Biodynamic treechange (homesteading)

New Farming Opportunity Now Open at Near River

Applications for our first Smallholding Internship at Near River Produce are open, and will be wide ranging in the scope of areas covered.

For three and a half months two interns will spend their days involved in all aspects of our operations here at Near River, allowing them to experience life on a smallholding.

Primarily focusing on fresh vegetable and limited fruit production, over the four months all facets of a range of crops will be covered, from soil preparation, seedling production and succession planting, harvesting and preparing for market. Irrigation, nutrient cycling, composting and compost teas will also be discussed in depth.

Other areas that are intrinsically vital to our livelihood will be shared including pastured egg production, our valued added preserve and condiment range, and the beginnings of our pastured pork operations. Obviously as garlic is our main crop, it will form a large part of the activities.

The marketing side of our business will also be able to be experienced, as each team member will be able to participate in farmers markets, farm gate sales and on-farm events. Online marketing and sales also play a large part in our business.

 

Ideally these internships are for people who are keenly interested in learning about life on a smallholding and how to have that life produce a sustaining income whilst producing nutrient dense food for our community, and heal the land at the same time.

Our first intake commences on September 7th and runs through until December 21st and each week will consist of a variety of tasks spread across five days, with two days off aside from minor chores.

A stipend of $200 per month will be paid for incidentals, and room and board within the main house at Near River will be provided. Participation in cooking and cleaning will be expected. Limited broadband internet will also be available.

A $500 tool bond will be required upon acceptance of the internship, which will occur after a three day trial.

Profit sharing in a crop that the team raises and markets whilst at Near River will be available at the completion of each internship.

 

Near River Produce is a 8.5 hectare property located 4.5 hours north of Sydney, 45 kms inland from Port Macquarie. Wauchope is the nearest town.

We farm organically and follow many of the principles of Eliot Coleman and Joel Salatin. Our produce supplies some of the region’s leading restaurants, and we participate in a weekly Sydney market.

 

Applicants will need to be physically fit – this is hard work, but you will eat some of the best food you’ve ever grown and tasted, and at the end of each day you will be very aware of what you have accomplished. And your knowledge bank will be expanded enormously.

 

Contact us at info@nearriverproduce.com for an application form, or phone us on 02 6587 6004 for further details. Visit our website at www.nearriverproduce.com

Applications close August 20th 2012.

Near River's first preserve release wins fine food award!

About eighteen months ago we sat down with well known local chef Eric Robinson of The Other Chef Fine Foods to see what we could create with a great crop of beetroot that we had grown at the time. Over the course of the next couple of weeks Eric worked out a recipe that became the first release in our preserve range ....

Near River Produce Beetroot Relish 

... and we're very pleased with what he did and continues to do.

The relish has been a hit with friends and customers both here in the Hastings Valley and further afield. In August this year we entered our Beetroot Relish in a few food shows including the Mudgee Fine Food Show. We did this as aside from any recognition an award gives each entrant, it allows our produce to be judged against its peers. And yes it's very competitive!

So we were very pleased when the Silver Award arrived.

Wow .. We must be doing something right!

And it is a great relish, with many uses - best served with goats cheese as a canapé, with ham and other cold cuts on sandwiches, as a accompaniment with gamey meat, particularly duck, rabbit or kangaroo, and lastly as an Aussie substitute to cranberry sauce with turkey at Thanksgiving and Christmas.

For a real treat, we serve it on Raging River Wagyu burgers topped with blue cheese - a gourmet take on the classic Aussie hamburger where beetroot is a must.

If you live in the Hastings Valley Near River Beetroot Relish can be purchased at many outlets, such as About Food, Beetroot'd, Essential Ingredients (Port Mac and Coff's Harbour) and the Port Macquarie Visitor Info Centre.

In Sydney, you'll need to visit Essential Ingredient in Rozeiie, or check out our new and  improved online Farm Gate Store!

The perfect gift for that foodie friend or someone who has everything

Tasty spring garlic - is there anything better?

As you'd expect, the learning curve here has been pretty steep over the last three years. Sure I'd trained in horticulture and practiced it for well over a decade, and most of that was in other people's gardens. But the world of vegetable growing has opened up a whole new gamet of plants and how to grow them. And then there is how to care for them once they've been harvested, but I digress.

