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The Free Company

We’re pleased to say that we have a new local supplier’s produce in the boxes this week! The Free Company  is based just outside Edinburgh, near the Pentland Hills. They run a farm, a seasonal resturant, and run lessons, all in the aim of retaining and sharing agricultural knowledge and working to promote sustainable agriculture. We’ve got their salad leaves in all our veg boxes this week, and baby fennel in the supplementary veg bags! Between them, our own farm, and Caldwell’s Vegetables, we’ve got almost entirely Scottish veg boxes this week. 

Going on Holiday?

As lockdown begins to ease, we know you might be planning some time away. If that’s the case be sure to send us an email to let us know which weeks you’d like to pause your veg box for. The deadline to do this is 9am on Monday in the week of- we can’t guarantee pauses requested after that time. 

Covid-19 Updates

Be sure to keep an eye on the newsletter for updates and changes. As of writing, we’re still unfortunately unable to reintroduce opt-out lists, but are able to collect our veg boxes and Mossgiel milk bottles as before. 

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

To celebrate our new source of salad leaves, let’s talk about eating salads. A great many meals are improved immeasurably by a salad on the side, to add some textural contrast, a little sharpness, a little bitterness. There aren’t really recipes, as the procedure is the same: rinse the leaves, dry them with a spinner or kitchen paper or by laying them out on a clean tea towel, then pop them in a bowl and dress them. The key is what you dress them with. 

I’ve flipped through all my cookbooks that have a salad section and they seem to agree that you should be armed with three dressings, which you choose from depending on the character of the leaves you have to hand. There is the standard vinaigrette (ranging from nothing but salt, lemon juice or red wine vinegar and oil to finely chopped shallots soaked in red wine vinegar, mustard, oil, garlic and salt); a stronger dressing with a more vinegar in the ratio, maybe some minced anchovies, maybe a spicier mustard. That’s the sort you’d use with kale or other tough leaves as a marinade, softening them in the acid and oil. And then a creamy vinaigrette, with a mayonnaise, cream, or buttermilk stirred through to make it milder, to contrast with an especially crisp lettuce. And then what else? You can add seeds or nuts; cherry tomatoes; cucumber; thin slices of radish; croutons; hot lardons of bacon or cubes of cold ham; slivers of shaved parmesan or pieces of goat’s cheese; olives; white beans; cubes of ripe avocado; halved boiled eggs; anchovies; or any combination of these, although perhaps not all at once.

Flowers

The flowers are still blooming, and blooming beautiful! Add them to your subscription by emailing us, or add them to your order on the Veg Box Online Shop. 

Good Food Fund

Thank you for your donations to the Good Food Fund, which partners with charities to support those vulnerable to food insecurity. You can donate via subscription, or on the Online Veg Box Shop. You can also choose to donate your veg box to the Good Food Fund when pausing it for a week or longer.