Online Ordering for 9th March – 14th March (Week 10)
New Big Cheese on the Block 🧀
This week we’re welcoming Feltham’s Farm to our cheese offering. A 22-acre organic farm in Somerset run by Marcus and Penny. What started as a career change, a slight obsession with cheese (and a one-day course at River Cottage) became a multi award-winning cheese brand. 🤩
Their cheeses are washed in beer, wine or spirits – a technique that dates back from the Middle Ages in the monasteries of France and Belgium and it creates a more pungent and complex flavour while also preserving the cheese. 🍻
Fun fact: their distinctive labels are designed by artist and musician Jem Panufnik. 🎧
Good afternoon everyone,
Given the grave scenes emanating from the Middle East just now, I find it difficult to have the motivation to scribble light-hearted Tuesday morning musings about veg.
I can’t help feel a bit like that Wallace Hartley, the fella who led his band with his violin as the Titanic sank. The global order is changing faster than most folk can keep up with and how many of us really know how all this awfulness will play out. It’s probably only for my ignorance why I’ve always felt able and keen to push on with what we do here at Organic North throughout the various national and international political upheavals, crises and wars over the last 20 years. But push on we do and will. For so long as we’re still blowing, we all need to eat and there’s a way of producing our food that is far healthier for us, our communities and our environments and we’re keen here to nurture that.
In that vein, we welcome this week to the list the first purple sprouting broccoli of the season from both Royal Oak and Bedlam Farm. As our domestic greens begin to thin out, psbas we call it comes to the rescue each year to allow us to offer something seasonal, flavourful and nutritious and we’re very glad to have seen the quality of what’s about to be coming off the farms for us to enjoy.
Next week we’re hoping to welcome back Tresemple Farm from Truro in Cornwall. These guys helped us through the gap last year and we’re glad that we’re going to be able to call on them again. We’re expecting to have spinach, chard and savoy cabbages…the latter being particularly welcome as Royal Oak have run dry on savoy cabbages this week. On top of that, if you’ve not the inclination to go and pick wild garlic from your local river banks, these guys should also have some of that for us to go at too.
Brightening up the list further this week are the Ruby Valencia oranges from Gospa. These have a pretty reddish/pink flesh and we think that these will become more of a popular variety as more folk get to try them.
As featured above by our Ell and on the back of a chance meeting that our Cathryn had in London a couple of weeks ago, we’ve also a new cheese producer from Somerset to add to the list this week too. Feltham Farm do not produce the cheapest cheeses in the world but they will be some of the best that we have listed for sure. They’re delicious!
Lastly, some of you will be very pleased to see the Fresh Flour Company return to the list this week with their pastas and crackers etc. These guys took some time out with the businesses and halted production as they sorted some of their back-end issues out. Those we’re told are now behind them and they’re keen to push back on. We’re glad to see them back trading.
This week’s veg updates:
- Starting in the UK, we have some of the first purple sprouting broccoli of the year from Royal Oak and Bedlam. Delish!
- Elsewhere, we’ve some leeks from Lynher Growers as well as some collard spears which are the tender and sweet broccoli like shoots that grow from established collard plants.
- Lastly from the UK we have some Russian red kale in both bags and loose from Growing Well.
- From Spain, we have some granny smith apples, juicing mandarins and limequats from Biovergel, mini romaine bi-colour from Campo and Valencia ruby oranges from Gospa.
- From Holland, Zann has added some green asparagus, sungold kiwis and Valencia oranges.
- From France, our top picks from Dynamis are the pink tongue aubergines, wild garlic, broad beans and the kumquats with leaves.
- And to line your pantry’s, we have a full listing again from Fresh Flour Company as well as some new sourdough crackers with salt and honey.
I’m gonna save the Ooooby offer/promo thing until next week I think but in the meantime, here’s a link to some great work that is going on in the arable sector just now. We’ve links to many of the ‘grain changers’ involved and those that have produced this ace wee magazine too and we’re very encouraged and impressed by the fine work that they are collectively undertaking.
Baking A Better Tomorrow: The story of the Grain Changers reshaping the bread we eat | Sustain
Our thoughts to all those who have folk directly involved with the many conflicts that are ongoing in the world just now. As the Greens demonstrated in our local borough here in Gorton just last week to that ugly Reform lot, hope not hate.
Sean, Cathryn, Mads, Ell, Alph and Team ON x
Miso & Teriyaki Ramen Noodles with Black Garlic
This week we wanted to try the new Pea Miso from the guys at Slow Sauce, so Alph got busy whipping up a tasty ramen for us. Naturally, that meant we made him pose with the empty jar in his official Soil Association “In Worms We Trust” pinnie… and we can’t shake the feeling he’s channeling his best proud nan impression in that photo. 😄
Most of us finished up with broth all down our fronts from slurping away but it was absolutely delish – as is everything Alph cooks for us on a Monday and Wednesday. So here’s the recipe!
- 150g noodles Asia white – Biona
- 1L vegetable stock
- 1 onion yellow sliced – Cal Valls
- 6 mushroom shiitake sliced – Dart Valley
- 2 carrots grated – Royal Oak
- 1 pepper red sliced – Terra Rica
- 1 head pak choi – Zann
- Half a jar of pea miso – Slow Sauce
- 3 cloves garlic sliced – Zann
- 3cm piece ginger diced finely – Fairtasa
- 3 tbsp teriyaki sauce with black garlic – The Garlic Farm
- Spring onion sliced (to serve) – Dynamis
- Onion Flakes – Steenbergs
- Soy sauce (or noya sauce) – Sozye
Start with a deep pan over medium heat and add a glug of sesame oil. Next, add the onion and cook until soft before adding the garlic and ginger. Once aromatic, add the pepper and mushroom and cook down a little further. Once the veg has softened add the stock, bring to the boil and add in the miso. Reduce this for around 30 mins.
Once the broth is flavourful, get a pan of boiling water for the noodles. Season the water with salt generously. Add the teriyaki to the sauce and season, if necessary, with soy sauce to taste. While the noodles are cooking you can add the grated carrot to the broth and remove the leaves from the pak choi. If they are too large, then chop them roughly to an appropriate size and add them to the broth.
Once the noodles are cooked, add some to a deep bowl and ladle over some of the broth, scooping veg into the bowl with it. Top with onion flakes and spring onion and slurp away. Don’t worry about manners when eating ramen, it’s impossible!