Who's heard of spring garlic? Until a little over a year ago, neither had we. Also often called green garlic, basically it's undersize garlic that is lifted from the beds in spring as they are thinned to allow the larger garlic to reach it full size.

And it's wonderful stuff to cook and eat with quite a subtle flavour when compared to the cured and dried garlic that is usually used in the kitchen.

We've been having it sauteed in butter with asparagus and Near River poached eggs   and now chef Todd Richardson of The Corner Restaurant in Port Macquarie will have Near River spring garlic on the menu shortly too. Todd suggests that "It goes well with twice cooked beef, the Corner's own caramelised onion and truffle oil. The garlic is best slowly roasted. And be quick as the green garlic is only in season for less than a month each year."

This is quite exciting for us as we're keen to develop a strong bond with a couple of key chefs to provide great produce for, and it seems that we are on our way to that happening.

Here's what Stephanie Alexander says about garlic -

"Newly harvested garlic can be used as soon as it is picked. It is a very special treat usually reserved for home gardeners. The cloves are crisp in texture (almost juicy) and the flavour is fresh and pungent. Wrap these freshly harvested heads in a piece of oiled foil and roast for 45-60 minutes in a 180C degree oven until quite soft, then squeeze this perfumed spread onto bread. Exquisite! Even before harvesting the garlic, a few of the green tops can be cut and used as flavouring, snipped straight into sauces, omelettes, soups, casseroles or stir-fries. Green garlic is very pungent and is best cooked rather than added raw to a salad."

I just love finding out about all the new ways to use each of the vegetables and herbs that we are growing here at Near River - so much to learn and experience.

Australian Organic garlic curing on racks

We have about a quarter of our garlic out of the ground, and we are racing against a large dump of rain due at the end of the week. The garlic that is still in the ground then may absorb too much of the water and split, making it usless for anything much aside from compost.

Today's photos show the harvested garlic laid out on our racks to allow it to dry and cure. Then comes the joyous task of topping and tailing each bulb and removing a couple of outer layers of the papery skin.

Be sure to head over to our online Farm Gate Shop and order some garlic now - we will be ready to start delivering by mid December.

 

 

Here comes this season's garlic

A quick post today, as it's been a long day, and the next few are likely to be the same. The images will tell the story.

A heap of rain is expected at the end of the week and we are doing our best to harvest as much of our garlic crop before the rain comes. If you'tre in the area and feel like a few hours work in the sunshine, by all means drop on by.

It is great to see this crop coming out of the ground, with many of the bulbs a very healthy size. Makes all our effort over the last 6 months really worthwhile.

 

The garlic bed                                                                                            One row done, eighteen to go

A selection from the crop

How to fix our food system

Every now and then, something comes along that brings a smile to your face, adds a glint to your eye, and a spring in your step for the rest of the day.

That’s what happened to me when I watched Birke Baehr on TEDx Next Generation recently.

This 11 year old has a real plan for sorting out the ills of our complex industrial food system, and deals with pesticides and GMO’s into the bargain.

And all in a little over 5 minutes.

Check it out.

With people like this guy around, the future might just be in good hands.

Oh and I can relate to Birke – I was 12 when I declared to my assembled family that I was going to be a farmer when I grew up!

Spring's here. And so is great tasting new season produce!

It’s been sometime since I last posted on this blog – almost 18 months – and I could go on and explain why, blaming extra work on the farm for keeping me away from the blog. I guess the reality is that it lost it’s attraction. But now that has passed, and I have quite a few things to tell you a;; about – goings on here at the farm, and matters throughout the world that are important, or important to me!.

Over the coming weeks and months you’ll see how matters have progressed at Near River.

And to restart proceedings, here’s what we’ve been having for brunch the last few mornings.

Fresh field grown asparagus drizzled with spring garlic sautéed in butter

with poached organic free range chook eggs

Doesn’t that just make your mouth water?

We planted this asparagus 3 years ago and it’s so good now to be able to wander out to the market garden and grab it fresh. You can read about our first asparagus planting at Who is Mary Washington anyway?

The spring (or green) garlic are the ‘thinning's’ from the garlic plantings, plants that are too small to form decent bulbs, and they have a wonderful garlic aroma but lack the intensity of the fully grown and dried variety. A very subtle flavour indeed.

