What's in season this Spring - Green Connect Illawarra

What to expect in your Green Connect veg box this spring

The warm weather that hit us in the middle of August made it feel like spring had come early, but now it is officially here! Spring creates a special atmosphere on the farm. The sounds of new bird life and insects that share our land abound. And there are baby goats!

The spring season gives us the best of the crops that we planted in winter, with broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, beetroot, and leafy greens all at their absolute best during this season. But it’s also the time that we start to plant all of your warm season favourites, such as cherry tomatoes, zucchinis, cucumbers and eggplants. Though it’s important to keep in mind that these crops do take time and won’t be ready to harvest until summer.

As always, we encourage veg box customers to keep an open mind when it comes to the less-conventional veg that you might find in your box this spring. We know that many customers discover their new favourite veg through our boxes! But we understand that there are some things that people don’t want, either because they just don’t like them or because they grow them at home and don’t want to double up. Remember that you can take advantage of our exclusion system, where you select up to three things from the lists below that you don’t want in your box. Send your exclusion requests to [email protected] and we’ll replace your nominated items with something else based on what is ready to be harvested at the farm. The deadline for weekly order changes is Monday at 12:00pm.

Seasonal Flowering Veg

Zucchini (grey and blackjack), green beans, broccoli, cauliflower, green cabbage, snow pea, broad beans

The crowd pleasers of broccoli and cauliflower will really be hitting their stride over the next few months. But we are particularly exited about our large crops of snow peas and broad beans that we have in the ground that we be producing huge volumes of peas and beans, as well as the edible tips and leaves that both crops produce.

Leafy Greens

Oak lettuce, cos lettuce, silverbeet, rainbow chard, kale (green curly leaf and red Russian), rocket, joi choi, boy choy, amaranth leaf, sweet potato leaf, endive, fennel

Some old favourites mixed with some exotic inclusions; spring is the best time of the year for leafy greens.

The huge heads of cos and oak lettuce will match perfectly with the beetroot and pumpkin to make some awesome salads. We want to celebrate diversity and introduce people to the magic of sweet potato leaf, mulberry leaf and amaranth leave, but will keep these things to a minimum. If anyone wants to exclude ‘exotic leaves’ we will make sure that these are not included. But for those who you who want to try something new, we promise you wont be disappointed.

Roots, starches and alliums

Potatoes, Carrots, beetroots (golden and purple), radish (red cherry and purple plum), pumpkin, leek, spring onions, onions, kohlrabi

Carrots and beetroots are our all-season heroes of the veg box and will continue as the days lengthen. You’ll start to see more beetroot and pumpkin in your box. The turnips and radishes that have produced so well for us over winter will be included less.

Leeks and spring onion took a bit of a holiday over winter while we sorted a new growing strategy out – but the spring crops are looking incredible and are really exited for our first harvest.

Herbs

Basil, parsley, dill, parella, rosemary, bay leaf, mint, lime leaf, water celery, chilli, coriander, snow pea tips, broad bean tips, rosemary

We often get feedback from our customers about how much they love the flavours of our fresh herbs. It’s easy to tell the difference between herbs picked that morning and those that have sat on a supermarket shelf! Parsley, dill and coriander are consistent producers throughout winter but will be joined by a diverse range of herbs listed above.

Fruit

Apples, pears, bananas, oranges, mandarins, lemon, kiwi-fruit, passionfruit, tamarillos, guava, babaco, avocado

Those of you who get our mixed boxes or our fruit box will know that we purchase the majority of our fruit from or organic suppliers through the Sydney market. This makes it more difficult to gaze into the crystal ball and predict what will be available over the next few months. Bananas and apples seem to be the year-round mainstay, which is just as well as these are the most popular fruit among our customers. Oranges, mandarins and other citrus are at their best in late winter-early spring.

Our very own fruit is starting to ripen up on the trees, which will add a bit of variety to our larger mixed boxes. Yellow cherry guavas, tamarillos, babacos, and lemons will all be available this season.