In the bags this week:
Produce from: Hughes Organics (Norfolk), Breckland Organics (Norfolk B), Woodlands Organics (Lincolnshire), Riverdale Farm (Cambridgeshire) and other small farmers in East Anglia, Sarah Green (Essex), our Hawkwood Plant Nursery growing site (Chingford) and local ‘Cropshare’ growers. Produce occasionally comes from organic farmers David and Jane Barker (Norfolk), organic farmer and local wholesaler Perry Court Farm (Kent) and from organic wholesaler Langridge (especially non-UK fruit). Contents may vary due to availability.
Standard vegetable bags have New potatoes, Spring onions (Essex), Carrots, Chard, Aubergine (Norfolk), Mixed salad, Cucumbers and Garlic (Chingford). No potato bags have Peas (Lancs) and Cabbage (Kent) instead of Cucumber and Chard, plus Beetroot (Chingford).
Large vegetable bags have same as standard with more potatoes and carrots, Spring onions (Chingford), Peppers (Norfolk) instead of Aubergine, plus Tomatoes (Norfolk). No potato bags have Beetroot (Chingford).
Medium veg bags have New potatoes, Carrots, Courgette (Norfolk), Kale (Essex), Mixed salad and Garlic (Chingford). No potato bags have Mange tout (Lancs).
Small vegetable bags have New potatoes, Carrots, Chard (Essex), Beetroot and Garlic (Chingford). No potato bags have Cucumber (Chingford) instead of Beetroot plus Tomatoes (Norfolk).
Standard fruit bags have Bananas (Dominican Republic), Peaches, Nectarines (Italy), Lemons (Spain) and Blackcurrants (Chingford).
Medium fruit bags have Bananas (Dominican Republic, Peaches (Italy), Worcesterberries and Blackcurrants (Chingford).
Small fruit bags have Bananas (Dominican Republic, Peaches and Nectarines (Italy) or Blackcurrants (Chingford).
About the Produce:
Cucumber(Chingford): All our cucumbers are selected to have sweet, edible skins so they can be eaten raw, although today we began our annual pickling project starring Chingford garlic, fennel, horseradish and oak leaves plus freshly harvested cucumbers. The variety in the bags this week is Marketmore – a dark green cucumber with short spines and light green ridges. A long term favourite, this one is champion in the taste tests and reliable in the glasshouse.
Garlic (Chingford): It feels like only yesterday we were harvesting and cooking up our spring garlic, but now it’s fully grown, and these are the first of many bulbs that we are drying to store through the winter. Each clove is powerfully pungent and will go much further to flavour your garlicky culinary creations.
Blackcurrants (Chingford): It is one of our missions with the Fruit Bags to reintroduce the joys of British fruit, especially summer fruits – all of you will be sampling blackcurrants, worcesterberries or both this week. Many box schemes have struggled with sourcing UK summer fruit and given up, buying in from Europe as a cheaper and easy option. At Hawkwood Plant Nursery we have a fruit growing area which is looked after weekly by our team of Fruit volunteers and trainees on Friday volunteer days.
