Pumpkin, pumpkin everywhere!

How do I cook chestnuts!!!???

Hello everyone!!
We had a good time packing today's boxes last night- the system is becoming ever more streamlined! we are researching alternatives to the somewhat heavy apple crates as boxes- of you have genius brainwaves, 'the perfect box' which is stackable, easy to clean, maybe even a bit waterproof and doesn't take up too much space let us know!
in the meantime if you are finding your box unwieldy, feel free to bring in a bag and transfer your goodies to a more bike friendly container :)

in other news, please renew your order for next month this week! if you need me to send another copy of the order form let me know. You can change from $20 to $40 or vice versa. If you are not planning to continue in the box scheme, let us know ASAP so we can find replacements!
Enjoy the wintery goodness in these recipes, i'm going to bust out our old chestnut roasting spoon and light a fire!!!!
Chestnuts:
Roasting
The simplest way to eat chestnuts is to roast, grill or BBQ them. First carefully make a cut through the outer shell to relieve the heat and pressure while cooking. Cook for 25-30 minutes on medium heat, turning after 15 minutes. Remove from heat and wrap in a towel or newspaper for 5 minutes. Remove the shell and the inner skin (pellicle) and they are ready to eat. If after cooking, your chestnuts are hard and dry, they are either too old or overcooked.
Boiling
Chestnuts can also be eaten boiled after removal of the pellicle. Alternatively, after boiling, they can be cut in half and the nut scooped out of the pellicle with a spoon. Boil for about 20 minutes.
Microwave
To microwave your chestnuts, cut through the shell of the nuts in an "X" pattern. Cook nuts on High setting for 30 seconds. Cool, peel, eat. Vary cooking time to suit, overcooking will dry the nut and make it rubbery.

Extra Good Roast Winter Vegetables
You can roast just about any vegetables in this way.  Adding the chestnuts makes these veggies a bit more substantial to be served as a main with quinoa, rice, pasta etc.
Ingredients:

• A couple of onions cut into quarters
• 1 bulb garlic with skins on
• 2 small zucchinis
• Some parsnips
• Quarter of a butternut squash
• Some beetroots
• 1 ½ cups peeled, blanched chestnuts
• 1/3 cup olive oil
• 2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
• 1 tbsp tassie honey
• Salt and pepper
• Plenty of rosemary or thyme

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 200C.
2. Chop all your veggies into chunks.
3. Combine the oil, vinegar, honey, herbs, salt and pepper in a mixing bowl or a jar with a lid like a salad dressing.
4. Place veggies and chestnuts in a roasting dish and add the dressing, use your hands to make sure all the veggies are coated.
5. Roast for 1 hour.

Chestnut Hummus:
This is a cool thing to do with your chestnuts. You can eat hummus with just about anything, try it with the pumpkin and beetroot scones!

• 200g chestnuts, boiled and peeled
• 3-5 tablespoons lemon juice (depending on taste)
• 1 1/2 tablespoons tahini
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed (if you love garlic add as much as you want)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons olive oil

Method:

1. Combine all ingredients in a blender or food processor until it is a smooth paste.
2. Add more oil or a little water if the dip is too dry.
3. Easy!

Pumpkin and Beetroot scones,
These are yummy vegan scones that you can eat any type of dip, just with some butter. And they are pink!

• ½ cup raw sugar
• 3 ½ cups wholemeal flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• ½ cup nuttelex
• 1 ½ cups pureed pumpkin
• ½ cup pureed beetroot
• Salt

Method:

1. You will have to boil or steam your vegetables in advance for this, and then puree them either with a masher of food processor. You’ll probably want the pureed veggies to be cool when you are ready to make the scones.
2. Preheat oven to 210C.
3. Combine all the dry ingredients (sugar, flour, baking powder, a pinch of salt) in a mixing bowl.
4. Bit by bit add the cold! margarine and crumble it in with your fingers until it is all combined.
5. Now add the pureed veggies and mix well.
6. Roll the dough out to 1 inch.
7. Use a cookie cutter or a glass or something else round to cut the scones
8. Place of a baking tray and bake for 15 mins.

some beautiful recipes for this week's box

Courtesy of Hannah, thanks for the inspiration!
Have fun picking up those boxes today folk, remember parking is easier after 4 pm when the uni folk tend to dissipate. Also, bring back last week's empty box so we can fill it up again next week.

