Newsletter w/c 22/03/10

Our poly-tunnel arrived on Tuesday, last week, and although I thought it might be quite tricky to construct, I had planned to have it finished by Sunday night. It is now Sunday Night and I’m nowhere near finishing it. I've got all the groundwork done, which has been the time consuming bit. I decided that since we are in such an exposed position, I’d put anchor plates on all the poles. This meant I had to dig out each one by hand. I’m used to digging, so didn’t really think too much about that, until I started and realised that the tunnel is going over the area where all the unwanted stone from our house construction was dumped. It took ages to dig out the stones that were obstructing my anchor holes. Anyway, I’ve got the ground poles in and the hoops in place now, so next bit is the ridge poles and support brackets. Andy is off on holiday this week, so I’ll have to harvest and deliver on my own. This means I probably won’t have a chance to finish the tunnel until next weekend. I’ll get there eventually though.
We’ve now moved our packing operations to the new shed, now that we have lighting and water down there. The team have much more space to work in, and are enjoying the change of scenery, I think!
There are Jerusalem artichokes in the bags again this week. I thought they’d be finished by now, but the late season seems to be helping to hold back the sprouting that usually has me planting them rather than eating them. If you’ve had enough recently you could always plant the tubers in your garden and you can have your own crop late this year/early 2011.
In the field, I’d like to get a move on with ploughing soon, so that we can get the ground fully prepared to re-sow the jerusalem artichokes and get some of the early crops or types that need a long growing season. Andy and I split up the rhubarb plants and replanted them a couple of weeks ago, so I don’t think we’ll get much of a crop from them this year, although they did get and excellent feed round about them. We also di the same for the Lovage.
Next week we hope the standard bags will contain potatoes, carrots and onions, along with swede, broccoli, leek and pepper.
Potatoes Solanum tuberosum. Tatties this week are Remarka a good general purpose potato.. The tatties will be various sizes for a while until they’re big enough to go through the grading machine. Potatoes are the only commonly available source of B3 and Iodine. Excellent source of Vitamin C and also Vitamin B6, Potassium and fibre.
Onion Allium cepa. Used in stews, pasta dishes, soups. Source of Vitamins A and C, Iron, Calcium and Potassium .
Carrot Daucus carota Carrots are eaten fresh in salads or cooked in just about any way you like. They are an excellent source of Vitamin A and also contain significant amounts of Vitamins B, C, D, E and K. and Potassium.
Beetroot Beta vulgaris Contains Vitamin C folic acid and potassium. Can be cooked in various ways, but don’t peel the beet until you’ve boiled it as this stops it ‘bleeding’. My recipe for you this week completely disregards this, so have a pair of rubber gloves and newspaper handy. I’m going to tell you how to make Super Boost Juice – Put on the rubber gloves, spread out a newspaper and peel your beetroot and cut it into chunks. Take 4 apples and quarter and core them. Take 4 carrots and trim and peel them. Take 1cm/1 inch of fresh ginger and peel it. This is easily done by scraping the skin off with the side of a teaspoon. Process all the ingredients through a juicer. Stir and serve immediately, adding ice if desired.
Celeriac (1head). To prepare celeriac, treat it much as you would a swede. Peel it thickly and slice. As you slice the flesh drop it into a pan of cold water with a couple of drops of lemon juice to avoid discolouration. Here’s a recipe for Celeriac with mushroom stuffing: Prepare as above but slice crossways into discs 1 inch thick. Bring to the boil and simmer for 15 minutes. Drain and keep the celeriac warm under a dry cloth. Meanwhile, take 250g (1/2lb) mushrooms, keep whole if small and slice thickly if large. Fry the mushrooms in 50g (2oz) butter for 5 minutes until golden. Arrange the celeriac slices on individual plates, top with the fried mushrooms and sprinkle with paprika. Serve as an appetiser.
Jerusalem Artichoke Helianthus tuberosus Source of Vitamin B1, B2, B3, calcium, potassium, iron and fibre. To cook scrub off the worst of any dirt on the root, then boil for a couple of minutes without cutting off the root or the top. This loosens the skin and allows you to rub it off quite easily. Then boil in slightly salted water for a further 15-20 minutes or until tender. Add lemon juice to the water before boiling to keep the roots white. Can also be roasted after parboiling, and makes very good soup. All you really need are the artichokes, some onion, simmered together until soft, add a stock, boil for 30 minutes maybe a little nutmeg. Puree it then reheat with a little milk added and bob’s your uncle. Delicious soup.
Brussels Sprouts Brassica oleracea Gemmifera Group.. Excellent source of Vitamin C and phytochemicals and also contains Vitamins A and B6, potassium, fibre and calcium. Wash the sprouts in cold water and peel off any ragged or marked leaves then cut an X into the base of the sprout. Cook in a minimum of boiling salted water for 8 – 10 minutes, NO LONGER, or they’ll go soggy.
Please Return All Net Bags
Fruit and Vegetables

