News from our East Anglian suppliers: Hughes Organics

Another hot weekend in the Glasshouse. Mostly crops are growing well with the Celery really coming on but Fennel and Salad Onions are finished. Peppers will be here soon but are struggling with an Aphid epidemic. We are waiting for some predatory wasps and midges to arrive which should restore some balance but I am amazed at the number of Ladybird larvae developing naturally, I have never seen so many they are just emerging and have voracious appetites. I guess they time the emergence for optimum feeding conditions but two weeks earlier would have been really handy. They should relieve the stress on the crop anyway. Aubergines are also affected but there are virtually none on the Chilli Peppers in the same location as the Sweet!

I think our Spring clean was a little too vigorous and we didn't keep sufficient habitat for predators or maybe the prolonged cold Winter knocked the overwintering colonies out, probably both. 

With regard to produce, the first Green Onions will be available this week from Breckland Organics in Norfolk and Broccoli from Lincolnshire which will be iced to extend shelf life. Cucumbers and Courgettes are bursting into life in the sunshine and the first flash of colour can be seen on a Yellow Cherry Tomato.

Redcurrants and Gooseberries are also available from Paul and Doreen Robinson at Waterland Organics outside Cambridge, with Blackcurrrants to follow.

Best wishes, Grahame and Lizzie Hughes

Beautiful beets – and much more!

This week is a first, as we have more produce

and variety on the stall than ever before from Organiclea's own growing site in North Chingford - the hard work of many volunteers and our coop

workers will yield truly local food across the summer - nutritionally-rich with vitamins as it’s freshly harvested just before your buy!

Today we have cucumbers, beetroots, French beans, salad bags, coriander, basil and parsley. enjoy the taste of healthy, local food - you can't find this anywhere else!

In the latest addition to his grower’s blog, Ru tells the tale of Hawkwood beetroot and sings its praise from a grower’s and eater’s perspective:

Beta vulgaris is, in its wild state, a coastal plant, so hard-wired for survival in tough conditions. When OrganicLea first started out nine years ago on reclaimed allotments, I remember sowing beet seed, in a similar summer dry spell to that we have now, into the cracks between hard bricks of sun-baked clay, more in hope than expectation that some red root would find sustenance in such “soil”. But thrive they did, proving to be a good choice for any first year of organic production, whilst soil fertility and structure are just beginning to be built up.

New beetroot isn’t greeted with the same widespread salivation as Jersey Royals, but like them they cook quickly, need no peeling and have a sweet, melt-in-the-mouth quality. [Unlike spuds] the leaves of the bunches can be eaten too.

Fingers crossed for cherries...

Next weekend we’ll be marking National Cherry Day – celebrating this delicious fruit and mourning the demise of traditional cherry orchards in this country. Last year we had no joy finding English cherries for the day, but we’re hoping that better luck (and weather conditions for the cherry production) will help us this year... Look out for cherries and recipes next week.

Mela, Sunday 25 July – want to help?

It’s another good family summer festival and Hornbeam, Organiclea, Forest Recycling and others are taking our climate change roadshow. If you’d like to join us and help run a bicycle smoothie maker, talk about composting, food growing, saving energy or just wax lyrical about the stall’s local honey… then let us know.

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News from our East Anglian suppliers: Hughes Organics

It has certainly felt like the hottest weekend of the year but I've been busy setting up irrigation and getting wet is a welcome relief as the temperature was high 30's.

It is constant work in these temperatures but as long as you can keep the water flowing the response from the plants is wonderful to see.
We have Cucumbers, Courgettes and Celery coming through strongly although the Fennel and Salad Onions will finish this week until the outside crop develops.

Cauliflowers continue to be good quality but there will be a break in the Broccoli supply for a week or so until the Lincolnshire crop is ready and which will be iced, an absolute must now we are in high summer. There is also some Summer Savoy this week as well as Pointed.

No New Potatoes this week but they too will be quick to respond as long as the irrigators get to them. The Carrots from Breckland continue though, and are excellent this year.

So it's all very busy but it's always very satisfying to reap the harvest.

Best wishes,

Grahame and Lizzie Hughes

Bean Feast: Enjoy!

