Week 44: What's happening
Hands up if you got drenched in some of the sudden showers yesterday - certainly kept us on our toes, fortunately the harvesting could all be done inside. We managed a lovely walk to Hilbre Island on Sunday (if you don't know where it is, look it up, well worth a visit but check the tides before you go) in beautiful sunshine and got back just before sky went black and it poured with rain.
In the field...well it's less of a field, more of a bog at the moment! Harvested tomatoes, lettuces, radishes. Planted out more lettuces and chard in the polytunnel.
Eat Your Greens veg boxes:
The boxes this week are looking pretty full! As always, don't feel overwhelmed when it arrives, just get it all out (we keep pretty much all our veg in a veg rack - we've got the one below), work out what needs to be eaten quickly and what doesn't and start using the more perishable stuff first. It's not a test to get through all the veg in your box in one week! The idea is that you always have veg to hand to be able to throw together a meal of some sort - even if it's 'just' a soup or risotto with odds and ends.
Just a heads up that the UK squash season hasn't been great this year, so if you end up with a lot of squash just put them in a bowl and enjoy how lovely they look, whilst keeping an eye on them and eating any as soon as you see that they might be starting to go - there will be a point where we won't be able to get any more so you'll be grateful for any you've kept!
Small boxes have swede, leeks, cavalo nero, broccoli or fennel, clementines. Regular boxes have lettuce, fennel (with the wispy leaves), cauliflower, kohlrabi (the purple one), palermo pepper, chioggia beetroot (stripey), small red kuri squash. If your lettuce is in a compostable bag, it's called an endive and can be quite bitter. Here's an idea for using it in a salad with bacon. It can be used to cook with too.
The Vale Grocer shop:
We've really been getting a great response to the shop which is so exciting for us as a business. We're so appreciative of the support, and to those of you who wait outside in all weathers, tell others about us and generally just turn up and buy veg and fruit! We are hoping in the next few months (love setting ourselves up for a fail haha!) to have a way for you to pay by card and, even, drum roll, a till! We've also found somewhere else (a bit more accessible for vans etc) to pack the boxes which will hopefully free us up a bit more in the shop in terms of room and what we can stock in coming months.
Plenty of: potatoes, carrots, leeks, squash, swede, golden / chioggia beetroot, cavalo nero, palermo peppers, Savoy cabbages, red / brown / Roscoff onions, Roscoff / purple garlic, fresh ginger
Limited: fennel, cauliflower, Prion tomatoes, UK sweet potato
Fruit: clementines, oranges, bananas, apples, lemons
+ hens eggs (we have lots of eggs this week!)
+ Bryn Cochyn and Cae Main apple juice
+ sourdough from Nant y Felin
The first of the sprouts coming in next week!
Recipe inspiration:
We randomly had some prawns to use up this week and made this super easy and tasty curry - which would definitely be good with just veg or with meat. Worth a try.
With the kohlrabi and fennel, try a kohlrabi, fennel and apple slaw / salad....peel the kohlrabi and cut into matchsticks, thinly slice the fennel bulb, core one apple and cut into matchsticks. Whisk together the following: 1/4 cup (organic) olive oil, 2 tbsp cider vinegar, 2 tsp whole grain mustard, 2 tsp minced shallot/onion, 1 tsp honey, 1/2 tsp salt, some pepper. Add the dressing to the kohlrabi, fennel and apple. Can be made ahead of time and stored in the fridge for a day.
Sticking with the salad theme, This warm halloumi and beetroot salad also looks good.Finally, if you've ever wanted to know how to add flavour to a vegetable stew this might help. I've definitely learnt that a good base is key for anything from stew to curry to risotto.
have a good week