Newsletter w/c 29th October 2012

I have to apologise again, for another missed newsletter last week. Paperwork always seems to be last thing on the list at the moment. With the clocks going back and the days even shorter, maybe I’ll be a bit more regular with the newsletters. We used the last weekend of the boys school holidays to have a break in the Borders at Melrose. It’s a good base for exploring the area as there is plenty to see and do in Melrose itself, but you are in a good position to drive to other Border towns and villages. We didn’t get back until Monday afternoon and I think it took us the whole week to catch up the time we took off.

After a long lay-off to repair my damaged ankle, I’m hoping to get back into training for my attempt at The London marathon in April. Time is definitely getting a bit tight now so I hope I don’t have any more time off through injury. It may end up that I have to run another marathon instead of the London one as it’s so hard to get into it. I won’t give up yet though.

I have my annual inspection from the Scottish Organic Producers Association (SOPA) on Thursday, so I need to be finished the delivery run by lunchtime. This means I’ll need to start really early so your bag may appear before you expect it this week. If you usually pay at the door and miss me, don’t worry, just leave out the two payments next time.

The boys have been busy with football, rugby and band practices. The band has been asked to play at Murrayfield before the South Africa game in a couple of weeks time. The boys would have loved that opportunity but Keir has already agreed to go and play in Aviemore with the Highland Youth Pipe Band that weekend, so we’ll just have to watch the others on TV. Playing atHampden and Murrayfield in one year is a great achievement for the band. Finn who is in P7 had a run-out with 4 of his team-mates for the S1 team as they were short of numbers. There is quite a step-up between the two age groups, the biggest being that they play on a full-size pitch and the duration of the game is twice as long. He did well but was completely shattered by the end of the match and asleep by 7 pm. I think he’ll be glad to go back to playing for the P7’s next week.

Here’s a list of whats in the Standard bags this week. Substitutions may occur.

Potato Solanum tuberosum. We’re onto our own new potatoes now. The variety is Valor. They are very easy to prepare when they’re as fresh as this and really only need a wash and a scrub. 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  Beetroot can be eaten fresh, cooked or pickled. The least messy way to cook them is to wash them but boil them before you peel them. After boiling the skin rubs off very easily and the flesh doesn’t bleed all over the place. The small beetroot we have this week will cook in only half an hour. They can be used for soup, grated into risottos, boiled and eaten as an accompanying veg, pickled or roasted. Very versatile indeed.

Calabrese Brassica oleracea Italica Group (1 head). Calabrese is and excellent source of Vitamin C and phytochemicals and also contains Vitamins A, B2 and B6, Phosphorus, fibre Iron and calcium. Here’s a recipe for Roast Calabrese with Chilli and Soy that I gave a couple of weeks ago as a romanesco recipe. It is fairly versatile. :

Toss 350g of Calabrese, broken into florets, in a tablespoon of olive oil. Cut the stalks into thick batons. Spread them all out on a baking tray and roast in a preheated oven for 10 mins at 200oC/Gas Mark 6 for 10 mins.Add 2 thinly sliced cloves of the garlic, ½ a red chilli, finely chopped and ½ a tablespoon of sesame seeds and mix through. Return to the oven for 5 minutes. Remove the tray from the oven, sprinkle with soy sauce and serve. I haven’t tried this one yet but I hope to this week.

Leek Allium porrum  Excellent source of Vitamin C. Particularly used to give soups a lovely creamy texture. As leeks grow they tend to lock soil into their leaf axils, so be sure to rinse them well after slicing them up. A nice idea for cooking leeks is to sweat finely sliced leeks in butter for 5 minutes, pour in a glass of red wine and simmer until reduced. Season and serve as an accompaniment to grilled fish or roast meat.

Courgette Cucurbita pepo .  Good for Vitamins A and C, calcium, fibre and iron. The courgettes may be green or yellow this week. Courgettes can be eaten raw or cooked in butter or stirfried or even roasted, so very versatile. Just give the skin a good wash first and drain it off then prepare.

Newsletter w/c 15th October 2012

Well, Lynda and I managed to get the roof onto the log store at last and it’s fixed down and cut neatly so we just need one wall and the finishing touches to reach completion. We were hoping to start to chop up some of our, very exposed, wood pile and get it under cover but the garden got in the way. We visited B & Q to get some ideas for paint colours for the shepherds hut we hope to have for extra accommodation for the holiday let next summer. While we were there we noticed a big display of herbaceous plants and other shrubs that were getting sold off for between 10p and 50p each. They didn’t look their best but being perennial, they’ll be back next year as colourful as ever, so we bought the lot. We spent £6.60 and took home about 35 plants. A good deal if we can get them to survive a Cobbinshaw Winter. The main problem was that there was nowhere ready in the garden to take this amount of greenery, so I’ve spent two days clearing an area formerly used for storing building materials and turning it into a garden border. I think another couple of hours of work now and I should be able to start planting.

