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24^th October 2011

Your box this week…

… includes virtually 100% UK veggies yet again – with the exception of the garlic, aubergines, ginger and tomatoes.  We expect to be back with UK tomatoes next week although they won’t last much longer. I know these are popular items and the Mediterranean (as the name might just suggest) is the box which doesn’t pretend to be UK….which was why it was so fabulous when we could get hold of some many UK produced veggies that aren’t indigenous to this country.  This week we have cabbages from Cherry Gardens and their lovely celeriac with leaves.  Our pointed cabbage is from Home farm and is truly wonderful. At this time of year cabbages abound…but we do have some fabulous recipes up our sleeves!  It’s sad that Sweetcorn and squash from the UK is in short supply.  Jonathan and Kate, the growers at Cherry Gardens told me that due to the colder summer their sweetcorn crop has been poor.  They grow the most spectacular squash, Blue Ballet, which again needs warm sun so their crop is much lower than last year.  Jonathan has promised us some squash soon and we’ll grab what we can as this veggie is very good for storing.   We’re balancing the boxes with fantastic red and green kale from Cherry Gardens (and therefore biodynamic).  If you don’t normally like kale…wipe the slate clean & think again.  The are truly the best…as many of you have fed back to us.

17^th October 2011

96.7%.... That is how much of the fabulous organic vegetables contained in our standard boxes comes from UK independent growers!!!  In other words only 1 out of our 31 different veggie box lines is from outside the UK (Aubergines from Spain) leaving the remaining 30 to come from our favourite UK growers.  We are smashing the competition out of the water with our sourcing at the moment and long may it continue!!  And you can’t really get much fresher than our veggies - we arrange with our best growers to collect much of our produce shortly after it is taken out of the fields.  It is then transported promptly to the dairy in a chilled van where it will be packed up into your box.

Every week our main veggie boxes contain wonderful carrots.  Ironically because they are always there, we rarely include carrot recipes or craft articles around them…Why?  They are after all a Superfood..and one of the most precious veggies in a medicinal kitchen.  Carrots contain vitamin A, folic acid, iron, potassium, magnesium, manganese, sulphur, copper, carotenes and pectin.  Their high fibre and fluid content makes them gently laxative whilst their astringent properties make them good for diarrhoea. Carrots are an excellent source of antioxidants and are known to have a protective action against lung and other cancers.  Plenty of carrots in your diet lowers bad cholesterol and boosts your immune system. Ideally carrots should be consumed two or three times a week either raw in salads or juice form. Externally applied carrot juice can help alleviate eczema and acne….

10^th October 2011

Katie’s monthly update on GG’s support for Pitstop, a Leatherhead daytime drop-in centre for the homeless, unemployed and socially isolated.

We are always bringing you news about the food we deliver to the Pitstop Drop In Centre in Leatherhead we thought we would bring you some other news for a change!  Particularly because it really is wonderful!  If you dont know about the centre - Pitstop supports a very diverse group of people who need a hand.  Whether its help finding work, a nice hot dinner, a warm place to sit, a 'dry' place to find comfort and support or an escape from solitude.  Well this last month 4 homeless regulars at Pitstop have found themselves a new home.  It really is fabulous news!  The weather has just started to turn and come the bitter winters, living rough is the last thing anyone would want to do.  I know the Pitstop crew are elated with the news and I’m sure they would have had a hand with supporting the process along.  Well done to all.

Good news on finances - Pitstop know they will be open this time next year - which is always the worry year on year.  Donations from the community make this so much more possible.

Plans are already in place for the big Christmas lunch at Fetcham Village Hall.  All are welcome - anyone in need - anyone alone - the doors are open to all.  And a little bit of food news (how could we not!)  We have plans in place to repeat last years successful and much appreciated xmas day fruit and vegetable gifting scheme - youll hear more about this in a few weeks time!  Keep an eye out (or just ask!)

