In Season...

January 2012 - Summer Flavours

This is 2012 – Year of the Farmer! 

To celebrate, Maggie has created badges which say: “ I’ve Been to Maggie’s Place.   2012 – Year of the Farmer. “ If you’d like a free badge – please just ask in the farmstall, Maggie’s Place.

 

There is a scarey statistic – at least scarey to Australian Farmers – that 85% of the products in the average Australian grocery trolley are either imported or made by foreign owned companies. This results in $l00 million A DAY going outside Australia. As Dick Smith Foods website says, “There are 2 key reasons to support Australian owned companies – profits stay in Australia and jobs are created for Australians.”  

 

50% of cheese consumption is foreign owned; 85% of frozen veg is foreign owned and 100% of baby food is foreign owned. And what about biscuits – 90%! I thought we made the best Anzac biscuits in the world in Australia ?

 

Coming down off my high horse…

There’s nothing better than Fresh, Local Summer Fruit and Veg on a hot day.

Best now in a fruity way are nectarines, peaches, plums (golden plums from The Hills soon, I hope) and Carnarvon Mangoes. You can’t beat The Swan Valley fresh grapes, figs and all melons – water melons, ogen melons, rock melons and honeydew- just MELONS !

 

Then there’s veg:  heirloom tomatoes – all peculiar shapes and colours. These have never been genetically modified and Gary in Wanneroo grows wonderful heirloom toms available from Maggie’s Place. They TASTE! Corn, zuccinis and egg plant are all in the farmstall from The Swan Valley.

 

Try Stuffed Tomatoes with Cheese and Nuts.  
These must be served with Maggie’s Place Salad Dressing. This is phenomenal !

• 8 ripe, medium tomatoes
• Salt and pepper
• Maggie’s Place Salad Dressing – with some fresh basil ripped up into it
• 125g smooth cottage cheese
• 3 tablesp thick cream
• 2 tablesp chopped chives
• 3 tablesp chopped walnuts
• 8 half walnuts.

 

Remove skin from tomatoes. Cut a slice from the top and carefully hollow out the flesh, leaving the sides complete. Sprinkle the insides with salt and pepper and turn upside down to drain.

Put a teaspoon of Maggie’s Place Dressing into each tomato cup and fill with the mixture of cheese, cream, chives and nuts. Decorate with a half walnut and tomato ‘lid”. Sprinkle the rest of the dressing all around.

 

Make a mental note to buy more of that Dressing from Maggie’s Place next time you are in! It goes with warm potatoes, just plain fresh tomatoes, cauli, broccoli and – yes – on a salad!

 

Here are two Puds to Make with Fruit in Season Now:

 

Crème Brulee Fruit Salad

• Seasonal fruit
• Castor sugar
• Juice of half a lemon
• 600ml cream
• Dash of vanilla essence
• 4 egg yolks.

Make the fruit salad, adding lemon juice and castor sugar to taste. In a double boiler, bring cream and vanilla essence to scalding point. Beat egg yolks very well with 1 tablespoon sugar. Pour the cream over the egg yolks and return to the double boiler, stirring continuously over gentle heat until thick. Do not allow to boil. Fill an oven-proof dish three quarters full with fruit salad, pour over crème and leave overnight.

Cover the crème with 1 cm layer of castor sugar and place under grill, turning the dish to melt and caramelise the sugar.

 

Now that we are in austerity in 2012 – this should serve 6 people!

How about … Frozen Cream with Olive Oil & Figs in Spiced Wine Syrup?

Figs are on the trees, so be quick before the birds get them !  (Or ask at Maggie’s Place.)

• 2 cups milk
• 250g thick cream
• 1 vanilla pod
• 5 egg yolks
• 6.5 tablesp olive oil
• 150g sugar
• Half vanilla pod
• 1 teasp cinnamon
• 12 figs
• Pinch of saffron.

