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Biobags

 Biobags are back! These are the compostable bags, made of plant matter, we use to pack down leafy greens and keep them separate from your muddy root veg. You can dispose of these as you would your food waste. For those of you in Glasgow, it sounds like the city council are slowly reintroducing food waste collections; in the meantime, there may be a community garden that accepts food waste for composting near you. 

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 the week of the holiday- we can’t guarantee pauses requested after that time. If you can let us know earlier, that’s even better, as the extra time lets us plan our harvests and veg buying better. So why not shoot us an email as soon as you’ve booked the train tickets? 

If you miss the deadline, we’re generally able to donate the contents of your box to our charity partners instead of delivering it; you’ll still be charged, however. 

Chilled Items for Collections

If you collect your veg box from our Victoria Road shop, please be sure to grab the chilled items from our fridge. There will be posters up in the shop to let you know what to look for, and you can always ask the staff in the shop to help if you’re having trouble finding something.

Covid-19 Updates

You can read about changes made to our service due to the pandemic here. 

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

Well, the heat wave is coming to an end, with heavy clouds and much rain predicted for us for now. Perhaps the sunny days will be back; perhaps not. For the time being, we’ll have to eat our sunshine instead. Is there a vegetable that evokes summer more than the cucumber? 

We’re growing cucumbers on our farm right now. These are some delicious, flavourful cucumbers, free of shrinkwrap and fresher than fresh. What’s excellent is that you can add them to your delivery on the Online Veg Box Shop this week! There are also leafy greens from our farm and foraged girolle mushrooms on there, so much deliciousness can come your way. I must say, though– and please don’t tell the kale this– that it’s the cucumbers I’ll be buying. 

But then how could I resist when cucumbers can be made delicious in so many varied ways? 

In my flat, we probably eat most of our cucumbers as tzatziki. We grate the cucumber, salt it, and drain it, or wring it out, before stirring through greek yogurt with olive oil, garlic, and mint. We eat this with falafel, pickled chillies, flatbread, and hummus, or as part of a mezze spread, or for lunch just with toasted pitta. It’s a favourite, but it’s only the tip of the iceberg. 

There are salads- a kachumber to have with your kale saag, a minty salad with peas to accompany lamb or anything you like. This simple salad with red onion is more than the sum of its parts, the bite from the raw onion contrasting with the crunchy cool smoothness of the cucumber. Add mint and experiment with the vinegar used to suit the meal. Here’s a spicy cucumber salad to pep up a duller meal, too. 

Have you ever slapped a cucumber? It turns out it’s well worth the time, and the hilarity. Bruising the cucumber means it absorbs more flavours. And what flavours? Well, the choice is yours. Garlic and soy, chilli oil (I like this chilli oil, or, if you’d like to make your own, here’s a nerdy recipe and here’s a simple one), or za’atar and feta might be a place to start. 

We’re so used to eating cucumbers raw that we overlook a whole realm of the cuke. It might sound a little weird to you- it does to me- but these recipes that use cucumber in a stir-fry or in a curry might persuade us both to give it a try. 

Cucumbers are also the perfect pickler. Bread-and-butter pickles are crunchy, flavourful, and surprisingly easy to make- try this recipe (scroll past the sandwich). Or if dinner’s already on the go, it’ll only take 15 minutes to get a quick pickle ready- try this one with coriander seeds or this Korean-inspired one. 

Finally, cucumbers don’t just need to be savoury. Closely related to melons, cucumbers suit sweet, fresh flavours too. Try this sorbet, with or without an ice-cream machine, for a light dessert. Or use lime and cucumbers for interesting ice-lollies. You can also drink your vegetables when we’re talking cukes, as there are lime and ginger agua frescas, pimmsy punches, and minty gimlets to try.

Perhaps with enough delicious cucumber dishes we can pretend it’s sunny until brighter weather comes by again. 

Flowers

Our flowers are Glasgow-grown, bee-friendly and gorgeous. Fill your home with the colours of summer! Subscribe to a small, medium, or large bouquet for a weekly treat, or use the Online Veg Box Shop to add them for special occasions- your half-birthday, a year since you got your pet mouse, the first day it doesn’t rain for a week, you saw a nice cat out your window. 

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.