Flying solo(ish)
A shorter note this week as Chris is away and my brain feels a bit foggy after the past 24 hours shifting veg in and out of the fridge, packing boxes and doing the 3 delivery rounds. Thanks for the words of encouragement and offers of panads from those whom I saw out and about, no major disasters but I think I did just take a bit longer than Chris normally does so apologies if your box was a bit later. Watering is a constant - spotted some droopy squash just now so hoping I have resurrected those ok. Chris is having a brilliant week, although sailing generally needs some kind of breeze and there hasn't been much of that.
In the field
Normally I have to check with Chris what's been happening but not even Rosie is in this week so it's pretty much just me desperately trying to keep everything alive! Martin (one of our fab volunteers) has done a lot of weeding and also thinned the carrots yesterday - putting mint around the fleece to try to stop the root fly. Fingers crossed.
The field is so lovely and peaceful, such a therapeutic place to be, especially in the cool of the morning or evening during this hot spell. As well as daily harvesting of broad beans and french beans, cucumbers, courgettes, for the boxes I harvested lettuces, beetroot and curly kale - all of these looked just so amazing, and all really satisfying to harvest too! Pulling lovely beetroot out of the soil and cutting the leaves off really healthy strong kale plants have to be 2 of the better jobs in the field (thanks Chris for not giving me something super tricky!).
In the boxes
Had some help from 3 fab folk (you know who you are!) packing boxes which was a life saver.
Small boxes: Savoy cabbage, lettuce*, broad beans (*some), celery, plums
Regular boxes: Courgettes - yellow, green, round (*some), cucumber (*some), french beans- green and/or purple (*some), kale*, kohlrabi, beetroot*, garlic*, tomatoes (*some)
* = from Prion! :)
Some of the kohlrabi were HUGE, same with the cucumbers. If you're unsure what to do with it all let me know. Some of the courgettes and cucumbers look weirdly similar so just double check before merrily chopping soemthing up. If you got something that looks like a round courgette in your box...that's exactly what it is! Just cook it like a normal courgette. Some of the garlic is tiny, but all pungent and tasty. If you got purple beans, they're ours and have been really popular in the shop - I think I may have picked some a bit early so if you have some that are a bit small my apologies! They taste fab raw or cooked.
In the shop
Potatoes, carrots, onions, sweet potatoes, Palermo peppers, mushrooms, sweetcorn, celery, butternut squash, Savoy cabbage, green & purple French beans, broad beans, kohlrabi, tomatoes (big and small!), cucumbers, courgettes, kale, beetroot, peas (hopefully).
Fruit- plums, bananas, lemons, rhubarb (UK apples not far off..!)
Hoping for more padron peppers too from Bryn Cochyn. We'll also have the usual eggs, Pentrefelin milk, Nant y Felin sourdough, local honey and other organi goodies.
Recipe inspiration
Think it's probably all about salads and bbqs this week, but this Anna Jones no cook tomato pasta sauce sounds pretty tasty. I'm also going to be trying this dip (the recipe is in the very last paragraph if you scroll down).
have a good week, and stay cool