Online Ordering for 20th – 24th Oct (Week 43)
Say hello to our newest grower, Awen Organics!
Tucked away in the North Pembrokeshire National Park, this 25-acre farm is on a mission to grow organic, nutrient-dense veg and build a socially and environmentally just food and farming system. Sean’ll fill you in on the rest of the deets below.👇🏼
We’re buzzing to get our hands on plenty of staples – plus some exciting new additions like rainbow cavolo nero, red Florence onions, vivid choi and peppermint chard.
Good afternoon Organicisers!
We’re bloody mad busy this end just now and though it’s often two steps forward and one back, we’re continuing to make some minor breakthroughs.
One person our end who’s never anything but busy is our Cathryn and she’s been putting in some solid work of late on the supplier front. On the back of some price analysis, she’s started chatting with a new French wholesaler who we may well look to list in the forthcoming weeks. In the wings are also potential suppliers of various vegan ‘fish sauces’ and a new coconut water supplier too.
NEW SUPPLIER ALERT!
As highlighted by Ell above, some of Cathryn’s work has also led us to be able to incorporate yet another new grower onto our list. Namely Awen Organics who are nestled between the hills and the ocean in North Pembrokeshire. We were introduced to these guys by our pal, Liv at The Soil Association who first mentioned them after coming to stay and volunteer with us in the summer. After adding so many new UK growers to our weekly list this year already, we were sceptical whether we would be able to accommodate another grower but for some of the unique lines that they grow, we’ve found a way to squeeze them in!
We are bloody thrilled to be able to offer a route to market to yet another fab set of growers but as mentioned above, we’re not able to list all growers that approach us. We’re actually starting to be inundated with requests from growers to list their produce but unfortunately, until we are busier, for our commitment to our existing and long-standing growers, we are not able to accommodate them. Though we feel plenty busy this end, we will only be able to add these new growers when we’re even busier than we are now so spread the wordgood people, we’ve loadsa space to take on loads of new customers! : )
To give you some more info on Awen Organics, these guys already supply some of the best markets and restaurants in the UK. They grow approx. 75 crops and over 250 varieties across polytunnels, market gardens and agroforestry field systems and their emphasis is on growing diverse, high quality produce whilst improving biodiversity and soil health.
The farm currently employs 11 people over the main season and is growing year or year to try and keep up with demand. Before finding a permanent home in West Wales and starting Awen Organics, Adam and Dee who run Awen set up a small market garden on rented land in Devon and Dorset and have previously grown Organic veg in Poland and Scotland. These diverse influence and the experiences of renting and starting from scratch in different contexts have helped shape Awen into the diverse and growing farm that it is today. Alongside the farming, Dee and Adam are active in the Landworkers’ Alliance and social movements for agroecology and food sovereignty – building a food system based on health and justice.
Lastly, not only have these guys some exciting new lines for us, but they’ve also agreed to set aside some space in their tunnels to plant some more cucumbers and toms for us next year too! Mint innit! : )
Cheese supplier finishing up : (
To counter that good news, unfortunately in a few weeks our longstanding and much-loved cheese supplier, Pextenementare ceasing production. Their farm up in Todmorden has had problems with drought the last three years and reluctantly, they have decided to move their cows in with another organic herd down in Herefordshire. They’ll be running down stocks over the next few weeks. This is really saddening news and testament to our climate that is changing rapidly. We’ll miss working with these guys and their fine cheeses a lot and are wishing them all the best for their next endeavours.
Fruit & veg updates:
- Starting in the UK, as mentioned above we have the new lovely Awen Organics on our list this week so make sure to have a full peruse through their list.
- Elsewhere, Royal Oak has purple cape broccoli, pink cabbages, frizzy endive, watermelon radish and the first of the sprout tops! Newfields has added golden and red beetroots, January king cabbages, tundra cabbages, leeks, and small bags of 12.5kg spuds. Bagthorpe has added some washed parsnips and Chapel has savoy cabbages, celeriac, kale, and parsnips for us to go at.
- Staying in the UK, Pollybell also has some savoy cabbages and purple sprouting broccoli while New Farm adds red and white cabbages, celeriac and acoustic potatoes.
- Lastly on the UK veg, Roddys adds some loose PSB, Bedlam has grizzly bear squash and mini wart squash, Fosketts has crown prince squash and St Helens has PSB, mixed salad leaves and some spuds.
- From the market gardens, Growing Well has added some bagged cavolo Nero, Trinity has added fresh bay leaves, Bramley apples and mixed salad leaves while Moss Valley has some cavolo Nero, kale, and radicchio. Kindling also adds some radicchio.
- On the UK fruit front, Oakwood have added some cox and russet apples, Carey some gala apples and Mole Endsome cox orange pippin. We’ve also more apple varieties from Windmill including ashmeads kernal, fiesta and lambourne as well as some dried walnuts and quince while Augernik has added some chestnuts.
- From Spain, Bioandalusi has red peppers and navelina oranges, Camposeven has some mini romaine twin packs, Ecosur has green beans and cherry vine tomatoes and Be Organic has some bacon avos for us to go at as well as some butternut squash.
- From Holland, Zann has both maitake mushrooms and mixed mushroom boxes, loose cranberries, gala apples and conference pears.
- From Dynamis our top picks this week are parsley root, musquee squash, black tomatoes, golden ball turnips, pinova apples, caffin clems, papayas and verbena.
- And lastly to line your pantry’s we’ve black pepper grinders and chip salt from Steenbergs plus some green and Kalamata olives in brine from Sunita.
I’ll sign off this week with a vid that’s been sent to u from our pals at Mr Organic. It tells a short story of their company, their ethics and their delicious toms – enjoy!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dfiXAXMv7hk
Speak to you all again shortly,
Sean, Cathryn, Alphin, Ell and the ON team x
With a few misty Manchester mornings under our belts and pumpkins scattered about the place, autumn must officially be here… right? 🎃👻
Just seventeen days to go ‘til Halloween, and the first gourd-filled pallet from Royal Oak landed in the warehouse yesterday. Orange ones, green ones, yellow ones, chocolate ones… big ones, small ones – we’ve got the lot for all your Halloween needs!