With the school holidays this week, my delivery times may be a bit different from usual again. Apologies if I catch you out. With no school to get the boys ready for, I might try and get on the road a bit earlier in the mornings and give myself a bit more time at home at the end of the day.

The boys are as busy as ever between school stuff, band practice and rugby and football there is never much free time but it’s good fun all the same. Finn won his first rugby tournament with Currie last Sunday. The Currie P7 team won the Stewarts Melville tournament with a great team performance. It was a day Finn will remember . I’ve had them out raking up leaves today as half the tree canopy seems to have fallen in one night. It must be due to the sharp drop in temperature last week. I managed a final cut of the grass and put the mower away til next year.

Next job this week is to get the log store finished and filled. The Shepherds hut is not such a priority to sort out right away as the demand for them has meant that we won’t receive ours until May 2013. I want to build a small veg plot around it as a pick your own option for guests staying in holiday accommodation, so I can start preparing that anytime now. There’s also the maintenance jobs like choked gutters, broken drystane dykes etc which always seem to be on the agenda.

Here’s a list of whats in the Standard bags this week. Substitutions may occur.

Potato Solanum tuberosum. We’re onto our own new potatoes now. The variety is Valor. They are very easy to prepare when they’re as fresh as this and really only need a wash and a scrub. 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.

Leek Allium porrum  Excellent source of Vitamin C. Particularly used to give soups a lovely creamy texture. As leeks grow they tend to lock soil into their leaf axils, so be sure to rinse them well after slicing them up. A nice idea for cooking leeks is to sweat finely sliced leeks in butter for 5 minutes, pour in a glass of red wine and simmer until reduced. Season and serve as an accompaniment to grilled fish or roast meat.

Fennel (1 head) This stem base can be chopped raw into salads or simmered in a stock. Here’s a recipe for Buttered Fennel: Trim the root base and cut in half lengthways and rinse in cold water. Put the fennel in a pan with a minmal amount of boiling, lightly salted water and simmer, covered, for 15-20 minutes or until just tender. Overcooking reduces the sweet aniseed flavour. Drain thoroughly in a colander and keep warm on a serving dish. Now, melt the butter. Season the fennel with pepper, then pour the melted butter over the top and serve. Your cress would be a fine garnish for this dish. Goes particularly well with grilled fish or roast chicken.

Radish  They’re excellent cut into salads. They add a hot spicy crunch to a salad and the vivid red skins add an eye-catching burst of colour. Just scrub and cut to desired size.

White Cabbage Brassica oleracea Capitata Group..(1/2 head) . To cook, remove any damaged outer leaves, cut into quarters and remove the central core. It can be cooked in quarters like this in boiling salted water or else shredded and boiled or steamed. Here’s a recipe for Cabbage soup which will use up a few items in the bag this week: Prepare and wash the cabbage and shred it finely. Prepare and roughly chop, 2 carrots, the leek and 1/2lb(250g) potatoes. Put all the vegetables in a pan with 3 pints(1.5l) stock and a bouquet garni, bring to the boil and simmer gently for 30 minutes. Season to taste, sprinkle with parsley and serve at once.

PLEASE REMEMBER TO RETURN THE NET BAG

Newsletter w/c 8th October 2012

My plans to run the marathon next Spring have hit the buffers at the moment as I’ve torn something in my Achilles area and there is nothing for it but to rest and hope it gets better soon. It’s so annoying as, despite the pain now and again, I felt I was running really well. Never mind, I won’t give up hope. There’s plenty of time yet.

In the meantime, with daylight getting more scarce each week, Lynda and I are spending as much time as we can finishing off our log store. The roof is almost complete so we have logs protected in the store already, but we need to get it finished completely to move on to our next project. We have boarded all the walls now except for one gable end but have run out of wood. So it’s a case of buying the wood to finish that, put the last section of roofing sheet on after cutting it to size, fit gutters and finally dig a drain to stop water running in along the ground. The final job will be a door at either end and I’d also like to run a light inside.

The next project will be a shepherds hut. It’s a type of cabin which will act as overflow accommodation for the holiday cottage. The cottage is getting more and more popular each year but it is limited to the number of people it can handle so the idea of some kind of bothy or cabin seems to be a good idea. Lynda found the shepherds huts on the web and they seem to fit the bill and are definitely ‘in-keeping’ with the environment.

The field is greening up nicely now and we’re starting to look at plans for crops next year. It’ll be a new start again and I think I’d be wise to grow on a smaller scale than I’ve attempted in the last few years. My time is limited and the weather is so unpredictable that it is the only sensible option. I’ll grow the produce that I know does well and let others grow the things I don’t grow so well.

We’ve reached the point where we have maincrop potatoes at last, so the bags are back to full strength again. This is 6 weeks later than it would usually be, so I’m sorry to all of you who’ve had reduced tattie portions. On the other side of the coin, if you feel you can cope better with the summer amount, roughly half of what you get for the rest of the year, let me know and I’ll substitute something else for the other half.

