Category: News

 

The weeds grow so quickly!!! As you know we don’t spray so it means that everything has to be hand weeded and it takes a lot of people power to keep areas clear. The back field was only done a couple of weeks ago and wandering around today you can hardly tell in some of the beds. If some of the crops grew as fast we would be able to bring you absolutely loads of veg from our site.

In the £8 box this week is celariac. This can be used cooked in stews, soups or mixed with mash potatoes or grated raw to add to salads or make a really interesting coleslaw.

The recipe this week is such a lovely fresh tasting salad, ideal for a summer buffet or alfresco meal. For meat eaters, add six rashers of crispy fried, crumbled bacon.

Sadly, not a single comment back from any of our customers after we asked last week if people read the news letters. No emails, face book messages, tweets or phone calls. We will give it one more week and then after that make the changes we spoke about last week.

We have a number of new items in stock in our health food range; some delicious breakfast bars at 90p each as well as our usual lentil and hummus crisps that make an interesting and healthy alternative to potato crisps and chocolates.

Our raspberries are cropping well and it looks like we will soon be able to offer our own blueberries, although we will only have a limited supply of these.

Elsewhere on the landscape we now have courgettes and marrows and also a number of salad items.

Yesterday we had to rescue a pheasant from our brassica cage, he was rather flustered and made a right noise but seemed happy once he was freed. We have to net the cabbages off because the pigeons decimate them.

Its mentally busy this week for the staff as we have several people off, so sorry if we don’t get back to your enquiries quickly.

Fresh LARGE FREERANGE eggs from chickens not fed on GMO’s £1.50 for half dozen

Thanks for your continued support, Kylie Jeanette, Sean and the Veg box team.

PS Salad and Fruit boxes available for £5.50 delivered with your veg box.

 

It is lovely to be able to bring you more and more of our own veg and fruit. This week we have our courgettes, cucumbers, radish, spring onions, rocket, lettuce and raspberries. Looking in the fields it wont be long until we have potatoes, tomatoes and you should see the grape vines!

In the £10 box this week is celariac. This can be used cooked in stews, soups or mixed with mash potatoes or grated raw to add to salads or make a really interesting coleslaw.

Part of our ethos is encouraging people to grow their own food, this is the surest way to know exactly what you are eating and also reduce your food miles to virtually nothing. We appear to be doing well at this as we have had several customers over the last couple of week cancel their deliveries until later in the year as they now are growing lots of their own food. This means we have 2 or 3 spare slots on a Thursday and Friday where we can fit in other deliveries. If you know of anyone that might be interested please point them in our direction.

So this week in the office we have been talking about the news letter. Do people read it? Do we need to put it in every week, can we email it instead of printing out copies? Do people realise that it is put onto our website?

Our current plans seem to be that we will, from the end of the month, change the format. This will be following some feedback from you, our delightful customers. Please feel free to let us know what you think, what is useful to you and we will make changes accordingly.

We noticed last week the difference having 4 less people in site. We’ve just had 4 work placements with us and the guys worked really hard, they were a credit to themselves. The media image of the work-shy dole is so wrong! We hope that they are able to find paid work soon.

On Mondays we sometimes have veg left over from Friday, as a result we offer veg for a discounted price often as much as half price but you have to call on site to collect it. It is always worth calling on side mon to fri 9 -4 as we often have additional produce and special offers, plus you can pick your salad straight from the poly tunnels.

Fresh LARGE FREERANGE eggs from chickens not fed on GMO’s £1.50 for half dozen

Thanks for your continued support, Kylie Jeanette, Sean and the Veg box team.

PS Salad and Fruit boxes available for £5.50 delivered with your veg box.

 

Looking around Grimsby you might have noticed the barrier baskets for the Grimsby In Bloom have been put out to brighten up the town and add a lovely splash of colour. They were filled and tended for by our own fair hands. Also outside the Fisherman’s Arms in Cleethorpes they have some newly filled hanging baskets, again from us. If you would like a hanging basket they can be delivered with your veg box, prices start from £10.

Bill the Botanist came back last week and Identified 111 different species of wild plants, what some gardeners may describe as weeds, but they are an important part of the eco system and we like to give them space to grow along side our crops. It’s all about harmony with nature, working with rather than against. So many of the plants you might miss if they weren’t pointed out. Hopefully he will be back to tell us some more info and perhaps run a short educational talk and walk around the garden.

Talking of educational things the classroom is 90% finished and we have already started to let it out to people needing a meeting room in a lovely environment. We have tea and coffee facilities and soon should have a white board and hopefully a projector. Please do come and have a look.

In your veg box this week, it is a different variety of potato, Maris Bard, Lincolnshire grown. You will also find in the £8 and £10 box the first of the new season peas in the pod. The Rhubarb is our own home grown.

