Seeds, seeds, seeds
Updated: Mar 22, 2022
Not too much to tell today, but hoping that everyone staying safe and not spending every waking hour consumed by the news. The spring lambs are coming thick and fast around Prion and help to keep us cheery.
Unfortunately, just because we need more doom and gloom, we've been told there's now an indefinite national strike by self-employed trucky drivers and small hauliers in Spain which is something that could rumble on for some time (not unionised, and the main transport union doesn't recognise the strike so resolution could be tricky). This is likely to have a big impact on the wholesalers, and therefore us, as the UK relies heavily on Spanish-grown produce at the this time of year, as do European wholesalers.
Our wholesaler has been told by the growers and suppliers that any produce is ordered at their own risk ie if trucks are delayed/ produce spoiled, then they foot the whole cost. So all of a sudden ordering from Spain becomes a bit of a risky operation. Organic North are fab and are doing all they can, and hopefuly we'll muddle through, but we believe it's important to keep our own customers in the loop and aware of what's happening behind the scenes, as that's part of buying from a small business!
More sowing and more harvesting - 70 (very large!) lettuces and will be harvesting a lot more. Tomatoes, kale, salad are all sprouting (yay) - no signs of leeks and onions yet though (boo).
Eat Your Greens veg boxes:
Small boxes have purple sprouting broccoli, courgette, celery, leeks, spring greens. Regular have cherry tomatoes, cauliflower, palermo peppers, beetroot, kale, Prion lettuces, blood oranges.
The Vale Grocer shop:
This week we're open Thursday and Friday 10am-1pm. If you're pre-ordering veg / fruit from the shop, we can only put this to one side if you let us know before 8am on Thursday. If there's something you specifically want it's best to pre-order. Guidance on quantities always helpful even if just approximate! :)
We've got a similar selection to last week in the shop -
Plenty of: Arran Victory potatoes,Cara Potatoes from Bryn Cochyn (we can sell these by 15kg sack too - discounted price of £15 per sack), Blue salad potatoes, orange/rainbow carrots, swede, celeriac, sweet potatoes, leeks, red / spring / green cabbages, cauliflower, brown / Roscoff onions, garlic / turmeric / ginger, chestnut mushrooms, courgettes, palermo peppers, celery, kale
Limited: Purple sprouting broccoli, cherry plum tomatoes, celery, Prion salad, Prion chard
Fruit: Large Braeburn apples, last of the clementines, blood / Navelate oranges, bananas... And a few more Sevilles!
+ lots of local eggs
+ local Cae Main & Bryn Cochyn apple juice
+ sourdough from Nant y Felin
Recipe inspiration:
Just a quick one this week as limited on time - but here's a list of lots of things to do with a cauliflower if you're running out of ideas. Also Riverford tells you how to make pesto from those kale stems!
We're selling a few Riverford veg box books in the shop (2nd hand so £4 each + an optional donation to Marie Curie) if you're someone who could do with some help - we go back to ours a lot for ideas.Have a great week and thank you for the contiuned support!
have a lovely week
#enjoy that tasty veg