3^rd October 2011

Last week I felt sufficiently charged by the impending supermarket price cuts to espouse GG’s opposing ethos. I grinned to myself whilst reading the Evening Standard on the train later that week.  An analysis of food producer Finsbury Food Group echoed my comments about who bears the brunt of any price cuts. They wrote “Tesco and the rest have such power that they can ensure that the only link in the supply chain with fat margins is them. To big supermarkets, there always seems to be room to cut, whatever anyone else in the line may feel.”  And if, as is happening today, the producer/grower faces raw materials price increases?  “Not our problem, say supermarkets as they seek to make sure that the price cuts they plan don't have an impact on their own profits.”  And the impact on the producer/grower? Well the staff who have barely had a pay increase in the past 2 years will share in the pain for a third year…

26^th September 2011

The GG ethos…We are so pleased at the positive feedback we are receiving from clients these days.  The quality of our produce from the best local independent growers is fantastic and extremely consistent given the somewhat volatile climate and weather we have experienced for a couple of years now.  I can’t help noticing the decline in the quality of fresh produce in supermarkets – one wonders how this will manifest when Tesco’s latest price cutting policy impacts.  Driven by a need to maintain its market share at >30%, a key ratio for maintaining share price, Tesco’s strategy will undoubtedly result in corresponding price reductions across supermarkets.  We are well aware that, in the past, Tesco’s special offers have been substantially borne by food growers and producers and not Tesco itself, sometimes having dire consequences for smaller established businesses.  We don’t agree with Tesco’s strategy or methods as inevitably for fresh foods the quality will reduce and we believe that small, independent businesses are key to the economic recovery of this country, being pivotal to the self-sufficiency and cohesion of communities.  So at GG our ethos is to seek out the best local, small growers and build long term relationships with them using pricing strategies  that benefit both our clients and the growers so that produce quality is maintained.

Weekly catalogue by e-mail We have been very slow in showing clients our full range of fresh produce, but in the past 2 weeks we have been issuing a weekly catalogue to clients by e-mail.  It appears to be well received.  If you would like to be added to our distribution list please let us know.

19^th September 2011

This week we have put different types of beetroot in the boxes – all from Cherry Gardens.  Red, Golden and bunched beets…are all available from the farm now and for a while.  So why beetroot?  Well we can think of lots of reasons Boosts stamina and makes muscles work harder, reduces blood pressure and the risk of heart attacks and strokes through its powerful antioxidant properties.  It contains folic acid which is essential for normal tissue growth and is treatment for anaemia and fatigue because of its iron content.

And another sort of beetroot…BeetrootBooks…www.beetrootbooks.com

So you like to know where your food is coming from and care about how it is produced? In that case you might be interested in getting the books you want from an on-line store that shares the same values. Beetroot Books is a one stop shop the celebrates all the possibilities the world around us offers; the great outdoors, food, making things, music, growing your own, alternative ways of thinking and being and most of all, sharing all this good stuff with each other.

Beetroot Books is different because it only sells titles that make a positive difference or contribution to your everyday life!

The store stocks a diversity of affirmative writing offering plenty of hand picked opportunities from a wide range of Children's, Independent, 'How-to', Alternative, Environment, Self-Help, Outdoor pursuits, Gardening and much, much more.

12^th September 2011

Katie’s monthly update on GG’s support for Pitstop, a Leatherhead daytime drop-in centre for the homeless, unemployed and socially isolated.

Pitstop Corner

GG brought back an impressive quantity of donations from suppliers for the Pitstop Drop In Centre in Leatherhead this week including - tomatoes, plums, salad boxes, purple sweet potatoes (purple all the way through!) kale, plums and crunchy UK apples.  You will often hear about fresh produce for Pitstop but did you know that we also have a whole shelving rack here dedicated to tinned and dried food for Pitstop to use!  It was created to offer extra storage after last years generous harvest festival 'food-drive' but it has been added to over the months by staff and customer donations.  As of last week the shelves are now worryingly empty (holding breath for this years harvest festival!) and as always - in need of donations.  If you would like to help stock the shelves again and have anything spare that you could donate, do leave them out with your boxes for Rob to collect and we will make sure they end up in the hands of those in need.  Tins, Jars and Packets (rice, pasta, couscous) all store particularly well here and anything scrumptious (choccies, biscuits, treats etc...) we take weekly with our fresh produce donation run.  This is a bit of an all year round plea but if you have anything spare at the moment it would be most definitely be appreciated!  Thank you from all of us in advance.

