Around here

It has been a cold week here, well at least for us Queenslanders that is.  Our Winter is very mild compared to down South however it's been cold for us.  Very excited to get our first delivery of our organic meat order.  Here's a few photos from our week.

A foggy morning.

 

Foggy morning with the bush turkey going for a walk.

The Trumpet Vine is starting to flower.

Pretty in pink.

Friday night home made pizza.

Our first delivery of "Our Cow" organic meat delivery.  I wrote about it in this blog post.

Delivered to my front door.

Has use by dates for both "leave in the fridge" or a "freezer" date as well.

This cute little binder comes with it so you can put your recipes in it. 

A new daily journal book I ordered for myself.

Around here - supporting our farmers

Last year just before lockdown I came across "Spray Free Farmacy" which is a family run home based business in Brisbane consisting of Kristen, her husband and two daughters.  I believe they also have quite a few family members helping out in the business now as they deliver to over 500 families a week.  The business is five years old now and when Covid took off in early 2020 and Brisbane was in lockdown for 2 months the business thrived and has continued to get better and better.

Image from Spray Free Pharmacy website about page.

Who wouldn't love to support this family business.   Before they started the business they used to spend time going to Farmers Markets, Organic shops and then the supermarkets for the extra things which was taking up a lot of their weekend time.  They tried different organic home delivery services and they thought that they were okay until they came across Kel, a farmer and they asked her to put a veggie box together for them.  They were amazed at the beautiful fresh produce and fantastic value and they mentioned it to friends who also wanted a box too.  Before long they decided to set up a partnership with Kel and start offering fantastic boxes to the wider Brisbane community.

There are two options for delivery of your boxes with the first one being the home delivery to your door for $10 which is the option I go with, or you can opt to pick your box up from a designated local location.  My box gets delivered early Saturday morning to my front door and the following delivery I leave my empty box outside so they can be reused for the next family.

This is why they provide "spray free" veggies to families and they have great articles on their blog. You can get a standard box small, medium and large and swap things out if you something or prefer a different item.  They also have lots of other things available like sourdough bread, eggs, yoghurt, rice, butter, cheese, milk, sauces, nuts, oil etc.  I can vouch that these veggies last 2-3 weeks vs the supermarket one week in the fridge.  If you are in Brisbane or surrounds I can highly recommend this service.  Below is some pictures of deliveries I have had.

A number of years ago I purchased some organic meat from a farmer who had a delivery service to Brisbane which I ordered a couple of times and then stopped.  Some 10 years later I am more in tune with where our food comes from, additives and preservatives and supporting farmers and small businesses.

Last week I watched Landline and they had an amazing story on a young couple Dave and Bianca who bought their farm 3.5 hours inland of Bryon Bat at the ages of 28 and 23 respectively.  How amazing is that having young people want to farm.  Their first two years on the farm was tough with fires, flood and drought so they had to dig deep and think of a way to survive and they came up with their business "Our Cow".  I love the name and the simple green colours and logo.  I love a good farming story and particularly for such a young couple trying to get ahead.  Their vision was to create a connection between farmers and the people who purchase their food which they have done.  They wanted to provide consistency to themselves along with their farmers knowing how much they will get for their produce.  This is the link to the 13 minute Landline story which you should watch.

This is Dave & Bianca and these images can be found on their Instagram account.

In March, 2019 they launched the "Our Cow" website offering meat online, cut to order directly from Australian farmers to the consumer.  I of course only discovered them due to the lovely story on Landline last week and I was immediately impressed.  Having organic meat delivered to my door and I can make up my own box of what goes in it which is music to my ears.  Supporting farmers is so important as they do it tough and they should get paid a decent price.

Watch the video from their website which is half way down this page.  It runs for 5 minutes to tell you about their product and why they set up their business to give farmers a consistent fair price.

The meat is cryovaced in portions of 500gms for sausages, minced and diced products for easy storage and family meals.  Having the meat cryovaced promotes and extra fresh shelf life with some products lasting up to 42 days in the fridge so you don't need to have a big freezer to store your meat.  When we used to go camping I used to go to the butcher and get the meat cryovaced so if it was floating around in the eski there was no way any melted ice that would get into the meat.  Have a look at the simple yet beautiful packaging below.

