Alien parsnip invasion
It's been a busy week. We managed to tick another thing off the very long winter to-do list which was to sort some business cards. Amazing how hard it is to fit everything you want to say onto one tiny bit of card...or is that just me?! We were super busy in the shop last week - amazing, thank you to all our lovely customers, new ones and regular ones (not going to say old!) - and then Chris had a stall at the Ty Gwyrdd community event at the Town Hall on Saturday, so good timing for the business cards ;) So we were happy to get a good veg order in on Monday to replenish stocks.
Chris is off to the Wales Real Food & Farming Conference in Lampeter tomorrow so looking forward to hearing how that goes.
In the field:
Wet, muddy, and a bit chilly. Rosie's been shifting compost this week - thanks Rosie! And harvesting goes on - 48 lettuces, 10kg swede, 20kg leeks, 10kg parsnips, 2kg salad.
Chris very happy with his swedes, less happpy with his twisted alien multi-sown parsnips...! (oops, every day a school day and all that)
In the boxes:
As well as potatoes, carrots and onions..
Small - parsnips, sweet potatoes, apples, Savoy cabbage, lettuce
Regular - sprouts, swede, leeks, golden beetroot, cauliflower, palermo peppers, clementines
Don't forget you can top up with store cupboard items via the online shop. Unfortunately the web page doesn't give us the option to explain this very well, but if you place an order you can pick up from the shop on a Thurs or Fri if you'd like to, or otherwise we'll deliver with your next box. It's worth trying it to see how it works, let us know any feedback.
In the shop:
Brassicas - cauliflower, Savoy cabbage, sprout stalks (can't get any broccoli at the moment)
Roots - potatoes*, carrots**, onions*, sweet potatoes, leeks**, (alien) parsnips**, golden beetroot, swede**, garlic, turmeric, ginger
Leaves - kale, salad**
And chestnut mushrooms, squash, palermo peppers, some tomatoes (still!) including green ones for chutney, apples (eating and cooking), lemons, bananas, clementines
*from Bryn Cochyn organic farm in Henllan (and Roscoff)
**some from Prion (the rest of the carrots and parsnips from Ormskirk)
Also eggs, sourdough, Pentrefelin milk and organic store-cupboard items. If you have bought bread or milk from us in the past, it's worth noting we've increased our order of both to keep up with demand but this is always a risk for us as if we don't sell out neither will keep longer than a few days. If you know you definitely want either you can send us an email and we can put to one side for you.
Eggs- we are having to buy in from our organic wholesaler to supplement the local eggs, this may cause us a few challenges in the weeks to come but fingers crossed. Some of the suppliers of eggs to our wholesaler have also stopped trading due to the requirements of having to house birds again rather than letting them eat pasture due to the awful bird flu.
Given we order in 10 days ahead of the shop being open, and we were so busy last week, this has left us a little shorter for veg/fruit than we'd like for this week so if you're coming from afar it's worth checking in before you come or doing a pre-order. We've got plenty ordered in again next week (hopefully) and the store-cupboard items are fine.
In the kitchen:
It's definitely soup season! Also roasted veg - apparently tahini dressing is great over roasted veg, I'm not sure I've quite nailed this yet but going to try this recipe (note - we sell organic tahini in the shop).
If you've still got celeriac from last week (guilty!), here are a couple of interesting Riverford recipes:
Finally, well done to all the volunteers (including many of our customers!) who have worked to get the community fridge in place at the Erianfa, open 10-12 Mondays and Thursdays. Our whole business model is set up to reduce and minimise waste, but we willl donate and help where we can!
have a great week