Week 20: What's happening
Updated: May 27, 2021
As I write this in my thick woolly jumper, under a blanket, with the rain and wind against the windows it definitely doesn't feel much like May. And yet there were moments yesterday of proper warmth when the sun came out. Definitely not a week for hanging washing on the line, as I've learnt, unless you want to do the sprint in and out every 5 minutes. Still, the hedgerows and bluebells look beautiful and the veg is growing - it is what it is!
I know it seems there's a day for everything now, but today is an important one. It’s #worldbeeday. Given our very existence depends on bees & other pollinators, let's all take a second to think about and celebrate the vital role they play in maintaining our food supply & contributing to biodiversity, and make sure we're doing what we can to look after them.
As this poet says - 'If not, we’ll be well and truly uggered.'
As well as no mow May, there are lots of ways to help our stripey little friends, and here are some ideas from the Centre for Alternative Technology.
Here's Chris showing off our broad beans and carrots so nearly ready for harvesting. The light at the end of the hungry gap tunnel! We've managed to pick a few strawberries and hoping to get enough to sell a few in the shop on Friday.
Eat Your Greens boxes
As we mentioned last week but can't stress enough, the potatoes and carrots are all last years stores and the quality isn't great given the price, but this is all we can get at the moment without paying eye watering prices for this year's new crops which are so limited. This is the time of year we really struggle as a business - the margins are so tight - and we know of some veg box businesses who just don't deliver at all during May because of this. So thank you for sticking with it but please keep your expectations relatively low and then you won't be disappointed!
The beans are from Europe and aren't as good as the ones from the UK will be in a couple of weeks.. our veg is not far behind and we'll be getting new season spuds soon.. so hang in there! We're happy we've managed to get some of our Prion greens into the boxes this week - whether it be lettuce, chard, kale.
The Vale Grocer shop (open Fridays 9.30-1.30, more info here)
Plenty of: Arran Victory potatoes (stored), carrots, onions, hard white cabbage, chestnut mushrooms, red and green palermo peppers, ginger
Limited: garlic, courgettes, cucumbers, Prion chard and possibly some salad
Fruit: apricots, nectarines, oranges, apples. bananas (lots), kumquats, strawberries (fingers crossed)
+ eggs. No juice at the moment, sorry, more in next week.
We are thinking of stocking some organic cheese (Lancashire), let me know when you come in if you might be interested so we can plan an order.
Recipe inspiration
We've got some thoughts on eating in the hungry gap - have a read here. This is definitely a topic that's bigger than one blog post but I can always do a part 2 so please send through any other tips or ideas that I can include to help us all make more out of what is in season when what's in season isn't that much!
We're doing a lot of pasta, dal, stew, soup - using less than perfect veg and tins of things like tomatoes, beans, coconut milk. If you don't have tomatoes (as I realised the other night half-way through making a dal) - it turns out you can make dal without them -recipe here. Also if you like tinned sardines this recipe is so good (no veg in it all but sardines are good for you!). The tinned sardines from The Tinned Fish Market are pricier than supermarket but taste much much better and I would say worth it. Also another reason we don't have to go to pesky supermarket! We also made this veggie carbonara this week - tasty but still needed bacon...!
have a good week