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A few snaps from Sean’s visit to the Groundswell Regenerative Agriculture Festival.
As mentioned last week, Sean made the trip to Groundswell in Hertfordshire to connect with others across the industry.
From the sounds of it, a brilliant time was had – soaking up the interesting panels, lectures and discussions – all while catching up with plenty of familiar faces too.
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Good afternoon everyone,
It’s been another action-packed week this end and plenty to pass on this fine Tuesday so here goes…
Firstly, as Ell has featured above, I had the opportunity to visit Groundswell Regenerative Agricultural Festival last week for the first time and if you’ve never been, I’d implore you to give it a look next year. Amongst the many panel discussions and lectures, I enjoyed the chance to have a drink with some of our many customers like Martin from Moss Valley in Sheffield and Abi from Galloway Food Hub as well as some of our growers and suppliers like Josiah and Nick from Hodmedod and Freddie from St Helen’s Farm/Organic Pantry.
It was really great to be amongst so many contemporaries that are working hard to better our food systems and that leads me neatly onto another engagement that we’ve got later this week at the Soil Association’s BOOM Awards. As you may know, for our own efforts to help sort the UK’s failing food systems out, we’ve been shortlisted for our first ever awards and Adam, Ell and I are heading down to Bristol to represent and no doubt get thoroughly cidered whatever the result : )
On matters more practical, from a chance meeting in a Macclesfield pub a few weeks ago, we may have a new supplier of plums and more from next week from down in Shrewsbury. Our Cathryn is currently finalising details with the grower alongside a supplier of Scottish rapeseed oil we’re starting with this week who I briefly met on a recent visit up to Holyrood with the Soil Association.
Last up before the veg news, we were offered some South African grapefruits this week by one of our suppliers that have a wax covering called ‘carnuaba’ but we’ve refused to list them. The Soil Association has certified the wax (used to protect the fruit in cold transport) but unless we hear a resounding ‘we want waxed fruits’ from you lot (something we’ve never heard before) then these fruits will remain unlisted.
Onto the veg news:
- Starting in the UK, Newfields has spuds again starting with marfonas and sunitas while Fosketts starts with lily rose, red Heidi, twister and Vitanoire potatoes.
- Elsewhere in the UK, Lynher Growers has green beans and green kale, Roddy’s has pointy cabbages, cucs, java spuds and beefsteak tomatoes and Strawberry Fields has bunched golden beets, fennel with tops and loose yellow onions.
- Terry returns from his holidays with coriander, casa blanca spuds, spinach and spring onions, Flourish also return with a wide offering, our top picks are mixed heirloom lettuce, extra fine wet garlic, bronze fennel, seaweed kale and all the varieties of basil, while Middle Ground has bunched beetroots, edible and non-edible flowers, lavender and tarragon.
- From the market gardens, Growing Well has cavolo nero, green kale and redbor kale, Trinity has mixed courgettes, semi dry garlic, red Russian kale and basil while Moss Valley has chioggia beetroot, rainbow chard, mixed lettuce, green onions and parsley flat.
- Lastly on the UK fruit front, Carey has added green gooseberries and purple plums and we welcome Trehane back to the list with their blueberries.
- From Portugal, Vasco has green and red peppers, hokkaido squash, blueberries, raspberries and strawberries.
- From Spain, Bioalgarrobo has red peppers and sweet potatoes, Biovergel has rouge apricots, watermelons, canary melons and cantaloupe melons while Thaymin has Santa Rosa plums. Camposeven has watermelons and Ecosur has courgettes, plum tomatoes and round tomatoes.
- On the wholesale front, Fairtrasa has idared apples, inored apples, Hayward kiwis and keitt mangoes, Be Organic has cherries, nectarines and yellow peaches and Zann has verdelli lemons, flat white nectarines, celeriac with leaves, pink plums and black splendour plums.
- Our top pick outs from Dynamis this week are the fresh garlic, pink tongue aubs, celeriac with leaf, tri-colour round courgettes, heirloom evergreen tomatoes, orange queen tomatoes, ponderosa tomatoes, giffard pears a variety of plums and redcurrants in punnets.
- On the dairy front, High Weald has kilo blocks of ricotta and little Sussex available and Botton has jubilee in a variety of weights.
- For your pantry’s, this week we’re starting with a new UK rapeseed oil company – ÒR-ganic (more on that below), Equal Exchange has banana chips, Fresh Flour has seaweed crackers, fettuccine and fusilli and Hembridge has blueberry jam, rhubarb marmalade and Seville marmalade again.
And just before we wrap up, here’s a link to article about one of our fantastic customers – Queen of Greens – who we supply through Sustain’s ‘Bridging the Gap’ fund.
Since launching in November 2022, this mobile greengrocer has been delivering affordable fresh fruit and veg to over 40 local communities across Liverpool, focusing on the areas that need it most. A proper good food story if you ask us.
Talk to you soon,
Sean, Mads, Cathryn, Ell and all of us at team ON x
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Meet the ‘Holy Grail’ of cooking oils – ÒR-ganic Rapeseed Oil!
This golden nectar is the UK’s one and only certified organic rapeseed oil, and is cold-pressed just a stone’s throw from the Aberdeenshire fields where it grows.
Rich, nutty, and ridiculously tasty, ÒR-ganic is perf for dipping, drizzling, dressing and marinading. Basically, if you’re cooking and it’s not involved, you’re missing a trick.
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