It’s a great time of year to make the most of our crops with tops – bunches of local radish will be available all week from Glebelands City Growers, our closest supplier of organic veg and dear friends of the business. The neon pink radishes have a powerful, peppery flavour that tastes great both raw in a salad or mellow and sweet after roasting. They are also the perfect size for pickling or slicing thinly to be added to a kimchi mix.
The first of the UK fennel is available this week, complete with princely herb fronds from Pam Bowers down in Lincolnshire. Remember all the tops and leaves are edible on these early crops – fennel fronds make for a fragrant, herby garnish to any dish and use radish leaves as you would spinach or chard.
After the heavy rainfall in June followed by a hot spell of sunshine, broccoli crops are struggling to meet demand. We are expecting a few gaps in the supply over the coming weeks so try a local cauliflower in its place; the new arrival from Duncan Gielty’s farm in Omskirk today look super fresh with bright green leaves – cauliflower leaves are edible too and roast to crispy heaven in the oven.
There’s good availability on UK berries: gooseberries, blackcurrants and jostaberries are all available from Carey Organics in Herefordshire. Jostaberries are a blackcurrant and gooseberry hybrid and have become a firm favourite of the veg team in recent years. They are sweet enough to eat raw but many prefer to cook them down for crumbles, pies and other summertime desserts.
From Europe there is an enormous range of fruit on offer – beautiful French peaches and nectarines, yellow and red plums, apricots and three types of melon, the only difficulty is deciding which to choose…