Organic Vegetables
£11.50 per standard bag

£14.50 per Large bag
Organic Fruit
£3.00 per Small Bag

£5.50 per Large Bag
Organic Pasteurised Milk ( full cream/semi skimmed)
£1.20per litre
Organic Single cream ( 250ml/500ml)
£1.00/£1.60
Organic Double cream ( 250ml/500ml)
£1.30/£1.70
Eggs

Organic Free Range Eggs
£1.50 per Half Dozen Box
Cheques should be made payable to ‘D Murray’
For more information or to place an order please contact us on 07931 738767 or e-mail us or alternatively you can check out our website at www.thewholeshebag.com or e-mail thewholeshebag@aol.com

18th March 2010

Our new poly-tunnel arrived on Tuesday, I was keen to get straight into the boxes and get started in construction mode. However, with a full day of deliveries in the West on Wednesdays, it was today before I managed to get anything done. First of all i had to go back and repair a faulty connection that had been installed when the mains water was being brought down to the new shed. One little washer hadn't sat in place properly so I unscrewed the connection and rescrewed it about three times before the leaking stopped. (yes I did it without turning the water off, so I got completely soaked in the process). It seems to have worked though, time will tell. I just had time to get the pole positions sorted out before lack of light beat me, But I've decided on an early start tomorrow instead of going networking at the business coffee morning in Livingston. I'll try to post some pictures of the progress, or lack of it, tomorrow. Robert has kindly agreed to help so hopefully he won't have to many jobs to do beforehand. I'm sure two pairs of hands will be better than one for this kind of job.

Newsletter w/c 15/03/2010

Delivery times should be settling down again. I don’t think too many customers have been affected by changes in delivery day, however, many will receive their bags at a different time. Hopefully it doesn’t cause you too much of a problem. If it is inconvenient, please let me know, as there are always ways we could try to make it easier for you.
We had fine weather at Balerno on Saturday for the farmers market, although it wasn’t as busy as I’ve seen it. I don’t think many of the stall holders had a particularly good sales day, apart from the German Bread seller, who had a queue at his stall for the whole day. Next month, I’m hoping to team up with a company called gourmet kids to hold a demonstration event at the market to encourage kids and parents to cook together and show different ways of preparing the vegetables etc. I’ll let you know more as the idea develops.
Talking of development, we now not only have running water to our new shed, but it is now powered and lit as well. The shell of the shed went up in January 2008, so that’s been quite a wait to get to this stage. We now only need to get a concrete floor in place, and the shed would be complete, but I’ll wait until the threat of a sharp frost has passed. Frost can affect concrete as it’s curing, so a month’s wait isn’t going to be a big deal after waiting 2 years!
The polytunnel hasn’t arrived yet, but that should be the next big job. My friends Robert and Mark have said they’ll help me to get it constructed and get the cover on, between them and the team here at Cobbinshaw I hope to get it up quickly so that we can get maximum use of it for this season. I’m not planning to grow crops in it. It’s more to bring on seedlings to the stage of planting out in the field. It should stretch our growing season by 2 – 4 weeks at either end. I’ll maybe grow a few tomatoes and other crops like that as an experiment to see if it’s worth looking constructing more protected growing space.
On the growing side of things, we’ve had 60 tonnes of farmyard manure spread on the field and that’s the signal of the start of growing operations for this year. Next job is to plough the field, as soon as possible. With the dung lying on the surface, it loses Nitrogen to the atmosphere so to get as much benefit as possible we need to bury it underground where the plant roots can make better use of it.
Next week we hope the standard bags will contain potatoes, carrots and onions, along with brussels sprouts, jerusalem artichokes, beetroot and celeriac.
Potatoes Solanum tuberosum. Tatties this week are Remarka a good general purpose potato.. The tatties will be various sizes for a while until they’re big enough to go through the grading machine. Potatoes are the only commonly available source of B3 and Iodine. Excellent source of Vitamin C and also Vitamin B6, Potassium and fibre.
Onion Allium cepa. Used in stews, pasta dishes, soups. Source of Vitamins A and C, Iron, Calcium and Potassium .
Carrot Daucus carota Carrots are eaten fresh in salads or cooked in just about any way you like. They are an excellent source of Vitamin A and also contain significant amounts of Vitamins B, C, D, E and K. and Potassium.
Garlic Allium sativum. Excellent source of phytochemicals and a source of vitamins A and C, calcium and iron. Garlic can be used in many types of cooking and is included in the recipe above. Simple thing like melting butter in a pan and frying a clove or two and spreading it on bread gives garlic bread. The same prep with sliced mushrooms will give garlic mushrooms. Very simple.
Red Cabbage Brassica oleraceaCapitataGroup (1 head) – If the cabbage is really big this time, I will half it. This is in response to customer comments after the last red cabbages 5 weeks ago. Some of you may even have some left. Here’s a different recipe for you to try with it: Preheat your oven to 150oC/300oF/ gas mark 2. Remove any damaged outer leaves, cut into quarters and remove the stalk. Shred the cabbage finely. In a casserole, lay a layer of cabbage, seasoned with salt and pepper, a layer of chopped onions and chopped, peeled and cored apples, with a sprinkling of garlic, 1 clove should be enough, a little nutmeg, cinnamon and ground cloves and about a tablespoon of brown sugar. Repeat these layers until everything is in then pour in 3 tablespoon of wine vinegar and 1/2oz (10g) of butter. Put a lid on the casserole and let it cook slowly for 1 ½ to 2 hours, stirring a couple of times during cooking
Mixed Beansprouts very nutritious, these sprouting seeds are excellent fresh in salads or cooked in stir-fries. If there is a punnet open in the kitchen in our house, they don’t last long because people seem to find it hard to pass them without digging out a spoonful.
Kale Brassica oleracea Acephela Group..(1 bag) Excellent source of Vitamins A and C. Also a source of Calcium and copper. One of cooking is to rinse the kale in cold water, drain well and cut off and discard the tough stems. Cut the leaves into ¼ inch strips. In a well seasoned wok or frying pan, heat a tablespoon of olive oil over a moderatley high heat, add a crushed clove of garlic and cook, stirring for 30 seconds. Add half of the kale and cook, stirring for 1 minute, until they begin to wilt. Add the remaining kale and cook stirring for 6 – 8 minutes until the greens darken slightly and are fairly tender. Season with salt pepper and lemon juice.
Please Return All Net Bags
Fruit and Vegetables