We had some visitors from the council this week looking to see what we do and seeing how we can work together. The council are our landlords and we really need them to understand what good work we do so that we can be included in strategic planning for the area.

We often get asked how people can help us and there are a couple of ways; one is come and sign up to be a volunteer, we need help in the garden, in the offices and as part of the veg box scheme. The other way is just to tell other people about us, to get more customers supporting us by buying our produce and visiting site, making use of this amazing resource and helping it continue to be a centre for environmental sustainability in North East Lincolnshire.

Fresh LARGE FREERANGE eggs from chickens not fed on GMO’s £1.50 for half dozen

 

We get asked this question all the time and the truth is it varies each week depending on the season and what is available.

To give you an idea however here is the contents of each box week of 12.05.14

To give you an idea of what the other boxes contain. Boxes will have some variety depending on season, weights and sizes.

The £6 Veg box contains

Potatoes (800g)

0nions (400g)

Mushrooms (250g)

A Cauliflower

A Pepper

Broccoli

Cucumber

Tomatoes (400g)

The £10 Veg box contains

Potatoes (2k)

Onions(600g)

Mushrooms (250g)

A cauliflower

Parsnips (800g)

2 Peppers

Large Broccoli

Cucumber

Tomatoes(500g)

Calvero Nero Kale

Beetroot

The Salad Box contains

A Pepper

Bunch Spring Onions

Beetroot (cooked)

Cucumber

Lettuce

Celery

Tomatoes (600g)

The Fruit box contains

Bananas (1kilo)

Oranges (4-6)

Apples (4-5)

Pears 4

Kiwi Fruit 4

Some of our customers have been asking about getting bigger boxes as they realise now that we are often much cheaper than the supermarkets. Also our veg tends to stay fresher for longer as its journey from field to your house is usually shorter than supermarkets can manage. To help people plan we give this week the differences between the boxes. Hope you don’t miss the recipe too much!

Last week we were delighted that we got a little more funding enabling us to employ two part time staff on the horticultural team and as part of the veg box scheme. Both people have been previously involved with us as placements, so it is really nice to be able to offer them paid work after giving up their time for free. Welcome Nick and Jeanette! This sort of thing really demonstrates our commitment to using the landscape in a way that helps local people. We offer a place for people to come and volunteer and enjoy nature, tend plants, grow food and often develop many skills to help them with life and employment.

On the landscape the much needed rain and sun means the plants, veg and weeds are all growing well. Looking forward to harvesting already! We have plenty of opportunities for people to come and help us with weeding 🙂 Its one of the joys of not using any sprays or weed killers, hand weeding is the only way!

We are still in the Food Gap so we couldn’t get any English carrots this week, we’ve had to top up with salad items to try and keep as much English stuff in your box as possible. Hope that is OK!

We’ve been looking at the facts and figures and we really need a few more people to start ordering some of the extra things we sell like pasta rice, nuts etc, eco cleaning products healthy snacks etc. Without more orders then this part of our service won’t be viable and we will have to stop it. 🙁 Don’t forget you can order these tasty goodies to be delivered with your veg box and often it is items that you probably buy from supermarkets. Every penny you spend with us helps us survive and means you are spending your money in a more ethical way and supporting the local economy. You can ask us for the latest printed list of products if you cant get online to look at our website.

We have back in stock a number of local preserves and pickles. Please ask the delivery team.

If you have time please come and visit our site, we have some great produce for sale and its a lovely place to spend a bit of time too.

Thanks for your continued support, Sean,Kylie, Jeanette and the Veg box team.

PS As always the large free range eggs are 6 for £1.50.

IMPORTANT NOTE FOR CUSTOMERS.

Early warning  A week on Friday 18th is Good Friday, we are closed. Any FRIDAY CUSTOMER still wanting a veg box (but it will be delivered on the Thursday) Please email orders@greenfuturesgrimsby.co.uk if we don’t hear from you we assume you don’t want a box. Sorry for any inconvenience.

So I’m back from my week in Wales. Even while on holiday I thought about my work here and took the time out to visit a biodynamic farm and an organic growing project. It was reassuring to see that there are so many other projects working towards a more natural way of working. It is a real shame that more farmers in Lincolnshire and particularly round here don’t realise the benefits of growing organic. The projects I spoke to had very good results with very reasonable yields and most importantly they weren’t damaging the ecosystem with artificial chemical sprays etc. It was also interesting to note that even the organic project had to have imported veg to supplement what they could grow on their own site. I chatted to the owners and found out even for them at this time of year it was very difficult. This made me feel better that we are doing all we can, as even larger projects have to use imported veg to deliver a 50 weeks a year service.

