Online Ordering for 15th June – 19th June (Week 24)
Middle Ground Growers 🙌🏼🤩
We’re delighted to welcome Middle Ground back to the list. We’ve been working with them for a couple of years now, and their produce is always fab.
For those who don’t know them, Middle Ground are based just outside Bath, where a team of five, alongside seasonal volunteers, runs a 16-acre regenerative organic farm. As well as growing incredible veg, they also supply veg boxes to their local community.
They’re kicking off the season with quite a large range, including kale, rainbow chard, lettuce, salad leaves, spring onions, and plenty of herbs. The oregano and sage pictured above are looking particularly good 🌿
Good afternoon everyone,
I’m writing to you today whilst en route to a Better Food Traders meet up in Penarth down near Cardiff. For anyone of you that hasn’t heard of the Better Food Traders, these are a network that promotes ethical retailers who are interested in planet-friendly food. Well worth a look.
https://betterfoodtraders.org/
Though our Mads, Ell, Alph and Cathryn have all attended past events, this will be my first visit to one of these things by the Better Food Traders and I’m chuffed to be heading down and staying with one of longstanding customers, Chris from The Vale Grocer in Denbigh, North Wales. It promises to be a great event and I hope to bump into one or two more of you guys whilst I’m down there.
What Chris and his partner Liz are achieving with the Vale Grocer is nothing short of phenomenal. Alongside a farm shop and box scheme they also run a growing site and have developed a brilliant monthly market. I couldn’t point at better retailers who have gone beyond retail and into place-making. They’ve developed a real sense of community and we love being a part of their story and success.
https://www.thevalegrocer.co.uk/
Our Cathryn’s out on the road too today at a Food for Life event in Leeds. She listened to a presentation by our pal Andrew Cowan who runs the catering team in Bury and who’s responsible for our first foray into supplying schools. The Food for Life team then covered some of their new standards. There’s a lot of talk/press about improving the quality of what’s served in our kids’ schools just now- feels like there’s some real momentum.
And on that, i’ve been made privy to a significant announcement that the government are about make about our sector. Lips are sealed for now but i’m hoping they’ll be something to really celebrate on next week’s newsletter! : )
Veg updates:
- Kicking off the UK adds we’ve got a couple more things on the list from Newfields which are the round cabbages and the red and green kohl rabi with tops.
- Next up, New Farm has some broccoli and pointed cabbages and Bagthorpe make a welcome return with some of their accord spuds. As mentioned above, we also see the return of Middle Ground with a full list so be sure to have a good peruse.
- Staying in the UK, bedlam have some purple artichokes again, Home Farm with some salad leaves and both Fosketts and Strawberry Fields have the first of their bunched beetroots.
- From our market gardens, Trinity has red kale, little gem, oakleaf lettuce and bay leaves and for our Wednesday customers we have mixed leaf salad, spring onions and golden ball turnips from Sheffield Organic Growers and a variety of lettuces from Moss Valley.
- From Spain, Biovergel has butternut squash, cantaloupe melons, galia melons, transvalia peaches and striped watermelons with micro seeds. Cal Vall return with some babosa onions and Terra Rica has celery and Hokkaido squash.
- Staying in Spain, Las Hortichuelas has canary melons and aubergines while Be Organic has sweet potatoes, verna lemons, yellow peaches and plums.
- From Holland, Fairtrasa has some Jonaprince apples and Zann has blueberries, eureka lemons and pineapples.
- From France, Uni-Vert has tomato vines and our top pick outs from Dynamis this week are the okra, peas, mini tri-colour peppers, Mamie heirloom tomatoes, green zebra tomatoes, figs, sorrel and fresh almonds.
- And to line your pantry’s, we have barlocco blue again from the Ethical Dairy in both 130g wedges and 1kg quarter rounds. And Pastificio has some spelt casarecce, spelt conchiglie, spelt maccheroni and spelt rigatoni.
Have a great week everyone and thanks as ever for your loyal support for what we’re trying to achieve over here in sunny Manchester.
Sean, Mads, Ell, Alph and Team ON x
With the return of Flourish, Pollybell, Newfields and now Middle Ground, it’s been fantastic to see more and more of the UK veg filling the warehouse as the season gets into full swing. Nick headed out on Sunday to collect our Newfields order, and it’s safe to say the van was operating at maximum kale carrying capacity 🙈
A couple of standout veggies this are the Italian courgettes – a prized Roman variety, distinguished by their ridged shape and robust, nutty flavour. These look great sliced into rounds. Then we’ve also got some blonde cucumbers – a pale green variety with a dense texture and mild, sweet flesh (both from Flourish). And, of course, there’s the curly parsley from Terry Simpson. You can’t go wrong with Terry’s produce, always top stuff 👌🏼