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Covid-19 Updates
You can read our company-wide pandemic statement here, and our biggest Veg Boxes update here. Please keep an eye on the newsletter for any further changes.
Summer Living: Cool Boxes
We don’t often have to prepare for hot weather here, but if you get your box delivered and aren’t always in to take the box indoors right away, it might be worth thinking about leaving a cool box out for your driver. Milk, tofu, hummus, and other chilled items can be placed inside, along with any leafy veg that’s prone to wilt in the warmth. A simple polystyrene box, or a larger insulated bag with one or two frozen bottles of water inside will do nicely. Just be sure to either drop us an email to let us know to leave things in there, or pop a note on the box for the driver.
Summer Living: Collections
If you collect your veg box from the shop, you’ve probably noticed that we’ve been storing some of the delicate leafy green veg in a chiller instead of in your veg box. This is just to keep it in tip-top condition even on the warmest days. Please make sure to consult the posters up in-store and add any chilled items to your box as needed.
In the veg boxes this week
Subject to last minute changes
Check out storage guidance 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
Click here for Veg Box Contents
The Nice Bit
We’ve thought a lot lately about what eating seasonally really looks like and how hard it is in times when not much is growing. This week, our farm in Neilston flourished with the beautiful, sunny weather, and has grown an incredible quantity of greens. We have kale- red russian, emerald, and cavolo nero varieties- chard, salad greens, and fresh garlic. What wonderful things this ground can grow! And to think that only a few short weeks ago we were longing for fresh greens to steam and saute.
I have to warn you though: this is a lot of kale. All the bags have about double the amount of kale we usually have, and some of you have chard on top of that. This is the plentiful time after the hungry gap, and it has its challenges too. What do we do with all this kale? Well, I’m here to help you figure that out.
First of all, I’d like to encourage you to freeze some of it now. Blanched, it will last about a year, so when we come round to the next hungry gap you may be really grateful to have some blocks of kale tucked away. Here is a thorough and thoughtful post which covers all your kale-freezing bases, and here’s a tip to make it even easier- freezing in ice-cube or fairy-cake trays to have quickly retrievable pucks- very easy to add to your casserole next January.
But you don’t need to freeze all of it- there’s plenty to eat kale with right now. We last rounded up some kale recipes back in February, so there are a few ideas here. At the moment, I tend to sautee mine with tonnes of garlic, pop an egg on top of it, and call it a day. Nigel Slater suggests that the young kale we have this time of year is great for boiling and dressing with butter and lemon juice. For something a little more elaborate, he cooks thinly sliced onions in plenty of olive oil for fifteen minutes, until sweet, golden, and sticky, then mixes this with kale and sultanas, dressing the mix with citrus, white whine vinegar, olive oil and capers. That sounds pretty good to me. Kale wilts beautifully in a flavourful soup- rich, coconutty, spiced broths; simple nourishing chicken stocks; potato and chorizo soup. You can make a kimchi of kale, soften the kale by marinading it in olive oil before using it as a salad leaf- maybe in this caesar salad. If there are rainy days ahead, a kale and bean stew- like this one with nduja or this vegan one. Kale and pulses are a dream team- there’s also this chickpea and kale pasta to try.
And with that chard? Try making a gratin of it with cream, black pepper, parmesan, and bread crumbs. Or make a curry of it with chickpeas and mushrooms. Separating the leaves and stems before cooking can help make the most of these contrasting textures, like in this simple recipe for chard with shallots and vinegar. As with kale, chard makes a great addition to a pasta dish, and does well alongside beans. Or what about a summery risotto for something a little special?
Whatever you do with your share of the surplus, I hope you enjoy these days of plenty.
Good Food Fund
We’d like to say a massive thank you to all of our customers who are donating to the Good Food Fund, either through regular donations added to your veg box order, one-offs through Open Food Network orders, or through donations in store. At a period when so many people have experienced anxieties about food supplies, your donations are continuing to provide practical, meaningful assistance to those most deeply affected by food insecurity.
The increased amount our customers have donated through this time has meant we have been able to give around £800 worth of produce each week to our existing partner projects,as well as some new additions, and we have also been able to provide £5k as a combination of cash and produce for the Glasgow Food For Good initiative, a multi-organisation project delivering food support across the city.
As we continue to wonder, along with everyone else, what the future is going to look like, we just wanted to confirm that everything you donate is helping ensure the present is a little better for many of the most vulnerable in our communities, which we are sincerely grateful for – thank you, you’re all amazing.