Email Us 01392 832729
Shillingford Organics
'in tune with the seasons'
Vegetable Box Bulletin
December 2011
Contents
1. December Extras
2. Christmas & New Year
3. Unusual Payment Reference
4. Welcome New Customers
5. Crop & Other News
1. December Extras
Shillingford Organic Eggs: £1.60 per half-dozen
Local Honey £4.00 per 454g jar
Orla Potatoes: £3.00 per 5kg bag
2. Christmas & New Year
We would like to take this opportunity to wish all our customers and friends a Happy Christmas and a Healthy 2012. As Christmas falls on a Sunday box deliveries will be on the usual days this year.
IMPORTANT: If you are going away or your offices close over the Christmas period don't forget to cancel any boxes you will not require.
If you would like to order any of Emma's Gingerbread or Stollen or any of Figgy's award winning Christmas Puddings then please do let me know soon before they sell out!
CHRISTMAS BOX CONTENTS:
We plan to include the following in the Christmas boxes:
Potatoes, Carrots, Onions, Leeks, Parsnip, Squash, Cauliflower or Purple Sprouting Broccoli and parsley (the last 2 are dependent on weather so may vary) and of course Brussel Sprouts.
We always put an extra amount of Sprouts in for Christmas. Naturally, if any item is on your 'dislikes' it will be replaced with something else unless you have specified.
3. Unusual Payment Reference
If the following payment reference is familiar to you would you please contact me at the office:
'Nicholas Hall'
This is not the name of box scheme customers but the person paying!
4. Welcome New Customers
We would very much like to welcome our new customers, which recently included staff at the Rural Payments Agency and the Farmers Union Restaurant. (Special thanks to Elaine for helping to setup the delivery of our boxes to the RPA)
by Bridget Rendall
5. Crop & Other News
We have a pond on the farm, which normally dries up around mid-summer and comes back to life when the 'springs' start running in October. This year it dried up in April and it is still totally dry! Furthermore, the stream is at its lowest level I have ever seen!
We do get adequate rain for the crops, but not enough to saturate the soil enabling it to percolate down to spring level.
In many ways we have been incredibly lucky with the mild autumn. For one thing it has made working very pleasant and shortened the winter. The clover leys are still growing and look as well as any time in the year.
As I said in the last newsletter it has put our crop planning out of sync but as it is so consistently mild we still seem to have a continued supply of caulis. The spinach keeps growing, despite being holey because of caterpillar attack. Winter salad leaves keep coming and even some outside leaves have not been damaged by frosts!
We are also blessed the purple sprouting Broccoli is producing so early and the Brussel Sprout crop is fantastic!
We have used up all our own onions. However, we had a fantastic crop of shallots and as they store well we have used our onions first, leaving lots of shallots. We are now buying in onions from Cambridgeshire or Lincolnshire.
We will sometimes replace onions in the box with our shallots. Please let us know if that does not suit you.
At the back of the mind there is still something very surreal about such balmy weather and I can not believe Christmas is just around the corner!
by Martyn Bragg
Week 20 - Deliveries
Exeter Area 17 May 12
Teign Valley 18 May 12
Boxes this week will
contain items from
the selection below:
Potatoes
Carrots
Onions
Lettuce
Swiss Chard
Rhubarb or Mushrooms
Chinese Cabbage, Cauliflower or Spring Greens
Pink Radish
Giant Sugar Peas or Broad Beans (not mini)
Carrots are in short supply and are from
Scotland via Riverford Organics until
further notice - apologies!
NB: Due to availabilty box contents may vary
The boxes may not always contain the same number of items as shown in the list. However, this is more likely to apply to the mini and small boxes
Make up crops may vary from the list !
