Newsletter w/c 21st January 2013

It’s that time of year again, when the swede becomes the king of vegetables, with it’s major supporting role beside the haggis at your Burns supper. With your bag this week all you need to do is go on a haggis hunt, bring it home and you’ll have the tatties and neeps to accompany it. You’ll need the Selkirk Grace and the Address tae a Haggis and you’ll have your own Burns supper.

I hope the weather isn’t going to affect us this week but it’s not looking good at the moment. With the wind blowing the snow around, it’s started drifting in the road out of the farm, so I’ve got a bit of digging to do before I’ll get out if it doesn’t snow any more. If we get a lot more snow I may have some delays in deliveries this week. I’ll keep you informed on the blog.

On the farm I haven’t really been able to get much done due to frozen ground and adverse weather. I’ve concentrated on getting wood cut and keeping the house warm. The boys have been digging snow holes in the drifts and having them destroyed by a boisterous Labrador pup. Tess is nearly 7 months now so she’s not quite puppy size any more, but she

Still acts the pup. She comes with me on my shorter training runs now, if I’m staying on the moor or in the woods.

I think this week will be a constant round of deliveries, snow clearing and wood cutting.

If there are any additional services that we could be offering to improve the box scheme please let me know. I’m always open to suggestions.

Here’s a list of the veg included in the standard bag this week. Substitutions may occur. The mixed fruit and veg bag will have less vegetable varieties than the standard.

Potato Solanum tuberosum.. The variety for the most part 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.

Savoy Cabbage Brassica oleracea . 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  as it has a big and simmer gently for 30 minutes. Season to taste, sprinkle with parsley and serve at once.

Swede  Brassica napa (1 head) The staple of the Scottish winter vegetable garden. Just peel the tough skin off and chop up and boil the sweet, crunchy, orange root. Best served mashed with a dribble of cream and a dod of butter through it. A spoonful of this will partner mashed tatties wherever they’re used and, of course, you can’t have haggis without it.

Garlic  (1head). Use a clove of garlic to flavour savoury dishes. Split a clove off of the bulb, peel off the skin and crush or chop finely. Mix with butter and spread on bread or  toast to make a tasty snack.

Fruit and Vegetables
Organic Vegetables	£13.50 per standard bag
	£16.50 per Large bag
Organic Fruit	£4.00 per Small Bag
	£7.50 per Large Bag
Organic Pasteurised Milk ( full cream/semi skimmed)	£1.20per  litre
Organic Single cream ( 250ml)	£1.00/£1.60
Organic Double cream ( 250ml)	£1.30/£1.70
Eggs
Organic Free Range Eggs	£1.80 per Half Dozen Box

Newsletter w/c 14th January 2013

Many thanks for all the positive responses and feedback that we’ve had regarding the price rises. We wouldn’t have done it if we didn’t have to.

I haven’t managed to sort out the Tuesday milk problem, so for the foreseeable future there won’t be a milk service on Tuesdays, but I will try to find an alternative source as soon as I can.

Our Pipes and Drums band has started up again after the Christmas break and is looking for young budding pipers to come along and learn the chanter and work up to playing the bagpipes in the band. We practice in Bathgate on a Wednesday night so if anyone out there is interested in learning or even if you already play the pipes – we’d be delighted to see you. Send me an e-mail and I’ll give you all the details. We have band members coming over from as far away as Wishaw and DennyIt was a bit of a shock to the system getting the snow at the weekend and the low temperatures aren’t good for the bananas or the tatties. As ever, let me know if any of the veg or fruit is sub-standard and we’ll compensate you with your next delivery. The boys had a great time in the snow and decided that the best way to get off school, was too build a snow wall that could freeze and stop the taxi getting up the drive when he came to pick them up for school. They were extremely disappointed to wake up on Monday morning and find that the rain had melted all the snow.

Potato Solanum tuberosum.. The variety for the most part 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.

Kale Brassica oleracea Acephala Group.. Some of the kale is still on its stalk so remove it before preparing. Kale is an excellent source of Vitamins A and C and also a source of potassium, copper, calcium,  fibre and phytochemicals. To cook, strip the leaves off of the tough midrib, then shred and wash in cold, running water. Then steam for 10 minutes and serve with melted butter and season with pepper or ground cloves. You can make Colcannon by draining the kale after boiling then setting it aside. Take a finely chopped onion and put it in a pan with 150ml of milk. Bring it to the boil then remove from the heat and leave to infuse for 10 minutes. Blend about 375g of mashed potatoes with the finely chopped kale, then heat through gently, adding as much of the milk and onion mixture as it will absorb to give the consistency of creamed potatoes. Put in a serving dish, and pour in some melted butter.

