What can you expect from the Green Connect Farm this Summer?

Summer is a time on the farm where everything speeds up. If we can manage to keep on top of the irrigation, the weeds, and the summer pests and diseases, then we’ll be rewarded with serious abundance in summer veg!

If you order a Green Connect veg box, take a look below at what you can expect in your box this season! As always, we encourage our customers to keep an open mind when it comes to some of the less-conventional veg. 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. If that’s the case, you can take advantage of our ‘exclusion’ system, where you can select up to three things that you don’t want in your box, and we’ll pack something else instead. You can change your exclusion items as often as you like! Just make sure to send your exclusion requests for the week to [email protected] before 12pm on Monday.

Seasonal Flowering Vegeggplant

Tomato (cherry), zucchini (grey and black jack), cucumber, eggplant, beans (green and butter)

The summer quartet of tomato, zucchini, eggplant and cucumber will be in full flight this summer. Because of the fruit fly issues posed by the Illawarra’s high humidity, we only grow cherry tomatoes (which are less susceptible to fruit fly). These little guys are a crowd favourites and should be filling boxes until May. The Zucchini’s will carry on playing a role this summer, although we have stripped back their numbers to make way for the late summer stars of eggplants and cucumbers.

The first eggplants start to fruit around Christmas time – appearing like shiny Christmas decorations throughout the farm. They’ll be ready to be packed in veg boxes in late summer.

Green beans and butter beans should be ready just in time for Christmas!

Leafy GreensRed and green cabbages from above close in

Oak lettuce, cos lettuce, red parella, silverbeet, rainbow chard, kale (green curly leaf), rocket, joi choi, bok choy, amaranth leaf, yellow celery

We can grow a lettuce in four weeks over summer, so the only barrier to getting our soft leaf oak, or crunchy cos lettuce into your boxes will be picking them fast enough!

Kale, silverbeet and rainbow chard are year-round crops at our farm. Bok choy and joi choi will make an appearance again this summer, along with some Chinese cabbage. Amaranth leaf will add a little spice to summer dishes, and we’ll also be featuring red parella, red veined sorrel and yellow or Chinese celery in a couple of boxes throughout the season.

Roots, starches and alliumsgreen onion

Potatoes, Carrots, beetroots (golden and purple), radish, pumpkin, leek, fennel, spring onions, onions.

Carrots have been planted and we can’t wait to see them jumping out of the ground and into the boxes! Summer is also a time where beetroots shine, with our purple beets and golden globe being a feature through the season. Although we’ve stripped back our radish plantings since they dominated the winter months, they will still feature in boxes in early summer.

As always, we will be outsourcing our potatoes and onions from other organic growers and will outsource the occasional pumpkins when supplies are short. Leek will occasionally compliment the onion in boxes, along with some spring onion and fennel.

 

You can find all of our recipes here!