Sailing on the high seas
We open the new shop on Friday 4th March here. The last day we are in the shop on Mount Pleasant is next Friday 18th Feb - we are closed on Friday 25th Feb.
The photo is a bit of a throw-back that just popped up on Google: 6 years ago pretty much to the day, when Chris was teaching kids to sail in Sydney rather than growing and delivering veg in N Wales! Bit of a contrast but one we're very happy with, believe it or not!
Our bulk load of compost arrived this week - and on a Monday too so just in time for Rosie to start putting it onto beds ;), although lots more to do. We'll start sowing as soon as we're back from holiday in early March.
We had a bit of a nightmare this week with veg delivery - cost us double what we were expecting it to!! We're trying to work out how to avoid this in the future...
Eat Your Greens veg boxes:
Small boxes have celeriac, oranges, sweet potato, white cabbage, palermo peppers. Regular have Harlequin squash, parsnips, kohlrabi, cabbage, swede, sprouts, palermo peppers, bananas.
At this time of year it can start to feel a little tricky to be inspired by the veg that's around, but that's where I reckon trying to find some different recipes can work well. We had a few sweet potatoes to get through this week and came across the recipe I shared below, which is definitely going to become a regular. Get in touch if you struggling with what to do with what feels like yet another sprout, or cabbage or swede....! Feel free to share what you're cooking on our Facebook or Instagram pages too so others can be inspired!
The Vale Grocer shop:
Plenty of: Cara potatoes (from Bryn Cochyn),Aaran victory potatoes,
Blue salad potatoes (blue flesh), rainbow / orange carrots, palermo peppers, hard green cabbage, caulflower, celeriac, Jerusalem artichokes, beetroot, leeks, sweet potato, squash, tomatoes, chestnut mushrooms, red / brown onions, fresh garlic / turmeric / ginger
Limited: January King cabbage, kohlrabi, cavalo nero, sprouts, swede, Roscoff onions
Fruit: Grapefruit, clementines, navelina and blood oranges, bananas, Crimson crisp & Braeburn apples, lemons
+ lots of local free-range eggs (avian flu restrictions means the hens aren't free range at the moment but are in normal times)
+ local Cae Main & Bryn Cochyn apple juice
+ local sourdough bread from Nant y Felin restaurant (note there won't be any bread available next week, and we're closed the week after)
Recipe inspiration:
We cooked this Nigel Slater recipe the other night (we took it from Greenfeast book) and it was really fab - somehow putting it in the oven seemed to really give it a lovely texture.
Baked Spiced Lentil with sweet potato: (for 4, tastes very good the next day)
split yellow lentils 250g ground turmeric 1 tsp vegetable stock 750ml sweet potatoes 750g onion 1 olive oil 2 tbsp ginger 60g garlic 2 cloves cumin seeds ½ tsp green cardamom pods 10 chilli flakes ½ tsp curry leaves 12 ground cayenne 1½ tsp chopped tomatoes 1 x 400g tin butter or oil a little for baking
Wash the lentils in cold water, until the water is no longer milky. Tip them into a medium-sized saucepan with the turmeric and stock, and bring to the boil. Lower the heat, partially cover with a lid and simmer for 10 minutes, until most of the stock has been absorbed and the lentils are almost tender.
Peel the sweet potatoes and cut them into slices about ½cm in thickness. Put them in a steamer basket or colander over a pan of boiling water, covered by a lid. Steam for about 7-8 minutes until soft to the point of a knife. Remove the pan from the heat.
Peel and roughly chop the onion. Warm the oil in a deep pan over a moderate heat, add the onion and cook until it is soft and pale gold – a matter of 20 minutes. Peel and grate the ginger. Peel and finely slice the garlic, then stir into the onion with the ginger and cumin seeds. Continue cooking for 2-3 minutes. Crack open the cardamom pods, extract the seeds, grind to a coarse powder then stir into the onion together with the chilli flakes, curry leaves and cayenne. Add pepper and ½ tsp of salt, stirring for a minute or two. Set the oven at 200C/gas mark 6.
Crush the tomatoes and stir in to the lentils over a moderate heat, then mix in the onion and remove from the heat.
Carefully lift the sweet potatoes from the steamer with a palette knife. Using a baking dish approximately 24cm in diameter, place half the lentil mixture in the base then add half the sweet potatoes, followed by a second layer of lentils and then the remaining sweet potatoes. Brush with butter or oil. Bake for 30-40 minutes until bubbling around the edges and lightly browned on top.
A customer also sent this celeriac recipe which we've not tried yet. And Riverford suggest roasting your celeriac with mustard and bacon - put a celeriac (peeled, cut into wedges and blacned) into a roasting tin with 6 rashers of streaky bacon (diced) and coat with lots of olive oil. Season with salt and pepper, sit so everything coated in oil. Roast at 180 deg C until celeriac is soft to the tip of a knife and starting to brown, about 20 mins. Add a heaped tbsp wholegrain mustard and turn again until coated. To make this into more of a main meal rather than a side, they suggest moving the celeraic and bacon to ovenproof dish, pouring over some cream and greating over a good melting cheese; grill until the cheese is bubbling. Or try roasting the celeriac with other veg such as potatoes, carrots or swede.
have a lovely week
#enjoy that tasty veg