Fruit, Chickens and The Catholic Church.

What a week in the world of things that Organic Gertrude cares about. From a bountiful run of the season's first stonefruit, some serious spring growth leaving lettuces with no new homes and to top it off Christmas is just around the corner. If you do nothing else this week do everyone a favour and eat a lot of lettuce. There is simply too much of it at the moment and if we don't get busy chowing down then farmers are going to start ploughing it straight back into the ground. That's a lot of man hours, time and love that's not going to help farmers pay the bills.
The last few weeks have seen the arrival of the spring/summer's first stonefruit. Taking away the obvious,  a cup of tea on the verandah and an ice cold beer with friends then eating  just picked organic stonefruit is about as good as life gets for a busy fruiterer. The apricots from Renmark in South Australia taste like the perfect mixture of soft apricotty flesh, sunshine,  and rain. We're also stocking some super tasty nectarines and peaches with some of our favourite growers starting to bring their stock to market.
The real beauty of organic stonefruit and organic fruit in general is that it's relatively cheap, free from toxic chemicals, isn't packaged in plastic, doesn't come with a list of numbered additives, tastes like it should and by eating it you're supporting Australian farmers who care for our environment now and for the future.
In the world of the catholic church we have a cardinal who even Tony Abbott has walked away from. Now from where we sit if you're too arrogant, insular, sexist, homophobic for even Tony then chances are the rest of society has well and truly left you at the station. Maybe he'll head off to his $50 million tax free haven in Rome and hole himself up with like minded folk. I bet you he doesn't eat organic!
In the world of mainstream food production just check this advertisement out.


It drives home how detached the consumer has become from not only their food supply but their fellow humans who work in it. Not to mention the system we have set up that allows these jobs to be created in the first place.
Strangely enough the answer to these problems and a host of others may just be found in what''s now going on in Greece. Thousands of unemployed and homeless Greeks are returning to their Grandparents farms to help tend the orchards, grow the vegies, make the clothes and look after their children. Most have found this new life far more fulfilling, loving, peaceful and happy than the jobs they no longer have. Make of it what you will but the power of family, friends, food and community to enrich our lives is immensely powerful. Read more at this and other links: Greeks going back to the Farm.
I'll get to Christmas next week.
Russ