Red Cabbage Brassica oleracea Capitata Group..(1 head) Excellent source of Vitamin C and phytochemicals and also contains Vitamin B6, potassium, fibre and calcium. Here’s a recipe for Braised red cabbage which uses apples rather than the orange based gravy I gave you last time. Braised Red Cabbage: Remove the outer coarse leaves and cut the cabbage into quarters. Remove the  has contiutough coresand shred the cabbage finely. Peel core and grate 2 cooking apples and mix with the cabbage. Melt 2oz.(50g) of butter in a pan, add 5fl.oz.(150ml) white wine vinegar and mix in the cabbage; coat thoroughly; then cover with a tight fitting lid and simmer over a gentle heat for 1 hour. Add a little more vinegar or water if the cabbage threatens to stick. Stir in 5fl.oz. (150ml) of red wine or blackcurrant juice, season to taste with sugar. The cabbage will have a fairly sharp flavour. Cover and simmer until tender.

Parsley Petroselinum sp. (100g) This is the more traditional moss-curled type of parsley Excellent for flavouring all sorts of dishes or cut into saladsor, cut over boiled potatoes, with a little melted butter. If it’s looking a bit limp when you receive it just trim the base of the stems off and pop into cold water, shake dry and then pop into a jar of water, covering the bottom of the  stems by about an inch.

Fruit and Vegetables
Organic Vegetables	£13.50 per standard bag
	£16.50 per Large bag
Organic Fruit	£4.00 per Small Bag
	£7.50 per Large Bag
Organic Pasteurised Milk ( full cream/semi skimmed)	£1.20per  litre
Organic Single cream ( 250ml)	£1.00/£1.60
Organic Double cream ( 250ml)	£1.30/£1.70
Eggs
Organic Free Range Eggs	£1.80 per Half Dozen Box

Newsletter w/c 7th January 2013

Happy New Year – All the Best for 2013

In case you were one of the many customers still on holiday last week I’ll re-iterate the news. After holding our veg prices for over 7 years, we’ve reluctantly been forced to increase the bag prices from the first of January 2013. The new tariff is at the foot of this newsletter and basically is a £2 increase on the veg bags and a £1 increase on the fruit bags. Eggs and milk prices will remain the same. The rise in fuel costs is affecting us in all sorts of ways and to keep the business moving forward and guaranteeing quality produce each week is getting more and more expensive to manage. I hope you won’t think this is out of order, we really do need the extra income to help cover cost increases.

Cut-backs are affecting the dairy as well. If you usually receive milk, you’ll have noticed that the deliveries have not been as reliable as usual over the past couple of months. I’ve just been informed this evening that we won’t be getting a Monday delivery any more, which means I won’t have any milk or cream for delivery this Tuesday. I am hoping to organize organic milk from another dairy by next week, but I have to apologise to all of you who are expecting their milk to arrive tomorrow as I don’t have enough time left to organize an alternative. Other delivery days will not be affected.

I had plans to get plenty of work done in this mild weather, but I managed to pick up one of the bugs that are going about at the moment and ended up vegetating in the house for a couple of days – so frustrating! I’m through it now though so deliveries wont be affected this week.

It’s been quite a relaxing time, but with the boys back to school, rugby training starting back up, and band practice back on, it’s back to our normal busy parental taxi service.

Please let me know if you need help in changing any standing orders or direct debits to take the new prices into account.

This is a list of the vegetables included in the standard bags this week. Substitutions may occur.

Potato Solanum tuberosum.. The variety for the most part 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.

Brocolli Brassica oleracea Italica Group Excellent source of Vitamin C and folic acid. Also contains Vitamins A, B2, B6 and phosphorus, fibre, calcium and iron. It is best eaten raw or quickly blanched in boiling , lightly salted water. Also good in stir-fries. Please use as quickly as possible as it doesn’t keep well..

