We’ve got loadsa lovely UK squash on at the moment, these ones up top are all from Bedlam 🎃

From left to right: mini mixed gourds, Bon Bon, Celebration and Spaghetti squash, ready for roasting, stuffing, souping… or for just a bit of autumnal decor 🍁

Good afternoon, friends,

It’s been another action-packed week this end with talking appointments in Sheffield and Manchester, a leaving do for our mate Ian from the warehouse who becomes a teaching assistant in two weeks and we’ve been busy sharpening up some of our warehouse practices too before the busy run into the New Year. Our plan is to have things working really slick with plenty of hands on deck so that we’re well-placed in 2027 to really kick on on lots of new fronts.

Our lobbying work with the Fruit & Veg Coalition is gaining some good ground and we expect to see and we’ve got it on good authority that there is a really exciting paper for the organic sector being released by Defra in the next fortnight. The new Horticulture Sector Growth Plan will follow in the New Year too and we’re hoping to gain some wins for our growers with that also.

Elsewhere, we’re going to be working closely with Defra, The Better Food Traders, Sustain (and anyone who’s interested to help!) to build up our portfolio of public procurement customers and have our Alph on the case of drumming up some new business too. We’ve currently have a backlog of growers looking to work with us but we can only offer them a route to market when we’ve more demand so work on that front will need doing.

Lastly, alongside tightening up our website, the data reporting aspect of our software and our warehouse operation, one of our key aims will be to put together an in-house media team to better tell some of the inspiring stories that we’re part of. With so many growers, suppliers and friends in the sector, we’ve a rich resource to draw on and if we do it right, we think we could put together a really special documentary portfolio.

Some random updates:

• Morgiel has lots of stock of some short-dated fermented beetroot (BB date 01.11.26) and has offered it to us extremely cheaply. £3 per case or 63p per jar and they’ve 100 cases to shift.

• Tickets for ORFC, the biggest and best farming conference in the world are out and available here. I’ll be down there again and this year I’ll be being interviewed about ‘the importance of scale to the agroecological transition’.
  Oxford Real Farming Conference – Agroecology & Food Sovereignty

• We’ve been asked by a lass called Penny Wyatt who’s located in a place called Hurley in Warwickshire to share that she has 7Ha or Soil Association certified organic land to let out so if you’re in the area or know someone that is who’s looking to grow then you can get in touch with Penny at pennytwellswyatt@gmail.com

• Hodmeded’s new book, Whole Food written by our pals, Nick Saltmarsh and Josiah Meldrum is out and it promises to be a great read and resource. I’m away down to their bean store in Norfolk to celebrate the release : )
  Whole Food – Hodmedod’s Wholefoods

• You may remember me letting you know a while back that it’s been a tough year for UK tomato production. Months earlier than usual the season in the Isle of Wight has already finished. On the continent, there are also less available than there usually is. Tom harvests in Almeria will begin again in around 10 days and Malaga harvests will resume in November. Until then, they’ll be pretty high in price but be sure that we’ll be doing our best to at least secure a solid supply.

Our Ell’s weekly veg updates: 

• Starting in the UK, we have 10kg nets of dirty carrots from Newfields, golden beets and celeriac from Chapel, and broccoli from Roddy’s.

• Royal Oak has purple cape broccoli, January king cabbages, large red cabbages, cauliflowers in every colour and parsnips with tops.

• Elsewhere, Bedlam has celebration squash in 10kgs and trays, Fosketts washed rainbow carrots are back this week as well as their salsify.

• Next up, Awen has some January king cabbages and green heirloom tomatoes while Hael has endive, kalette tops, Batavia lettuce and lovage.

• Flourish add rainbow chard, Troy onions, mixed salad leaves, delicata squash, mixed cherry and heirloom tomatoes, bronze fennel and Italian parsley.

• And for our Wednesday customers, Growing Well has some mixed chilli’s and snack green peppers and Augernikhas some chestnuts and wet cobnuts.

• On the UK fruit front, Oakwood has bramley apples, cox apples, russet apple and Santana, Pardoe has some natyra and Mole End some Bramley apples.

• Carey adds some red falstaff apples, Herefordshire russet apples, beurre superfin pears and Louise Bonnie pears.

• From Portugal, Vasco has some rainbow chard, pak Choi, New Zealand spinach, purple sweet spuds, cherry plum tomatoes, kaki fruit, dill and lemon balm.

• From Spain, Biovergel has kiwis, Camposeven some pomegranates, Ecosur some flat and french beans and Cal Vall has some of their figueres onions available again.

• From Holland, Zann has chioggia beetroot, green peppers, cherry plum tomatoes and lemons.

• From France, Bio & Bio has figs, white grapes and red grapes.

• Our top picks from Dynamis are button mushrooms, fresh ginger, red treviso chicory, pink meat radish, sensation mangoes and harrow sweet pears.

• To line your pantry’s Fresh Flour are back in the list with a full line up including their biscuits, crackers, and pastas. We’ve also got some forest honey and buckwheat honey from Morgiel and blackcurrant jam, strawberry jam and rhubarb marmalade from Hembridge.

• For your weekly caffeine hit, we have loads of beans and ground coffees back on from Equal Exchange so have a good peruse.

• Lastly, we’ve got some good news: Coato Extra Virgin Olive Oil has been reduced in price! This unfiltered, blended olive oil is made using Picual, Cuquillo and Arbequina olives, giving it a pleasantly fruity flavour with a gentle spice and bitterness on the palate.The new prices are:
  • 500ml glass bottles – £7.94 per bottle
  • 1ltr glass bottles – £14.00 per bottle
  • 3ltr tins – £38.56 per tin

I’ll sign off this week with a couple of updates. First up, our pals at Queens of Greens have launched a crowdfunder to purchase a new delivery bus. This is a great enterprise who get the best produce to those who need it most- please do support if you can.

Help keep the Queen of Greens greengrocer mobile! – a Community crowdfunding project in Liverpool by Carrie Curle

Secondly, some great news from Defra who have pledged a new fund to increase food access to some of our most deprived places.

New £10 million to boost food access in deprived places, but long-term commitment unclear | Sustain

Have a top week everyone,
Sean, Mads, Alph, Ell and Team ON x

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