We had a good time packing last night, don't forget to sign up for a shift today if you haven't already. Cheers! Happy winter all!


Sesame Green Beans
This is a nice quick way to make a green beans side dish a little more interesting.
Ingredients:

250g green beans

2 tbsp toasted sesame seeds

1 tsp honey

1 tbsp soy sauce

1-2 garlic cloves, minced

fresh chili to taste, finely chopped

a little oil

Method:

cut beans in half if they are long, string them if you like

add a little oil to hot pan or wok

quickly fry minced garlic and chili

add beans and stir fry for a few minutes until hot through, but still crunchy

add soy sauce, honey and sesame seeds and stir trough the beans until they are evenly coated

Cauliflower Pakora
Ingredients:
Pakora are an Indian favourite. They are yummy with most types of vegetable, but especially good with caulies!

1 cauliflower

1 cup chickpea flour

1 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp ground coriander

1 tsp turmeric powder

some water

fresh chili to taste, finely chopped

small bunch fresh coriander, chopped

1 tsp salt

Method:

break cauliflower into small florets

combine flour, spices, chopped chili and coriander and some salt.

add enough water to make a thick batter, it will need to coat all the vegetable and not drip too much

mix together with the cauliflower florets

heat oil in a pan or deep fryer

get two tablespoons, with one scoop up a spoonful of mix, and with the other you can shape it a bit or just push it into the oil, fry for a few minutes until golden and cooked through. 

Veggie Shepherds' pie
This is of course a classic, but also very yummy veggie. Makes a nice dinner with some greens on the side. The seasoned breadcrumbs add a little salty crunch.
Ingredients:

1 or 2 carrots, finely chopped

1 onion, finely chopped

2 sticks of celery, finely chopped

2 cloves garlic, finely chopped

½ cup red lentils

1 ½ cups stock (water will also do)

2 tomatoes, diced

3 cups chopped seasonal veggies (zucchini, greens, cauliflower etc)

2 medium potatoes

1 sweet potato

Fresh Thyme, Rosemary or Sage

Oil

salt to taste

stale bread or bread crumbs

Method:

Chop sweet and regular potatoes and boil until soft

Drain and mash with a little oil or nuttelex, and add salt to taste. Set aside

Preheat oven to 180C

Heat a little oil in a pan and gently fry the herb of your choice, onions, garlic, carrots, tomato and celery for a minute or two

Add lentils and fry for another minute or two

Add stock or water, cover and simmer for about 15-20 minutes, until lentils are almost soft

Add the rest of your veggies and cook until they are almost cooked, but still a little crunchy, add more water or stock to the pot if the lentils have absorbed it all, although it should not be too watery or soupy

Blend a piece or two of stale bread for breadcrumbs with some salt and pepper

Add veggie/lentil mixture into medium sized baking tray, spoon mash ontop and sprinkle with seasoned bread crumbs.

Put in oven for about 40 mins!

And so it begins!!! Box week one!!

Hello all, hope everyone had an ace easter and is enjoying the clear sunny breaks between the impending winteryness. I have been getting excited about lighting fires in the middle of the day on cold wet days, and enjoying the green-ness of just about everything around here.

Also exciting.....this week's box...check these guys out ... yes they are large!

we chose these boxes because they are reasonably strong, recycled and almost endlessly recyclable, big enough to fit $40 worth of fruit and veg plus a few other items as well, so when you pick up said box you can fit the rest of your weekly goodies in there as well! We are anticipating that Wednesdays will be fairly busy with box schemers plus the usual shoppers, we will see how we go. If they turn out too big and clunky we might look at alternatives-some box schemes have strong cardboard boxes with lids which look great, but cost a bit more and don't last as long.


....

I can imagine a burning question in each of your minds.....'is she going to tell us what is in The Box??'


I will not entirely spoil the surprise, but here's a recipe (courtesy of Andrew, source shop manager and chef extraordinaire) There will also be a few treat-ey fruits from the North Island and some organic mushrooms as well...

Hot Roast Veggie Salad with Pesto and Olives

Pesto:
Basil
¾ cup cashews,
 enough olive oil to facilitate a nice mushy texture,
chilli powder to taste,
rapadura sugar to taste,
salt to taste.
Blend above ingredients, or mash in a mortar and pestle

Roasted Bit
Roast butternut pumpkin, spuds, beetroot and carrots, all cut up into chunks,  on tray with safflower oil, sprinkled with salt. Oven 180 degrees until soft brown and yummy (40 min approx).  Add zucchini 15 min before ready. Add green tomatoes, or rhubarb with the zucchini if you have them, as the acidity of these vegetables goes oohhhh sooooo well with the oil.