 

 

Wine Syrup:

We are in the Swan Valley, the oldest wine growing region in WA, so get…

• 2 cups red wine
• 50g sugar
• Grated zest of 1 orange

 

Frozen Cream
Heat the milk and cream together. Split the vanilla pod and add to the heated mix. In a large bowl, beat the egg yolks and 150g of the sugar together to obtain a forthy consistency. Gradually, while beating with a wooden spoon, pour in the milk and cream.   Put on a very low heat and continue stirring until the mixture begins to stick to the spoon. Pour in the olive oil and remove from the heat to cool. Freeze until firm.

 

Figs
For the figs, make a syrup. Bring the wine, sugar, orange peel, split half vanilla pod, cinnamon and saffron to the boil. Add the figs and turn the heat to low. Simmer for 15 minutes. Remove from heat and leave to cool. Remove the figs and put the syrup back on the heat. Reduce the volume until it is thick. Put the figs back to reheat.

To serve: lay the hot figs in soup plates and pour over the syrup. Put a dollop of frozen cream to the side. Serves about 8 people.

 

DON’T FORGET – 2012 is the Year of the Farmer and we couldn’t buy fresh fruit and veg without Farmers!

 

October 2011 -
ASPARAGUS & BROAD BEANS – Love 'Em or Hate 'Em

 

I love to hear the reactions from customers when Asparagus and Broad Beans are in season. There is normally a whoop of joy to find fresh Edgecombe Bros. asparagus at Maggie’s Place and also their beaut broad beans. However, there is a not-so-silent minority who can’t stand either of the veg! Theirs is a curdled cry of disgust.

 

Both asparagus and broad beans have been a signature for the fresh produce that Edgecombe Bros. grow around their lively café / restaurant in the Swan Valley. As Alf Edgecombe says, “they are both very good crops to grow. For broad bean lovers, the late rains this year coupled with the rich red loam at Edgecombe Bros. has given a big crop.  Depending on whether we get more top-up rain, we should have broad beans for another 3-4 weeks. Last season’s very dry year has meant that the asparagus crop is reduced. Its all down to Mother Nature!”

 

Asparagus requires patience to grow it in the beginning. It takes about 2-3 years after planting to be ready for picking – but then it can yield for up to 15 years, I am told. A family who love this vegetable will need 10-30 plants – or crowns as they are called – to ensure a good feed. Perhaps its easier to drop into Edgecombe’s or Maggie’s Place and just buy it!

 

It is back breaking work to harvest asparagus, but Alf is fit and ready for the task each year. You have to cut the spears just below the ground with a sharp knife. It grows very quickly so you have to be alert to catch asparagus before the tips open. After 4-6 weeks, the asparagus plants are allowed to rest and produce fern-like growth so that the roots can be reinvigorated. Then the ferns are cut back again and more asparagus spears grow up.

 

Asparagus Omelette (or just cook until tender and throw some of Maggie’s Place Salad Dressing on the asparagus while warm)

 

• 12 uncooked asparagus spears
• 90g butter
• 12 eggs
• Salt
• Cayenne pepper

 

Cook the asparagus spears upright in boiling water for about 10 minutes so they are just tender. Drain, cut in half and toss in the butter. Beat the eggs lightly, add a pinch of salt and a dash of cayenne. Make 4 omelettes, remove each one from the heat as you make them and put a quarter of the asparagus in the centre of each omelette before folding. Serve immediately. No waffling, get on with eating!

 

And now to Broad Beans. They are my type of crop – they are hardy and usually give a heavy yield with little attention. Once they start flowering, it is about 3-4 weeks before you have the pleasure of harvesting your own.

 

And who is going to peel the broad beans? Actually, it doesn’t take very long, but to save domestic “ issues “, do it turn about. That’s what I do, but funnily enough it is normally my husband’s turn !

 

Many customers at Maggie’s Place haven’t tasted broad beans, and they are a little frightened about cooking them. Well, they are easy. Try this recipe:

 

Broad Beans with Herb Butter – remember to buy your herb plants at Maggie’s Place now so you have lots of variety to use in cooking throughout the rest of spring and summer.