The images are from the Our Cow Instagram and website.

You can choose from their pre-selected meat boxes or build your own box which is what I did.

Boxes can be purchased as a once off purchase or you can subscribe to boxes for a set and forget monthly meet delivery.  I have gone with a monthly subscription service and each month the box can be altered prior to delivery so I don't have to get exactly the same every month.  The monthly box is $199 and this month they had a special subscription offering that over your first 3 boxes you'll get for free $180 worth of meat thrown in.

My first meat box order I will receive for free a 1.5kg Beef Roast and 1kgs of Lamp Chops which is amazing.  My organic meat delivery of $200 a month works out to be $50 a week.  You can order more than the basic box however I'm feeding 3 people so this will be enough for our family at this stage.  I'm so excited to receive my first order and support this business and the farmers they support.  I will see how long my pack lasts as I may increase it to $60 or $70 per week depending.  Knowing I am feeding my family good quality organic meat and having it delivered to my door is amazing.

The comparison was posted on Our Cow Instagram on 11th January, 2021.

Have a look at this yummy beef burger recipe.  They have a heap of recipes on their website as well using the cuts of meat on offer.

These are the farmers they are supporting with their business and his is the offer I subscribed to which is for June 2021 at the time of this post.  So my organic meat is delivered to my door once a month which works out to be $50 a week for my family.

I am so excited about the meat delivery and I love the fruit and veggie delivery and the fact they are stocking more grocery items as well.  I get so over shopping as it's a huge time waster and the more you are at the shops the more money you spend.  Having these two amazing services to support my family's health feels so good to me.  I hope you watch get to watch the Landline story because it's great.  I LOVE Landline and watch it every week.  Landline is on the ABC and has been running for 30 years.

Slow Cooker Beef Recipe & Flat Bread

The other day I was scrolling Instagram and there was a video for a slow cooker recipe.  I had all the ingredients and just needed to buy some beef and potatoes.  I put the slow cooker on around midday on high and about half an hour before I was serving I made some flat breads to go with it instead of having it with rice.   It was so delicious and warming on the first day of winter in Australia and the flat bread was great for mopping up all the sauce.

SLOW COOKER BEEF RECIPE

500gms diced beef [recipe called for double that however I just used half - you could use 1kgs]

3-4 carrots chopped into large size chunks

4 potatoes chopped into quarters [I used the little packet of Aldi Microwave potatoes for size]

2 large onions chopped

Peas & Beans [optional - to be put in at the end of cooking]

3 cups of beef stock

1 teaspoon of dried thyme

1 teaspoon of dried rosemary

1 teaspoon of smoked paprika

1 tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce

2 tablespoons tomato paste

3 cloves of garlic

2 bay leaves

1/4 cup of plain flour

Salt & Pepper to taste.

METHOD

Dice beef into large cubes if not already diced.

Place in pan with some olive oil to brown the beef and then put into slow cooker.

Using the same pan, place potatoes and carrots in the pan and brown, and then put them in the slow cooker.

Sprinkle the 1/4 cup of plain flour over the beef and vegetables in the slow cooker and stir until everything is covered.

Back to the stove top; add garlic and herbs and onion to the pan and cook for a few minutes.

Add the tomato paste and stir through, then pour in the beef stock and bring to the boil.

When reaching the boil place this into slow cooker.

Add the bay leaves and parsley [note I didn't use either of these].

About 15-20 minutes before you want to eat dinner, place some beans and peas into the slow cooker and stir through.  You could also add other greens at this stage like baby spinach for extra nutrition at this stage.

FLAT BREAD RECIPE

Here is a link to my flat bread post from 2017.  The ingredients for the flat bread is as follows:-

250gms Self Raising Flour

1/2 teaspoon sea salt [recipe calls for 1 teaspoon however it's too salty for us so we use half]

1 teaspoon baking powder

250gms Natural Yoghurt - I used Greek Yoghurt