Cheryl at Royal Oak has some lovely stuff for us this week 👌

From left to right, we’ve got some colourful purple caulis to kick things off, then the pointy savoy cabbages, which are looking super lush right now. The crinkly leaves have a good bit of crunch and a slightly sweeter flavour than your standard round ones – great for all sorts, from stir-fries and slaws to simply steaming or frying them up.

Next up are rainbow carrots with tops, always a crowd pleaser, especially from Cheryl. They’re the sort of carrots that would look very nice poking out the top of a basket at a farmers’ market. Roast ’em, boil ’em, eat ’em raw with houmous.

And finally, some tasty fennel, fronds ’n’ all. The whole thing is edible, so don’t be chucking those feathery tops away – they’re great for adding a little fresh, aniseedy flavour to salads, sauces and anything else you can think of.

Good afternoon friends,

There’s a million and one things going on this end, just now and whether you’re tending your crops or crewing your shops, I’m sure you’re all just as busy too. The ‘run in’ has officially begun! : )

I was away on the train to the Home Office again yesterday as we’re part of the UK Fruit & Vegetable Coalition | Food Foundation who are helpingDefra design the government’s new Horticulture Sector Growth Plan (How the horticulture sector growth plan can support health, security and the economy » Green Alliance). It feels like we’re being listened to and making some great progress so fingers-crossed that we’re able to win some support for our treasured growers when the report comes out early next year. Defra will be using the plan as a source for policy recommendations over the next couple of years.

That support is very-much needed- it’s been well-documented that it’s been a real struggle out in the fields this year with the lack of rain. We heard last week from our pal, Will at New Farm Organics of the struggles he’s been having with his late broccoli. The baron area in the picture below is where the plants had died for the drought and repeating heatwaves : (

It isn’t all bad though. In more pleasant news, we asked our pals at Pollybell how their strawberry planning is going and apparently, we’re on track for our first UK-produced strawbs in years next year- huzzah!

We’ve also new beers from Stroud Brewery this week (with their 20% off offer still running for Organic September), the Feltham’s cheeses returns to the list and we’ve yet ANOTHER great new supplier for you to go at. Our latest addition is called Forest Fungi and we’re chuffed to be able to add their fab array of fresh exotic mushrooms in punnets to our list. They’ve extended a 20% off offer for the first week they’re listed with us so you can sample the quality of what they produce.

Before I pass onto our Ell for the ‘bullets’ list updates, here’s a copy of a recent impact report about a fantastic project we’re very proud to work with in Liverpool.

Queen of Greens Impact Report 2025-2026 – Feeding Liverpool

Weekly veg updates:

• Starting in the UK, Royal Oak has plenty of new bits for us to go at including broccoli, little gem, rainbow carrots with tops, harlequin squash and swede and Newfields has some large caulis and flat green lettuce.

• Elsewhere, Lynher has some cavolo Nero, chard, courgettes, collard greens, kale, leeks and PSB too. Roddy’s also has some broccoli, cavolo Nero, green kale and PSB.

• Next up, Bedlam has mashed potato squash, grizzly bear squash, iron cap squash and munchkin squash and Strawberry Fields has green oakleaf lettuce, delicata squash and tablegold squash.

• Awen has kalette tops and some winter rainbow radish while Hael has green heirloom tomatoes and mixed leaf salad and Fosketts has some joi Choi for us too.

• From our market gardens, AG Harvest has some bountiful cooking apples, crab apples and howgate wonder cooking apples.

• And for our Wednesday customers, Sheffield Organic Growers has some mixed lead salad.

• On the UK fruit front, Carey has gala apples and Concorde pears. Mole End also has gala apples as well as some blaze and cabaret.

• From Portugal, Vasco adds lemons and piel de sapo melons.

• From Spain, Biovergel has a full listing again. Our top picks are the kaki fruits, mandarins, sungold plums, quince and black watermelons.

• From Holland, Zann has kaki fruits and cherimoya.

• From France, Bio & Bio has tomato vine, clementines, lemons and navel oranges and our top picks from Dynamis this week are edamame beans, mixed habanero chilli’s, murasaki purple sweet spuds, Granny Smith apples, cherimoya, and papaya.

• To line your pantry’s, we’re stocking back up on lots from Biona including basmati rice, black eye beans, flageolet beans, kidney beans, cornichons, gherkins and mustard as well as some coconut water from Rebel Kitchen and apple cider vinegar from RAW.

I’ll sign off this week with a link to a brilliant short wee film that I was lucky to catch at the fab Regen festival in Jersey last week. I watched it alongside a new pal I was staying with in Jersey called, Alice Robinson of About Us — British Pasture Leather | High Quality Leather From Pasture Fed Cattle and we both had massive grins throughout watching it. Hope you like it! : )

Useless Dog

Have a lovely week,
Sean, Mads, Alph, Ell, Cathryn and Team ON x

A photo of the field Sean mentioned above from Will at New Farm – a pretty stark reminder of how the repeated heatwaves will continue to affect our growers.

If you have any problems, please ensure you are logged in and click this button again.