Hello Folks,
Beetroot is a precious thing. It’s dug up from the earth, all rough and dusty. Cut it open and it gleams like garnet. This week, we have golden beetroot in the boxes. Well, the clue is in the name: it shines inside. When you eat beetroot, you can taste the soil it’s grown in, more than with other root veg; it has that rumbling base note of earthiness under the more obvious sweetness.
Beetroot, sliced very thin, makes a stunning and very stylish salad. Roasted, it’s dark, sticky, and so sweet. It’s an uncontrollable natural food dye, making everything you cook with it- and your hands, chopping board, and tea towel- a beautiful shade of pink. It suits middle eastern flavours surprisingly well, so you can have pink falafel, or toss roasted chunks of beetroot with chickpeas, feta, and za’atar for a perfect packed lunch. Meera Sodha serves it in coconutty curries and in a pilau scattered with pomegranate seeds.
Its rich sweetness makes it amazing for baking, and there’s no better chocolate cake than a beetroot chocolate cake. Sometimes this is called a healthy option, which makes it sound like a compromise, but I’d rather eat a chocolate cake enrichened with dark red beetroot than one without it.
You can use golden beetroots anywhere you would use beetroots of any colour, but they look so pretty roasted or grated that I’d want to make a feature of them. There’s a stew in this round up that pairs golden beetroot with squash- substitute the winter squashes we’re having the last of now- for a glowing, spiced treat. That’s what beetroot is, a treat that lasts all winter long. It won’t last forever, though, so pickle it now to have it through the hunger gap and on picnics in the summer.
The Standard Veg Box Supper Club
We have a very exciting announcement to make: we’re launching a veg box supper club! The challenge is cooking a two-course meal based on the contents of a Standard Veg Box.
To launch a series of these events, your humble veg box team will be cooking for the first one, and you’re cordially invited. Tickets are open now to veg box customers only (they’ll be open to a wider audience from next week) so come along to meet the faces behind the turnips, eat tasty organic food, and hang out with your fellow veg box customers! Details below, or click through to get your tickets here.
Events
Zero Waste Tour – Tickets
Feb 18th, 6 – 7pm
Shop tour
This event is for you if you are new to packaging free shopping or would like to feel more confident about buying loose goods and refills. We will show you how to shop without creating landfill waste.
You can find out how to use household and food refills, the milk machine, coffee grinder, scales used for loose goods and our recycling station. We will point out some packaging free items that might be new to you, even if you are a regular customer.
Free, but ticketed.
Standard Veg Box Supper Club – Tickets
March 18th, 8 – 10pm
You are invited to join us for the first ever Standard Veg Box supper club. The challenge we give our guest chefs for this event is one that our veg box customers face weekly – to make a delicious meal with the contents of this week’s Standard veg box.
This time the event will be hosted by our very own veg box team: Adam, Sally, Sam and Saoirse will be serving up a two course meal for you using the contents of the veg box. It’s a lovely opportunity to meet them in person, meet other veg box customers, sit and eat together and chat about all things veg box.
You will be able to buy soft drinks in the shop or you can bring your own drink – corkage fee of £1/ person for alcohol. The meal will be vegetarian. A vegan option is available; please let us know by email or when you make the booking if you are vegan or have any other dietary needs.
£11, meal included.
Question of the Week
Firstly, thanks to everyone who took part in our survey on Customer journeys – we had a great response rate, and you’ve given us plenty to think about as we crunch through the numbers and the free text comments. As we build up to the bigger survey, which will be coming soon, we’ve got another quickie which is open to everyone, asking your views on our social media channels. If you follow us on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram, we’d love to hear your views on the content we post.
You can find the survey here and it will probably stay open for a couple of weeks (which really means this is the question of the fortnight…).
Veg Box Tips
Did you know you can get extras delivered with your veg box?
There are two ways of doing this: as one-offs on our Online Veg Box Shop, or as a subscription. The online shop is open to all delivery customers. Just make sure you select the right delivery day in the drop-down menu, choose what you’d like, and go through the checkout process. You don’t need to add a payment method or address, as we process the orders with our veg box system, so you’re charged for them alongside the rest of your veg box orders.
To
subscribe to something, shoot us an email. With a couple of
exceptions, you can subscribe to anything on the online shop, but
Scotston Farm eggs, Mossgiel milk, and Freedom Bakery bread are some
of the most popular items. Why not get a tin of Locavore black beans
or chopped tomatoes every week, or a pain au chocolate once a month?
