Week 12: What's happening
Well, fortunately we aren't relying on getting our veg through the Suez Canal ;) The van's been in for a service and we've had 2 flat tyres (!) in the past couple of weeks so fingers crossed we have a smooth season transport-wise, and no getting stuck in narrow places!
Chris has done some fab work in the shop / packing space this week - we've set up some head-height shelves to help us pack more easily - less walking around, creating more space on the workbench. Also means we've created more space for when the veg arrives from the wholesalers, making us feel more organised and able to work more efficiently. More to do, but it's really making a difference already.
Lots happening. A great harvest this week with over 20kg of leaves harvested! Purple Sprouting Broccoli, chard, spinach, kale. Chris has written more about what he's been up to here.
We're really starting to get into the UK hungry gap - more about this in coming weeks but essentially it's the itme of year when the UK winter veg finishes and the summer veg hasn't started. This means it's the time to use more pantry supplies like tins of tomatoes and pulses, with maybe some green leaves to keep it fresh. As we start having to import staples like carrots, prices go up and quality suffers a bit. But we'll get through it as always and the other side brings all that amazing UK veg and fruit.
Eat Your Greens veg boxes:
Red Cara potatoes again. A word of warning on the carrots - we're getting to the final dregs of UK carrots from our brilliant Ormskirk suppliers, Royal Oak. We've had to throw a fair few away as we're packing, so watch out for any that are past their best. They're pretty small too, just how it is!
In the regular boxes you've got Jerusalem artichokes (the little knobbly root potato-like veg). Also kohlrabi - the E.T. of vegetables. And good old swiss chard, lovingly harvested by us. In the small boxes you have either purple sprouting broccoli, spinach or lettuce - all from Prion and equally tasty and equally fresh.
The Vale Grocer shop:
Lots to choose from this week and plenty of fresh green leaves from Prion. Please remember that the more support we get the more choice we can offer - our priority is to reduce waste so if we're not selling it all we will have to reduce what we stock. If you're short of time, feel free to give me a list and pop back later to pick up.
Plenty of: potatoes, onions, mushrooms (chestnut and white), spinach, kale, spring greens, Savoy cabbages, courgettes, cauliflowers, aubergines, jerusalem artichokes, sweet potatoes, sweet red peppers, fresh ginger, garlic.
Limited: red onions, fennel, avocados, tomatoes, red cabbage, lettuce, parsnips.
Fruit: Navelina oranges, UK apples, lemons.
Free-range eggs. Cae Main juice.
Recipes:
Think we mentioned this a long time ago, but hoping to get a recipe section set up on the website asap. Will be useful for us too! Contemplating the new Anna Jones cook-book, has great reviews...anyone got it already? This is my kind of recipe, taken from one of her other books - not got that one either... - can't go wrong with pasta, kale, tomatoes and lemon (got all of them in the shop this week if you want to try it!)
Sausage, jerusalem artichoke and savoy cabbage bake: Recipe here.
If you like korma, you'll love this cauliflower korma we made the other day. It's really good and super easy. Had that properly rich curry feel to it.
have a good week