Veg Box News 03.03.14

Another gloriously sunny Monday. We have a load of young enthusiastic Princes Trust volunteers on site. We, along with Emma the Herbalist, took them to Bradley woods to do a litter pick. Afterwards they came back on site to do digging and getting some fresh air; some hadn’t ever used spades before so it was an experience!

In food terms the next 4 weeks are always difficult and have been christened the ‘food gap’. Its that time when winter crops and stored crops are coming to their end but the new spring crops aren’t quite ready. We always have to go further afield to keep the veg box service running and for certain items the only way we can supply you with food is to use imported stuff, although most of this is coming from Holland via Hull so in terms of food miles its still less than say beans flown from Kenya etc. Sadly with the way the food markets are set up and unless you are willing to only eat the same veg every week, then this is unavoidable. We always try to minimise this as much as possible, but without more local growers and use of innovative growing techniques, we are at the mercy of the seasons and food markets.

In this weeks veg box we have managed to get some English grown under glass spinach and cress to give you some variety from the usually winter selection.

We have been asked to supply a few salad boxes, these have our own Purslane, land cress and radish, they have some imported items including cucumber, tomato and lettuce but are still very tasty and fresh. They can be ordered for £6. In another 4 weeks we will be able to get English tomatoes grown in Hull and we should have our own lettuce.

If you still have your beetroot from last week the recipe this week will hopefully help you use it. We can sell you sweet potato for £1.95 a kilo.

On the landscape this week our volunteers have been helping paint wood preserver on a load of planters and outside furniture that we acquired as they were going to be thrown away. We have also built Elaine a new potting shed, its really lovely and it will probably double up as her summer office. We have been busy separating out seedlings and now have leeks, tomatoes, peppers, chillies and lettuce all coming on lovely.

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 form just down the road)