After the Cygnet Market……

What does a person do after the Cygnet Market?  Sit down and relax?  No……have a G&T and make more bread of course.

After the Market

Recently, I have been experimenting with various flours in my standard sourdough bread recipe.  For this recipe, I used:

• 1.5 cups of Four Leaf Organic 85% Light Flour
• 1.5 cups of Callington Mill Organic Sifted Spelt
• 0.5 cups of Four Leaf Organic Multigrain Mix

The verdict?  Excellent.  You might want to give it a try next time you make bread.

All of these ingredients (and other Australian Organic Foods) are available from the Garden Shed and Pantry and the Cygnet Market.

Cygnet Market Winner Wanted – Nov 17 – what’s going on?

Pictured below is the twelth winner of the GaSP! Take 10 voucher from the November 17 Cygnet Market.  Are they all shy or is there something really interesting on the table?

Nov 17 winners?

The first person who claims the prize will be entitled to ten percent discount off their next purchases from the Garden Shed and Pantry prior to the Cygnet Market on December 15.  If you know one of the persons pictured, please contact them and let them know they are a WINNER!!

The winner should email us here to claim their prize.

Organic dried figs

Turkey is the biggest dried fig producer and exporter in the world.  Approximately 2/3 of the world’s dried fig production and 3/4 of the world’s fig exports come from Turkey.  Figs were cultivated in their motherland Anatolia in the years of 3000-2000 B.C. and they were spread through the Mediterranean from Anatolia within time.  Turkish dried figs are grown under natural conditions and harvested and sun dried on racks under controlled conditions.  Figs were a staple food for the Romans.

Organic Dried Figs

Figs are one of the highest plant sources of fibre and calcium.  Figs also contain:

• high levels of fibre, magnesium, iron (non-heme), copper, manganese, potassium, calcium and phosphorus.
• more antioxidants than apricots, cranberries, dates, raisins and plums.
• some B vitamins.

Figs are a great energy food and can be soaked in water for better digestion.  Organic dried figs make delicious lunch box treats and are great for cooking.

 Organic dried figs are available in three sizes:

• 200 gram snack pack
• 500 gram bag
• 1 kg bag

Other snack packs available include Organic Sundried Apricots, Organic Sundried Pears, Organic Pistachios, Roasted (lightly salted) pumpkin seeds, and Organic Brazil Nuts.

To complement our range of organic nuts and dried fruits, you can now purchase Organic Dried Figs at the Garden Shed and Pantry or at the Cygnet Market.  We also sell the famous, worlds best almonds, Johnston Almonds and local hazelnuts.

Enjoy the healthy eating available from the Cygnet Market.

Pumpkin and fetta quinoa risotto with basil pesto

This is a modified version of one of Kate’s favourite recipes.  We think you might like it too.

Pumpkin and fetta quinoa risotto

• 500g pumpkin
• 1.5 litres of vegetable stock
• 1 cup (250ml) of white wine
• 2 tbsp of Patlin Gardens Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• 1 small leek, sliced thinly
• 1 clove garlic, crushed
• 2 cups Kindred Organic Quinoa (washed at least twice)
• 200g fetta cheese, crumbled
• 100g baby spinach leaves

Cut pumpkin into 4cm pieces and steam it (you could bake it too) until tender.

Bring stock to a boil in a medium saucepan and add white wine.  Reduce heat, cover and keep hot.

Heat oil in a large saucepan, cook leek and garlic, stirring until leek is soft.  Add quinoa, stir to coat in oil mixture.

Stir in 1 cup of the stock; cook over low heat, stirring, until liquid is absorbed.

Continue adding stock, in 1 cup batches, stirring, until absorbed after each addition.

Total cooking time is approx 20 minutes with quinoa (approx 35 minutes if you use rice).

Remove pan from heat, gently stir in pumpkin, fetta and spinach.

Serve topped with Basil Pesto.

Bon Appetit!