5^th September 2011

Your box this week… is full of a fabulous range of fresh veggies mostly from the UK.  By fresh we mean that the produce was cut, especially for us on Monday before being collected by Rob and brought back for packing by our team on Tuesday for the Wednesday deliveries.  We are convinced that our reputation for quality and freshness of veggies is directly attributed to our long-term relationships with the best small independent growers who recognise the importance of GG clients.  Last week we received many compliments about our veggie boxes.  The two week break often helps us as clients have a chance to try the alternatives!  We make a point of passing your compliments on to our growers, who after all are the ones that deserve them!  The veggies this week look just as good…..

Whissendine traditional stoneground flour

Earlier this Summer we distributed to a few clients a traditional stoneground flour which really inspired us as a potential new product for our catalogue.  The response was excellent and we are pleased to add these flours to our product line. Whissendine Windmill is a 200-year-old piece of working history which Nigel Moon miller, restorer and trained historian restored. Nigel produces a variety of specialty flours. In one week he will mill up to two and a half tons of grain using a cool milling process in which stones turn very slowly to produce high quality flour. Grinding between good old-fashioned millstones keeps more nutrients in the flour than modern high-speed roller mills, which tend to be of metal construction and reach high temperatures.  We can buy in small quantities of Whissendine flour freshly ground which makes such a difference to the feel and taste.  Most flours are at least a few months old by the time we use them. Not these though!  Give them a try.  You won’t be disappointed and you’ll be supporting yet another small independent producer!

29^th August 2011

Did you know?... that when plants are treated with pesticides, it inhibits their natural production of fungicide
chemicals. These chemicals aid the human body to combat candida in the gut, so much so, that the ‘pesticided’ western
world suffers from many diseases that are associated with the proliferation of candida.
In particular, an oncologist Dr Simoncini identified it to be the root cause of cancer As a therapeutic to combat cancer many alternative clinics prescribe extracted
salvatols which are the fungicides that plants naturally produce. So in short, organic plant produce helps combat candida and associated problems.

1^st August 2011

Orchard Farm Eggs & Soya Feed

The use of soya as an animal foodstuff is the subject of an increasing amount of concern.  Generally the media attributes this concern to the effects of deforestation of the Amazon, but the use of genetically modified soya is of equal concern to our clients.  Daniel from Orchard Farm who supplies our fabulous biodynamic eggs stresses that their hens source a very high proportion of their food from the orchard and therefore the amount of added feed is much lower than most other producers.  The hens roam free and the programme of relocating the hen houses every 2 weeks ensures a good supply of natural food in the orchard.  At present the hen-house feed contains some GM-free soya as this is a good natural source of methionine, a protein needed for growth: Daniel looks to reduce this even more over time.

18^th July 2011

Pitstop Drop-In Centre

It is that time of year when there is so much beautiful fruit around.  For the first time our veggie market haul for Pitstop comprised more fruit than veggies.  We brought back apples, pears, grapes, juicing oranges and even 2 boxes of golden kiwis!!  I think it is fabulous that through such a simple scheme so many can try out good, healthy chemical-free and unusual veggies and fruit.  I must admit I had never expected to come away with golden kiwis.  I haven’t heard back from Pitstop as to how they used them, but I’m sure we will shortly… Pitstop is a Leatherhead based drop-in centre for the homeless, unemployed and socially isolated.  GG run a scheme to provide perfectly edible but not saleable fresh produce to Pitstop for their lunch menus.

11th July 2011

Pitstop Drop-In Centre

It’s about time we gave an update on our work with Pitstop, a Leatherhead based drop-in centre for the homeless, unemployed and socially isolated.  New clients may not be aware that every Tuesday night we go to the market, select boxes of organic veggies and fruit which are perfectly edible but not saleable and bring them back for Pitstop.  This wonderful centre provides fantastic support in many different ways to hundreds of local people, largely with the remarkable help of volunteers.  Our fresh produce is turned into imaginative lunches which the centre offers o those who ‘drop-in’ and surplus is given out to needy families and individuals. We donate core veggies – potatoes, onions and carrots from our good stock weekly too. Last week our market trawl comprised: apples, pears, broccoli, cabbage, turnips, peppers, celery, avocadoes corn salad and tomatoes ….

Summer SaleYour chance to grab a bargain and get healthy to boot!  See the flyer in your box for more details. Re-roofing of our warehouse in August has given us a prompt to rationalise stock and we’d like you to share in this!