Pick of the first crop – freshly harvested in Chingford

Fresh and tender are the locally grown french beans from Organiclea’s Hawkwood growing site in Chingford. They are a very special and unique variety, the “Cherokee” bean, see the story of these beans overleaf (from our growers blog).

Preparation tips: They need very little cooking – steam for around 5 minutes and add to salads or a plate of any dish you’re about to eat. The plumper beans will need lightly trimming down each side (stringing) as well cutting the top and bottom stalks. Word from the growers here who tasted the first pick of the crop last weekend:

“… They taste buttery, tender, yet substantial – a delight to eat” said Ru who ate them alongside a tomato casserole flavoured with dill (!), meanwhile Nicole’s words were “very, very tasty.” All the Hawkwood growers who have nurtured these glorious climbing plants that stand tall in a newly created growing bed in the glasshouse, hope you enjoy the beans as much as we just have. These bean plants stand were concrete once lay. One of our small successes - we hope you enjoy these.

By Any Beans Necessary

An excerpt from our grower Ru’s Hawkwood  blog http://organiclea.wordpress.com/

“We will start picking beans tomorrow. The climbing french beans in the glasshouse have wowed us all with their mauve flowers and their stature, and now their speckled fruit are pencil-thick and ripe for the eating… “Cherokee Trail of Tears” became our main cultivar. It is fast growing, fast maturing, pretty and productive, and has its own story to tell.

In 1829, gold was found in Georgia, Southwest USA, under Cherokee homeland. This prompted the Georgia gold rush, and moves by the government to “relocate” the Cherokee people to reservations in the “Indian Territory” (now Oklahoma). An army of 7,000 rounded up 13,000 Cherokees into concentration camps, destroyed their homes, then forced them to march the 1,000 miles through the freezing winter of 1838.

By the time they arrived, 4,000 of their number had died, of disease, starvation, cold and the occasional murder as they passed inhospitable settlements. The black seeded bean was carried with them on this trail of tears, planted as the bitter winter thawed to spring on the reservation, and still grown by Cherokees, and other gardeners interested in “heritage” seeds, to this day.

I see the beanstalks growing in the glasshouse , tiny pods pushing out from the shrivelling violet blooms, and see them as living sculptures, [also carrying] the spirit of hope and renewal represented by nature and nature-worshipping peoples.”

Welcome to Hornbeam’s new chefs!

We have found two excellent local chefs to share the busy café and catering work when AJ leaves next week. Today’s café menu is being prepared by Juanan, and you may have already sampled delicious icecream in the café made by Claire, the other new chef. They’re not planning to make huge changes to the menu but of course it will take them a little while to get used to the café and working with the seasonal produce we supply. As always they will welcome feedback from customers and will be happy to talk about the food they cook so come and try out their fare over the summer and let them know what you think!

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News from our East Anglian suppliers: Hughes Organics

A taste of things to come this week with several crops coming into harvest, albeit slightly tentatively.

With the first cut of Broccoli and Pointed Cabbage from Home Farm, Nacton in Suffolk, Bunching Carrots from Norfolk and the first pick of Courgettes, Mini Cucumber and Fennel to add to the leaves Lettuce and Salad Onions already coming from our Glasshouse in Norfolk it feels like a new season is upon us. We're just waiting for the New potatoes and Green onions.

Tomatoes and Peppers are setting fruit well and Aubergines are just coming into flower but the Beans are mystifyingly slow with the main shoots being damaged in the intense heat the previous weekend I think. Sometimes things just happen. Certainly the Bean crop will be late. The Courgettes and Cucumbers will be sparse for a week or two but then I expect we will be inundated. We look forward to that.

We should have regular additions to the local production in the coming weeks.

Best wishes, Grahame and Lizzie Hughes

A few words about greens…

Not all things green are edible, but much can get wasted because we don’t know what to do with it. Our bunched carrots and fennel both sport a healthy tuft of green goodness. Both are mild in flavour but perfectly edible, good for soups and salads, mixed in with creamy or cheesy sauces or as an edible garnish. Why not experiment with them to bring out their best - let us know how it goes!

