We've started sowing!
Thank you to everyone who came along to the new shop last Friday. Look forward to seeing you Thurs or Fri this week 10-1. Purple sprouting broccoli looking good!
The boxes are still our main priority for the business (it's only with the veg box subscriptions that we know how much to grow) and so far so good with our new plan for picking up veg from Manchester, the trip went well and the rearranged box deliveries went relatively smoothly... feels strange being a day ahead of ourselves as last box is already delivered when in the past we didn't finish till Thursday morning. No doubt it will take us a while to get used to it!
Feels like things are starting for real now - we currently have seeds germinating in front of our stove (to try to reduce cost of hot bed!). So ar we have sowed approx 200 each of tomatoes, chillis, lettuces, salad, beetroot, chard, kale, 3000 (!!) leeks, 1000 onions. Harvesting - kale, salad, chard.
Eat Your Greens veg boxes:
Small boxes have kale, palermo peppers, sweet potato, white cabbage, oranges. Regular have leeks, spring greens, parsnips, celery, courgette, purple sprouting broccoli (looks amazing!), clementines.
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'll only be able to prep this for tomorrow or Friday if you let us know before 8am on Thursday. If there's something you specifically want it's best to pre-order, note we are quite short on carrots and onions this week. Guidance on quantities always helpful even if just approximate! :) We'll re-stock with Prion salad and chard on Friday if necessary.
We're finding it quite tricky to stock the shop at the moment as hard to know what to get in, as choice is decreasing and costs increasing as we near the UK hungry gap. But we'll do our best.
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, green cabbages, Roscoff onions, garlic / turmeric / ginger, chestnut mushrooms, courgettes, palermo peppers
Limited: Cauliflowers, purple sprouting broccoli, kale, spring greens, red cabbages, parsnips, swede, carrots, onions, cherry plum tomatoes, celery, Prion salad, Prion chard
Fruit: Braeburn apples, blood oranges, Navelina oranges, clementines, lemons
The last of the Seville oranges.
+ lots of local eggs
+ local Cae Main & Bryn Cochyn apple juice
+ sourdough from Nant y Felin
Recipe inspiration:
If you're lucky enough to have purple sprouting broccolit this week - enjoy! Guy Watson (Riverford) reckons it's a 'delicacy that's equal, if not superior, to asparagus' - and I think we would agree! Unfortunately our own crop hasn't done very well, so we're relying on buying in which is expensive but has to be done.
If it's a new one for you, thought we'd give a few tips. The slightly wild aspect is part of its charm and it doesn't need much trimming - florets, leaves, stem all edible. The less you do to it the better -boil, steam or stir fry, or roast to intensify flavour. Boil for no more than 5 mins in unlidded pan, steam for 5-6 mins. Eat the smallest shoots raw dressed with salt and pepper, olive oil and lemon juice.
It goes well with:
- chillies and black pepper
- lemon
- butter and cheese
- eggs
- pork eg bacon, pancetta
- salty flavours eg anchovies, capers, soy sauce
have a lovely week
#enjoy that tasty veg