The only Carrots we could get this week were pre washed but they are English. I’m sorry to give you beetroot 2 weeks in a row but we are trying to minimise on the use of imported veg. We include a lovely beetroot soup recipe or you could try pickling or even juicing them raw with a bit of lemon juice. Have a look at http://lovebeetroot.co.uk/ for some other great ideas! If you make up some pickling vinegar you can even do this to the red cabbage too! The tomatoes are English, the first lot of glasshouse grown from just north of Hull.

Don’t forget we are now also selling Salad and fruit boxes for £6.00 but if you also buy a veg box then they are discounted to £5.50. As always collections from site receive a 50p discount as we have saved on delivery costs.

We’ve included one of our new leaflets with your box so if you know any of friends or neighbours that might be interested please do pass on our details.

Thanks for your continued support, Sean, Kylie and the Veg box team.

PS

We have just a few jars of local honey for sale for £4.50 (Not ours but the bees are from just down the road in Bradley).

As always the free range eggs are ½ dozen for £1.50.

Six pack of sweet peas for £1.00 (ready to go in).

So we had the sudden sharp cold night. It killed a few seedling here and speaking to the veg trade wiped out a load of the English Cauliflowers as the price jumped this week. The fluctuations in price have been a real eye opener to me. As super market consumers you are some what shielded from this because they often force a fixed low price from the farmers. This price fixing often damages the profits of farmers. Sadly it means that you as a consumer don’t benefit when prices are really low which is why we often can beat the supermarkets on their price.

 The sunny days have given us the perfect weather opportunity to recover polytunnel 1 but most of the landscape staff have been off site working on a new wildlife area for Synthomer, planting 900 new trees! We did do all the preparation work however, that took long enough!

 In the veg boxes this week we have given you a different variety of potato; Sagitta, they are a good all rounder, we hope you like the variety. The mixed salad leaves came from our poly-tunnel it includes a selection from land cress, winter purslane, baby beet leaves, lambs lettuce and chard. The recipe for the dressing is really zingy and works well with the leaves. Hopefully you enjoy the Chanterey carrots too for a little change.

 This week we have had a few new work placements come onto site. Sometimes the placements are mandatory work placements from the work agencies; the participants often arrive feeling a bit nervous or grumpy at having to attend. Usually after their 4 weeks with us they are a lot happier and some even keep coming back as they like the project, discover that they like working on the land and realise what good work we do and want to contribute. This attitude is a far cry from the image promoted by the rise of the poverty porn of programs on tv.

In the ten pound boxes this week is some broccoli raab, its an unusual leafy vegetable here is how to deal with it

 Rinse and trim 1/4-inch from bottom of stems.

Cut stalks crosswise into 2-inch pieces and drop them into salted (optional), boiling water.

Cook for 1 to 2 minutes and remove with slotted spoon.

Saute the blanched broccoli raab/rapini in a little olive oil and as much garlic as you like for 3 to 5 minutes until tender. Optional – Add a few dried red pepper flakes.

Thanks for your continued support,

Sean, Kylie and the Veg box team.

PS we have just a few jars of local honey for sale for £4.50. (Not ours but the bees are from just down the road in Bradley)

Yes! More sun! which means we have been able to get on the landscape to do all sorts of jobs. This week we have planted out our potatoes, potted up a large number of seedlings includingchillies, tomatoes and peppers. So far we have over 6 varieties of tomato. We have planted our first early potatoes; Casabalanca. I look forward to new potatoes. It is one of the other things about eating seasonally; food becomes more of a treat. In some ways we have been spoiled by the supermarket 24/7/365 food. It is good to be able to have what you want, but if you can get it all the time, it is easy to take it for granted.

In this weeks veg box the carrots are from Kirton Lindsey, a different farmer but still as local as we can get.

In the health food supplies side of our veg boxes we took on a couple more lines of product including date syrup and we now have some Tempeh in jars. This is an excellent meat substitute and easier to digest than soya. We also have a new stock of coconut oil. Sadly we do have a few out of date items, (I hate to have waste) These are for sale for half price and include wasabi peas, hemp seeds and some fair-trade cookies. We need a few more customers ordering from us to reduce this to a minimum. We would encourage any of our customers to call on site to look at our full range of stock. Also you can find an up to date list at this web address https://www.greenfuturesgrimsby.co.uk/the-pantry-stock-list-2014/ or you can request a paper copy.

Dont forget every pound you spend with us, the 60p goes back into the local community….. spend the same money in a super market and 70p leaves the area!

Our open day last week went well, we had demonstrations of some of the services we can offer on site and had plenty of great ideas from people keen to add to the areas only environmental and agricultural community enterprise.

Please do recommend us to anyone who you think would like to support us or who would benefit from our services.

Thanks for your continued support,

Sean, Kylie and the Veg box team.

SEED POTAOES FOR SALE FIRST EARLIES ONLY A FEW BAGS, £1.25 a Kilo.

PS we have just a few jars of local honey for sale for £4.50. (Not ours but the bees are from just down the road in Bradley)