Give or Take

Forest Recycling Project (FRP) is holding another Give or Take event on Saturday 26 June 12.30-2pm at Chingford Hall Children’s Centre. If you’ve got items to give away, bring them to FRP or get in touch before June 23^rd to arrange collection: 0208 539 3856 or www.frponline.org.uk

Pure Leaf

More musings of urban growing on London’s edge

We’ve been producing salad leaves at Hawkwood for over a year now, in containers, but now the West Bank, our “Salad Central”, is starting to give us salads grown in the ground.

It’s one type of leaf per bed, so the range of tastes and colour is at present quite narrow, but once we’ve got one terrace of thirty four beds dug and planted up, the diversity of leaf will become quite impressive. At Growing Communities the salad bags boast over forty species – and some sixty cultivars – over the year, plus a fine range of edible flowers – and I think that represents something of a panacea that we would like to approach.

As well as supplying our own market stall and box scheme, we’ve now got an outlet in the “local village” of North Chingford. The Deli Station are this week testing our salad bags out on their customers, as supplying Table 7 restaurant. Jo from the Deli was here on Friday and perhaps was struck, as I have been, by just how “clean” all the leaves are: the plants are not yet showing one leaf that needs “grading out” due to pest / disease / old age/ boredom.

To be honest it’s almost too perfect, but we should revel in it while we can. I know only too well that sustained cultivation in one place can have the benefit of improving soil structure, but also create great conditions for pest and disease build-up. It’s a reminder of the importance of rotating, moving around, and observing breaks. For me, that means strolling around the whole site once a week with a cup of tea. This month the tea rotation shifts from nettle to elderflower. Tastes perfect.

Be cooperative!

Starting today it’s the first ever Co-operatives Fortnight – promoting the fact that co-operation is good for people, good for communities and good for business. As a workers’ cooperative Organiclea is part of this worldwide movement; more next week or see www.thereisanalternative.coop

News from our East Anglian suppliers: Hughes Organics

This weekend's rain will be welcome for the field crops and should bring on the Summer Broccoli and help fill the new season bunched Carrot crop which should start being lifted later this week. New Potatoes should be hot on their heels while the Glasshouse is holding an excellent crop of Butterhead, Cos and Green Batavia.

We will start with Salad Onions this week as well, with Beetroot and Fennel developing well although probably 2 weeks away yet. The first few Courgettes were picked this week, (for home consumption!) and will get into full swing in a week or so, Mini Cucumbers will be similar.

So June looks like turning the season which will be great relief and the crops generally look in good heart. So something to look forward to in the coming weeks.

Best wishes
Grahame and Lizzie Hughes

In your bags this week

Where not stated, produce is from Hughes Organics and small farmers in Norfolk, Cambridgeshire and Suffolk. Contents may occasionally vary due to availability.

Standard Vegetable Bags have Red Sarpo Mira potatoes, carrots (Italy), onions (Holland), spinach, mushrooms, courgettes (Jersey), and tomatoes. They also have mixed salad from our growing site in Chingford and a free bag of Red Clover sprouts to make up for the mushy mustard sprouts you got last week! The ‘no-potato’ bags have parsley.

Small Vegetable Bags have Red Sarpo Mira potatoes, onions (Holland), courgette (Jersey), spring onions, mixed salad and Red Clover sprouts (both from our Chingford site).

Standard Fruit Bags have bananas, (Dominican Republic), Braeburn apples (France), oranges (Spain), lemons (Spain) and avocado (Spain).

Small Fruit Bags have bananas (Dominican Republic), Jonagold Apples (Holland), Blood oranges (Italy) and avocado (Spain).

Nursery Bags have bananas (Dom. Rep.), Braeburn apples (France), Blood oranges (Italy), kiwis (from New Zealand due to a communications glitch with our suppliers), mini watermelon (Spain) and avocado (Spain). They also contain tomatoes, red clover sprouts, mixed salad bags and carrots (Italy).

Eewww... Mushy Mustard Sprouts!

