Hi!

Historically I’ve always done weird stuff in the summer holidays as there are less customers around so less people get upset if something goes massively wrong.
So true to form here comes my weird experiment of the summer.

Next week there is more local veg available than I ever remember.
At the start of the week there will be courgettes, coriander and parsley all coming from Meanwood Valley Urban Farm. I haven't had anything from Meanwood in a long time! 

Across both delivery days they’ll be cherry tomatoes, salad tomatoes (both from Meanwood), mixed cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, potted basil and 2 types of garlic from Passion4Plants.

And come the back end of the week for our Thursday delivery is when the fun really starts…

Andy from Living Potential near Sicklinghall contacted me a couple of years ago saying he was taking over a derelict walled garden and wanted to speak to some potential stakeholders. Two years on, he contacted me again saying he might need to shift quite a bit of veg ASAP as everything is going well and growing well.
He’s out of space for new seedlings, he doesn’t have a mode of transport, doesn’t have refrigeration and doesn’t have a route to market. This was very much a year 1 experiment - "lets see if anything grows"…and it did!

I went to meet him last Friday in his lovely walled garden and we hatched a plan to try to clear him out as much as possible so he can sow some more crops.
Unfortunately the plan could only work on Thursday as he and his growing partner Nicky both work other jobs at the start of the week.

THE PLAN - Tuesday customers will get normal tried and tested veg from our reliable wholesaler (along with courgettes and herbs from Meanwood). Thursday customers will get same type of veg as Tuesday customers but they'll be no wholesale delivery on Wednesday like normal. Instead, the vast majority of your veg will be grown 12 miles outside of Leeds, harvested at 4am by the three of us, taken straight to the warehouse, packed into your boxes and then straight out for delivery…which I too will be doing as Ed is on holiday. So all the spring onions, courgettes, squash, runner beans, french beans, herbs, lettuces, cavolo nero and rainbow chard in Thursday customers boxes will be coming from Living Potential in Sicklinghall. That is a lot of local veg, around 200 portions across the Thursday boxes.

So, why have I agreed to go harvest veg in a field at 4am under head torch, give up my time, provide free labour and why have I volunteered myself into a possible nightmarish 18 hour day?

Because I want to create a partnership with Living Potentially where they know that you guys want locally grown veg and I can get it to you, even if we don’t quite have the appropriate supply chain in place this year, I want to show him that we mean business and they should sell their veg to us! 
This is a test and a massive favour and it could go terribly wrong! Harvesting could take way longer than planned, everything could get attacked by slugs the night before, everything could wilt in the back of the van…but hopefully it won't and hopefully he will see he has a clear route to market selling into our boxes which means he can concentrate on growing veg and not worrying about selling/logistics.

So next week, fill your boots with locally grown veg and show him we mean business! The vast majority of this stuff will be for one week only (I am not volunteering my services at 4am every Thursday sadly) but with your support we can look to get a proper supply chain in place!

Most of this veg isn’t available as swaps because not all is available across both days so it’s limited to what the website can do.
All Meanwood Valley Urban Farm (LS7) veg can be found here.
All Passion4Plants (LS8) veg can be found here.
And all Living Potential (LS22) Veg can be found here (for Thursday customers only).

Wish us luck! 
Thank
Sam

The photo below is the community walled garden at living potential.