View from the fields

Sarah at Passion4Plants has started harvesting her famed Jerusalem Artichoke. When I first spotted it (image above) in their market garden I couldn’t quite believe how tall it grows compared to the size of its fruit. It turns out that the Jerusalem artichoke is actually part of the sunflower family and not at all related to globe artichokes. A true divisive veg, a real love or hate. Sarah recommends it in a soup, she said “It comes right at the start of soup season and works perfectly in them”.

Sarah went on to say “It’s been in the ground since early February this year and I expect to be able to harvest it throughout November but with this mild autumn we’ve been having who really knows. Our polytunnels were 20 degrees on Tuesday.”

You’ll find it in next week's Large Veg Box or available as an add on here.

Pick of the bunch

Where else can you subscribe to garlic!? It sounds like one of my weird 20 somethings business ideas. But as of next week that’s exactly what you can do. Choose 1 or 2 bulbs, weekly fortnightly or as a one off purchase. Never run out of the cooking stable again and never settle for crap, old petrol station garlic again. 

Product highlight

It’s porridge season and this week we’ve got 20% off some of the best organic porridge oats out there from Pimhill Farm. They are one of our best sellers year around, so grab yourself a bargain this week and start embracing the cooler mornings. 

Seasonal star

Egremont Russet is a classic English russet apple from the Victorian era. A cult favourite the egremont has a fantastic balance of sharpness and sweetness. Its skin is entirely covered in ‘russet’ (probably the reason for it being a cult apple, not a mainstream apple). In my opinion it has a very attractive dull gold skin with yellow markings. You’ll find the egremont russet, our first full russet apple of the season, in most mixed boxes next week. 

Recipe Idea

It’s squash season and boy does this BBC Good Food recipe for Squash & Blue Cheese Wellington hit all the right autumnal notes.
I’ve pre prepared this for Christmas day for a few years (also freezes) and it turns a traditionally stressful day into a pretty cruisy day. But don’t wait till Christmas, it goes great on any given Sunday, swap shallots for onions and grab yourself a butternut squash then you’ll likely have most of the ingredients in already.