Food Connect and Quinoa Porrige

This singularly has to be the best way to help our local farmers and get consumers to understand what real fresh organic food is!

I joined Food connect 2 weeks ago, its a prepaid box system that offers a selection of regional seasonal produce. The first box received was like Christmas- opening it up and pulling out all the treasures of organic lady finger bananas, deep green leafy Kael, and beautiful fresh green beans. Immediately we had the Kael and Turnip (very sweet, havent had turnip in years) with our roast dinner that night.

Last night John picked up our 2nd box, this time a Gourmet box. I couldnt help but chomp on the reddest freshest strawberry I had ever seen - yummo - it was devine! French toast (organic home made bread) with Strawbs and maple syrup coming up.

This is very convenient for us - John just makes a small diversion on his normal trip home via Jo our "City Cousin" or mini distributor in Nerang. The produce is harvested and delivered, not stored for days or weeks losing its valuable nutrients. As much as I would love to get produce from the regional markets, Wallaby Ridge oftens prevents this with our weekend guests and check outs.

Though Food connect has been a step in solving this problem of obtaining fresh local produce, I will look for other fresh produce sources locally as well. See their site and learn more about the farmers in their newsletters: www.foodconnect.com.au

Follow up for Quinoa: We tried the quinoa porridge using the flaked quinoa and it has a nutty flavour with the aftertaste of unblanced almond. John said the texture reminded him of Tapioca pudding, but I suspect it requires less cooking than we thought. Lets see if we can grow some!