Veg Box News 30th September – 6th October

Greetings! Bronia of Webshop fame is away this week, so I’ve made just one small addition to the offerings. As we hurtle into October I’m pleased to announce the return of Brindisa’s Rabitos Royales to our shelves. Every other retailer charges considerably more than we do for these Spanish delicacies, so of course Beanies is the best place to buy them! I still really like this online review, borrowed from Ocado:
I chose these as a gift for my parents who are in their 80s thinking that they’d savour them slowly however I was wrong. They ate the lot in a matter of minutes and had a fight over the last one. You have been warned.

While we’re on the subject of pricing, that brief visit to the website of our competitor reminded me how unstable and exploitative supermarket pricing is. At Beanies, we stick to a standard markup. This margin is what we need in order to pay our overheads, and is a fair reflection of the cost (to us) of the produce. Retailers offering heavy discounts and sign-up incentives are absolutely making that money back elsewhere, because sooner or later someone does have to pay. That might be you, because you’re being overcharged elsewhere. Or it might be the farmer, or the environment. Most often, it’s all three!

Our commitment to fair margins and fair prices does sometimes cost us because we are more exposed to fluctuations in the wider market. But it also means our suppliers know they can afford to keep producing for us, because we aren’t going to bully them into selling their produce for less than it’s worth. This is why, last spring, we were still selling eggs when everyone else had run out. It’s really important for the stability and security of our food systems, and it’s integral to the way we work at Beanies. It also means that you can be assured we aren’t hiding anything when it comes to our pricing – without complex calculations or customer data tracking, we’re simply offering the best value we can within a business that’s deigned to be fair.

Regular readers will know we’re huge fans of Anna Jones, and this recipe is a lovely addition to your autumn repertoire. The toasted hazelnuts really deepen the nutty, creamy flavours of the celeriac, which as Jones points out is a bit of a beast to look at, but is delicious and ‘packs some serious health benefits – it’s high in fibre, potassium, magnesium and vitamin B6’. There you go.

olive oil
1 leek, washed, trimmed and finely sliced
1 celeriac, washed, peeled and roughly chopped
4 apples (Cox’s are my choice), cored and roughly chopped
a few sprigs of fresh thyme, leaves picked
1.5 litres vegetable stock
1 × 400g tin of butter beans, drained
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
a few sprigs of fresh sage, leaves picked
a handful of hazelnuts
100g vegan butter

Heat a splash of oil in a large pan, then add the leek and cook over a medium heat for 10 minutes, until soft and sweet.

Add the celeriac, apples and thyme and cook for 2–3 minutes, then add the stock and butter beans and season well. Simmer over a low heat for 20–30 minutes, until the celeriac is tender, then remove from the heat and blitz with a hand blender until smooth.

Toast the hazelnuts in a frying pan until golden brown then remove from the pan and put to one side.

Add the butter to the pan and once it is hot add the sage and fry until it is crispy and the butter is light brown. Keep the heat low for this last bit and take the pan off as soon as you see the butter turn brown, as it can burn really quickly.

There’s definitely a seasonal switch going on now! Large tomatoes Courgettes and cucumbers are dwindling from the local supplies and will likely to need to be supplemented with others from Europe. But we still have the following locally grown options available throughout the week: 

• Kale/Cavolo nero/Russian Kale 2.38ea 

• Loose beetroot £3.18kg 

• Lettuce (90% local…may need a tiny top up elsewhere) 

• Pointy cabbage (£2.10) 

• Beet spinach £2.28ea 

• Chard (some red, some rainbow some Swiss) £2.28ea 

• French Beans (£8.90kg)  

• Runner Beans (£6.50kg) 

• Class 2 scruffy but tasty garlic £8.90kg 

• Also modest amounts of cherry tomatoes (£10.90kg)  

The Isle of Wight have a very few cherry vine toms, reasonable cherry plum volumes and a very limited number of large vine tomatoes. The latter will be topped up with Dutch which are the same price. 

We’re heavy on the brassicas this week! Cauliflowers will drop in both size and price. There will be small-medium white ones at 2.18ea and a very few purple at 2.48ea. There is the usual calabrese broccoli from Doncaster as well as a new season of purple sprouting broccoli from Tadcaster (8.90kg). In the cabbage dept to supplement the local pointy cabbage from Matt & El will be a few savoy (£2.10) and Chinese cabbage at a bargainous £1.68! Kimchi anyone?? If you still aren’t satisfied with those choices there will also be some lovely tatsoi and aforementioned 3 types of local kale. 

The UK roots department is filling up too. There is a selection of beetroots (purple, golden and Chioggia/stripey all £2.58kg), new season celeriac (£2.78kg) and swede (£1.68kg). From Wednesday we’re also testing out a few parsnips (£2.58kg). 

Whilst neither a brassica or root there’s some attractive Lincolnshire fennel available (£4.90kg) too and a limited number of radicchio (approx. £1.78ea). 

There are some more UK fancy mushrooms coming in on Monday, Shimeji  and Maitake both limited in volume so get them while stocks last! There are larger volumes of Oyster mushrooms coming on Monday and Wednesday too. 

