Dot and Nev’s dahlias

A few weeks ago Claire from Cherry Road Flower Farm began bringing in her regeneratively grown bouquets – they’ve been so popular Claire hasn’t been able to keep up with the demand.  

We went looking for another organic flower grower and came across Dot and Nev Humphreys who are growing mixed dahlias. 

We asked Dot if she could tell us a bit of background but she was very modest and just sent a short note about her dahlias. When we asked if she would share a bit more of her story this is what she wrote…

Our farm is situated in Central Victoria close to Inglewood .

Our family property is now 6th generation, my brother owns the major farm which was selected by my great-grandfather in 1901.  We inherited a small holding of 13 acres of the original selection.

We have a small orchard of mixed fruit, plus 30 olive trees, saffron, veggies (enough to sustain us) plus a variety of seasonal flowers which we use for our floral orders as well as viola which we supply as edible flowers.

I was brought up on the family property with my late Mother having a huge garden from which she grew all kinds of flowers including magnificent dahlias which she regularly won prizes with at all the local flower shows. 

I was encouraged to enter decorated saucers in the children’s section, which I never seemed to win but enjoyed the exercise. As I grew up I became a qualified florist and floral judge, opening a florist shop in the Latrobe Valley with my husband Nev.
 
We travelled internationally demonstrating what can be achieved with flower designing. We later moved to Melbourne where we established a business serving mainly corporate clients, high-end restaurants and 5 star hotels.  

COVID-19 shattered our corporate designing business; hotels and businesses closed, so we spent most of our time at our small farm and started to grow lots of flowers, fruit and veggies to sustain ourselves, this has kept us busy and proved to be a satisfying venture. 

We believe in organically growing sustainable products that benefits humans and animals alike, so we feel we are a great fit with CERES and with our genuine love of flowers it can’t help but be a great partnership.

Dot and Nev’s mixed dahlias will be available for the next few months until the cold weather hits.

Like Claire from Cherry Road, Dot and Nev only have a small farm so bunches will be limited to Saturday deliveries only – set your delivery day to Saturday and they appear in stock.

You can find Dot and Nev’s flowers for Saturday deliveries here and Claire’s flowers for Tuesday deliveries here – be quick they’ll get snapped up fast.

And remember to leave a vase of water out for our drivers to pop your bouquet in : – )

So wrapped

In Sri Lanka and around the world Indigenous and village-based communities have been using banana leaf food wrapping for thousands of years.

After spending fifteen years in Sri Lanka Charith and Michele from Island Home  wanted to share not only the delicious food traditions of their family and the village communities they worked in but also the banana leaf wrapping that takes all the single-use pain out of takeaway.

Charith and Michele’s Jungle Curry is a low-GI heirloom red rice or organic lemongrass Basmati, paired with a jackfruit curry alongside a selection of seasonal organic and locally grown produce (it’s so good).

Delivered wrapped in a banana leaf you just bake it in an oven for 30 minutes or place it in a hot steamer for 20 minutes or microwave for 3 minutes. 

When you’re done just pop the banana leaf in your compost.

Island Home’s banana-leaf wrapped Jungle Curry is available on Fridays only. To order set your delivery day to Friday and the curries become available but on the other days they appear out-of-stock.

Find a generous single serve of Charith and Michele’s plant-based Jungle Curry here or a double serve option here.

Have a great week

Chris