And our poached eggs – what can I say? I never grow tired of our eggs, with the yolks so bright and golden and the whites with that creamy texture in your mouth – so delicious.

Obviously our superb eggs are available with our vegetables in the weekly CSA boxes that will start again next week.

However, If you just want possibly the best eggs you’ll ever taste, in Port Macquarie you’ll find them at Essential Ingredients in Short Street and Organic Belly in Murray Street. Sydney ciders can venture into Cafe 169 on Alison Road in Randwick.

That’s all for now.

 

This weeks issue of The Current from Near River - 21.5

Rain Rain Go Away ...

Once again I find myself writing with rain falling from the sky in vast quantities, and we're told the end is not in sight.

For the third time in two months, we have a low pressure system sitting almost stationary off the northern NSW coast that is driving moist air onto the coastline and adjoining ranges, and moist air is an understatement! Huey's really throwing it down.

I suppose it could be worse!

For us, the frustrating thing is not the day or two (or three) of inclement weather that means wearing raincoats and overpants, it's the following three or four days that we need to wait before we can move vehicles and trailers around the property, collecting piles of green waste, moving compost materials into place, spreading our made compost and leaf mulch around, and even working the soil in the plots.

At least the ducks and geese get to have some fun!

 

 

Our New Team Member
The most recent recruit, actually our first, young Angus Hawkens, started with us last Monday and has keenly jumped in to tasks that we've set for him. So far Angus has been shown first hand the finer points of garden bed clearing, compost heap building, and seedling planting. His first bed of planting was some leek seedlings, and whilst his effort was grand his execution was a little crooked!! He will deal with the error of his ways when it comes time to weed the rows with his hoe.

Angus will also be caring for our poultry whilst we're away from the farm delivering the produce down the coast and in Sydney.

We look forward to watching Angus develop his skills and interests through his studies and practical work with us.

Seed Collection

One aspect of what we are doing here at 'Near River' is to build up a collection of seeds from plants that we've grown here. We are doing this for a number of reasons. Firstly, by collecting seeds over a number of seasons from plants with desirable traits (large fruit, early fruit, slow to bolt to seed, etc) we can produce a strain that is specifically suited to this property. Secondly, it means we can vouch for the authenticity of the seeds organic origin; and lastly, it is a way of us participating in the preservation of heirloom varieties of vegetable species.

So far we've selected a good strain of silverbeet, coriander and pumpkin. Over time these and other varieties that we save seed from will develop attributes or even an affinity with the precise microclimate that exists here a 'Near River' that will enable them to perform really well.

Garlic

Many of you have been enjoying our fresh garlic, and yes garlic is meant to be juicy, not the dried, chlorine-bleached, methyl bromide fumigated imported Chinese stuff that the supermarkets pass off.

Given the success we've had with our initial planting last season, we intend to make this one of our core crops, and so have planted 3600 cloves in the last few weeks. They've jumped out of the ground, as the shot at right shows, so for now, this seasons crop is off to a good start.

2/3 of the planting (2400 bulbs) will be used as seed stock for the acre or two we intend to plant out next season, with the remainder being stored and distributed through the CSA.

This week's CSA Box

Oranges Navel 6
Lemon Meyer 1
Lettuce Cos 1
Rocket Cultivated    Bag
Pumpkin        Jap            400 gm
Garlic            Bulb            1
Chili            Med        2
Zucchini            1

Radish French 3
Parsley / Dill    Pak

To close this week, a shot of an egg from one of our Rhode Island Red bantams. (It's the one on the right). They have been off the lay for some time now, and this appeared yesterday. When you haven't seen something for awhile, you often forget the marvel that Mother Nature is.

Till next week, cheers.

Zucchini + Parmesan frittata

Here's a quick dinner dish using all the current summer produce from the market garden.

 

What's in the box? #1

HI all and very happy New Year. May it be prosperous and abundant for everyone.

The boxes of vegetables that our CSA delivers each week go to the Port Macquarie and Wauchope region on Thursday afternoon and evening, and then Sydney's far north late on Thursday night. The rest of the Sydney deliveries are made on Friday.

We were up before the sun to harvest today, and here is this week's bounty.