Organic Vegetables
£11.50 per standard bag

£14.50 per Large bag
Organic Fruit
£3.00 per Small Bag

£5.50 per Large Bag
Organic Pasteurised Milk ( full cream/semi skimmed)
£1.20per litre
Organic Single cream ( 250ml/500ml)
£1.00/£1.60
Organic Double cream ( 250ml/500ml)
£1.30/£1.70
Eggs

Organic Free Range Eggs
£1.50 per Half Dozen Box
Cheques should be made payable to ‘D Murray’
For more information or to place an order please contact us on 07931 738767 or e-mail us or alternatively you can check out our website at www.thewholeshebag.com or e-mail thewholeshebag@aol.com

11th March 2010

It's been a hectic week so far, with a networking meeting on Tuesday morning, taking me away from the farm, another one in Falkirk tomorrow and my long delivery run to Glasgow on Wednesday, it hasn't left me with much time for the works needing done. Luckily, the eletrician, Mark, should be up on Saturday to finish off getting power to the shed. I've got Balerno Farmers Market, but should be back in time to keep him right. The FYM (farm yard manure) or dung to give it it's regular name arrived over Wednesday and Thursday. The only stress I had with it this year, was a call from Lynda to tell me the driver had driven the, very mucky (not the words she used I have to Say!), dung spreader over our newly laid gravel chips in what will become our garden. Over the past couple of years, we've ended up trying to dung the ground and plough it in just prior to planting. The weather gets too wet though and the tractors have sunk in the wet soil. This year I decide to be a bit quicker off the mark and dung the field while it was still frozen. This has worked admirably and I'll definitely copy this next year. I haven't heard from the hauliers yet, but the polytunnel is due to arriver any day now, so that'll keep me busy over the weekend.

NEWSLETTER FOR W/C 08/03/2010

NEWSLETTER FOR W/C 08/03/2010
Delivery times will be altered slightly again, due mainly to me incorporating Brian’s run into my own again, now that he’s left to be a full-time postie. Part of this will involve changes in delivery day for a small number of customers. Whichever day you receive your bag over the next two weeks, will probably be the day you will get your bag for the foreseeable future. If the day doesn’t suit you, please call me and we can discuss an alternative.
We’ll be at Balerno Farmers Market on the 13th from 9am til 1pm. It’s been reasonably busy for the last few markets throughout the cold weather, so now the suns got a bit of heat in it at last, hopefully it’ll be even busier.
I was hoping to have electricity in the new shed this week, but a shortage of cable at the wholesalers held us back. Hopefully by Monday we’ll be stocked up again and ready to get moving with the lights etc. On the upside of development, we now have running water into the new shed, running water to the site where the poly-tunnel is proposed and after three years the order for the poly-tunnel has been made. It should arrive within 3 weeks, so I can start planning and sowing for what is to go into it. It'll be great to get some seedlings growing-on in there.
Now that the temperature is warming up, we really shouldn’t have any problems with potatoes or anything else, but please, do let me know if anything in your bag is sub-standard. We need to know about it.
This week we’re hoping to get the drainage into and around the shed and a cut-off drain to stop water flowing straight down the field through the tyre ruts at the gate. I also want to build a couple of small retaining walls with the tons of stone that lies about. We also need to keep clearing the field of crops, so that we can get the dung spread and the soil turned over for this years crop.
Next week we hope the standard bags will contain potatoes, carrots and onions, along with beansprouts, red cabbage, garlic and kale.
The standard bags this week contain:

