Covid-19 Update
Hi folks, let’s start with the serious stuff.
We know that our veg boxes are a really important thing right now for a lot of you. It matters to us that we can help you get hold of local organic produce and staples. Good food can do an awful lot in difficult times, and it’s very important to us that we do everything we can for people during this pandemic. We want to keep delivering our veg boxes to you, and hope to do so without disruption. We do not have any plans currently to shut down. Instead, we are working hard to keep our veg boxes going while we weather this storm, and are making plans to keep them going if conditions worsen.
The most important thing to tell you is that we are taking our role in preventing the spread of the virus very seriously, and have implemented precautions. Those of us who can work from home are doing so (hello from my sofa!), and everyone who cannot is practising social distancing and washing their hands very frequently. Our drivers have been supplied with disposable gloves and hand sanitiser, and will continue to leave boxes outside doors, but will start collecting veg boxes and other packaging again. All surfaces are being cleaned frequently. Staff have been educated about the symptoms of Covid-19, and strongly encouraged to stay home if experiencing any symptoms, with a policy of doubled statutory sick pay in place to make this possible. There are also a few things we’d like you to know or keep in mind over the next few weeks:
- Please bear with us. We’ve got a lot of big orders, and a lot of new customers. We’re more likely to make mistakes, so while we’re trying our best to make our deliveries as good as possible, we would like to ask all our wonderful customers to double check your orders and let us know if not everything’s there, and to be patient if it takes us longer than usual to get back to your emails.
- Please don’t panic-buy from our Online Veg Box Shop. There are some temporary shortages due to dramatically increased demand. We want to make sure everyone gets what they need. To make it easier for us, please consider adding a little to each order for a few weeks, rather than buying lots all at once. Where we are short on stock, we will be prioritising making sure everyone who has ordered something gets some, rather than filling the largest orders, although anyone with an incomplete order will be refunded for whatever is missing. Our normal supply lines are open so all shortages are caused only by increased demand. We’ve increased our orders, so everything should be back in stock by next week.
- Let us know if you’re self-isolating. Our drivers will still be leaving things on doorsteps and outside flat doors, but it never hurts to have everyone on the same page. We’ll add that you’re self-isolating to the delivery instructions so our drivers know to be extra careful.
- We’re now able to collect all the packaging we did previously: veg boxes, mesh fruit bags, egg boxes, milk bottles, and the things we recycle. Our drivers will be using disposable gloves and hand sanitiser in order to do this safely. Please leave the packaging out, as we’re running low on veg boxes!
- Unfortunately, we’ve had to cancel events for the rest of March, including our Supper Club. If you had tickets, you’ll get a separate email about the cancellation and will be refunded. We hope to reschedule, and in the meantime are looking into hosting remote events on Facebook- maybe we can all cook with our veg boxes together via the internet.
- We’ll be adding extra items to our Online Veg Box Shop over the next few weeks to help make sure you can access the staples you need. These are largely things we haven’t stocked due to avoiding plastic packaging, but we’ve made the decision that this is secondary to making sure you all have what you need. Expect to see rice, oats, and dried pulses. Let us know if there’s anything else you think we should have.
- We’re starting collections from our new Renfrew Street shop from next week. These will be on Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays. Please email us if you’d like to switch over to collecting from there.
- Mossgiel Farm, our amazing milk supplier, is seeing a big drop in orders at the moment as cafes close. They’re a brilliant company who are running a community service shop during the pandemic to support their local community, and as such, we want to support them. So now is a great time to up your milk order or try their incredibly delicious organic milk- whole or semi-skimmed. Read more about them on their website here. We charge £1.02 for a pint of their milk, in a glass bottle that we then collect. Just drop us an email to add some to your subscription.
That’s all the big, heavy stuff. We care about all of you. We will be here through this if we possibly can, and we will be here when It is over. Now, I’m gonna talk about cabbages.
Cabbage
You’re not going to be shocked to read that I love cabbage. What can I say? I’m a veg box person. Cabbage is one of those stubborn brassicas that show up in cooking from all over the world. Ferment cabbage with gochugang for kimchi; fry thinly sliced cabbage in batter for okonomiyaki; roll pork mince or barley and walnuts tightly in their textured, resilient leaves and simmer in tomato sauce. Shredded cabbage is half-way to a salad that suits any dressing, or it can be the crunchy-fresh base of an elaborate extravagant salad. Steamed or boiled cabbage turns a little leftover mash into colcannon or bubble and squeak. Fried with cured meats it is a perfect flavourful counterpoint. With mustard seeds and turmeric, it’s a complex and understated side dish. Cabbage can be steamed and dressed in butter and it goes buttery, to serve with fish or meat. Cabbage can suit coconut, or cream, or ginger (or ginger and cream) or anchovies or just salt and a little lemon juice. All this potential makes them the perfect vegetable to cut into quarters or halves and say, right, what do I have in that will make this cabbage into dinner? And then the next day, you can do something widely different with the other half.
