Fresh Organic Veggies from Phulbai, Nepal. Foothills of the Himalayas

Subject: Organic Vegetable Mart / Organic Himalaya Veggie sale

Hi there

Each Fortnite on a Saturday we receive shipment of fresh vegetables and herbs air-flown direct from our farm in Phulbari, Nepal. . Thanks to the rainy season, we are having a splendid variety of vegetables that will keep the creative cooks and their families well fed.

Many of our customers and friends are just discovering the bite of the rare and bitter Catalonia chicory. Tossed with a vinaigrette dressing or lemon juice and olive oil combination, it somehow loses its knee-jerking bitterness and emerges as a salad of character when matched with cut fruit, walnut or pine nut, hard-boiled egg and salted anchovies. There are definitely some converts out there. Try it!

With Organic Himalaya we are revolutionizing your salad bowl with leafy green endive, NZ spinach and lamb’s lettuce as robust greens. Definitely, not your garden variety of mesclun, baby spinach and rocket anymore.

However, seasonal is the key word with the produce of Phulbari farm and we are about to embrace the promises of voluptuous summer crops blessed by the monsoon clouds.

For this Saturday, we will be having mustard spinach (rayo sag in Nepali), eggplant, green beans, cauliflower, red beet, green corn, capsicum, pickling cucumber, zucchini and bitter gourd. Add to these, the reliable carrot, potato, tomato, red onion and garlic.
We anticipate fragrant basil, rosemary and curly parsley, and ripe peach and plum if they survive the bumpy journey over the muddy country road and the plane ride over the Himalayan mountain range.

Let us not miss out on the bottled jams/jellies and condiments that are prepared in the farm. We will unveil carrot jam, something I have not had the pleasure of.
We still have some few more bottles of the exclusive rhododendron jelly, ginger jam, tomato jam, plum jam and the Golden Himalayan raspberry jelly. Finally, there is the debut of the Bael jam, jelly and syrup made from the sweet ripe fruit of the Bael tree (also known as stone or wood apple), an unknown to some but a hit with the Nepali folks. Come and have a taste.

Finding myself as the green groceress has its moments of great anxiety and learning. Recipes and suggestions fly in all directions and some end up on the table as rewarding servings. What to do with the surplus quantities of tomato and carrot? Parcel some kilograms to friends with a brief - create something. And with that, we have had some jars of extraordinary tomato ketchup, sun dried tomato in olive oil, small cucumbers in a Nonya achar pickle juice, carrot cake and more surprises coming up. All these will find their way into some lucky bidder's pantry. The brightest moment is when Lauying suggested feeding the spoiled greens and fruit to the cuddly ponies from the Association of Disabled Riders. Brilliant, I can see some grinning faces coming up.

With this announcement, we hope to see you up on the hill of Hume Heights No. 14A. This will be the last sale for the month while we take a break and resume business in August.

Have pleasant days ahead.

Cynthia Wee-Hoefer
HimalayanOrganics@earthpacs.com