Slow Veg! Grown and Delivered Locally
Finally after four and a half years we have sign written our vehicle!
If you've been stuck behind this van before and wonderered what was on board... well now you now - slow veg! The 650cc 3 cyclinder engine is great for getting round town and getting the 4x4 out of muddy fields but isn't that quick on the open round which is one of the reasons we limit our delivery area! Give us a wave when you see us!
Running a small business is quite an experience and juggling the needs of the operational side - sowing, growing , weeding, harvesting, packing boxes, delivering, doing accounts, ordering veg with the business side are quite challenging. We've had on our list of buiness things to do - improve marketing - there are still a lot of people who haven't heard about us in Denbigh and Ruthin and unless you've been looking for 'local or organic veg' then the chances are you won't have found us.... but now we've had the van sign written.. well watch this space! On that note we do have space on our Denbigh and Ruthin rounds if you know somebody who might like to try us out!
In the field:
The weather is a lot more like it should be at the moment - after two years of unseasonably warm and dry Springs, the recent strong winds and showers and frosts and sunshine all feel good though we're looking forward to the house being a bit warmer!
We've harvested a lot of leaves again this week:
4kg Spinnach
3kg Kale
2kg Kale Flowers
7kg Salad leaves - the mustards are getting quite firey now, and the lettuce leaves are becoming quite abundant.
Sowing wise - in the small poly tunnel I've had to resow a load of broadbeans as they were being eaten from underneath - hopefully by mice and not rabbits...(no sign of our pesky rabbit lately) I squashed down the beds so hopefully disrupted the burrows, and can give the beans a chance. I've also sown rocket and radish both of which have germinated already and my lines were reasonably straight!
In the green house we've sown onions, chillis, cape gooseberries, chard, basil, cavalo nero, parsley and also started pricking out leeks.
This is a mind numbing and fiddley job and I've done about a quarter of what we will need so far. Because we are limited for space we sow our leeks in trays then prick them out 3to5 per cell of a 66 cell tray. The leeks will then grow on until they are big enough for us to plant out - roughly about one tray per 24 foot bed. In this photo you can see the tray of aboout 2000 leeks being pricked out into the cell tray!
In the boxes:
Potatoes, carrots, onions as well as...
Small -Kalette Stalks, Broad Beans, Salad, Kale and Oranges. In some of the boxes we also gave a free Aubergine, where the Kalette Stalk was a bit smaller - these were a result of my enthusiatic over ordering.. better to be eaten than go to waste! Use a knife to cut the leaves off the stalk and use instead of purple sprouting broccoli.
Regular - Leeks, Spring Greens, Sweet Potato, Spinnach, Cherry Tomatoes, Jerusalem Atrichokes, Bananas
In the shop:
We have had a consistent 3 weeks of sales and so we are getting a bit bolder and starting to order in more - with the obvious risks to our business!
red and green palermo peppers
Courgettes
Tomatoes (cherry and vine)
Cucumbers (first from UK)
Celery
Spring greens
Kale tops*
Salad*
Chard*
Spinach*
Broad beans
Cauliflowers
Aubergines
Leeks
Parsnips
Rhubarb*
Swede
Kohlrabi
Mushrooms (white, chestnut)
Cabbage (white, red, Savoy)
Jerusalem Artichokes
Celeriac
Carrots
Sweet potatoes
Onions (Roscoff, brown), fresh ginger / garlic / turmeric
Potatoes
Fruit: Bananas, grapefruit, lemons, apples (Cox Royale, Fiesta), oranges, clementines, kiwi fruit
*from Prion - will see what we can harvest on Thurs/Fri morning
+ local free-range eggs
+ Pentrefelin milk (we sold out again)
+ store cupboard items
+ fresh sourdough from Nant y Felin restaurant (limited supply this week as have already pre-sold a few)
In the kitchen:
The root veg is starting to finish with really only potatoes left - (we may get one more order of swede) that said the salad right now is sensational and we are trying to have a small salad with each of our meals done with a nice dressing - Liz is the expert here but olive oil, wholegrain mustard and cider vinegar tend to be used! But don't forget all our salads and fruit and veg need to be washed before eating!
I need to write more here.. but it's late and I need to be up early (Liz is away in case you hadn't guessed!)
Our online shop is here if you need any extra for your box or want to pre-order to pick up in the shop.
have a lovely week
#enjoy that tasty veg