Complete a survey and you could win £20!
Over the last few weeks we’ve been updating you with surveys asking about your journey to our shop, or your views on social media, and we’ve mentioned that these are a build up to a bigger survey which is coming down the tracks. Well, it’s here, and we’d love it if you could take part.
In (an organic) nutshell, the aim of this survey is to explore customer relationships with Locavore – what makes you choose us over other businesses, how that works for you, and more general thoughts about how you feel about food and your community.
You can find more details about the Impacts project here, and the survey is available to complete here. It’s a bit longer than the surveys we’ve sent before, so you might want to make a cup of tea before you start; As a thank you for taking part we’ll be drawing one lucky contestant to receive a £20 Locavore gift card when the survey closes.
Good Food Fund
If you’re in a position to, please consider donating to our Good Food Fund, which supports food banks and other schemes that fight food poverty. You can donate weekly by emailing us to add a donation onto your subscription, or you can make one-off donations on the Online Veg Box Shop. It’s important to look out for everyone in times like these.
Monthly Specials
The pulse boxes go out this week to help you fill your cupboard & your life with tasty essentials.
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 | Bagthorpe Farm | Soil Association |
| Carrots | Chapel Farm | Soil Association |
| Beetroot (assorted) | Chapel Farm | Soil Association |
| Chestnut mushrooms | Orchard Organics, Armagh | Soil Association |
| Kale | Chapel Farm | Soil Association |
| Standard veg box | Farm | Organic Certifier |
| Potatoes (Carolus) | Chapel Farm | Soil Association |
| Onions | Bagthorpe Farm | Soil Association |
| Carrots | Chapel Farm | Soil Association |
| Swede | Chapel Farm | Soil Association |
| Leeks | Left Field, Locavore | Soil Association |
| Cabbage (assorted) | Assorted UK Farms | Soil Association |
| Kale | Chapel Farm | Soil Association |
| Beetroot (assorted) | Chapel Farm | Soil Association |
| Large veg box | Farm | Organic Certifier |
| Potatoes (Carolus) | Chapel Farm | Soil Association |
| Onions | Bagthorpe Farm | Soil Association |
| Carrots | Chapel Farm | Soil Association |
| Beetroot (assorted) | Chapel Farm | Soil Association |
| Leeks | Pollybell Organics, Lincoln | Soil Association |
| Kale (Westland Winter) | Locavore Left Field | Soil Association |
| Cabbage (Assorted) | Assorted UK Farms | Soil Association |
| Salad | Glebelands Growers, York | Soil Assocation |
| Claytonia | Locavore Left Field | Soil Association |
| Extra Large veg box | Farm | Organic Certifier |
| Potatoes (Carolus) | Chapel Farm | Soil Association |
| Onions | Bagthorpe Farm | Soil Association |
| Carrots | Chapel Farm | Soil Association |
| Swede | Chapel Farm | Soil Association |
| Beetroot (Assorted) | Chapel Farm | Soil Association |
| Leeks | Pollybell Farms | Soil Assocation |
| Kale (Westland Winter) | Locavore Left Field | Soil Association |
| Chestnut Mushrooms | Orchard Organics, Armagh | Soil Association |
| Salad Mix | Locavore Left Field | Soil Association |
| Cabbage (Assorted) | Assorted UK Farms | Soil Association |
| Small fruit bag | Farm / Origin | Organic Certifier |
| Grapefruit | Spain, | Caae |
| Clementines | Spain | Caae |
| Kumquats | Spain | Caae |
| Medium fruit bag | Farm / Origin | Organic Certifier |
| Grapefruit | Spain, | Caae |
| Clementines | Spain | Caae |
| Kumquats | Spain | Caae |
| Juliet Apples | France | Ecocert |
| Large fruit bag | Farm / Origin | Organic Certifier |
| Grapefruit | Spain, | Caae |
| Clementines | Spain | Caae |
| Kumquats | Spain | Caae |
| Juliet Apples | France | Ecocert |
| Extra large fruit bag | Farm / Origin | Organic Certifier |
| Grapefruit | Spain, | Caae |
| Clementines | Spain | Caae |
| Kumquats | Spain | Caae |
| Juliet Apples | France | Ecocert |
| Small supplementary veg | Origin | Organic Certifier |
| Courgettes | Spain | Caae |
| Aubergines | Spain | Caae |
| Standard supplementary veg | Origin | Organic Certifier |
| Courgettes | Spain | Caae |
| Aubergines | Spain | Caae |
| Sorrel | France | Ecocert |
| Parlsey | Locavore Left Field | Soil Association |
Enjoy!
The Locavore Team