The Online Veg Box Shop is Open!

The Online Veg Box Shop is open for deliveries next week. 

I can hardly believe it, but it’s time to make marmalade again, and the Online Veg Box Shop is stocked up with Seville oranges, bitter and wonderful. I love the small culinary traditions that keep the years moving round, serving as landmarks in our memory as well as something to look forward to. I will again be making my grandma’s marmalade next weekend, which I think is the best sort: dark, long-cooked, darkened with treacle,  thick-cut peel. I’d love to see what marmalade you make, if you take part in this annual, sticky-spooned celebration. And if you’ve never made marmalade before, I recommend giving it a shot heartily, as nothing is more pleasing than filling the empty jars you’ve been saving- without knowing quite why- with something bright, sweet, and golden. 

We’re also introducing organic ghee from Happy Butter, so pick up a jar to give your daals and curries all the richness you didn’t know they were missing. And a top tip from veg box manager Sally is to use ghee to make popcorn, so it tastes all buttery but stays perfect and crisp.

From the foragers this week we have alexander, which is delicious, traditional, and quite versatile, and sea beet, a spinach-like leaf from the coast. 

The deadline to get your orders in is 11pm Monday.

Headlines

Covid-19

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

Recycling and Reusing Packaging

 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

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

The main thing I want to say about Brexit and your veg box is: please don’t worry. We source most of our veg- and almost (see below) all of it for the veg boxes themselves- from the UK and have strong, close relationships with several local suppliers, so we’re not worried about getting hold of enough produce. We’re definitely in the early days of finding out what the changes mean for us, especially with the fruit bags and supplementary veg bags, but we expect to be able to source plenty of produce year-round.

That said, this is possibly the most challenging time for vegetables ever, between the pandemic, Brexit, and a cold snap. There’s plenty of what there is, but what there isn’t is a wide variety of produce available. We’re in the months now when we have lots and lots of beetroot, cabbage, potatoes, and carrots, but not much else. It’s a great time to get into picking, fermenting, and preserving.

We’ve included onions from the Netherlands this week as the UK onions we usually order are frozen in the ground. It may be the end of UK onions, in which case we’re likely to have a gap between now and when the first spring onions start sprouting up. So think about preserving onions now to make them last through to spring. You can freeze raw onions but I think the real secret is to freeze them when cooked or even caramelised. That way, when you need to add flavour, it’s super easy to grab a cube of oniony goodness. Plus, since they cook down so much, they’ll take up almost no space at all.

Feeling a little overwhelmed by cabbages? I hear you. It’s one of the few greens we can grow in the UK through the winter, but it can be a little much. But it’s also one of the most versatile and delicious vegetables I know. And if you’re interested in trying fermenting, it’s the perfect place to start. Sauerkraut will become a staple. You can also make kimchi with green cabbages- once you find out how easy a veg-packed bibimbap dinner is you’ll never stop,