Newsletter w/c 25th february 2013

The return to snow last week disrupted my plans to get on with the poly-tunnel structure and get it covered again. Hopefully I can get to that job this week instead. I’ve still quite an extensive list of jobs to get through before the main start of the growing season. There are walls to build and repair, sheds to sort out, (one of them is leaning over rather alarmingly), the farm road resembles the lunar surface so needs graded again an the grass in the holiday cottage garden needs to be raked out and re-sown. Longer days and better weather are definitely what’s required.

Lynda has made a great job of our new website, which I am delighted to say is now up and running. We can keep adding to it in a way that we couldn’t with the last website design so I have great intentions of updating it at regular intervals to keep it interesting. Please let us know if there is anything you would like us to add to the website.

My long-awaited return to competitive athletics went reasonably well at the weekend. I ran in the Scottish National Cross Country Championships and made it round the whole course without injury. The conditions were perfect and the grass underfoot was so well tended that it wasn’t much different from running on a track for most of the course. There were 500 starters and we ran 3 laps of the park totaling 12km in distance. I think my next competitive outing should be the end of March in Livingston. I’ll need to try to get some speed into my legs now that I know I have the stamina.

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. Some of you may get washed potatoes. These have been washed to check for blemishes and disease. Soil acts as a natural preservative, so the washed tatties may not keep quite as long as the dirty ones. 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.

Butternut Squash. Cucurbita sp. 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.

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.

Celeriac apium graveolens Celeriac is rich in Vitamin K, Iron, Magnesium and Phosphorus. It is edible raw or cooked. It can be roasted, boiled, stewed or even stir-fried. Our favourite recipe is celeriac and apple soup which is a great thick hearty soup for a frosty day after a long walk. Also good mashed through potatoes to add an extra flavour to your tatties.