 

• 500g broad beans (serves 2-4 people)
• Salt
• 2 Tablesp butter
• 2 teasp finely chopped parsley
• 1 teasp finely chopped oregano or thyme or whatever you fancy
• Freshly ground black pepper

 

Simmer beans until tender – about 12 minutes. Drain and keep warm in a heated dish.   Pound butter with the fresh herbs, salt and papper, add to beans and serve immediately.

You can also put a hot parsley sauce over the broad beans – yummo! Or just simmer until tender and eat.

 

September 2011 - EAT YOUR GREENS!

Can't you hear your Mum's command echoing in your ears … Eat Your Greens ! While some Mums have to camouflage Greens in foods to entice youngsters to consume Green vegies, other kids just love crunchy, raw veg.

 

The secret is that the veg must be fresh. Old, yellow broccoli does not cut the mustard, as it were, and will put kids off veg of any description. And when cooking green leafed veg, Mums – don't boil it to a pulp please.

 

Green leaf veg such as cabbage, kale, leeks, spinach, Brussel sprouts, broccoli and cauli are a rich source of vitamins and minerals. Edgecombe's famed asparagus is just in – so add some of that treat to your shopping list.

 

The best way to get maximum nutrition from fresh veg is raw, in a salad. We are nearly into Spring, when the first brave souls venture out of their home caves to use the BBQ. You have to have salad with a BBQ, even if the wife makes the salad while the hubby takes all the glory for burning the meat on the Barbie. If, like me, you don't get excited about lettuce, throw on some of Maggie's Place Salad Dressing – it is awesome.

 

It is always better to buy locally grown produce. It is better nutritionally and avoids adding pollution (air miles, road miles etc.). Fresh veg are better flavoured, and are not chilled to a morgue-like death for days.

 

As Maggie of Maggie's Place says: Become a Loco(a)vore – eat in season, eat from the region; eat fresh.

 

Better still – grow your own. Grow what you can at home – even if its only some herbs. Planting time for summer veg is approaching, so have a look at the herbs and heirloom veg plants at Maggie's Place.

 

And then, kids, when you have Eaten Your Greens you will grow into perfect, healthy adults.

 

Here is Jessica's Kale Recipe (Jessica is a ' Lots of ' Person):

 

• Lots of olive oil (EVOO from Maggie’s Place)
• Lots of garlic
• Lots of kale (washed and roughly chopped). Use any kale:  red, curly, Italian.
• Stir fry in a pan – probably put the chopped garlic in the EVOO for a minute before adding the kale (but Jessica didn’t give me that instruction !).
• The kale only takes a minute too.
• Baked Cabbage with Onion and Cheese (enough for 4 people)
• Half or maybe a quarter cabbage - if they are monsters
• 1 or 2 leeks – depending on whether you have to mortgage yourself to pay for them
• 1 onion, finely sliced
• Salt and freshly ground pepper
• 1 cup grated cheese (or more if you like)

August 2011 - Herbs Part of Daily Life

WHEN I started to research Herbs (the legal ones) the other day, I had no idea what I was starting on. Now I am up to my neck in fragrant herbs, medicinal herbs, delicious herbs, colourful herbs, herbal teas, tussie mussies, annualsbiennials- perennials: you name it. Truly the list is long. That is what is so interesting about herbs - it is a huge subject, but easy to get into. And most herbs are easy to grow.

 

If! can't kill a parsley plant, or thyme, or oregano -then it must be easy to grow.

 

Dare I say it - herbs benefit our bodies - they are good for you - as Isabell Shipard says in her comprehensive book "How Can I Use Herbs in My Daily Life?" I like Isabell's definition of a herb in the broad sense: 'A herb is any plant that is used by man for food, flavouring, medicine, aroma, dye, or any other use. ' Well, that's broad enough!

 

At Maggie's Place, the number one reason for growing Herbs is a simple one: to give pleasure and satisfaction. Then come all the sensible, practical reasons - to use in a culinary sense, for decoration, for their taste, smell or colour, for medicinal benefits, source of antioxidants, for cosmetics and so on.

 

Kids love growing and picking Herbs. Big Kids love it too!

