Week 16

In the field:

It's all systems go in the field, the warmer weather is sending all the winter crops into flower, and so it's a case of harvest quick!! This weeks boxes included quite a few 'freebie extras' as if they hadn't been harvested then they would have gone to waste and never have been eaten! Our harvest this week 18 kg of chard, 16kg kale, 7kg of leeks,12kg of rhubarb, about 1kg of purple sprouting broccoli and 48 lettuces -these have been growing for nearly 6 months (we've harvested over 55kg of leaves since January alone). We've other lettuces growing to replace them which is good news!

Our greenhouse is bursting with seedlings and we've already started the daily ritual of hardening some off ready for planting. This involves going down early and taking the plants out of the greenhouse and putting them on outside benches and then doing the reverse each evening. Due to the quantities of trays it is quite a game of tetris!

The polytunnel is interesting as it is too early for us to get the tomatoes and courgettes in so where we have lifted flowering salad, chard and lettuces we are sowing quick catch crops of radishes, little gem lettuces and the like.

Outside we have started building our bean structures out of willow again. We've been doing a lot of weeding and annoyingly we think our peas that we planted outside have mainly been eaten by mice or a larger equivalent.... grrr. Still in the immortal words of Terry Wogan... 'mustn't grumble!'

In the boxes:

These are pretty substantial this week - as we've mentioned above we cleared the field and didn't want to waste anything we'd harvested! We had ordered UK carrots for this week, but they were switched for French ones as the UK ones were no longer saleable. Unfortunately this incurred quite a bit of extra cost, but never mind.. for the next few weeks the amount of carrots in the boxes will be reduced until we get the new UK carrots in.

For the next few weeks there won't be much from us in Prion sadly, but hopefully we can keep some tasty veg coming through from outside the UK and it won't be long until the Hungry Gap is over and we're havesting again.

Small- potatoes, carrots, onions, leeks, purple sprouting broccoli*, courgettes, kale tops* or stir fry greens*, rhubarb*, chard*, oranges

Regular - potatoes, carrots, onions, broad beans, lettuce*, palermo peppers, cauliflower, sweet potato, mushrooms, bananas, chard*

*some/all of these harvested in Prion

In the shop:

Potatoes, onions (brown and Roscoff), carrots

Cauliflowers

Courgettes

Cabbages - white and red

Leeks

Sweet potatoes

Celery

Palermo red peppers (yay)

UK cucumbers

Broad beans

Flat Helda beans

Tomatoes - cherry and vine

Mushrooms

Jerusalem artichokes

Purple sprouting broccoli*

Chard*

Spinach* (v limited)

Salad* (and maybe some heads of lettuce)

Rhubarb*

Fresh garlic / turmeric / ginger

*from Prion

Fruit: Bananas, oranges, lemons, apples (Gala -tasty), grapefruit, kumquats, strawberries, clementines

Also Pentrefelin milk, free-range eggs and Nant y Felin sourdough

In the kitchen:

Haven't tried this recipe yet but with a cauli in our box this week and organic tahini and halloumi from our wholesaler I'm going to give it a go.

Also loved this reminder, also from Riverford, of how good a jacket potato is when mixed with cheese and greens (super easy way to use - and hide!- kale or chard). Yum yum.

Finally, if you've wondered what the difference is between organic and regenerative then Riverford have an article here that might be a helpful starting point - suspect there's a lot more to it than this but sometimes simple is best!

Have a lovely week

#enjoy that tasty veg