Bob and I gorged on apples last week to try and pick the top of the plethora available. From what we had in stock last week we thought the following deserved a repeat performance: 

Pirouette-crisp, juicy excellent and slightly tangy flavour
Meridian Cox-a Falstaff & Cox’s Orange Pippin cross which again has excellent texture and more delicate flavour with a hint of melon (according to more experienced palates!) 
Santana-crisp and juicy and a very ‘appley’ taste. 

As well as the above there will also be the classic Russet, Red Devil (red flesh inside), and a very few Ashmead’s Kernal (popular for over 2 centuries!). From our local grower Hazelhurst Fruitery will be some Charles Ross apples which is a very handsome dual purpose cooker/eater. 

UK plums have drawn to an end but there are a few Spanish President plums which cook excellently to add to the round crisper Angelino type that usually comes from the continent. We’re testing out some Spanish Golden kiwis (6.98) which tend to be sweeter and less hairy than their green cousin. 

Local offerings

Matt & El- Spinach, chard, cabbage, lettuce, kale, cuc’s & courgettes, French beans & runners, shallots, garlic and little Hokkaido squash.  

High Riggs (Tues pm onwards) All Limited! Green peppers, celery and fennel 
Nick@SOGs (Tues and Thurs am onwards)- Salad bags and cucumber 
 
UK Fruit & Veg: Celery, Chestnut Mushrooms, Potatoes, Cherry Vine Tomatoes, Cauliflower, Broccoli, Pointy, Savoy and Chinese Cabbage, hard red & white Cabbage, Apples. 
 
& Other Highlights: Sweet Potatoes, Bell Peppers, Oyster Mushrooms, Apples, Lemons, South African Navels, Spanish Grapefruit, Peruvian Hass Avocado, Mango, Plums, Pears, Grapes (Muscat and Green Seedless). 

There some autumnal heft to this week’s boxes. Matt and El combined with Organic Pantry Tadcaster will have pointy cabbage for everyone, to go with leeks from Doncaster and the first celeriac of the season (from Lincolnshire). The final main item will be UK celery (Cambridgeshire), which I wouldn’t ordinarily pair with celeriac in a box but as the celery may not be available much longer from the UK I felt I must. 

The No Potato boxes will purple sprouting broccoli  also from Pantry, Tadcaster. Larger Pot and No Pot boxes will have Lincolnshire fennel and some slightly scruffy looking but very flavoursome garlic from Matt & El. XL boxes will have N. Irish mushrooms. 

 The UK boxes will be exactly the same. 

There will be Pirouette and/or Santana apples in the boxes (they were both too good to pick a favourite). There will also be Dutch Conference pears, Spanish grapes, Argentinian kiwi’s and Spanish grapefruit. In the Larger boxes will be the local Dual Purpose Charles Ross apples. When used for cooking the flesh doesn’t breakdown entirely which is good if you want to retain texture. If cooking isn’t on the cards they are also excellent juicers and get sweeter if kept so depending on your palate you may just wish to munch on them or put in a salad! 

Here are the contents of this week’s boxes. All weights are approximate and contents may vary depending on availability.

A   UK Potatoes 1.3kg  UK Brown Onions 500g  UK Carrots 500g  Local/UK Pointy Cabbage  UK Celery  UK Leeks 450g  UK Celeriac 600g   G  UK Potatoes 1.3kg  UK Brown Onions 500g  UK Carrots 500g  Local/UK Pointy Cabbage  UK Celery UK Leeks 450g  UK Celeriac 600g D   UK Potatoes 1.6kg  UK Brown Onions 500g  UK Carrots 500g  Local/UK Pointy Cabbage  UK Celery UK Leeks 450g  UK Celeriac 600g  UK Fennel 400g   Local Garlic   L   UK Potatoes 1.6kg  UK Brown Onions 500g  UK Carrots 500g  Local/UK Pointy Cabbage  UK Celery  UK Leeks 450g  UK Celeriac 600g  UK Fennel 400g  Local Garlic  UK Mushrooms 250g    K  DR Bananas 800g  UK Pirouette/Santana 800g  Hol Conference Pears 600g  Sp Grapes 300g  Arg Kiwi 350g  Sp Grapefruit x1

B  UK Brown Onions 500g  UK Carrots 500g  Local/UK Pointy Cabbage  UK Celery  UK Leeks 450g  UK Celeriac 600g  UK Purple Sprouting Broccoli 200g   T   UK Potatoes 1kg  UK Brown Onions 300g  UK Carrots 300g  Local/UK Pointy Cabbage  UK Celery  UK Leeks 450g  UK Celeriac 500g   E  UK Brown Onions 500g  UK Carrots 500g  Local/UK Pointy Cabbage  UK Celery  UK Leeks 450g  UK Celeriac 600g  UK Purple Sprouting Broccoli 200g   UK Fennel 500g Local Garlic   M  UK Brown Onions 500g  UK Carrots 500g  Local/UK Pointy Cabbage  UK Celery  UK Leeks 450g  UK Celeriac 600g  UK Purple Sprouting Broccoli 200g   UK Fennel 500g   Local Garlic  UK Mushrooms 250g   Q  DR Bananas 800g  UK Pirouette/Santana 800g  Hol Conference Pears 600g  Sp Grapes 300g  Arg Kiwi 350g  Sp Grapefruit x1 Local Cooking (Dual Purpose) Charles Ross Apples