Tomato Stall from the Isle of Wight is back! 🍅

After a small start with cherry vine tomatoes last week, we’ve now got the full lineup: heirloom, classic vine, mini plum mixed colour, and cherry vine mixed colour.

We’ve got a decent amount of the red cherry vines to go around, but other lines are very limited – as always we’ll share these out as fairly as possible but expect them to go quick!

Good afternoon and how is it nearly May already!?

It’s another Bank holiday next Monday and there’s one in Spain and France this Friday too so that has affected some of the order cut-off times for suppliers this week. However, if you get your order in today as so many of you guys now do, then you can ignore the info below:

• Ecosur orders by 6am Weds
• Camposeven orders by at 7am Weds
• Bioalgarrobo orders by 7am Weds
• Biovergel orders by 7am Weds
• Bio & Bio and Solagora orders by 10am Weds
• Fairtrasa orders by 11am Weds
• Royal Oak orders by 5pm Weds

As ever, if you usually receive your orders on a pallet on Tuesday, next week, your delivery would be on a Weds. If you really need your delivery on a Tuesday, there is the option for chilled deliveries as these companies work bank holidays but they’re more expensive and we would need to know your requirements soon if any different than normal.

That boring housekeeping aside, earlier than ever, our mate Pam at Strawberry Fields has already started on her outdoor lettuce cropping. Though that’s great news for our listing, we interpret news like this as a marker that serves to illustrate the increasing unpredictability of our domestic seasons. A critical issue for our cherished growers who have to already put so much faith and hope in our seasonal weather patterns.

Further afield, Thaymin have also started with their lovely apricots (big hit last year) and Bio & Bio have their first ever mini watermelons for us.

Zooming out further still, the ongoing war in Iran is a growing concern to us and if it’s not already, that means that it should be a growing concern to you guys too. The price of red diesel on farms has doubled since the conflict began and we’ve heard of packaging and label manufacturers having to increase their prices too. At the moment we have not seen price increases aside from the obvious cost of running a fleet of 10 vans throughout the week but should the conflict persist and the Strait of Hormuz remain blocked, we will naturally have to look at increasing delivery prices to cover costs.

Sustain were in touch last week to interview us on this very topic and have released an article earlier today…here’s a link if you’re interested to read.

Fertiliser-free organic market shows resilience amid global energy and fuel crisis | Sustain

The fruit and veg headlines: 

• Starting in the UK, there aren’t too many new adds this week. New Farm has some more bagged spring greens for us to go at while Strawberry Fields add some little gem lettuce and red oakleaf lettuce.

• As mentioned up top, we have more of a full line up from The Tomato Stallthis week. These lines are limited but expected to increase each week as the season progresses.

• On the last of the UK adds, Trinity has some french breakfast radishes.

• From Portugal, Vasco has added some pak Choi.

• From Spain, Biovergel has padron peppers, hass avocados and watermelons. Bioandalusi some green, red and yellow peppers, Campo some pointed cabbages and Ecosur some cherry plum and cherry vine tomatoes.

• Huzzah – the first of the stone fruits have landed on our list this week! You’ll find the early apricots from Thaymin, Bio & Bio and Dynamis. Safe to say, excitement levels at ONHQ are very high.

• From Holland, Fairtrasa has some 8.5kg turmeric and Zann has beech mushrooms, flat beans, sweet spuds, Granny Smith apples and mini watermelons.

• From France, our top picks from Dynamis this week are round tri-colour courgettes, red chillies, fresh peas, round strawberries (in punnets), and not one but two apricot varieties: Mikado and Nestor.

• To line your pantry’s, we’ve got some naked oat flakes from Hodmedod, butter beans, chickpeas, pesto and mushroom tortellini from Mr Organic and some black tahini, mixed super seed spread and preserved lemons from Carley’s.

• Last but not least, Equinox have 2 new functional kombuchas available and to celebrate are running a 15% off promotion for Organic North customers throughout May. We got to taste these last week and we think these could be some of our fave booches yet!

– Energising – Apple & Lime kombucha, infused with energising guarana and matcha for a natural lift. (80mg of clean, natural caffeine per can.)

– Calming –  Watermelon & Cucumber kombucha, infused with ashwagandha and tulsi, herbs traditionally used in Ayurvedic practice to promote calm and balance.

I’ll sign off this week with an eye-catching and sobering article I read in the Guardian last week.

Gibraltar’s monkeys eat mud ‘to avoid upset stomachs from tourist junk food’ | Gibraltar | The Guardian

Have the best week enjoying all these sunny days and a warm welcome to all the new customers that we’ve begun working with over the last few weeks. We’ve never been busier or more excited about the work that we’re doing.

Sean, Cathryn, Mads, Ell, Alph and Team ON x

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