Lately, we've been a little disappointed. Our farm delivery, while fantastic, just hasn't been up to the standards we've become used to over the past two years. It's still great, delicious, organic, and fresh- but the berries aren't quite as sweet, and the greens seem to spoil a little faster than usual. We were blaming this on the fridge in our house, since it has obnoxiously uneven cooling, and tends to freeze one section while having warm juice in another, but last week's newsletter in our farm box answered some of our queries. This week's offered even more explanation. Our really terrible, rainy, chilly weather this spring/summer has done in a lot of the crops. Riverford has had to import some crops, betraying the "local" part of the philosophy, but this is in order to maintain the "organic" part of the philosophy.
I'm growing more and more adamant and passionate about not adding toxins to my body; I figure there are enough unavoidable ones in our modern life that I can do my part to not bring extras in knowingly. I've been making a slow and steady effort to remove plastics from our kitchen, not throwing away usable products (because that would only increase waste) but only purchasing glass, metal, or ceramic. I long ago made the switch to antibiotic and rBGH free dairy and meat, both for ethical reasons and for my own health. This whole soapbox is to say that, while I've found my vegetable-eating to decline towards the end of the week (since we're trying to eat them up early in the week before they're wasted), I appreciate Riverford's maintaining their organic methods, even though it's becoming financially painful for the company.
Now on to the veg (and fruit)!
onions, cherry tomatoes, asparagus, new potatoes, ramiro chilis
My spicy-phobic self was pleased to find the ramiro chills from last week to be sweet, more like bell peppers! Yum!
White grapes (which Paul had eaten half of by the time I got around to the pictures!), strawberries, rhubarb
I'm trying to decide between strawberry-rhubarb pie and strawberry-rhubarb cobbler... although I might just make smaller versions of both!
sweet potatoes, wet garlic, cucumbers
carrots
I've loved these young carrots just steamed up, eaten naked- it's delicious!
baby spinach
pears
celery, mint, marsh samphire, lettuce
I'm excited about this marsh samphire- I'll let you know how it is!
Not pictured are my usual 2L skimmed milk and homity pies.
Are you doing anything to health-ify your eating? Have you had any struggles or disappointments along the way?
I try to 'eat local' as much as possible, which is fine during summer - we are surrounded by fruit farms and grow some fabulous broccoli and potatoes - but it does get a bit of a struggle in the winter.
ReplyDeleteThe best thing I did was move onto a farm where they raise their own cattle and have free-range hens for eggs - I now know the EXACT provenance of what I'm eating, although it does get a little painful when it's time for the animals to go 'up the road'...
I realise it's not quite so practical for everyone to move onto a farm in the middle of nowhere, though :-)
I love that they have cooking suggestions, since some weeks I see stuff on your delivery box that I would have no idea about!
ReplyDelete