Parsnip Pastinaca sativa. Source of Vitamin C and Folic Acid.  Peel the root thickly and slice the flesh. Boil in lightly salted water for 30 minutes. Alternatively, parboil for 10 minutes then roast for 20 – 30 minutes. Here’s a recipe I found for: Fried Parsnips; Trim the tops and roots off the parsnips then peel and cut in half lengthways. Put the parsnips in a pan of boiling water ( lightly salted)  and cook for 15 minutes. They should still be firm and not quite tender. Drain thoroughly. Lightly beat an egg and dip the parsnips in it before coating them with breadcrumbs seasoned with salt and pepper. Melt 2oz(50g) of butter in a frying pan and shallow fry the parsnips until they are golden and crisp on both sides, turning once.

Garlic  (1head). Use a clove of garlic to flavour savoury dishes. Split a clove off of the bulb, peel off the skin and crush or chop finely. Mix with butter and spread on bread or  toast to make a tasty snack.

Pumpkin . The pumpkin in the bag this week is a very versatile vegetable. It can be roasted or cut into stews. It makes delicious and hearty soup, but can also make a dessert pie. We quite often make a curry with ours, so just google yourself a recipe. Cut the pumpkin into quarters remove the tough outer peel and the inner seeds and cut up the inner flesh to your desired recipe’s requirements.

Newsletter w/c 31st December 2012

Happy New Year – All the Best for 2013

After holding our veg prices for over 7 years, we’ve reluctantly been forced to increase the bag prices from the first of January 2013. The new tariff is at the foot of this newsletter and basically is a £2 increase on the veg bags and a £1 increase on the fruit bags. Eggs and milk prices will remain the same. The rise in fuel costs is affecting us in all sorts of ways and to keep the business moving forward and guaranteeing quality produce each week is getting more and more expensive to manage. I hope you won’t think this is out of order, we really do need the extra income to help cover cost increases.

We took the boys down to Biggar to see the bonfire on Hogmanay. It was a cold night, but I’ve never seen such a big bonfire – right in the main street. Once we got close enough, the heat from the raging fire kept the cold out easily and Lynda had her flask of mulled wine with her too so that helped her to warm up too. I was driver for the night and took our friends back to their house where we ended up spending the night. I got to bed at 9am on New Years Day so I’m definitely having an early night tonight with a full delivery run tomorrow. On the farm front – I’m still trying to use this quiet time to get tidying up done and have a huge to-do list. I’ve just got to take each job as it comes. First job is to finish the log store properly and get it filled with logs.

Please let me know if you need help in changing any standing orders or direct debits to take the new prices into account.

This is a list of the vegetables included in the standard bags this week. Substitutions may occur.

Potato Solanum tuberosum.. The variety for the most part 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.

Celery  Apium graveolens (1 head) This biennial veg is high in Vitamin C, folic acid, potassium and fibre. The stalks are generally eaten fresh or used in soups and stews. To cook it, boil it in a little salted boiling water for 15-20 minutes or steam it for 25-30 minutes. Serve in cheese or parsley sauce or smothered in butter. Waldorf Salad is quite simple to make. Take 85g of raisins and soak them for an hour, drain them. Peel and core 3 apples, slice them thinly, then put in a bowl with 50g of walnut halves that have been toasted lightly in a frying pan. Add 4 celery stalks, thinly sliced and half the raisins. Coat it with mayonnaise, season to taste and toss well. Arrange a shredded lettuce around the base of a salad bowl, then add the celery mixture. Sprinkle the remaining raisins over the top and a few celery leaves and a tablespoon of chopped parsley leaves.

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.

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.

Swede  Brassica napa (1 head) The staple of the Scottish winter vegetable garden. Just peel the tough skin off and chop up and boil the sweet, crunchy, orange root. Best served mashed with a dribble of cream and a dod of butter through it. A spoonful of this will partner mashed tatties wherever they’re used and, of course, you can’t have haggis without it.

Fruit and Vegetables
Organic Vegetables	£13.50 per standard bag
	£16.50 per Large bag
Organic Fruit	£4.00 per Small Bag
	£7.50 per Large Bag
Organic Pasteurised Milk ( full cream/semi skimmed)	£1.20per  litre
Organic Single cream ( 250ml)	£1.00/£1.60
Organic Double cream ( 250ml)	£1.30/£1.70
Eggs
Organic Free Range Eggs	£1.80 per Half Dozen Box