Closure As usual we will be closed for two weeks in August – weeks commencing 15^th and 22^nd August.  We will re-commence deliveries week commencing 29^th August.  Any changes to orders are due on the Bank Holiday 29^th August.  As many of you know the growers don’t stop working for Bank Holidays and our delivery schedules demand that we firm up our packing schedules by the end of each Monday.

27th June 2011

Your box this week…… contains several new veggies including, for one week only, biodynamic white cabbage from Cherry Gardens (hence the coleslaw recipe – perfect for this sunny week).  New season fennel has come on stream from Home Farm, Nacton.  A very versatile but often under-rated veggie, fennel is gorgeous either steamed as a side dish or in salads or raw in salads and in juices (my children adore fennel tang in juices). And we welcome new season curly kale – recipes will follow in future weeks.  UK brown onions are finished now.  For this week we have elected to include some gorgeous red salad onions instead of brown onions from overseas. This matches the instructions given by many clients through our recent questionnaire.

Soft fruit The Brambletye Farm strawberries finished during last week.  We had a longer run than last year, so we mustn’t complain.  They are exceptional, without a doubt.  However, on cue, their replacement crop, red gooseberries ripened and we have collected a limited number of punnets this week.  Last year we restricted to a very few punnets and I never got to taste them.  I understand from the lucky clients who did try them that they were absolutely delicious.  Cost £3 for 200gm.      These are biodynamic as are all fruits grown by Brambletye.  Next week Cherry Gardens should have some biodynamic redcurrants.  Please pre-order all soft fruits to guarantee delivery.  I order them by Friday lunchtime.

20th June 2011

Your box this week…… We have taken leafy greens to their extreme this week.  In addition to the traditional leafy greens such as spinach and cavelo nero we have three veggies which come completely with edible leaves!  We have the beautiful biodynamic purple kholrabi with its fabulous dark green leaves (for the last time this week, completing its 3 week run in various GG boxes), the wonderful firm, white bunched onions, complete with leaves to add to your salads, veggies dishes or soups and for the first time this year some gorgeous, wonderfully fresh deep purple beetroot with matching leaves (!) which inspired our recipe for this week, snaffled from the Med! So if asked this week if you’ve eaten your greens….you can declare quite honestly “yes”!

Soft fruit The rain nearly played havoc with our order of strawberries this week.  As Stein from Brambletye Farm in Forest Row explained, if the strawberries are picked and punneted when it is raining, they will start to go soft and lose their taste quickly.  This has been an issue for the past 2 weeks but somehow the pickers have managed to find a big enough gap of dry weather to pick our order.  This weekend we were told “Don’t expect to get any”.  Rob went to the farm anyway …and the pickers had come up trumps yet again – a smaller number than we had wanted, but they did have to share them around their clients!  The red gooseberries were a little immature for picking this week, but we do expect some next week. Pre-order all soft fruits to guarantee delivery.  The biodynamic strawberries are so, so sweet…as many of you agree.  £2.10 for 175gm.

13th June 2011

Your boxes this week…. our growers have come up trumps again and our boxes are virtually 100% UK. We do seem to be a rarity locally in this respect! We have included the beautiful purple kohlrabi from Cherry Gardens again this week.  This was such a favourite with the GG team.  The fabulous spinach is from Strawberry Fields in Boston and is absolutely gorgeous.  Our broad beans and lettuces are also from Cherry Gardens and are biodynamic…and don’t they just look it!  We have received many, many compliments about our veggies recently and have duly passed these on to our growers.  The lettuces in particular have been mentioned – from two growers, Cherry Gardens & earlier in the year, from Strawberry Fields.  Those from Cherry Gardens come in three different varieties including a gorgeous red lollo rosso.

The courgettes are beautiful this week, the first that we have managed to buy from UK growers.  At the last minute we were notified that we wouldn’t be receiving mushrooms this week, so we effected a last minute change, hence courgettes in all boxes.  We have sourced some UK mushrooms but they are a bit expensive so we have only used them where essential to obtain balance in the box.  Our onions are from the UK and come in bunches.  Once again the long leaves can be eaten.  Chop them, raw, for salads or put them in sauces. 

We cannot access UK carrots at present, being between the old season crops (which were lifted a few weeks ago) and the new season which are yet to be ready for harvesting.  So we have those to look forward to!

