This morning while I froze on the sidelines at my son’s footy game I thought of the Foothills Organics crew down in Colac harvesting in the frost.  My hands felt sympathy pains for whoever was washing the radishes and leeks.  When I got home I called Joe Sgro who said the frost had stuck around all morning.  He was hoping a band of rain coming from the West would give them a break from the freezing weather for a while.

We chatted a bit about what Joe’s growing and whether he’s planting his beautiful midnight pure spuds  this year but the topic inevitably turned to the new wholesale markets opening in Epping in August.  Joe is no fan of the new $600 million market that’s come in over double its budget but has somehow reduced the trading floor spaces for available farmers.The current government blames the previous government for the design but all Joe knows is that he has to travel further and pay a lot more to rent less space. Joe laughs and reckons the Melbourne Market Authority must be expecting a flood of complaints from unhappy farmers and traders because it’s introducing a $1000 dispute lodgement fee.

We say goodbye and Joe leaves me with a local Colac aphorism – “Don’t plant in winter months beginning with J.”   I ask why and he tells me that whatever you plant in June and July will always be overtaken by what you planted in August.   “Although we did plant a bit of broccoli this month,” he adds sheepishly.

This week you’ll find Joe Sgro’s beetroot, cabbage, daikon, fennel, leeks, parsley, potatoes, radishes and turnips in our set boxes and our veg section.
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