it expensive.  You may be happy to pay $10 for 2kg of organic apples.  As a local, I'd be more willing to go down to Manly organic markets on Saturday to source my fruit and veg - (more on that next week, promise!)

BUT it is well worth the trip for all the other organic fare.  The meat, the bread, the milk.. oh yes the milk.

When is it on:  Every Sunday 8am -1pm.

Where is it?

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Our visit to Marrickville Farmers Markets - on every Sunday!

If you follow me on twitter you may have recently seen me chatting with @katiefarmgate - Katie has been telling everyone for weeks of the bounty she brings down to Sydney for various farmers' markets each week from her family farm Nashdale Fruit Co just near Orange, a good 6 hours away...

Anyway I've been desperate to make some fig jam, and when she mentioned she was going to be in Manly, I got very excited and asked if she was bringing figs... the answer was a no :(  However that same afternoon she reported her Dad had just picked some and was bringing some the next day to the Marrickville Markets.

These markets are not local to me, but such is my desire for figs, it didn't matter, we set out on our adventure and with our frills we entered the markets at around 10.30am.  It was much bigger than I was expecting, quite the reverse of our recent trip to the Richmond Farmers Market.  Lots of stalls, fast (fresh) food, variety and even a jumping castle for the kids.

On the way in we came across a great stall with different flavoured licorice.  I love licorice so this was totally irresistible to me, and we shared a long strap of ice-cream flavoured licorice for $3.

I found myself looking like somewhat of a stalker trying to find Katie at the many fruit and veg stalls.. finally after embarrassing myself (twice!) we found her gorgeous stall with very friendly helpers and lots of cool produce.  Soon the very bubbly and friendly Katie led me to my figs and told me that Jared Ingersol had coveted them earlier in the morning, luckily she had saved them for me (sorry Jared - not!).  I added some Pink Lady apples off the tree, some gorgeous baby fennel and some red anjou pears and some quinces.. ahh produce heaven.

Moine, Moine, MINE!

We had a good look around - I grabbed myself a cheese and spinach gozleme - they are prepared fresh before your eyes for $7 - and could easily feed two peckish people or one starving individual or a few kids!

But our best discovery was the 'Tornado Potatoes'.  Similar concept to 'twisty fries' but SO much nicer, and pretty clever.  The owner of the business, , has just recently started at Marrickville markets and in his business in general.  He designed the potato twisting apparatus and had it made in Norway.  They use South Australian Dean potatoes and they are crispy and delicious - not fatty tasting and you can have them with all kinds of salt -cajun, garlic, classic plus others - they are $4 each or two for $7.  Definitely check them out!

If you're in Sydney at a loose end on a Sunday I really recommend it - the produce is excellent, freshly picked and of the best quality - it will last you so much longer too as it's not cold stored, it's only been recently harvested!

Sunny

That's the weekend summed up nicely I think.

It wasn't feeling like autumn at all - but not an intense heat of summer, just lovely and warm.   Saturday we headed off nice and early to check out the Hawkesbury Harvest Farmers' Market at Richmond School of the Arts.  It's a lovely old building and the markets are held there on the second Saturday of each month.

For me, it just didn't rock my boat as far as produce was concerned.  I was hoping to pick myself up some figs or chestnuts.  Not to be. . My farmgate produce guys are there - and just up the road, I gave it a miss at the markets and went there afterwards for more variety of produce that they brought to the markets.


What I did get:
Hibiscus flowers in syrup (for champers my friends, champers!)
Some yummy wasabi mayonnaise
Some olives
Some saltbush lamb
Some moisture infused pork
and an acorn squash

Then it was on to M&A butchery to pick up our bulk meat for the month..  and back to our farmgate produce providers, Riverview produce.   We dropped past Macquarie shopping centre to pick up a few odds and ends at Myer before heading home to unpack our bounty, have dinner and shortly after, fall alseep on the couch.  We're big ragers you know.

Yesterday we took my Nan and our frills to their first NRL match.  Hubby is a Tigers fan, and I'm a Manly fan but we support each others' teams when they're not playing each other.   We got there a bit earlier, had a little bit of nibblies and then some lunch, all very civilised, until the yobbos arrived.  And then there were the seemingly sixteen year olds wearing an inch thick of makeup and seemingly nothing but a jersey.  No wonder the NRL has a bad image to shake off.  I suppose when you have to compete with the gyrating cheerleaders. Ahem.

The game itself was good - more of a shame than a game.  We won 40 to 12.  At least the girls got ample opportunity to swing the flags!

Eloise practicing to wave her flag before the game

The other disappointment is the amount of drinking, abuse and LITTERING.

OK, off my pedestal, off for my nanna-nap.. dreaming about my sunny weekend.  lovely.

How was your weekend?