Walking around the barn, I find myself surprisingly happy with the veg boxes we are packing. As the old season ends, this is the time of year when I expect to start begging forgiveness for sprouting potatoes, too many leeks and excessive repetition in the boxes. Worse still, I often start making premature promises about the arrival of new season crops. Perhaps it is our 30 years of experience, perhaps it is good fortune, but this year we seem to have got it right.
Our purple sprouting broccoli is finally sending out an abundance of tender, sweet spears and flower heads; with lengthening days there is a rush to procreate and it will be a challenge to get everything picked before the buds open. The gathering deluge will appear in most boxes, most weeks through April, but I make no apologies; the season is brief and I have yet to meet a customer who doesn’t like PSB. Stir-fry, steam, griddle or boil; whatever you do, don’t overcook it. Meanwhile cauliflower, after decades in that culinary backwater that harbours out-of-fashion vegetables, seems to be pushing back into the mainstream. Just as well because there will be plenty of them over the next month. If you find yourself struggling for inspiration, try roasting. It was a revelation to me and you’ll find lots of other recipes on our website, including cauliflower rice. Again the season is drawing to an end; from early May you will not see a cauliflower again until September.
Our farming co-op grew a huge crop of carrots last year that taste very good and have stored so well that we have a surplus. Don’t let the cows get them; for the juicers among you we have dropped the 5kg bag from £5.65 to £4.65.
Meanwhile I will keep on shamelessly plugging our recipe boxes to the timestrapped among you wanting supper without shopping or planning, or those wishing to spread their culinary wings a little. Some of next week’s recipes come from my own kitchen and unsurprisingly include PSB (with a potato hash and poached egg, one of my favourite suppers or brunches), wet and wild garlic risotto and an especially good spring green, chilli, lentil and chicken dish.
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