Good Morning Good Morning to all the wonderful newsletter readers out there, Johannes and I are sure you are all doing well and are super excited for the week ahead! This week I thought I would write a “Happy Themed” newsletter, recently I have been surrounded by people who are just a bit negative, either the weather is bad, the economy is bad, there is too much crime, there is no money……..you know how it goes! I myself also have bad days but I made a decision a while ago that I would see the good and beautiful in everything, and since moving to South Africa I have found there are few reasons not to be happy. Every day we get up in the Garden of Eden, Outeniqua (which means land of Milk & Honey…..How cool is that!) where we are surrounded by the most amazing scenery in the world, the other day Johannes and I went for a walk to the George Dam and I was truly blown away at the beauty of it, it is so stunning there it could be the cover photo for any National Geographic Magazine, and that is a place not many people go to see, as it is just another beauty spot here in the Garden Route with a function! Then when the sun is out we go to the beach, not just any beach but some of the most stunning beaches the world has to offer, long sandy beaches with blue, blue water, waves that roar and Wildlife galore at our finger tips, and we take them for granted! When you come from a city in the UK there are few green spaces and the beaches have pebbles but as soon as the sun shines people are on them enjoying the wonderful outdoors. Life is just so busy that we no longer take a minute to breathe and see. Also try to change the word “busy” with productive it has been scientifically proven to make you feel a whole lot better about your fast paced life! I can promise you that 5 minutes in our nature will clear a whole decade of problems, one dip in the ocean will wipe away any negativity (and possibly shock your body into working better!)
On Friday I was at my business Coaching course as some of you know I have been on for a while now, and I arrived a bit early so I thought I would have a cup of tea (that bit of English will never leave I think!) and I was looking out the window at the ocean, right beside the venue were 5 wildebeest grazing, and I though “come on that is just ridiculous!!!” If I was on a course in the UK it would more than likely be in a hotel conference room or concrete office block looking at a road and here I am learning in this amazing setting.
Then the crime, yes there is crime, but everywhere has crime, we are so lucky we are not living in fear of extreme terrorism and despair. There is a lack in many people’s lives but surely we can help by just being a human, smiling acknowledging and helping with our time can mean more sometimes than millions of dollars. So this week as we enter the spring I think we should all be thankful for the still and quiet for the beauty and wonder of our area and the fact that we are a tight knit community of people who care. I know that Johannes and I will be on the positive and know that this area is untouched and amazing and we are one of the few that is super blessed to call it home! I don’t intend to make people feel bad I just want everyone to become happy in the small things again and to stop and take a moment to enjoy what we have as to be honest it really is something special.
Johannes and I as usual have some exciting new projects coming up in the very near future and I’ll keep you posted with all of them, we don’t have any new products this week as we have had quite a few new ones in recently, but don’t worry our ever changing product listing will remain as fresh and new as possible. Thank you so much for supporting us for believing in our vision to grow a community and not just a company and have an AMAZING day.
As usual please contact me at any time with regards to new items, recipes or blog posts and especially if you know of any Organic products out there that we don’t already have on the site. Also please always feel free to contact me with any feedback be it good or bad as I need to know what is going on with the products to ensure that you receive the best possible items we can get, for those of you who have already contacted me in the past I truly appreciate it! info@farmfreshdirect.co.za
New Feature
We are so excited to introduce the quick shop function to the site. This is designed to make things so much easier for you, all you have to do is start to write the name of the item you are needing and then a selection of our products will appear for you to choose from. Instead of finding categories and products simply start to write a shopping list and this will make the shopping experience with us even easier!! I have been playing with it all weekend and I think this is awesome, especially designed by Brad from Vertex Central for us, and we feel so special, hope you al like it too!!!
This Week’s Blog…..
As it is Happy Week, this week’s Blog has some happy inducing foods for you. Some things that when you eat them have been proven to naturally to improve your mood and wellbeing. How amazing is it that so many people around the world are researching food and so many people care about its impact. All of you people reading this are also one of those people and well done to you for being a food revolutionary. I myself am proud to be one as I know Johannes is too!
This week’s Recipe…….
So as we have no new products I thought I would beef up the recipe and do two courses for you of happy laden foods!!! Somethings that are super easy to make yet will impress people with your “foodie” ability. Plus with these foods you are set for a very happy joy filled meal!! So I hope you enjoy them and I have linked the products to the pages for you so you can get them easier!
SPELT SPAGHETTI WITH WILD MUSHROOMS AND PARMESAN CREAM
INGREDIENTS
• 320 g dried spelt, wholewheat or white spaghetti
• 5 tbsp olive oil
• 2 garlic cloves, peeled and lightly crushed
• sprig of rosemary
• 5 sprigs of thyme
• 250 g portabellini mushrooms sliced
• extra-virgin olive oil, to serve
• For the Parmesan cream
• 50 g Parmesan, finely grated
• 100 ml cream
INSTRUCTIONS
1. Put the spaghetti into a large pan of fiercely boiling well-salted water and stir through. Cook according to the packet instructions. Heat the oil in a frying pan over a high heat, add the garlic, rosemary and 4 sprigs of the thyme and cook for a 2 minutes. Add the mushrooms to the pan and fry them for 5–7 minutes until cooked through and the water has evaporated from them. Remove the pan from the heat and discard the sprigs of rosemary and thyme.
2. To make the cheese cream, melt the Parmesan into the cream in a small pan and keep over a very low heat.
3. Drain the pasta as soon as it is ready and tip it into the mushroom mixture allowing a little of the cooking water to drip into the sauce to loosen it. Toss through and serve in warm bowls drizzled with the cheese cream, a swirl of extra-virgin olive oil and the rest of the thyme leaves pulled from the stems.
DARK CHOCOLATE & COFFEE MOUSSE
INGREDIENTS
• 100g (4oz) good quality dark chocolate
• 2 whole eggs
• 1tbsp reduced coffee slightly sweetened
• 4 egg whites
• 25g (1oz) Almonds, chopped
Preparation
1. Melt chocolate, then set aside to cool slightly. Whisk together the whole eggs with the coffee before beating in the chocolate.
2. In a clean bowl, whisk the egg whites until soft peaks form, then fold through the chocolate mixture until evenly combined. Spoon into ramekins or cappuccino cups and chill for at least 1 hour before serving sprinkled with the nuts.
Recycling
This week a faithful Farm Fresh customer contacted me about packaging. This is something which is on my heart this year, we all need to revert to paper bags and recyclable materials so watch this space for improvements in that field from us! In the mean time we do what we can so please purchase your Farm Fresh Direct cotton Bag for life to start eliminating the plastic bags out there and also thank you so much for all the egg boxes!! Each week we have some massive smiles from our egg farmers as they receive their weekly gift of egg boxes back!! So from Rudy at Grace like Rain, Aleda from Kings, and Lindy from Red Barn THANK YOU!!
