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Seasonal news from Near River Produce, somewhere in the hinterland of the Mid North Coast, New South Wales.

Planting Garlic

Here we are planting this year's garlic crop with our new (to us) transplanter. It allowed us to plant the whole crop (some 15,000 cloves) in a day, which saved our backs big time!
Last year this task took three weeks. We'll be using the planter for other crops in the bulk beds too, notably beetroot and leeks.
That's our great neighbour Mark driving the tractor - he who drives in straight lines - most important when planting veggies!

Sustainability

There are many actions that we take at Near River that enhance the sustainability of our enterprise, but probably none have the greatest impact as the source of our material for our compost heaps.
Each week, 6 - 8 bins of green waste are returned to the farm from the two businesses that we supply in Port Macquarie - The Corner Restaurant and The Other Chef Fine Foods.
This valuable resource, otherwise known as kitchen scraps, is mixed with grass clippings, and often lime and some animal manures, then composted and turned a number of times over the next 6 - 10 weeks by which time it is ready to be applied to the vegetable beds. This material increases the humus content of the soil, assisting in moisture rentention, microbe activity, pest and disease resistance, and generally providing an environment for healthy plants
And to think that this material would normally have been thrown out. 

The Politics of Food - Joel Salatin

This guy is amazing -  featured in Michael Pollan's book, "The Omnivore's Dilemma", and in the films "Fresh" and "Food Inc", Joel Salatin is also the author of six books including "Family Friendly Farming", "Salad Bar Beef", and his latest, "The Sheer Ecstasy of Being a Lunatic Farmer". He is a champion of the local food movement and speaks all over the world about his own experience with his highly successful Polyface Farms.
In December 2010, Joel was in Australia, and gave a talk in Canberra that was captured by the ABC Big Ideas team. You can view it here.
And if that inspires you, then sign up to see Joel later this year when he returns to lead some more workshops on sustainable farming practices and direct relationship marketing. Full details available here.
I find his irreverence and logic engaging.

What's Andrew doing now?

Is that a bed he's placed in the middle of the pumpkin patch? With a basket of superb Near River free range eggs surrounded with a load of fresh oranges, spinach and rhubarb? And a place setting at the end of the bed?

What are these crazy people up to? And why is he taking a photo of it?

Be sure to watch out for our next newsletter that will answer this question.
Late Autumn 2011

Hello and welcome to our first newsletter in this new format.
You can expect these newsletters on a seasonal basis (that would be four times a year) with other shorter updates sent out detailing matters of importance, like new preserve releases, garlic crop harvests, awards we've won, or info on CSA boxes.
You're receiving this as you are a Near River Produce customer, either current or past, or a friend of Near River who wants to know what's going on at the farm.
If this isn't the case, unsubscribe from the list at the relevant tag listed below.
So here's what we've been up to of late at Near River.

Weather
As you would expect, the weather is the number one issue that affects us and everything else here on the farm. After such a wet spring, the summer was pretty good here on the Mid North Coast, and the autumn's been beautiful. Cold night's have only been happening for the last two weeks or so, making for good harvests of silver beet, late tomatoes, chillies, great salad greens - mizuna, chicory, endive, tatsoi, and the mustard green crop has taken too. Other winter plantings include snow peas, leeks, lettuce, ruby chard. broccoli and of course garlic.

WWoofers
WOOFERs (Willing Workers On Organic Farms) is a worldwide organisation connecting organic farmers with travelers who receive accommodation and board in return for their labour, usually 5 - 6 hours a day. This summer we've had a variety of Wwoofers visit us at Near River - seven in all including Matthias a German chef, and Keiji a Japanese computer teacher, who is currently with us.
Additional labour is often in short supply on organic farms, so this is a win - win - tourists get to experience the country they are visiting and the farmers have some extra hands to help out. For us, additional beds have been able to be prepared, and the to-do list has been shortened slightly.


Farmers markets
We are now regular stallholders at three monthly markets held in the Hastings region:
Port Macquarie Foreshore Market - at Westport Park every 2nd Saturday of the month.
Laurieton Riverwalk Market - alongside River and Tunis Streets every 3rd Sunday of the month
Wauchope Farmers Market - at the Showground every 4th Saturday of the month
Be sure to drop in and say hi.

Rhubarb Paste - our newest preserve
When we quadrupled the size of our rhubarb plantings with the help of our Wwoofers over the late summer, we didn't envisage it leading to a new preserve.
Our existing Rhubarb. Lime and Ginger Compote is proving to be very popular and the increased plantings were aimed at fulfilling that demand. Aside from sales at our Farmers Market stalls, the online Farm Gate at Near River, and selected outlets in the Hastings Valley, it's also on the menu and available at Bent On Food in Wingham and Beetroot'd in Kendall.
However, a visit by the chef who makes our preserves, Eric Robinson from The Other Chef Fine Foods changed that, and now we have Near River Rhubarb Paste. Very similar to quince paste, and used in a similar fashion with both soft and firm cheeses, the exquisite texture of this condiment also lends itself to use in desserts like panna cotta.




 
Slice of Haven Food + Wine Festival
Sunday May 22nd saw us up bright and early to be part of this year's Slice of Haven Food and Wine Festival at Laurieton. This year was the fourth time the Slice had been held and it was a huge success with over 14,000 people turning out to sample the regions food, wine and beer along with entertainment organised for the day.
Here we are at the start of the day with bags of garlic bulbs to giveaway, the best ever banana bread to serve with our Rhubarb. Lime + Ginger Compote, and a local cheese plate with our Beetroot Relish and Rhubarb Paste.


The date for next year's Slice has already been set - May 27th 2012 - mark it in your calendar now.

Garlic
As you can see from the story in the column at the side, this year's garlic crop is in the ground. Planted the week before the full moon in May, the two plots had been prepared with a green manure crop comprising of cow peas and Japanese millet. This was slashed and left for two weeks before it was dug in with our reciprocating spader six weeks prior to planting. After planting, a compost tea mix was applied to each row of cloves, and this last week has seen us apply mulch to the first plot.





Already the plants are up and out of the ground. The images below tell more of the story.




Easter 2011
Amongst all the work and effort, from time to time we do relax and enjoy ourselves. On Easter Saturday we celebrated Andrew's 50th year and our 5th wedding anniversary with a host of family and friends. We had a boules 'clinic' on the front lawn, devoured a melt-in-your-mouth 25kg organic pig on the back terrace, and then lit the obligatory bonfire in the front paddock. A great time was had by all.



Feedback and Word of Mouth
We would love to hear from you, either directly by email, or through our Facebook page - click here and 'Like' us - we usually post to Facebook twice a week. And hey, it can get a bit quiet out here on the farm!
Also, tell your friends about us and forward this email onto them - we're pretty sure they'd love to connect with a farm growing great produce too.

That's all for now till the Winter edition.
Cheers
Andrew + Therese
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