Brae Farm Weekly Notes for the Kitchen – August 18, 2023 —

Hi everyone,

The citrus orchard is laden with fruit. There are at least 1-2 crates each of joppa oranges, limes, lemonades, and myer lemons. There is also a decent quantity of blood limes that are ready. I’d like to prune back the shrubs so it would be good if I can harvest them next week.

We’ve picked all the field-grown Tokyo turnips, and we have a really nice new succession coming on in the polytunnel. The leaves look beautiful. I’m hoping they will be just big enough to harvest on Tuesday. There is a little gap in production on cherry belle radishes, but we’ll have plenty again in a week.

We’re starting to get a few chive flowers and pig face flowers. We’ll keep checking and pick them if we have them.

We’ve been harvesting a lot of swedes and there’s only about 10 left.

I’ve taken Mexican marigold off the list. We’ve over-harvested, and it needs a couple of weeks to recover.

It would be great if I can send up some romanesco, and maybe some kale for staff meals mid-week? We also have an abundance of spring onions if you can use them.

Thanks! Jo
Jodie Lawson – Brae Head gardener

Brae Farm Weekly Notes for the Kitchen – August 11, 2023 —

Hi everyone,

Please note we are starting a new compost bay. Kitchen team, please drop off green waste in the left-hand bay and as far to the back as possible.

We have lots of brassicas in flower now, so if you can use extras let me know. Gai lan flowers are looking particularly nice.

Florets on the spigariello need to be cut back to stop it from flowering, so I hope you can use an extra basket alongside the sprouting broccoli on Tuesday.

Golden turnips are coming to an end. What’s left are quite small, and probably won’t hold for much longer. It would be good to clear them out within 1-2 weeks. We’ve harvested almost all the beetroot, except the Chioggias. There are still plenty. Also still quite a few nice-looking swedes and heaps of carrots and daikon.

The chives and lemon thyme have bounced back and I’ve added them to the list, as well as a baby-leaf chamomile. Leaf celery has been cut back very hard this morning, so we’ll have to harvest lightly for a couple of weeks.

Thanks! Jo
Jo Lawson – Brae Head Gardener

Brae Farm Weekly Notes for the Kitchen – August 4, 2023 —

Hi Everyone,

The early crop of Nicola potatoes is just starting to form the first baby new potatoes, if the kitchen would like a small harvest? They’re about the size of a large marble, so if you’d like them bigger we can check again in 2-3 weeks.

A lot of romanesco and snowball cauliflowers will be ready next week and there’s an abundance of spring onions ready at a nice slender size, so please order extras for staff meals if you can use them.

We’ve come to the end of the really tiny carrots – they’re all medium size now. The baby kohlrabi have also grown to a small-medium size and should be picked soon.

Celeriac and purple daikon have finished for the season, and we’re coming to the end of the winter radishes. We still have an abundance of mini mak daikon that are holding well.

We have a new succession of medium-sized bok choi ready in the polytunnel, along with some really nice small cherry belle radishes. I’ve added Tuscan kale and pea tips/tendrils back onto the list, and taken off tatsoi, rocket, and rocket flowers.

Thanks! Jo.
Jodie Lawson – Brae Head Gardener

Brae Farm Weekly Notes for the Kitchen – July 28, 2023 —

Hi Everyone,

We’re heading into late winter now with an abundance of brassicas. There’ll be plenty of romanesco, snowball cauliflowers, purple sprouting broccoli, gai lan, and fiolaro di creazzo broccoli next week.

There are also heaps of mini mak daikon and baby-to-medium-sized carrots that would be good to use up in August.

Some nice quality baby greens are starting to come through from the new polytunnel beds. There are plenty of red and purple Russian kale if you need extras, and reasonable quantities of mizuna.

We’ll be starting to plant cover crops again in August so we’ll be looking to clear out the remnants of a few winter crops. There’s a handful of radicchio here and there I could pick this week to clear the beds and there’s one decent harvest of Dutch cream potatoes left we can dig up.

The dill is finished and I’ve taken it off the list.

Thanks! Jo.

Jo Lawson – Brae Head Gardener

An award winning restaurant on an organic farm in Victoria’s Otway Hinterland —