A terrific range of UK winter-warmers ideal for the falling temperatures this week.
Locally, Dunham Massey’s Alan Hewitt still has a good tonne of Uchiki Kuri pumpkins to get through in the run up to Christmas. While to the East, the UK butternut supply remains in full swing from Vinehouse Farm in Lincolnshire. With other squash varieties still plentiful, a perfect time for warming spicy soups, curries and stews.
The root display might not be furnished with the leaves you see earlier in the season, when bunched carrots & beetroots look resplendent before the leaves get nipped by winter, but the range is terrific. Sweet and juicy purple carrots from Ormskirk’s Royal Oak are a staff favourite, celeriac is abundant, while parsnips are eating well after a couple of frosty nights.
From Europe, it’s all – or at least mostly, about the clementines. The nules variety, always our favourite, is tasting better by the week. Colder nights in continental Europe mean that most of the citrus fruit are even the right colour now! The oranges in particular are evolving rapidly, and Friday will see the first arrival of Washington Navels from Agricoop in Sicily – a cooperative of growers from whom we buy directly. We can only hope that they’re as beautiful as their lemons were last week… more on the way.
