First of all a big Thank You to all of you who came along to our Halloween feast on the field. From the feedback we’ve had it seems that the evening was thoroughly enjoyed by all, despite the rain, the highlight being the wholesome array of sweet and savory dishes provided by those who came along! Some of you may have been lucky enough to try out the brand-spanking-new compost loo at the far end of the field which Ed finally finished last week. We’re hoping our rustic – but charming – services will encourage a few more of you to come along to the next workday taking place in a couple of weeks time on Saturday 27th November.
This week we’ve been planting out the second large polytunnel (PT2) with an exciting mix of oriental salad leaves, purslane, rocket & mustard to add a splash of colour and a shot of flavour into your winter salad bags over the coming months. Today (Thursday) we are planting out garlic bulbs for next year’s shares. The variety we have chosen is called Christowe and is a large bulbed, high-yielding variety which we certainly hope will perform better than this year’s alliums. Speaking of which – all of you will find your first leeks of the season in this week’s box – hoorah! As we’ve mentioned a couple of times, both the onions and the leeks struggled this year due to the unusually dry spring. As a result the leeks are later than the should be and not as plump as we would have liked, still we hope you’ll all agree that what they are lacking in size they more than make up for with their concentrated taste – try them lightly steamed to get the best of their flavour. The lucky few who get a cauliflower this week will, we are sure, be impressed with their appearance as well as their taste, we are particularly proud of them. For those of you who didn’t, your cauli’s will be along directly.
Lastly we’d like to let you know that we have a glut of super-sized pumpkins which didn’t get carved in time for Halloween. They may not have the richest flavour but will still make a fine seasonal soup. We have dropped several at Bellacouche for Members to pick up, however please let us know if they are too big to carry & we’ll arrange to get one to you.