The Online Veg Box Shop is Open!

The Online Veg Box Shop is open for deliveries next week! This weekend is your last chance to grab an advent calendar to guide you through December with a little bit of sweetness everyday. Personally, I think something small to look forward to each day is important just now, with lots of everyday pleasures out of reach. And advent calendars always make a dark morning so much brighter, opening the little cardboard window to see what’s inside. These are special advent calenders, filled with organic, fair-trade chocolate in dark, milk, or vegan milk varieties. The dark chocolate ones are vegan too, so there are options for everyone. They’re suitable for kids and adults alike, as long as they like chocolate. 

And you know, we also have all the staples we always have to keep you fed with beans, tahini, flour, and much more. We’re reintroducing our limit of 3 of each item and 5 tins total per order- if you order more than this we may not be able to fulfil your order. We don’t foresee any futher stock issues, although some things are coming over from Europe a little slower, so please shop responsibly.

Remember the deadline to get your orders in is now 11pm Monday for everyone!

Headlines

Covid-19

Cases of Covid-19 are, sadly, on the rise in Scotland. As such we will continue to do out part to keep all our wonderful staff and customers safe. This means we’ll be continuing to practise contactless deliveries, so please keep half an ear out for your veg box on your delivery day. Remember that if you’re worried about the box being left on your doorstep, you can always leave a large plastic box for veg, milk, eggs, and whatnot to be left in to keep it sheltered and hidden. 

We’re also sorry to say we won’t be able to reintroduce our opt-out lists any time soon. We know you’re missing them- we are too. Unfortunately, they require a full staff in our packing shed, which would make socially distanced working for our packers impossible. We’re looking at ways to adapt for the future, but for the next month or two at least I’m afraid opt-out lists will still be suspended. 

All that said, it’s important to note that we don’t expect to see any issues with supply lines over the next months, so please don’t worry. We usually have boxes full to the brim with tasty local root veg and squash over the autumn and winter months, and while the pandemic may continue to have an impact on veg prices we think this is unlikely to matter much to our veg boxes. We thank you for your patience with us as we’ve learned how to deliver veg boxes through a pandemic. 

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

Christmas!

We’ve published all the info you need about how veg boxes will work over the festive season this year. It’s worth giving it a look whether you’re celebrating or not. You can see the dates, deadlines, and the box contents here. 

Phone Hours
 

If you need to get in touch with us, the best way is generally to email us at this address. We now also have a phone helpline during limited hours: 9am-12pm Monday-Friday and 2pm-4pm Wednesday-Friday. Please note that as we’re working from home we aren’t able to answer the phone at other times. Unfortunately, our colleagues in the Locavore shop aren’t generally able to help with veg box enquiries, so if you can’t get through to us, the quickest way to hear back is usually to email. 

Recycling and Reusing Packaging: Corrections

 Just a reminder of what we collect from your door each week: 

Veg Boxes– we reuse these
Mossgiel Milk bottles – we return these to the dairy for reuse
Ed’s Bees jars – we return these to Ed (and his bees) for reuse
Plastic bottle lids – we recycle these
Plant pots from Locavore potted herbs- our farm reuses these
Locavore hummus Vegware pots – we return these to vegware to be biodegraded
Ella’s Kitchen baby food pouches – we recycle these

We aren’t able to accept glass bottles, egg boxes, or any other items for recycling, I’m afraid. Please dispose of these as you choose

I have to add an apology here, as I’ve made two errors in this section in previous weeks: I said egg boxes would be recycled by Glasgow City Council, when this is not the case, and I said we collected toothbrushes and toothpaste, when this is no longer the case. I’m very sorry for these errors.

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

I know we’re settling into winter because the veg boxes are full of root veg grown by Graham on Chapel Farm. Just outside North Berwick, this veg isn’t travelling far to Veg Box HQ. I love the produce we have all year round, and I think my very favourites are from late summer, but there’s something special about Chapel Farm veg. I think the potatoes from them are the best I’ve ever eaten.

We have loads from them this week- celeriac, those potatoes, cabbage, leeks- and we’re also switching to their carrots as those from Caldwell’s have finished for the year (Caldwell’s Veg still make an appearance in your boxes, don’t worry!). Carrots can get a little overwhelming at times, but they’re worth celebrating.

If you, like me, have the carrots beginning to pile up, it’s probably time to make soup. A lentil and carrot soup with cumin or harrissa, made this weekend, will brighten up your wfh or packed lunches through the week. If you really have a lot of carrots, maybe you’ll also be making a cake. I’ll be sending cake down south to my family soon- a moist cake that can go un-iced like carrot is perfect for the job. It’s also perfect (especially with a cream cheese icing) to have with a cuppa on a Sunday afternoon while reading I Capture the Castle or watching Paddington. There, I’ve talked myself into it: I’m making carrot cake. Let’s find a recipe, then. Felicity Cloake has tested and synthesised a great many here, and Nigella has one with crystallised ginger and walnuts. Perhaps embarrassingly, however, I want a less sophisticated version, so I think I’ll stick with the “Easy Carrot Cake” from the BBC. The comments say it’s too sweet, which means it’s probably about right for my taste, at least this weekend.

If you only have a few carrots to use up, you’ll want to start here with this round-up of ideas, including kofte which sounds like a great idea– perhaps you could also add some grated carrots to falafel- and stew, like the vegetable stew Sue shared this week.

Otherwise, I think the very best thing to do with carrots is to roast them. Drizzle honey over them to amplify their sweetness; have them with a tahini dressing and crispy chickpeas roasted in lots of olive oil; or just toss them in the oven as part of a veg medley and see what happens next.