Newsletter w/c 19th February 2018
I didn’t get the chance to write a newsletter last week, as we took
a wee half-term holiday/Keir’s Birthday excuse for a few days away. We booked a
self-catering cottage in Gartocharn, near Loch Lomond and had a snowy,
long-weekend there. I came back on Tuesday morning and headed straight out on
deliveries, so if you noticed I was maybe a bit late, that was the reason. As
you’ll have noticed, if you read the newsletter a couple of weeks ago, the
weekend also involved taking Keir all the way back over to Murrayfield on Sunday
for his first experience of being part of the pipe band on the pitch for the
match against France. At least Scotland won and performed a lot better than the
week before, but they’ll need to be better yet to beat England this Saturday.
After a very broken 2 years of sporadic effort,
I’ve managed to turn a pile of stones at a new gate entrance to the sheds, into
a reasonable dry-stane dyke. I don’t think I’ve done anything to it in the last
year, but with a concerted effort, this month, it is finally finished. It’s
definitely not perfect, but it is sheep proof. I have a small section at the
other side of the gate to rebuild yet. I wonder how many years it will take me
to complete it.
The weather hasn’t been helping me to get some
of my winter jobs done. I’ve found it to be an unusually uncomfortable period
of weather. Maybe its just my age kicking in. There doesn’t seem to have been
many of the crisp, still, frosty mornings when I can get out and work up a bit
of heat, digging or chopping wood. It’s just snell winds and wet slushy snow as
far as I can see, this Winter.
While I’m on the subject of the weather, I’ve
put kale in the bag this week, and I think it may be coming to an end soon. You
may need to trim a bit off the edge of some of the leaves as there seems to be
some yellowing to the outer margins.
Thanks for all the positive comments about the
re-introduction of the newsletter. If you’d prefer that I saved paper and sent
an email rather than a firm copy, please let me know and also which email
address you’d like it sent to.
PLEASE RETURN ALL NET BAGS
PLEASE. WE RE-USE THEM.
This is a list of the veg in the bag
this week, although, substitutions may occur due to availability.
Potato,
Onion, Carrot, Butternut squash, leek, kale and Swede
The Large bag will also include:
Red
Cabbage, parsnip and Celeriac
Featured Recipe
Roasted
Butternut Squash and Sage Risotto
Preheat your oven to
200oC/400oF/Gas Mark 6. Peel your butternut squash and cut into 6-8 wedges,
removing the seeds. Crush or chop 2 cloves of garlic and spread both in a
baking tray with a sprinkling of salt and pepper and approx 7 or 8 sage leaves.
Add 3 tablespoons of olive oil and mix around to cover all the ingredients in
oil then bake for 40-50 mins until the squash is softened and golden in colour.
Tip all the ingredients into a bowl and mash the ingredients adding any residue
from the baking tray. Take a frying pan and heat a tablespoon of olive oil and
a knob of butter. Add a chopped large onion to the pan and fry slowly until
softened. Add 400g Arborio rice and stir in, then add 2 glasses of white wine
after about a minute. Keep stirring until this is absorbed into the rice. Mix
up 1 litre of chicken or vegetable stock and add a good ladleful to the pan
along with another 7 or 8 sage leaves and seasoning. Turn down the heat to a
simmer and keep adding ladlefuls of stock and moving the mixture around the pan
as the rice absorbs it. In 15-20 minutes, the rice should be soft, with a little
bit of bite in it and a creamy texture. Remove the pan from the heat and add
the butternut squash mixture and a bit of parmesan to taste. Mix in then put
the lid back on for a couple of minutes. If the risoot seems dry add a little
more stock to get the correct consistency. Serve with a sprinkling of pinenuts
and parmesan.
posted by thewholeshebag at 11:19 PM
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