 

Herbs need good light. However, most like full sun, such as basil, lemongrass, parsley, rosemary, sage and thyme. There are ones that need dappled shade, such as borage and summer parsley. Mint likes moist (not wet) conditions. Rosemary and thyme are tough as.. Check up before you plant. They don't like wind. Most Herbs tolerate clay, sandy or loam soils - providing you do what is necessary to build up each soil type. Many are shallow rooted and may need watering every second day in hot weather. Mulches, of course, help.

 

You can always put your Herbs in pots if you haven't room in a garden. They are attractive and you can show off your Herb collection to your friends!

 

Tabouli Salad uses lots of mint and parsley - try this:

• One third cup cracked wheat
• 2 cloves garlic
• Juice of3 lemons
• 1 bunch fresh mint
• 8 cups chopped flat leaf parsley
• 4 spring onions, chopped small
• 4 ripe tomatoes - diced very small
• Quarter cup extra virgin olive oil
• Salt and freshly ground pepper

Soak cracked wheat in warm water for 15 minutes. Squeeze out excess water.
Mix the lemon juice, crushed garlic, salt and pepper to taste. Allow this mixture to rest for 30 minutes. Finely chop parsley and mint and combine with the spring onions, tomatoes and cracked wheat mixture. Toss with the EVOO (extra virgin olive oil) , add salt, pepper and lemon juice and adjust the taste as desired.

Make a note ... use Herbs more oftenand grow them yourself!

June 2011 - WA Citrus Is Back

LOCAL oranges and mandarins for juicing and eating are with us at last. It feels like a long wait, doesn't it, from the end of last season's fruit to now ? I hope supermarkets will forget about their imports of citrus from USA (which most of my customers at Maggie's Place turned their backs on). I say – fill every nook and cranny in retail shops with juicy orange-coloured local citrus.

 

"Mandies" or mandarins are a favourite with kids. They are like grapes and strawberries for kids – they can take one themselves and its ALL theirs! And Mum is happy that they are eating fruit.

 

Fruit West have introduced Citrus Quality Testing – or rather the Eastern States a.k.a. the rest of Australia have introduced quality testing this year. WA, a.k.a. the important bit of Australia, has had legislated testing for penalties for a few years. However, when you taste some of the citrus available here you may not believe that.

 

The idea is to improve fruit quality, promote sales and encourage a local loyalty to citrus.

 

At a Department of Ag/Fruit West meeting on 24th May, the audience was told that WA citrus eaters were 'parochial'. Well, I didn't think I liked that word when used about my customers being loyal to local fruit, so I looked it up in the dictionary. It said "narrow; provincial". My customers are not that ! So, please take back that insulting description of WA citrus eaters. And stop trying to put down WA.

 

It is a huge disappointment if you buy oranges or mandies that are as bitter as…Research tells us that a consumer who experiences a negative eating experience with a piece of fruit will not return to re-purchase that variety for 6 weeks – if at all. Well, who would blame us? Money is tight and few of us have extra to throw away along with our poor quality fruit. I have customers who, before eating our delicious Vergone Family apples, hadn't eaten apples for 20 years because of the rubbish offered in supermarkets.

 

We did a rather amateur taste test session at the 24th May meeting – but better than nothing. There were mandarins and grapefruit – all purchased from Canning Vale Market agents, who should know better but often don't – that were inedible – dry as dust and with pith that you could line a cool room with. Those Market agents should not accept fruit of this quality.

 

The difficulty is, of course, that second grade can mean lots of different things. To me, second grade means that the skin is damaged or has a mark on it, or it may be small or whatever, but the actual fruit inside is just fine. Then there should be a market for this – appropriately labelled and priced. Poor old farmers are often obliged to throw out a quarter to a third of their crop if they can't find a market for these seconds or add value to them somehow. BUT that is different from dry and bitter and pithy. The Market agents should get the growers to come and fetch these, charge the grower a handling fee, and not be tempted to even handle that grower's fruit in the future unless he can prove he has mended his ways.

