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.