What to expect from Green Connect in Autumn

This pleasant cool change symbolises the transition from Summer to Autumn. But even though the zucchini, cucumber, cherry tomatoes and eggplants will gradually begin to wind down, Autumn is full of the biggest diversity of veg of any season. Read on to find out what to expect in your veg box throughout Autumn.

As always, we encourage our customers to keep an open mind when it comes to some of the less-conventional veg that you’ll find in your box. In fact, many customers have been introduced to their new favourite veg through the Green Connect box! But we understand that there are some things that people just don’t like, or they may grow some veg at home and not want to double up. Therefore, we have an ‘exclusion’ system, where you can select up to three things from the lists below that you don’t want in your box (you can do this week to week or ongoing). Your exclusions will be taken out of your box and replaced with something else. Send your exclusion requests to [email protected]

Seasonal Flowering Veg

Tomato (cherry), zucchini (grey and black jack), cucumber (Lebanese),

squash (yellow patty-pan), eggplant, green beans, broccoli, cauliflower, green cabbage, Chinese cabbage (wombok)

The Summer quartet of cherry tomato, cucumber, eggplant and zucchini are still in full swing – although they will be slowing down over the next month as the days get shorter and we have less sunshine. These crops will be succeeded by the European brassicas which are the real rock stars of Autumn and Winter. Broccoli, cauliflower and green cabbage are all in the ground and getting ready for an early May crop. You will notice them phased in as the Summer fruiting veg phases out.

Leafy Greens

Oak lettuce, cos lettuce, silver beet, rainbow chard, kale (green curly leaf and red Russian), rocket, joi choi, bok choi, amaranth leaf, radicchio, sweet potato leaf, endive, fennel

When the Summer heat and humidity blow away, all our leafy greens breathe a collective sigh of relief. We’re already noticing the colouring in our greens deepening, a sign that we can start to get more creative with our selection of salad and cooking greens while continuing to provide the staples of silver beet, kale and lettuce.

Roots, starches and alliums

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

As many of our customers have confirmed the past few months, we’ve had the best carrot season we’ve ever had, with Dutch or purple carrots filling boxes most weeks. We’re planning to try to keep this supply up – but they will naturally slow down as the weather cools. The notable changes in this category are the stripping back of beetroot planting, and the introduction of turnips and more radishes. This year we’re exclusively growing Japanese white radishes, which have a milder taste and are slightly more versatile than their relative, the purple top. We’re excited to dig up our experimental crop of Jerusalem artichokes, and kohlrabi is a crop that always does well in our shoulder season and causes a bit of excitement among our customers.

Herbs

Basil, parsley, dill, parella, rosemary, bay leaf, mint, lime leaf, water celery, chilli, coriander

Coriander has been the big absentee over Summer which will be back in your kitchen from early April. Basil, of course, is the big loser as the weather cools, but there is still a crop in the ground which we’ll get a pick from before the season has ended. Autumn will have a great variety of Asian and Mediterranean leafy herbs and will also see the use of our bumper chilli crop!

Fruit

Apples, Pears, Bananas, Oranges, Mandarins, Lemon, Kiwi-fruit, grapes, nectarines, plum, peaches, passionfruit, tamarillos, guava, Babaco.

Those of you who get our mixed boxes (which includes seasonal fruit) will know that we purchase our fruit in from organic suppliers through the Sydney market. This makes it a little bit more difficult to gaze into the crystal ball and predict what will be available over the next few months.

But as a rule of thumb in eastern Australia, Summer is stone fruit season, so the peaches, nectarines, plums and cherries that have been so delicious over the last few months will be less available, as will grapes. Autumn is the season for apples and pears, and the new varieties of apples we have got over the last couple of weeks have been exceptional. Bananas seem to be around for most of the year due to the tropical growing conditions up north. Some of our very own fruit is starting to ripen upon 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 for the first time!