With the heat of summer creeping up on us, the crisp, cooling texture of the Lebanese Cucumber is essential in every salad or sandwich.

The "Meet The Grower" series took Luke to a local Lebanese cucumber farm just a stone's throw away from Sydney Markets. We caught up with the owner Caroline Hatem to find out how the best cucumber is harvested and nurtured.

At the start of 2017, we supported the talented chef James Metcalfe as he put together a fantastic dinner to raise money for OZ Harvest. After this successful event, James decided to kick off his very own pop up dinners through his business JRM Hospitality called "The JRM Social Series".

Sydney Direct Fresh produce is proud to be supporting James and his team on this fantastic new journey of exploring local produce, exceptional wines and creative spaces throughout 2017 and into 2018.

As part of our "Meet The Grower" series, we caught up with one of our favourite growers, Jayson Mesman of The Truffle Farm and the humble James Metcalfe at his recent " JRM Social Series Dinner" at the Urban Winery Sydney. 

We supplied our freshest ingredients and brought some of our customers along to enjoy a night of local wine by Alex Retief, laughter and tasty food.

As we kick off the Blood Orange season in Australia, we caught up with Vito and Leonard Mancini of Red Belly Citrus. 

One of the founding directors of Redbelly Citrus, Vito Mancini, remembers his first encounter with a blood orange, “As a boy, I was always fond of my grandfathers back yard, walking in and around always excited me by seeing what vegetables were planted and what fruits were in season".

This month's "Meet The Grower" Trent De Paoli is the director of the largest chilli company in Australia based in Queensland. Austchilli was founded by his father David and the business encompasses three generations of sustainable farming practices along with state of the art business management systems.

All of Austchilli product is produced in the Bundaberg region. We spent the day with Trent and his team who educated us and our customers on the process of growing the largest variety of chilli Australia has to offer.

Mike McEnearney and his head chef Jeffrey De Rome headed up a five-course menu featuring truffles from Jayson Mesman's Truffle Farm in Mount Majura near Canberra, and matching wines by Bryan Martin of Ravensworth Vineyard in Murrumbateman, NSW. The menu consisted of cobia sashimi with braised truffle mushrooms and radish, spit roast chicken 'demi-deuil' vinaigrette and truffle infused creme caramel.

As we come to the end of another fantastic Truffle season, we had to share with you our recent "Truffle Hunt" with top chefs from the Sofite group. As part of the "Meet The Grower" series we took a coach full of chefs to sample the very best in Australian Truffles at The Truffle Far in Canberra.

As the truffle season kicks off we will be sourcing some of the best black gold in Australia. Please contact your accounts manager to pre order.

Sydney Direct Fresh Produce director Luke Kohler, Mike McEnearney and Jeffrey De Rome from No.1 Bent St took a trip to Canberra to learn more about the process and what makes truffles so special. Check out part one of this adventure before our Truffle Dinner at No.1 Bent Street on the 15th June.

Sydney Direct Fresh Produce Director Luke Kohler took a trip to the new farm in Queensland to find out what it takes to get the perfect leaf on the plate.

Petite Bouche has been delivered to our customers for the past four years. We have always had consistent and innovative produce from the boys at Export Fresh. So when Directors Tony & Paul gave us the green light to film a "Meet The Grower" we jumped to the opportunity.

MEET THE SDFP TEAM as they showcase all the beautiful Australian produce they deliver daily to many of Sydney's leading kitchens at this years Gault & Millau Australi Misen En Place Event 2017.

Sydney Direct Fresh Produce is committed to providing its customers with the best service, reliability, quality produce and educating chefs with the new "Meet The Grower" campaign. 

We jumped to the task as we do with all of our customers. We made a few phone calls and got some interesting little fellah's sent all the way from North Queensland.

From Black Prince, Pink Tigers, Brain Killers, Trinidad Scorpion and Scotch Bonnets, we knew we could blow the roof off Applejack Hospitality for their Annual Chilli Eating Competition. Check out chef Billy's adventures here.

We are so pleased to have supported chef James Metcalfe with his charity dinner to raise money for OzHarvest #CEOcookoff with our donation of fruit and vegetables from local growers.

Here is a clip from the full night if you missed out on a ticket. We all had a fantastic evening of food, wine and bringing people together to raise money for an epic charity.

We would also like to thank Urban Winery Sydney, Export Fresh, Vic's Meat Market, Simon Johnson Providore, Garlands Florist, PFD Food Services and everyone else who donated produce, time and money for this positive cause.

James Metcalfe is best known for his time as Head chef at Justin North’s Becasse and he will be cooking on tonight's exclusive 4-course dinner using local produce with matching wine from A.Retief.

The dinner will be held at the very cool Urban Winery in St Peters. This will be a great evening for all those who have missed James’s cooking this last year and are yet to check out the unique space that is Sydney’s first Urban Winery.

To kickstart 2017 we caught up with Canoelands orchard with our "Meet The Grower" campaign. This 100 acre orchard was originally purchased by John Cecil Christie in 1923. At this point it was crown land which he purchased for 100 pounds. He cleared 25 acres by hand and planted passion fruit, oranges and lemons during the depression. He also had poultry. Over the years he moved on to stone fruit.

At Sydney Direct Fresh Produce we pride ourselves on supporting local farmers. "Meet The Grower" is our new monthly blog connecting our customers with the farmers story. 

This months farmer is the epic Hapi from Field to Feast, Sydney NSW. He has so much passion and love for what he produces. Field to feasts philosophy is simple, grow organic and farm fresh produce as mother nature intended. 

COMING SOON.

"Meet The Grower with Sydney Direct Fresh Produce"

From December we will be bringing YOU, our customers the "Meet The Grower" campaign. We want to share with you the passion, love and expertise that goes into some of the produce that we supply to Sydney's restaurants, hotels, catering, pubs and grocery stores.

We want to share the farmers story to celebrate fresh Australian fruit and vegetables.

Our experience in the market and in dealing directly with growers ensures we are able to provide the highest quality produce to our customers on time and in the best condition. One of our aims at Sydney Direct is to consistently supply our clients with the finest produce available in Sydney all year round.