That’s right- items you subscribe to don’t need to be on a weekly
schedule. As long as your standard order is over the £8 minimum, you
can get your extras on a monthly or fortnightly schedule.
Collection customers, I’m afraid you can only subscribe
to bread and eggs, but everything else is stocked in our shop so you
can pick up any extras when you come by for your box.
Monthly Specials
This week, it’s our pasta, pulse and grain boxes that are filling your cupboards with lots of useful staples. We’re back to meat boxes from 2nd March. As we have to order the meat so far in advance, it’s too late already to add on a meat box for March, but if you’d like one from April, please let us know now. They’re full of delicious organic meat from local farms.
You
can learn more about our monthly
special
boxes here.
Check out storage guidance here for helpful tips and tricks on how to prolong the life of your fresh produce. If you’re wondering where your veg comes from, have a look at these maps. You can also join your fellow subscribers over in the Facebook group for lots of tips, tricks, and recipe ideas.
To contact us, ring 0141 378 1672 or email us at subscribers@glasgowlocavore.org
In the veg boxes this week:
Subject to last minute changes
| Small veg box | Farm | Organic Certifier |
| Potatoes (Carolus) | Chapel Farm | Soil Association |
| Onions | Chapel Farm | Soil Association |
| Carrots | Chapel Farm | Soil Association |
| Golden beetroot | Chapel Farm | Soil Association |
| Celeriac | Chapel Farm | Soil Association |
| Kale | Chapel Farm | Soil Association |
| Standard veg box | Farm | Organic Certifier |
| Potatoes (Carolus) | Chapel Farm | Soil Association |
| Onions | Chapel Farm | Soil Association |
| Carrots | Chapel Farm | Soil Association |
| Golden beetroot | Chapel Farm | Soil Association |
| Celeriac | Chapel Farm | Soil Association |
| Parsnips | Chapel Farm | Soil Association |
| Tundra cabbage | Chapel Farm | Soil Association |
| Large veg box | Farm | Organic Certifier |
| Potatoes (Carolus) | Chapel Farm | Soil Association |
| Onions | Chapel Farm | Soil Association |
| Carrots | Chapel Farm | Soil Association |
| Golden beetroot | Chapel Farm | Soil Association |
| Celeriac | Chapel Farm | Soil Association |
| Parnsips | Chapel Farm | Soil Association |
| Tundra cabbage | Chapel Farm | Soil Association |
| Cauliflower | Sampson, Cornwall | Soil Assocation |
| Extra Large veg box | Farm | Organic Certifier |
| Potatoes (Carolus) | Chapel Farm | Soil Association |
| Onions | Chapel Farm | Soil Association |
| Carrots | Chapel Farm | Soil Association |
| Golden beetroot | Chapel Farm | Soil Association |
| Celeriac | Chapel Farm | Soil Association |
| Parnsips | Chapel Farm | Soil Association |
| Tundra cabbage | Chapel Farm | Soil Association |
| Cauliflower | Sampson, Cornwall | Soil Assocation |
| Mini Casperita Squash | Bedlam Farms, Cambridgeshire | Soil Association |
| Small fruit bag | Farm / Origin | Organic Certifier |
| Fiesta apples | Mole End, East Sussex | Soil Association |
| Navel oranges | Ave Maria, Seville | Caae |
| Gold kiwis | Italy | Ccpb |
| Medium fruit bag | Farm / Origin | Organic Certifier |
| Fiesta apples | Mole End, East Sussex | Soil Association |
| Navel oranges | Ave Maria, Seville | Caae |
| Gold kiwis | Italy | Ccpb |
|
|
|
|
| Large fruit bag | Farm / Origin | Organic Certifier |
| Fiesta apples | Mole End, East Sussex | Soil Association |
| Navel oranges | Ave Maria, Seville | Caae |
| Gold kiwis | Italy | Ccpb |
| Conference pears | Spain | Demeter |
| Extra large fruit bag | Farm / Origin | Organic Certifier |
| Fiesta apples | Mole End, East Sussex | Soil Association |
| Navel oranges | Ave Maria, Seville | Caae |
| Gold kiwis | Italy | Ccpb |
| Conference pears | Spain | Demeter |
| Small supplementary veg | Origin | Organic Certifier |
| Red onions | Netherlands | Eko |
| Green peppers | Spain | Caae |
| Green chillies | Spain | Caae |
| Standard supplementary veg | Origin | Organic Certifier |
| Red onions | Netherlands | Eko |
| Green peppers | Spain | Caae |
| Green chillies | Spain | Caae |
Enjoy!
The Locavore Team