Victoria Cosford
For many of us, especially those who enjoy cooking, the words ‘convenience foods’ fill us with horror – visions of frozen food, junky burgers, meals in tins – and yet during these long, languid summer months it’s a choice we may make in order to spend more time with family and friends. Besides, farmers’ market choices raise ‘convenience’ to another level!
Church Farm sells superb curry pastes – Thai green, red and their latest, yellow; Indian, Rendang – helpfully providing cute recipe cards at the stall as well. Just add your protein or vegetables – perhaps cubed steak from Hayters Hill, prawns from JJ Seafood, veg from Summit, Jumping Red Ant or Caldera Farm, to name a few.
Wholesome vegetarian meals from Heart & Halo, such as Thai coconut lentils, Middle Eastern lentils and beans or Dusta’s famous vego lasagne, come conveniently frozen, as do Scratch Patisserie’s sausage and spinach rolls, while Radiance Kitchen’s plumply colourful dumplings can be taken away to be merely reheated.
At Bay Smokehouse, Damien sells wild-caught fish he smokes himself in his purpose-built kiln – it might be local mullet or tailor – and all you need to do is chunk it through a rustled-up potato salad or mixed leaves (from Gourmet Salad Hut or Greens From The Farm) along with capers, thinly sliced red onion and a lemony dressing.
Woodland Valley Farm is a trove of Italian delights with their pouches of pasta sauces; fresh pastas including gluten-free ones; pumpkin, sage and sun-dried tomato cannelloni; a bolognese pasta bake the children will adore.
Not to mention their eggs – nor the eggs at Oliver’s Hens and Glenys Creighton’s stall – the most convenient of all meals: poached, scrambled, omeletted, requiring only toasted sourdough from Crabbes Creek Woodfired.
Baraka sells fresh falafel mix and luscious dips like hummus with zaatar and baba ganoush – just add flatbreads and Grumpy Grandmas olives. Local Dorper Lamb sells rissoles and kebabs, and Hayters Hill sells ten varieties of fabulous sausages. That’s convenience!
Church Farm, Scratch Patisserie, Bay Smokehouse, JJ Seafood, Summit, Jumping Red Ant, Caldera Farm, Woodland Valley Farm, Glenys Creighton, Crabbes Creek Woodfired, Baraka,and Local Dorper Lamb are at New Brighton Famers Market every Tuesday from 8am to 11am, and at Mullumbimby Farmers Market every Friday from 7am to 11am.
Hayters Hill, Heart & Halo, Radiance Kitchen, Gourmet Salad Hut, Greens From The Farm, Oliver’s Hens are at Mullumbimby Farmers Market every Friday from 7am to 11am.
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