Ingredients:

• 1 medium unpeeled beetroot
• 4 cups vegetable stock
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 medium onion, finely chopped
• 2 tbsp lemon juice
• 1 ½ cups rice
• 1 tbsp grated lemon zest
• ¼ tsp salt
• ¼ tsp cracked black pepper

Cook the whole, unpeeled beetroot in boiling water until tender. When cool, peel and grate the beetroot.

Heat the stock in a pan and keep at a low simmer. 
Heat the oil in a pan over medium heat, add the onion and cook for 3-5 minutes or until soft. Stir in the lemon juice and rice. 
Add ½ cup (125 ml/4 fl oz) of the hot stock and stir constantly over medium heat until the liquid has absorbed. Add more stock, ½ cup (125 ml/4 fl oz) at a time, until all the stock has been absorbed and the rice is tender and creamy. This will take about 30 minutes.

Add the beetroot, lemon zest, salt and pepper and stir for another minute to heat through.

This recipe comes from lifestylefood.com.au, and is absolutely delicious with the Brass Monkey Blue from Granite Belt Cheese (featured in next week’s cheese club).

Ingredients:

Bring a pot of boiling salted water to the boil and gently simmer the carrots until just cooked.

Roast the beetroot with their skin on in a medium oven or simply boil them with the vinegar, sugar and salt until soft, about 40 minutes. Allow to cool then peel and cut into wedges. In a bowl, place the parsley, beetroot and carrots.

Dress the vegetables with extra virgin olive oil and about 1/3 the amount of red wine vinegar. Season with the salt and pepper, then add the blue cheese and grated ginger. Gently mix to ensure the vinegar and oil coat all ingredients.

Serve in a bowl as a shared salad or on individual plates as an entrée.

Enjoy!

Click here to read this week’s tucker report, Nettie Wiebe’s speech from the La Via Campesina workshop and recipes for beetroot, carrot and blue cheese salad and beetroot risotto.

This recipe came from Yvonne Crosby, our pomelo farmer. She says, “Citrus works well with spinach. This salad is made from all really healthy stuff and contains five of the top twenty healthy foods”.

Ingredients:

• 1 pomelo cut into small portions
• spinach
• lettuce
• roasted almonds
• garlic
• olive oil
• broccoli, blanched and cooled
• cherry tomatoes
• Danish feta
• salt and pepper

Method:

Mix together and enjoy!

Food Connect is now such a part of our lives that I couldn’t imagine not receiving our weekly box. We love knowing we are eating sustainably and our fruit and veg tastes SO yummy and nourishing!!! Thanks to all the team and farmers xx

We call this recipe Cupboard Love Frittata as we often make it the night before our Food Connect delivery comes, and it makes extra for lunches. We use all the left over veggies that are in the cupboard, and of course ingredients for the frittata change with the seasons.

Ingredients:

• 3 tomatoes, halved
• 2 potatoes or sweet potatoes, chopped
• 2 cups pumpkin, chopped
• 2 carrots, quartered
• 2 zucchinis, quartered
• 1 capsicum, cut into 8 strips
• olive oil and sea salt for sprinkling

Frittata mix

• 8 eggs
• small carton of cream
• 1 cup of feta, cheddar or parmesan cheese, chopped or grated
• 1 handful of basil, torn, stalks included
• freshly ground pepper

Method:

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees. Place all veggies on a baking tray lined with non-stick baking paper and drizzle with oil and sprinkle with salt. Bake for 40 mins or until soft and golden.

Arrange veggies in a greased non-stick baking dish. To make the frittata, whisk together the eggs, cream, cheese, basil and pepper.

Pour over the vegies in the pan and bake for 45 minutes or until the frittata is golden brown and set. Allow to stand for 5 mins before slicing and serving with a fresh green salad.

*** There’s really no right or wrong ingredient and quantity, so feel free to be creative. From time to time depending on what’s loitering around we add things like: eggplants, mushrooms, spinach, other herbs, pesto, semi sun dried tomatoes, fried onion and bacon, a drained can of tuna or cooked chicken pieces.

Buon Appetito.
Meaghan, Bardon subscriber

Click here to read this week’s tucker report, Alison’s impressions of the Winter Farm Tour, Ride for the Rainforest and recipes for Cupboard Love Frittata and Top 20 salad.

Tue-Thur, 20-22nd July
Royal on the Park Hotel, Brisbane
$1710 for 3 days

Three days of information, brimming with innovation and inspiration, never before drawn together at a farming and grazing conference in Australia. Learn about the global view on food, carbon and farming ay keynote speakers. Rob Pekin from Food Connect will present at the event on Wed 21st July. Click here for more information.

Tuesday 27th July, 6.30pm
Jagera Arts Centre, 121 Cordelia Street, South Brisbane
$0 – donation to Rainforest Rescue appreciated

8,811km – 18 countries – by bicycle – a slideshow

International adventure cyclist, Krista Bernard, recently returned from an 8,811km bicycle expedition from London to the Himalayas with her partner Daniel Coward. It was inspired not only by Kirsta’s first world cycle, but by their mutual love for sustainable travel. At the same time, Krista and Dan raised much needed funds for local not-for-profit Rainforest Rescue. See their photos and hear their stories. You might be inspired to join them on their next “Ride for the Rainforest”.

Sunday 8th August, 10am-5pm
The Bookfield Centre, 139 Brookfield Road, Kenmore Kills
$20, max. $50 for families

The symposium exploring the creation of an environmentally sustainable, spiritually fulfilling, socially just human presence on the planet. Are you concerned, even anxious, about what the future holds?
Join us for an extraordinary day awakening to new possibilities of how we can live together on the earth, in vibrant community.

To book your place, email transitionkenmore@gmail.com or call 0408 080 455. Please bring a plate to share for lunch.

Actress, film maker and leading environmental campaigner, Daryl Hannah will arrive in Cairns to attend a major conference to discuss permaculture design and education in September this year.

The Australasian Permaculture Convergence, APC10, is an anticipated biennial event to be hosted in the Wet Tropics town of Kuranda, a 40 minute drive from Cairns and gateway to the Atherton Tableland food bowl.

Hannah is passionately committed to practicing a low impact lifestyle. From her small footprint, passive and active solar home, complete with grey water systems and organic garden in California, to being an early adaptor of biofuels, Daryl Hannah has been actively spreading the good news of how well it all works and how good it all feels to be part of the solution, for over two decades.

She has become one of the most influential sustainability advocates, reaching millions with her message. She has inspired countless individuals to become more informed and pro-active about the natural world and the part we all play in protecting it.

She has produced, hosted and shot numerous green TV appearances including pieces for CNN International and Good Morning America. Hannah has become an outspoken advocate for ethical and environmentally sustainable lifestyles on news programs in both the progressive and the conservative media.

Hannah will be the Keynote Speaker at the Gala Dinner of the upcoming APC10 Convergence in Cairns, September 24-27th.

Other confirmed speakers at the event include the Former Governor General of Australia, Major General Michael Jeffery; Permaculture Co-Founder Mr Bill Mollison, Robert Pekin of Food Connect and SBS Television’s, Costa Georgiadis, of Costa’s Gardening Odyssey.

Hannah is also looking forward to completing her Permaculture Design Certificate at a two week residential course under the instruction of leading Permaculture designer/trainer, Mr Darren J.Doherty near Mareeba in early September.