Happy Christmas / Nadolig Llawen
Updated: Apr 3
Chris has been a little apprehensive about the veg this week for a couple of reasons - firstly, the freezing ground meant some of our normal suppliers couldn't get veg out of the ground so we had to switch to other farms (200kg of veg was switched from one of our favourites, Royal Oak, to various other farms who are much bigger and supply supermarkets). Secondly, we sold so much in the shop last week he was suddenly worried he hasn't ordered enough for the shop for this week! But the truth is we couldn't have ordered any more as we cleared our bank account. So, the veg we have is the veg we have, and we're just hoping that we don't let anyone down who is relying on us for their veg and fruit.
Thanks so much for the presents, cards and emails - as always, we feel particularly appreciated at this time of year! We are so grateful for the support from every one of you and we're looking forward to seeing what 2023 brings.
Next newsletter will be not next week but the week after (first week of Jan) - we'll let you know then if we're opening the shop or not on Thurs 5th/Fri 6th Jan - depends on what's left after this week as we won't get another veg delivery before then.
In the field:
Just some harvesting - bit warmer this week! We got about 3kg of salad and 2kg of kale. Bit of a nightmare on Monday hearing that our small polytunnel had been damaged in the wind - the door has blown out and one of the panels ripped, it's been temporarily fixed (thanks Ron!) and we'll wait for a dry day to work on it properly. We're always worried about the polytunnels when it's windy, typical it happened this week when we already had all the Christmas stuff to think about.
In the boxes:
We're pretty happy with the boxes despite the weather issues we mentioned already. Chris is wondering about some of the red cabbages, he thinks some of them might still be frozen from when they were picked last week - he had to cut up some of the huge ones (some were 3 kg!) and wasn't sure they looked quite the same inside as normal. Unfortunately there's not much we can do about it and hopefully they can still be used and taste ok, but just a heads up.
No boxes now for 2 weeks, we'll be delivering again on Tues 10th and Wed 11th Jan.
In the shop:
Roots: Bryn Cochyn potatoes (some 7.5kg sacks left), onions, carrots, parsnips, beetroot (golden and red) from Abergele, giant mooli and turnips, celeriac, swede, sweet potato
Brassicas: Cauliflower, red cabbage, cavalo nero, curly kale, Savoy cabbages (some), small hard white cabbages, sprouts.
And.... celery, leeks, chestnut mushrooms (v limited), palermo peppers, tomatoes (Spanish), lots of squash (Harlequin, uchi kuri, mashed potato, butternut).
Fruit: Navelina oranges (limited), clementines, apples, bananas (not sure about these -see below*), lemons, limes (limited).
*Our bananas from last week didn't much like the below freezing temps so they're looking a bit jaded and not sure they'll recover, argh.
Also eggs, sourdough (small and large), Pentrefelin milk and all the bits in our online shop.
If you haven't pre-ordered veg / fruit from us then we can't guarantee what we'll have in, especially on Friday - we sold out of pretty much everything by the end of last Friday morning. Suspect there may be a bit more queueing than normal, so please bear with us if we're busy, we're both going to be there on Thursday which should help.
In the kitchen:
We made this very simple veggie curry the other day and it was fab, great for the next day too - this recipe is for 8 people so easy for a crowd. We just left out the aubergine and courgettes.
Finally, today is the winter solstice so from now on the days start getting longer again, this was something I never really thought about much before growing veg for a living, but now light is pretty fundamental to everything we do! As we move towards a new year this line seems as good as any to take into 2023 (from 'The boy, the mole, the fox and the horse' by Charlie Mackesy): 'Nothing beats kindess' said the horse, 'it sits quietly beyond all things'.