Few from Oxford. Hodmedod’s Josiah and Pasture for Life’s Jimmy had the privilege of setting the seating plan for a posh pre-conf dinner at Somerville College. The bleeders only sat us on the top table with poshest people in the world! I was initially mortified (and very tipsy) but in retrospect, it was great to be put out of my comfort zone and I really appreciated it.

Other snaps are me workshop presentation with a few pals as mentioned below and below that, the hangover I was suffering with during. To the right, a talk that Josiah did about a new nut farm near Glastonbury and a selfie of me and the lovely Zosiafrom the Better Food Shed. This was taken by a new pal, Kath Dalmeny who runs Sustain and who is keen to soon get us in front of the current Environment Secretary, Angela Eagle to hopefully help implement some new food policy around public procurement. That would just be summat else, eh!

Good afternoon everyone,

It’s been a fairly stress-filled start to the new year with the low temps and the knock-on trouble with logistics and supply they’ve caused. Not to mention the freezing mornings in the warehouse. The weather seems to have turned once again this side of the channel at least so we’re hoping for domestic supply to return to normal.

Further afield, the chilly temps remain and we’re seeing the odd issues with various lines. The price of aubergines has increased for the low temps and for a disease to the peppers (similar happened last Jan), the price of those is pretty high too. We’re well sourced for most things though and as ever on a Tues, if we’re short of summat, our Mads, Cathryn and newest recruit, Alphin will be scouring Europe to fill any gaps.

As mentioned on last week’s weekly scribbling, I was to heading down to Oxfordagain for the Oxford Real Farming Conference and I had the most interesting time down there. I met colleagues new and old, attended sessions on seed-saving, nut farms and soil science, rubbed shoulders with the veg elite (though I’m sure they wouldn’t like to be called that) and with the help of Kiloran from Sustain, Sarah Gowanlock from The Scottish Soil Association and the fab Amber Wheeler from “Welsh Veg in Schools” initiative, helped run a workshop about getting organic veg into schools and the like. I left with lots of new pals, some opportunities for this place and head full of ideas. Such a fab event, really recommend if you’ve never been.

The all important veg news:

• Starting in the UK, Royal Oak have added some red manitou potatoes and green sprout tops, Bagthorpe some parsnips and acoustic spuddies and Pollybell some washed celeriac.

• Elsewhere, Newfields have plenty more on the list including January king and tundra cabbages, cavolo Nero, kale and leeks while SKEA has sarpo mira spuds, red Heidi spuds, gatsby spuds and arran victory spuds.

• Lastly on the UK veg, Bedlam have added some kalettes both loose and bagged as well as a full listing of squash so make sure you have a good peruse of what they have to offer.

• On the UK fruit front, Mole End has some crimson crisp for us to go at and Oakwood have added some court pendu plat apples as well as some ribston pippins.

• From Spain, Gospa has added some salustiana oranges to their offering, Biovergel has some Granny Smith apples and kaki fruits and Ecosur adds cucumbers and cocktail vine tomatoes.

• From Portugal, Vasco has avos, courgettes, coriander, lemon balm and peppermint. Brew fresh lemon balm and peppermint in some hot water and you’ve got yourself a refreshing, caffeine-free infusion known for its digestive, calming, and mood-lifting health benefits.

• From Holland, Zann has some Alana mandarins, limequats, romanesco caulis and pointy cabbages while Fairtrasa has some 8.5kg turmeric and Granny Smith apples.

• From France, our top pick outs from Dynamis are the fresh ginger, clems and mandarins with leaf, soreli yellow kiwis and shiatsu green squash.

• And to line your pantry’s, we’ve both the goldenrod and forest honey back on from Morgiel, some white coco beans and black Carlin beans from Hodmedod, gnocchi and tomato purée from Mr Organic and lastly Seville marmalade from Hembridge.

That’s about it for this week, speak to you all soon.
Sean, Mads, Alph, Cathryn, Ell and Team ON x

Winter has been particularly generous with bouts of lurgy this year, so consider this a gentle January boost. Citrus, ginger, ferments and leafy greens – all ready to do their bit.

Here we have Fiery Ginger Kombucha from Equinox, Turmeric and Black Pepper Kimchi from Loving Foods, sweet Salustiana Oranges from Dynamis, and a handful of Spinach from Uni-Vert for good measure.

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