Week 10: What's happening
Updated: Mar 24, 2021
Reading by candle-light...try it! Another power cut for us last night in those strong winds. We get no mobile reception in our cottage so when there's no wifi, there's no internet. Fortunately we have an amazing log burning stove (Salamander.... we'll talk more about this elsewhere as we love it and it's a serious game-changer from having just a log burner) and a gas stove top so we're sorted for cooking and heating.
It was a good opportunity to read a book - by candle-light and then head-torch when the candles got a bit small - which no doubt would otherwise have been overlooked in favour of more important tasks. It was all very mindful and calming (whilst Chris was out delivering and battling the elements..) and I wondered whether I could re-create the same feeling even when power was an option! Maybe it's a bit like pancake day where every time it comes round you wonder why you don't have pancakes more often - the same could be said for switching off from technology!
Recommend the book too - The Shepherd's Life by James Rebanks. There's a 3 minute video here introducing the book, it's an easy read.
What have we been up to this week?
Weeding, planted garlic, pricking out brassicas. We've got about 240 kale plants on the go, and about 120 kohlrabi. We also fixed a damaged panel in the green-house at the field.
The pricking out is fiddly but quite meditative when you get into the flow of it. Essentially you take the tiny seedlings from their tray and put them into individual cells (see pics on left and below). Brassicas like their soil to be quite compact so we have to make sure the soil is pressed down before planting them in fairly deep - they have long roots already.
We haven't harvested much as harvested a lot last week. We're back to the daily routine of watering and opening/closing poly tunnels. A lot of new growth to look after and nourish!
Things to watch out for in the boxes: The UK onions are getting older at this time of year and although we try to check them as we pack the boxes, you may find some of them are a bit soft/black when you cut into them. Let us know if you have a whole lot that are no good but otherwise just giving you the heads up. Potatoes are Red Cara. Some of the celeriac in the regular boxes has come in much smaller than normal, in case you're wondering what it is. Apples in the small boxes are Cox Royale. We're purposefully continuing to buy in oranges and what's left of the UK apples as these really are the fruit that's in season at the moment. We may have some bananas over next couple of weeks, but we don't often put those in.
If you're interested in getting a box, get in touch.
What we've got in the shop:
Plenty of: potatoes, carrots, onions, sweet red peppers (these are sadly coming to an end), mushrooms, courgettes, tomatoes, aubergines, Savoy cabbages.
Limited: salad bags, cauliflower, snow pea punnets, butternut squash, celeriac, fennel, broccoli, parsnips, red cabbage, swede.
Fruit: Navelina oranges, Cox Royale apples, lemons, strawberry punnets (Spain).
Also, local free range eggs and Cae Main apple juice (Bodfari).
Please spread the word - the more regular customers we have, the more variety we can offer.
A couple of recipe ideas:
Watercress soup - try the recipe on the side of the box or here's a Delia Smith one
Celeriac gratin - Jamie Oliver recipe here. You could also add fennel in here too.
have a good week