A delicate balance / Milk in glass

Jenny Indian Chestnuts

A delicate balance   Every year around this time Jenny Indian emails from Stanley with an update on her and partner, Steve’s, chestnuts and quinces. This year I’m sharing Jenny’s message because it so honestly and humbly reveals what farmers are going through with the drought and a never-ending fire season. It also gives an insight into the constant […]

What farmers see / Knowing nettles better?

What farmers see…. There are some magical parts of the growing season that only the farmer gets to see – I’ve been saving this picture since January – Jenny Indian sent it in from her farm in Stanley because she wanted to share the amazing sight of her chestnut trees in full flower. Jenny says if you […]

Chestnut & pumpkin soup / Chestnuts & cool season jazz

Whenever I think chestnuts up drifts Moonlight in Vermont.  Frank Sinatra sang it on Come Fly With Me, although everybody from Ray Charles to Nana Mouskouri have done their own version.  The funny thing about Moonlight in Vermont is, apart from the fact that it contains no rhymes and all the verses are haiku’s, there is no […]

Crowdsaucing – 1 week to get your tomatoes. Jenny & Steve's Spanish Reds.

If you’ve been promising yourself that this is the year you’ll make passata, it is not too late, but it almost is. There’s one more week to get your tomatoes for Crowdsaucing Day and sauce it up like they do at the Fitzroy Community Food Centre (that’s them above and yes, they’re hosting a Crowdsaucing if you’d like […]

How do you get a chestnut out? Bowel Buddy Box Breaking News

Jenny and Steve dropped almost 300kg of their chestnuts at CERES this week, we’re putting them in some of our set boxes as well as the webshop.  When I asked Jenny how they get their nuts out of the prickly cases she replies, very carefully and with two pairs of gloves. Jenny says the spines have a habit […]