6th June 2011

Fresh produce this week…. we have been so lucky this week.  Hopefully you will agree.  Jonathan & Kate at the biodynamic farm, Cherry Gardens, have supplied the most beautiful purple kohlrabi, the freshest that I have ever set eyes on.  Rob, our driver, had to wait in the van while they finished cutting the crop! We only have enough for the Mini and Mediterranean boxes, sadly.  If you wonder how to eat this underrated veggie, we carried a recipe in last week’s newsletter or it can be sliced thinly or grated and eaten raw or blanched in boiling water for a minute or two then eaten warm with olive oil and lemon juice, as in this recipe. It is also very good with coriander leaves.  Our broad beans are also from Cherry Gardens and are so firm that you want to eat the pods too.  Can you eat them?  The answer is yes but you probably only want to do so with very young, small beans, cooking and eating just like green beans unless you use our puree recipe .Most people will remove the slightly hairy outer pod and downy inside as it is not exactly the best tasting part of the bean. Also, as the bean ages you'll want to remove the thin outer coat of the bean (the "skin on the bean"), as this part too is not as tasty. Our lettuces this week are biodynamic too.  We collected three different varieties including a gorgeous red lollo rosso. Once again these lettuces are stunning – I was bowled over last night when I saw them.The first UK broccoli this year arrived from Home Farm, Nacton this week.  We have put this in all boxes to celebrate!

As a special we have taken delivery of fennel from St Michael Hall School in Forest Row a biodynamic farm which grows mainly salad produce in smallish quantities.  This fennel is beautiful with small bulb but plenty of stem & fine fronds.  The entire fennel can be eaten raw or cooked.  Try using the whole fronds to make a bed on which to roast fish or chop and add it to piquant sauces for fish or add to fish soups. Our onions are from the UK and come in bunches.  Once again the long leaves can be eaten.  Chop them, raw, for salads or put them in sauces.  Their smell is so strong.  Our chiller is quite heady these days!!!! I haven’t mentioned the spinach & cavelo nero…….oh, just enjoy it all!!

30th May 2011

Community Involvement: Pitstop

Graham from Pitstop, the drop-in centre for the homeless & less privileged in Leatherhead, contacted Katie last week and made a plea.  The charity had organised a football match for this Tuesday followed by a meal, prepared by the stalwart volunteers including Head Chef, Beverly.  Catering will be for 100 – and, “Katie, any chance of a piece of fruit each?”  With a bit more notice & not in a bank holiday week, this would not be a problem.  But ,at very short notice, our wholesaler came up trumps, and, as luck would have it Rob was picking up our order (this only ever happens in a bank holiday week) so he duly delivered bananas, apples and oranges to Pitstop before kick-off this morning. Tonight I’ll go to market and collect some veggies to keep Pitstop going for the rest of the week.  We may be extending donated food to another drop-in centre for the homeless closer to London.  More about that as & when………

Fresh produce this week….. it’s been a topsy turvy week (which is not so unusual for Bank Holiday weeks in food production now).  Many of our growers were closed for the bank holiday which has meant that produce is not available at the time we need to collect it – and we only have one stab at collecting fresh items. Some of this we knew would happen, but some has taken us by surprise, so I think your boxes have been through three iterations in as many days!  Not something that I wish to repeat.  When all was looking a bit desperate in came Cherry Gardens with a call “Can you use some mange tout in your boxes as ours has all matured at the same time?”   Can we?  This organic veggie -which I can rarely source even if I have a client demanding it.  And then, if I find it, it is never from the UK. I coolly accepted the offer, re-worked the boxes…yes mange tout is pretty much in all veggie boxes; it would be unfair to do otherwise.. and made a few phone calls to clients.  The lettuces this week are from Cherry Gardens also.  They are fabulous, beautiful red & green hues and very strong, fresh leaves.  And biodynamic of course.  Our lettuces from Strawberry Fields have been much acclaimed recently, but they are meeting their match this week.  We are on a lucky streak!  We’ve put UK kohlrabi in some boxes this week, a veggie which does not frequent the shelves of your average greengrocer and to help those who aren’t so sure about using this veggie, we have included a recipe to boot.

So why are bank holiday weeks more of a problem? Go back a year or so and growers and those manning ports etc worked the Sunday & Monday and the markets didn’t lose their impetus. Now, with less money available for labour as margins are tighter, it is more normal for growers & transport to take a break for a couple of days resulting in a gap in stocks and, consequently, many smaller delivery services taking the week off