Potatoes Solanum tuberosum. Tatties this week are Remarka a good general purpose potato.. The tatties will be various sizes for a while until they’re big enough to go through the grading machine. Potatoes are the only commonly available source of B3 and Iodine. Excellent source of Vitamin C and also Vitamin B6, Potassium and fibre.

Onion Allium cepa. Used in stews, pasta dishes, soups. Source of Vitamins A and C, Iron, Calcium and Potassium .

Carrot Daucus carota Carrots are eaten fresh in salads or cooked in just about any way you like. They are an excellent source of Vitamin A and also contain significant amounts of Vitamins B, C, D, E and K. and Potassium.

Savoy Cabbage Brassica oleracea Capitata Group. (1head). This is the perfect veg for this time of year. The savoys have been really good and they’re such a hearty and delicious meal. .Here is a recipe for Braised Savoy Cabbage: Prepare the cabbage and shred it finely. Put it in a pan of boiling, lightly salted, water and cook for 5 minutes. Drain thoroughly. Remove the rind and gristle from 4oz (125g) streaky bacon rashers, chop crossways into narrow strips and put in a heavy based pan. Fry the bacon until crisp, and the fat begins to run, then add a finely chopped onion and cook until soft. Add the drained cabbage, stirring continuously, unitl weel coated; season to taste with salt pepper and allspice, and cook through.

Parsnip. Pastinaca sativa Good for Vitamin C, folic acid, potassium and fibre. Peel, then cut into chunks for boiling or roasting, also can be grated into soups or kept in chunks for soups or stews. Here’s a recipe for: Curried parsnip couscous. Prepare your parsnips and cut them into batons about 7cm (3inches) long, the thicker sections will need to be quartered. Mix together 1 teaspoon each of sea salt, paprika and ground cumin, a tablespoon each of sunflower oil and honey and a dash of tabasco sauce. Pour this over the parsnips and leave to marinate for 30 minutes. Preheat the oven to 200oC/400oF/Gas 6. Cover the parsnips tightly with foil and bake for 1 hour. Turn them regularly, making sure they are tightly wrapped before returning them to the oven. Sprinkle them with water from time to time to stop sticking. Towards the end of the cooking time prepare some couscous. Serve the couscous with the parsnips, sprinkled with coriander leaves. Have mango chutney on hand, just to finish it off.

Leek Allium porrum. (2 head) Leeks give a lovely creamy consistency to soups and are great in flans or quiches. Leeks are a great source of Vitamin C. Be sure to wash them very carefully though, as soil gets caught in the leaf axils as it is growing. Cut up the leek then rinse in cold running water in a colander.

Jerusalem Artichoke Helianthus tuberosus Source of Vitamin B1, B2, B3, calcium, potassium, iron and fibre. To cook scrub off the worst of any dirt on the root, then boil for a couple of minutes without cutting off the root or the top. This loosens the skin and allows you to rub it off quite easily. Then boil in slightly salted water for a further 15-20 minutes or until tender. Add lemon juice to the water before boiling to keep the roots white. Can also be roasted after parboiling, and makes very good soup. All you really need are the artichokes, some onion, simmered together until soft, add a stock, boil for 30 minutes maybe a little nutmeg. Puree it then reheat with a little milk added and bob’s your uncle. Delicious soup.

PRICE LIST

Fruit and Vegetables

Organic Vegetables
£11.50 per standard bag

£14.50 per Large bag
Organic Fruit
£3.00 per Small Bag

£5.50 per Large Bag
Organic Pasteurised Milk ( full cream/semi skimmed)
£1.20per litre
Organic Single cream ( 250ml/500ml)
£1.00/£1.60
Organic Double cream ( 250ml/500ml)
£1.30/£1.70
Eggs

Organic Free Range Eggs
£1.50 per Half Dozen Box
Cheques should be made payable to ‘D Murray’
For more information or to place an order please contact us on 07931 738767 or e-mail us or alternatively you can check out our website at http://www.thewholeshebag.com/ or e-mail thewholeshebag@aol.com