Pure Blonde - Organic Convos: Georgie's Harvest
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Organic Convos: Georgie's Harvest

May 27, 2020

Georgie Dragwidge proudly supports small businesses and Australian farmers, all while providing fresh seasonal produce to the local community at her store, Georgie's Harvest, in the South Melbourne Market.

Here you'll find potato varieties such as Cecile, Viking, Russet Burbank, and Virginia Rose; a bevy of beautiful pumpkins, (with varieties featuring Golden Nugget, Jap, Jarrahdale and the always classic Butternut) as well as yams, log grown mushrooms, fresh chilli, turmeric, wasabi, Australian garlic, and a range of wonderful local condiments - all coming from a variety of small and local businesses.

“[Supporting small business] helps so many people. - Small people can work with small people and a lot of people can benefit. The farmer gets more for their product.”

But now, much like the rest of Australia, Georgie's suppliers have been hit hard by COVID-19 making their future uncertain.

“I was always very confident in knowing everything, but now I don't know what the future holds. If you asked me two months ago, I had all the answers. What I know now is I don't have any answers. Restaurants are closed and there's a whole range of produce that only gets sold to restaurants.”

But what can we do to support our farmers? Georgie says it's the same as it's always been.

“Nature didn't stop producing beautiful produce but everything else got cancelled. So people should shop small and shop local.”

But while small farms are doing it tough through this crisis, it seems like Aussie truffle producers are about to have an especially tough time.

“Australia is the third-largest producer of truffles in the world. We export a large portion of our truffles which now won't be able to be sold overseas, so we've got all these truffles that are about to not have a market.” Adding to that is that fact that “truffle season is only between the 1st of June and the end of August, so they only have three months to sell.”

How to keep Aussie truffle farmers in business? Try using more truffles at home. Georgie recommends a traditional approach.

“You make a mash, you get some butter, you warm it up, mix through some grated truffles and it's amazing.”

“[Using truffles means] it'll be an expensive dish but it's a really fun expensive dish to try. You're looking at $60 for a pretty cool dinner party. - It's like an expensive bottle of wine. You don't have it every day, but every so often it's nice to have.”

So head out, grab some good quality produce and help support your local producers. You'll thank yourself for it.

Georgie's Harvest
Stall 50 in South Melbourne Markets.

Hours
Wednesday 8am-4pm
Friday to Sunday 8am-4pm