Stir Pesto though veg and add olives, serve hot, mmmmmmmmm delicious!
 'Extras' shopping list- cashews, olives, rapadura sugar and tasty tassie olive oil. 

Box Scheme Trial!!

The Box Scheme - in 50 words or more!

The box scheme is the most efficient way of getting the best quality organic food from the farmer to your kitchen, with a minimum of cost to you and to the environment.  There are hundreds of similar schemes operating around the world - this style of shopping is on the up because it is honest, and provides a shortcut to the extended food supply chain. It is popular because it is convenient, economical and super fresh (we can buy a load of fresh food and arrange to have it arrive just before you pick it up- that's harder to achieve in a traditional retail situation)
Source is building stronger relationships with local organic farmers - we can guarantee a market for them, and they can conveniently drop off their week's produce and get back to farming! There will be opportunities for further connection between you and the farms - so you can see where your food comes from and get involved in the satisfying business of growing food.

Due to Tasmania's proximity to Antarctica we will source some of our goods from interstate as our growing season slows down.

For this initial trial WE WILL ONLY BE OFFERING 25 BOXES PER WEEK, so the first 25 people to email us will get a box order in.
This is how it will work.


You commit to 4 weeks worth of boxes at a time, and pay in advance when you make the order'

When you sign up, we ask that you sign up to volunteer a few hours of your time - just 2 hours every two months. Those hours (Tuesday evening from 6-8) will be spent packing everyone's boxes-a strategy which will keep the costs down, share the load between volunteers and get you more involved with your co-op. These hours do not count toward ‘active member’ hours and the associated discount at the shop.


The type of produce included in each box is dictated by availability and seasonality. You can elect whether you want a $20 box or a $40 box. The $20 box will include roughly 7 kinds of vegetables and fruit, the $40 box will have more of the same, plus some more variety. You can opt to add on organic Elgaar Dairy Milk, or Summer Kitchen bread. Does that mean - with fruit, veg, milk and bread that you could avoid going to supermarkets at all some weeks? Of course on Wednesdays when you pick up the goodies you can stock up on the other essentials as well.

Here it is! An indication what will appear in a $20 box every week. in the photo- (I will have to work on my food arranging skills) there are 3 apples, half a kilo of toms, 1 kg of carrot, 2 onions, half pumpkin, 2 zucchinis, 500gm potato, 2 bulbs garlic, 3 big beetroot. This was just an experiment to see what $20 worth looks like at the lower mark up we are using for box prices.

I 

You can't choose what goes in your box, but we will have a 'swap box' at the shop- so on Wednesdays when you pick up your weekly box and find that it has more beans/beetroot/spinach than you think you can handle-you can happily swap it at the door with the cabbage/asparagus/tomato that someone else is allergic to. If you can't make it on Wednesday, we will hold on to it until Thursday afternoon when it will go onto the shelves in the shop. 

You will bring the previous week's box (the actual box- a recycled apple crate) so we can fill it up for the next week. There will be an initial box cost when you make your first order -$4. That won’t necessarily cover the cost of buying a new box if you lose/break yours, so look after it!

 we can all communicate here on the blog site - you can post and see recipes, photos, stories, and news about events and the like. (you can also access this as a non box receiver-stay in the loop)  We will endeavor to keep a hard copy of the important stuff in the shop- so you don't need to be glued to the internet to stay involved.

summing up

-4 week commitment, pay up front (No credit, must be current)
-volunteer once every 2 months for 2 hours on a Tuesday evening
-choose a $20/40 box of fresh seasonal organic fruit and vegetables
-pick it up on Wednesdays and bring back the last week's box




Feel free to bombard us with feedback about this trial  -  We are trying to keep it simple to begin with. We may consider more box sizes, meat options, different timing in packing and pick up and various other options in the future. Depends what YOU want!! Remember that it is your co-op - you paid to be member (or maybe you havn't renewed? We included you anyway because we assume that if you signed up last year you have an interest in what is going on in Sourceland!) So get involved!
the Source shop team