Here’s a list of whats in the Standard bags this week. Substitutions may occur.

Potato Solanum tuberosum. We’re onto our own new potatoes now. The variety is Valor. They are very easy to prepare when they’re as fresh as this and really only need a wash and a scrub. 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.

Kale Brassica oleracea Acephala Group. Excellent source of phytochemicals and a source of vitamins A and C, calcium, copper, potassium and fibre. Don’t over do the cooking. Just needs gentle treatment. A light steam or boiled in very little amount of water until just wilting. Scatter in a few cloves for a bit of extra flavour. Can be used fresh in a winter salad, but can be a bit over-powering if you use too much.

Swede Brassica napa. (1head). Swedes are one of Scotlands Winter staple veggies. It is completely frost resistant so needs only to harvested as required rather than having to be stored. The only problem is lifting when the ground is frozen I’ve seen us lifting them with pick axes in frosty weather. Cut off the top and bottom of the swede then peel thickly. Cut into cubes or big chunks and boil for 30-40 minutes or alternatively, parboil then set around a roast in the oven for the last 30 minutes of cooking time. Excellent boiled, then mashed with butter and cream.

Courgette Cucurbita pepo .  Good for Vitamins A and C, calcium, fibre and iron. The courgettes may be green or yellow this week. Courgettes can be eaten raw or cooked in butter or stirfried or even roasted, so very versatile. Just give the skin a good wash first and drain it off then prepare.

Spring Onion Allium fistulosum.  Good source of vitamin C and A. Also, a good source of potassium. Wash thoroughly, dry, then slice up to use to add a little strong flavour to salads. Occasionally used in soups. 

Newsletter w/c 1st October 2012

Despite the wet,wet weather and the wind, the grass and clover seed mix has started to grow in the field. There is a faint haze of green over the surface of the dark brown soil. There is still a lot of standing water in the field and the moor is flooded all around us – we’re almost on an island. We‘ve been really lucky with the decision to plough when we did as I don’t think there would have been another window of opportunity with the correct conditions. Hopefully, we can keep making the right decisions to get decent crops next year. Everyone who has been growing vegetables, nationwide, is suffering so it’s going to be an expensive winter for food. Luckily we use the same suppliers each year and our support is returned with the best of produce so your bags won’t suffer as a result of these problems. If you do receive any sub-standard produce, it’s a mistake or a breakdown in our system and we need to know about it. Please do not hesitate to let us know.

6 SCOTS, the band that Finn and Keir play for were advertising for pipers recently, so I’ve thrown my hat in the ring and bought myself a practice chanter and am now being taught with a view to playing bagpipes some day. The way it’s going, it’ll be a very long time but I’m enjoying the challenge. Finn is keeping me right and pointing out ALL the errors I make, but seems pleased with my progress so far. I can’t seem to talk Lynda into trying the chanter or the drums. She thinks the house is noisy enough. That situation wasn’t helped by the fact that the school sent Keir home with a Cornet today. When he practices that, it sounds like a cruise liner coming into dock. Apparently, he’s going to act as alarm clock for us from now on. A rude awakening or what! Please, if you’d like to try your hand at piping, let me know and I’ll put you in touch with the people you need to talk to. You’re never too old to start!

Tess the pup is growing fast and enjoying life to the full. I’m quite enjoying the excuse to head out for a walk a couple of times a day. Last week when I was out with Tess before I went to bed I had the good luck to see a meteor shower passing right over head. I’d never seen one before, but it was very like a big firework, with 7 or 8 huge, bright sparks that just doesn’t fade. I followed it for a good couple of minutes across from one horizon to the other. I heard on the radio the next day that there had been a lot of them that night.

Here’s a list of whats in the Standard bags this week. Substitutions may occur.

Potato Solanum tuberosum. We’re onto our own new potatoes now. The variety is Valor. They are very easy to prepare when they’re as fresh as this and really only need a wash and a scrub. 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.

Tomato Lycopersicon esculentum. Tomatoes are a good source of Vitamins A and C, potassium and iron.  This is the first of the British organic tomatoes for this year. They are eaten in many different ways, both fresh or cooked.

Mixed salad various  –Excellent source of phytochemicals and a good source of Vitamins A, B and C, calcium, fibre and potassium. The ground was pretty wet when we picked the salad so some grit may be mixed in. Rinse it well. To store, it is best to rehydrate the lettuce. Rinse well, two or three times, renewing the water with each rinse, then drain thoroughly in a colander or salad spinner. Store in the fridge and you should get it to last all week

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 fpr 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.

Cucumber Cucumis sativus.  Good source of vitamin C and A. Also, a good source of potassium. Wash thoroughly, dry, then slice up to use in salads. Occasionally used in soups.