Introducing new honey varieties – Cup Gum and Mangrove Blossom

People often ask us about different varieties (or flavours) of honey when they visit the Garden Shed and Pantry at The Cygnet Market.  We like to be able to provide a wide range of products when we can and the opportunity has come up to add to our South Australian range of honeys.  Introducing two new varieties: Cup Gum Honey and Mangrove Honey to complement the very popular Orange Blossom Honey.

Cup Gum Honey

This is a light delicate honey, and is best known for its taste of caramel.  Yummy!

Cup Gum (Eeucalypt cosmophylla) is a small, winter flowering tree, endemic to South Australia.   It has distinctive leathery leaves and large fruit capsules with white/cream flowers. Cup gum is so named because of the shape of the fruit capsules. The Cup Gum only flowers every 2 years but rarely are the flowers prolific enough for the bee keepers to take their bees there. This year the weather was perfect for the cup gums on the Fleurieu Peninsula, south of Adelaide, and they flowered profusely. Luckily for us, John at Do Bee was quick off the mark and his bees have provided a great haul of this superb honey.

Cup Gum flowers and gumnuts

Mangrove Blossom Honey

This honey has a robust, sweet taste with a dark amber colour, thanks to the flowers’ growth in the saline coastal environment of the mangroves north of Adelaide, on the shores of Gulf St. Vincent. It has a complex and rich taste with added spiciness.

L to R Orange Blossom, Mangrove Blossom, Cup Gum

Orange Blossom Honey

We obtain our Orange Blossom Honey from John at Do Bee who takes his bees to the Riverland of South Australia (Australia’s premier citrus growing area) to assist with pollinating the orange groves.

orange blossom

Orange Blossom Honey is often made from mixed citrus nectars including oranges, grapefruit, lemons, mandarins and limes.  It is a thick, very sweet honey.  Initially the aroma is of medium intensity reminiscent of orange blossoms.  With time, it takes on an additional delicate fruity aroma like marmalade with slightly citric acid tones.  Light amber to white, the lighter colour and milder flavour come in years when there is a large harvest and the honey is less contaminated by other nectars.  It will darken with age and crystallizes slowly into granules of various sizes.

Therapeutic uses: Orange Blossom Honey plays a beneficial role for intestinal problems and nervousness. It is recommended to treat insomnia, and is often added to herbal teas.

orange blossom honey grove

Organic products (including Tasmania’s Not Tonight Honey range and South Australia’s Mangrove and Cup Gum Honeys) can be obtained from the Cygnet Market or at the Garden Shed and Pantry.

Restrictions on transporting honey to other states within Australia:

Honey can not be taken from Tasmania to NSW/ACT or South Australia without a permit.  In Western Australia all untreated honey, honey products like royal jelly, and second hand bee keeping equipment are banned from entering the State.

Transporting Honey to Victoria, Queensland or the Northern Territory is free and requires no permits.

The Complete Book of Vegetables, Herbs & Fruit – Biggs, McVicar & Flowerdew

Here is a great book we have just come across that has everything you need to know about growing in Australia (and NZ).  The publishers call it the definitive sourcebook for growing, harvesting and cooking.  Over 600 pages of information on the different varieties of plants, cultivation, companion planting and culinary uses.  There is even a few comments about the medicinal uses of each plant (and warnings if parts of the plant are poisonous).

Complete Book of Vegetables, Herbs & Fruit

There are all the vegetables that you love and some that you probably have never heard of!  There are almost 200 pages devoted to herbs – enough for a separate book.  The fruit section is divided into orchard fruits, soft, bush and cane fruits and tender fruits.  Tender fruits include melons, citrus, pineapples, bananas, mangoes, olives, passionfruit and kiwi.

A separate section on nuts includes Johnstone’s Prolific and our local favourite, the Hazelnut.

At the back of the book are small snippets on gardening, designing a herb garden and all sorts of useful information including weed and pest and disease control and harvesting and storing – a veritable garden full of information!

Get this and other great gardening books from the Cygnet Market or at the Garden Shed and Pantry, Cygnet.