It’s a long weekend! However you’re choosing to mark it, we hope it is filled with great food and people you love or at least like.
With today being a public holiday, we are acutely aware that this edition of the newsletter may not quite have the readership it usually enjoys. Nothing ever gets the better of operations at Harvest, though. So, long weekend notwithstanding, the weekly epistle will land in your inbox per the conditions in our social – and indeed, employment – contract.
This Week At Harvest
In much the same vein as last week, instead of rambling on about who is doing what, when and where, we’re going to offer you some light reading and suggestions of what to eat over the long weekend. Eating and learning. Probably our two – or at least, like, two of a top 5 – favourite things in the world.
Learning
Check out the just-launched Australian Farm Crime Survey. Farm crime has been identified as a primary problem facing rural communities. Incidents of crime that impact the function of pastoral, agricultural and aquaculture farming operations take an enormous physical, financial, and emotional toll. To address the issue, the UNE Centre for Rural Criminology is undertaking this important research, the first of its kind in over two decades. You can take the survey here.
Read this 2021 piece featuring the incredible Professor Emma Lee, a trawlwulwuy woman of tebrakunna country, who is using her knowledge and research to protect the world’s national parks and oceans. Professor Lee’s list of accomplishments is far too long for this newsletter, and it is difficult to overstate the importance of her work. She also happens to be our lead keynote speaker for the 25th Symposium of Australian Gastronomy, for which the Call For Papers remains open.
In doing some research for a seemingly unrelated Harvest side hustle, we came across the Australian Food Environment Dashboard, which purports to “bring together the best-available, most up-to-date data to provide an overall picture of the healthiness of Australia’s food environments.” From what we can tell, it does what it says on the box.
Since we last wrote to you, that push for the ACCC to take a good, long, hard look at the supermarket duopoly was successful, with the PM announcing a 12-month pricing inquiry. Amazing, we will continue to watch this with interest, and there have been calls for the inquiry to go further.
Also, there will be a ruling about who invented butter chicken. Finally.
Long Weekend Eating
Butter chicken? Probably not, but between A Pinch of Tasmania, TNGT and our many meat and veg suppliers, we’re almost certain you could come up with a a wholly Tasmanian curry of some description.
Obviously, there is the good ol’ fashioned BBQ to think about, goods and condiments for which abound at Harvest. Including, but certainly not limited to beef, pork, eggs, halloumi, beets, and mushrooms.
Never forget how easy it is to knock up an ultimate platter, a super easy way to impress a party and sample a wide range of Harvest products in one go. Start with some bio-dynamically land-farmed hot-smoked salmon, incredible cheese, condiments, and go from there.
You can do an absolutely killer Caprese salad by visiting just these three stallholders. Actually, you’ll need one of these ones too.
Finally, we’ve been on a Middle Eastern kick lately. One standout has been a braised potato and eggplant number with turmeric, fenugreek, and brown mustard seeds, and a youghurt-y tahini dressing affair. Do some googling around that and you’ll come up with something suitable.
Thanks for reading, enjoy your long weekend. See you tomorrow.