Online Ordering for 23rd March – 27th March (Week 12)
Returning to the list this week: Tresemple Farm ✨
These guys are a lovely regenerative farm on the south coast near Truro, Cornwall, and one we rely on as the dreaded gap approaches 🫣
This week they’ve got us some January King cabbages, leeks, purple sprouting broccoli, and even some wild garlic which is perfect for the wild garlic pesto pasta recipe at the bottom of the newsletter 🌱
Good afternoon Organic Northerners,
If you’re able to temporarily ignore the telly, what a beautiful spring morning!
I’ll start on a positive note. I attended the Soil association’s annual market report meeting the other day and our organic sector continues to grow. It has actually grown consecutively for 13 years, the organic market in the UK has doubled in value in the last decade and pleasingly, organic growth (volume sales) outstripped conventional last year by a whopping 400%. So let’s all do a big dance while flicking the Vs at the glyphosate sprayers, no!?
Well not quite. The organic market in the UK is still only around 1.5% of overall food sales and though our Welsh and most recently our Scots pals are leading the way with their Organic Action Plan, England is very much lagging behind. The amount of certified organic land in England has not risen at all in the last decade despite the increased market growthand remains at around 3% of all land in production. In short DEFRA and our Government need to pull their fingers out, meaningfully support farmers to transition to organic methods to satisfy the increased demand and in the process, serve to make our food supply in this country more resilient in the face of growing ecological and political crises. I can feel mesen about to go off on one so I’ll stop there.
In other news, this Thurs is a bank hol in parts of Spain, ergo, as usual, some of the order cut-offs for some of our Spanish suppliers has had to have been brought forward for this week:
Spanish Cut Offs
- Camposeven – cut off is Weds 7:30am
- Thaymin – cut off is Weds 10:30am
- Biovergel – cut off is Weds 11am
Before I pass you over to our Ell for the weekly veg update bullet points, a couple of other wee things of note…
1. Acorn’s butter churn is knackered. The gearbox on the thing was replaced a couple of weeks ago but the clutch that drives the gears has unfortunately broken. The replacement part has to come from Italy so we’ll be out of butter from those guys for the next two to three weeks. Plenty of Netherend and Calon Wen to go round in place though.
2. Bread news. From Dec later this year, it will be a legal requirement in the UK for all white flour to be fortified with folic acid. For customers who wishing to avoid this, Paul’s have added a new bread- namely, the white spelt sourdough. Spelt flour along with wholemeal will remain exempt from having to be fortified.
The fruit and veg headlines:
- Starting in the UK, we have some dirty rainbow carrots from Royal Oak available in 10kg, alouette spuds from Mahollam and green kale from Strawberry fields both loose and bagged.
- Elsewhere, we have Tresemple Farm returning to the list this week with plenty to offer including jan king cabbages, red cabbages, leeks, spinach, PSB and some wild garlic. Also returning this week are RB Organics with their washed carrots.
- Lastly from the UK, Bedlam have some more squash for us to go at, they’ve some small delicatas, grizzly bear squash, kemon squash and spaghetti squash.
- From Portugal, Vasco have some green and white asparagus for us to go at, as well as some white garlic both loose and bagged, green Batavia lettuce and oakleaf lettuce too.
- From Spain, we have mini plum tomatoes on again from Bioalgarrobo, spring onions from Biovergel, fennel from Cal Valls and Valencia midnight oranges from Gospa.
- From Holland, Zann has some cherry plum tomatoes on the vine, nameko mushrooms, radicchio and green jalapeños. Also new on Zann’s list this week are the Beech mushrooms, a type of shimeji mushroom, that are ideal for sautéing and adding into a stir fry or ramen as they keep their crunchy texture and have savoury, nutty flavour once cooked. That sounds pretty tasty to us!
- From France, Bio & Bio has some broad beans, peas, red spring onions and tarragon and our top picks from Dynamis this week are the Dalhi strawberries, kumquats with leaves, green Palermo peppers, white asparagus and green queen artichokes.
- And to line your pantry’s, we’ve some more coconut milk and coconut water from Cocofina, as well as some new white sourdough spelt loaves from Paul’s Bakery as Sean mentioned above. Lastly, we’ve some dried white coco beans, muesli base and red poppy seeds from Hodmedodd too.
I’ve nothing to end on this week but for a warm welcome to our newest customer all the way from the beautiful island of Guernsey. Welcome to the fold, Ellie and Jamie from The Farm Shop – we’re relishing the chance to work with you guys! : )
Have a top week in the sun,
Sean, Cathryn, Mads, Ell, Alph and Team ON x
Wild Garlic Pesto Pasta 🧄🥬
You’ll need:
- 100g wild garlic – Tresemple Farm (Or forage your own)
- 2 tbsp chopped flat parsley – J W European
- 1 large lemon – Geima
- 2 tbsp finely grated hard salty cheese – We used Carrick, from The Ethical Dairy
- 6 tbsp extra virgin olive oil – Cal Valls
- 150g walnuts – Forest Foods
- Tri-colour fusilli – Castagno
- A handful of chopped collard spears – Lynher Growers
- Salt to taste – Bras del Port
Start by adding your wild garlic, olive oil, parsley, lemon juice and nuts to a bowl. Blend to a pesto consistency, then add cheese and salt to taste before blending again to make sure it’s well mixed.
Next, cook the pasta in well salted boiling water. Just before the pasta is fully cooked, add the collard spears to the water to blanch. Once they’ve softened, drain the pasta and the greens.
Mix the pasta, greens and a good scoop of the pesto together in a large bowl, mix well and serve with plenty of grated cheese on the top. Enjoy!