 

For the record, the minimum juice content for WA Valencias is 33% - but for the rest of Australia it is 38%. For Imperial Mandarins the juice content is 28% in WA and 33% in the rest of Australia. How confusing is that? I know growers who say I don't need to test my fruit for juice, sweetness or sugar/acid ratio – I can tell by tasting my fruit. Well, yes, but no ! This is 2011…

 

Thanks to Fruity Fanatics, who produce great icypoles from fresh orange juice, for this fact: Orange is the world's next favourite flavour after Chocolate and Vanilla. Another citrus fact: Lemons contain more sugar than Strawberries.

 

Here's a recipe for HOT ORANGE SOUFFLE:

• 45g butter
• 45g flour
• Grated rind of 1 large orange
• 290ml fresh orange juice 55g castor sugar
• 4 egg whites
• Butter a soufflé dish and dust with castor sugar

 

Turn on oven to 200 degrees C. Melt butter and add flour. Cook for 1 minute and remove from heat. Add rind and juice, return to heat and bring gently to the boil, stirring all the time. Simmer 2 minutes and add sugar to taste. Cool. Whisk egg whites until stiff and fold into orange sauce. Pour into soufflé dish until two thirds full. Place in bain marie and bake in hot oven for 25-30 minutes. 5 minutes before the soufflé is due to come out of the oven, sprinkle with a teaspoonful of castor sugar. Serves 4-6 lucky people!

March 2011 - March Mango Madness at Maggie's Place

GINGIN mangoes are delicious. Mangoes for sale at Maggie's Place are a variety called Kensington Pride (K.P.) and are tree ripened(not gassed having been picked green and then ripened artificially). They come with all that Summer sun sealed into them, just overflowing with flavour.

Don't be fussy about having immaculate, unblemished mangoes, even though most of them are Nature's best lookers! The flavour is what you should be searching for, not rejecting them if there's a little mark on the skin.

Gingin is the most southerly region for mango growing commercially in Australia at present. No doubt someone will develop a blue, square or other wonder mango that can produce plentifully in cooler climates one day. Until that happens, stick with K.P. from Gingin for most of March. This hot weather is ripening the mangoes quickly - so be quick and buy now!

Fruity Fanatics, a company also from Gingin, produce icy poles made from fresh fruit only. Their flavours include Mango & Orange and Watermelon & Apple. Treat yourself on a hot day to an icy pole from Maggie's Place.

Mango Mousse elevates fresh mangoes from a delicious messy fruit into something posh.

• 500g mango pulp
• Castor sugar to taste
• 3 tablespoons orange or lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon gelatine
• 1 cup whipped cream.

 

Puree the mango and put in one cup of water. Add sugar if you need to. Heat the fruit juice and dissolve the gelatine in this. Cool and stir into the fruit. Fold in whipped cream and leave to set.

 

If you want to be even more posh, and when pawpaws are back in season (if there are any trees left in WA or Queensland post cyclones and floods), you can substitute pawpaw for mango.

 

How about Mango Yoghurt Ice?

 

• Half cup honey
• 2 cups fresh strained mango pulp
• 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
• 1.5 cups natural yogurt
• 2 egg whites

Heat the honey and half a cup of water until runny and leave to cool. Strain the mango pulp and blend with honey, lemon juice and yogurt. Chill. Beat egg whites until stiff and fold into the chilled mixture. Freeze and serve blizzardly cold.

Perfect on a hot day !

Are you in the Grip of the Grape ?
Fresh grapes, I mean, not the liquid from the grape, although thanks to Kafarellas in the Swan Valley, Maggie's Place stocks non-alcoholic grape juice from South Australia – sparkling and flat.

Back to fresh grapes… the Swan Valley should produce juicy grapes throughout March and just into April. The length of the season depends on whether the Valley receives that wet stuff, rain, or not. Crimson Seedless, a favourite variety, is being picked now.

On that fruity note, I'll say 'bye and see you at Maggie's Place one week-end OR on Sunday 20 March, The Bullsbrook Community Produce Markets and Great Pumpkin Challenge, on Great Northern Highway, 9 am – 1 pm.

Sunday 27 March, The Guildford Heritage Festival, Stirling Square, Guildford, l0 am - 5 pm.