We’ve had Solagora on for a couple of weeks now and their produce has been looking tip-top – especially the berries, which we’ve been struggling to source elsewhere. 🍓

Some highlights from last week, pictured left to right: Nashi pears (also known as Asian pears) – excellent baked with cinnamon, honey and walnut pieces for a simple but tasty dessert, raspberries in punnets (classic – pop ‘em straight into yer mouth), passion fruit (dry Jan well and truly done… Pornstar Martini, anyone?), and some particularly mouth-wateringly red strawberries.

Good afternoon everyone,

The Brits obvs love to talk about the weather and for good reason, our farmers especially do. Fifteen years ago when I started in the office, I always heard murmurings about it and the odd moan too but it’s nothing like it is today. The seasons seemed to have shifted a couple of weeks with winters wetter and later, springs colder and drier. It makes for very trying conditions to grow in sometimes and we’re seeing this to be the case more and more on the continent now too.

They’ve recently called a national emergency in southern Italy after storm Harry caused huge flooding and damage to roads and infrastructure via landslides in Calabria, Sardinia and Sicily. Supply-wise, this has directly affected our supply of Castagno pasta and blood oranges. Add to that the Europe-wide farmer protests and subsequent road closures, storms across the Irish Sea affecting our mushrooms and a couple of customs paperwork mistakes by our Euro suppliers, it’s been a testing couple of weeks!

There’s no doubt that as a country, we need to massively improve our domestic supply. We need to cherish and support our growers that keep us all fed and farm using only agroecological methods, rather than the extractive and shortsighted methods we’ve largely employed as a country since WWII. Man-made fertilisers, carcinogenic pesticides like glyphosate and monocropping fertile soil into dead mud are practices that need ridding completely from our horticultural growing systems.

Sorry, wrong meeting! We’ve got loads of lovely new squash on from Bedlam this week! 😄 Acorn also seem to have repaired their butter churner too so we should see their butter arriving into the warehouse next week too. 🤭

This week’s veg updates:

• Starting in the UK, Royal Oak has a limited amount of Jerusalem artichokes for us to go at. Chapel some washed bakers and Roddys some mixed salad leaves.

• Elsewhere, as mentioned above Bedlam has loadsa squash to go at including black kat, Bon Bon, casperita, crown prince, crunchkin and plenty more!

• Unfortunately, Orchard are still having issues with their compost which is causing problems with growing so we are having to limit the chestnut mushrooms for next week.

• On the UK fruit front, Oakwood has some Kings Acre Pippin available as well as some Santana apples while Carey has some more discovery Apple juice and Mole End adds blaze and cox royale.

• From Spain, Biovergel has some red onions and Ecosur some small cucumbers while Solagora has both 4kg and 6kg avocados alongside some Nashi pears.

• Despite the weather woes in Europe mentioned above, though our Frutti del Sol orders have had to be postponed, on the citrus front this week we have got some Gospa clems with leaf, some taroccos from Geima and for the first time in many years, some lanelate and lemons from here too.

• From Holland, Fairtrasa add some royal gala apples and Zann has burdock available again as well as some pointed cabbages and pomegranates.

• From France, Bio & Bio has some romanesco caulis, rosemary, sage and thyme and our top picks from Dynamis this week are green asparagus, chervil root, purslane, blueberries and red Williams pears.

• Authentic Bread also make a comeback this week and have plenty to choose from including a wide selection of hot cross buns, cinnamon tear and share, sourdough baguettes, croissants, scones, and lemon drizzle muffins.

Before I sign off this week, I’m gonna wish the best of luck to our Luke in the warehouse who’s taking a few months off to complete his master’s dissertation. As part of his studies, Luke is going to visit our regular grower, Farrington’s farm down in Bristol to record the sounds of the soil from certified organic soil and non-organic soils.

He’ll be testing whether the presence of certain living indicators in the soil can be used to illustrate various levels of biodiversity using some of the existing indices that are employed above ground for things like bird populations etc. All super interesting and cutting edge and we’re very interested to learn of what he discovers.

Hope you all find some sunny moments amongst the mizzle and the drizzle this week,
Sean, Mads, Alph, Cathryn, Ell and Team ON x

Curried Carrot Soup, With Crispy Cavolo Nero & Puffed Rice 🥕🥬

• 1kg washed carrots – Royal Oak
• 2 large yellow onion – Bagthorpe
• ½ bulb garlic – Zann
• 1L vegetable stock, plus a little extra just in case – (Homemade with leftover veg is great, or a cube.)
• 1 tin coconut milk – Coconut Merchants
• 1 tbsp curry powder (choose which heat depending on your taste) – Steenbergs
• 1 tsp turmeric powder – Steenbergs
• Juice of 1 lime – Fairtrasa
• 1 tsp raw honey – Coato
• 1 head cavolo nero – Roddy’s
• 1 tbsp wild rice – Biona

Start by peeling the onions and garlic, then slice the onions and carrots thinly. (No need to peel the carrots).

Grab a large pan with a lid and set over a medium heat. Add a good glug of olive oil (I use extra virgin from Arcadia). Add in the onions and carrots and cook for a few minutes. Once the onions are soft and take on a little colour, crush the garlic with the back of a knife and add it to the pan.

Cook for another couple of minutes, until the garlic becomes fragrant, then add the spices. Let them warm through for a minute or two until aromatic, then pour in the stock (saving a little for the end) followed by the coconut milk. Increase the heat, bring to the boil, then reduce to medium, cover with a lid, and simmer for about 20 minutes.

While the soup cooks, prep the cavolo nero. Tear the leaves from the stalk – if left on, the stalks stay chewy and woody while the leaves soften. Tear or chop the leaves and lightly cover in olive oil. To cook them, air-fry at 200°C for about 5 minutes until crisp, or roast in a preheated 200°C oven. They’ll stay crispy, uncovered, for a good few hours.

Next, prepare the rice. Set a sieve over a metal bowl for draining. Heat a frying pan over high heat with a glug of a high smoke point oil (I used rapeseed oilfrom Lehnsgaard Bornholm). Once hot, add the rice and watch it puff up. Keep it moving in the pan until the edges start to colour, then immediately tip it into the sieve and allow it to cool.

Once the veg is completely soft – easily crushed with the back of a spoon – it’s time to blend. Use a stick blender, jug blender or whatever you have access to and blitz until smooth. If it’s too thick, loosen with a little of the left over stock. Stir in the lime juice and honey, then season with salt to taste.

Scoop into bowls, add the crispy cavolo Nero and rice and serve with plenty of crusty bread – we mopped up our bowls with some Pain L’Ancienne from Paul’s Bakery. Delish!

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