We’re so sorry about the poor condition of the mustard sprouts you received in your bags last week. These were grown and packaged at Hawkwood, our growing site in Chingford, and are still – so it seems – in the experimental stage of becoming a viable box-scheme product. The main problem seems to be getting a balance right between soggy and dry conditions with such a small and finely sprouting seed, so that they store properly from Tuesday packing to Wednesday delivery. Other, more robust sprouts, such as Red Clover, seem to be much easier to find that balance with. Therefore we will be putting the Mustard on hold for a while to give our team of white-coated (more like black-jeaned) boffins time to mull over the mystery of the mushy mustard. Thanks so much for your patience and tolerance and please find a fresh and free bag of Red Clover sprouts in this week’s bag to make up for it.

And please do continue to give us your feed-back and comments, no matter how critical. In fact, especially the critical! Because we can’t improve what we do without it. Compliments also welcome! Please send to box@organiclea.org.uk

Bread festival – 31^st July

Date for your diairies – the Hornbeam bakers are organising a celebration of bread and the first harvest with workshops, films, tastings... More details soon!

News from our East Anglian suppliers: Hughes Organics

Well the brilliant sunshine has to be welcomed but it highlights the desperate need for rain on recently planted or sown crops. In the Glasshouse it has been seriously hot this weekend and excellent for killing off the weeds germinating under the planted crops. We will follow with irrigation and the crops will race away. And the sunshine has been good for regrowth of the salads and Asparagus.

The sun has also brought on the first Little Gem Lettuce of the season and some Kohlrabi from Simon and Shelley Steele on the Cambridgeshire fens.

On the other hand Leeks have come to an end but there will be some Round Summer Cabbage in a week or so.

Although it remains lean at the moment some rain to assist growth in the warmer conditions will see a flood of new crops in June with Broccoli, New Potatoes, bunching Carrots and Savoy on the horizon and perhaps Fennel, Cucumber, Courgettes and Salad Onions from the Glasshouse. Then it will seem that abundance will have returned and we are looking forward to that.

Best wishes
Grahame and Lizzie Hughes

The Growing Season!

Before the World Cup season gets underway… enjoy a different kind of match report from the Hawkwood grower’s blog – musings of an urban market gardener (see more at www.organiclea.wordpress.com)

There’s no stopping us now: British summer, with its tempered light and heat, is bringing everything – especially seed sown veg plants and vitamin D-starved humans – out of their shells. Day by day the tomatoes and peppers are looking taller, stouter and tanning to a healthier deeper green hue. I had Lycopersicon nervosa (Tomato Worry – a common gardeners’ complaint) for a couple of weeks as

 greenfly caused significant leaf curl on them, especially the precious Kondine Reds. But Holly and I inspected on Thursday to find them virtually cleaned up: a combination of volunteer lacewing larvae and spiders; introduced ladybirds; soapy comfrey spray; and no shortage of emotional support from myself and Nicole, their Irrigator-In-Chief.

Much has been written and researched about the beneficial effects of singing and talking to plants, but recently I’ve taken to yelling at them. Encouragement, that is, as if they were my football team or a Tour cyclist ascending the Alpe. Ultimately, I believe it’s about giving attention and love, however you choose to do it.

The climbing french beans are now taller than me. Sure, when you’re as vertically challenged as I am, you get used to having to look up to things, only not things that just a few weeks ago got lost in the creases of my palm. It’s truly staggering, and makes you think perhaps Jack and the Beanstalk was an historical account after all.

The Entrance Field is taking shape. I’m really pleased with its appearance: it’s starting to actually look like what you might get if you cross-pollinated the attention-to-detail of the gardener with the broad strokes of the commercial grower. A bit more colour required, but we’ve only got ourselves to blame for that, as we insist on ripping the strawberry flowers off as soon as they emerge.

As yet, the pioneer strawberry and beetroot show no signs of interest from pests known or unknown. We’re now planting leeks. Wireworm, which can be a problem for leeks (and indeed our potatoes) is resident in the field, as it often is in established grassland. But we thought we’d risk it on the basis that I laid out potato and carrot traps last year and didn’t catch a single wireworm. True, anything that can turn itself into a click beetle is possibly clever enough to spot a trap when it sees one. But there’s no way they’ll have anticipated such vociferous support for the newly promoted green and white team when they’re on The Field. Altogether now: COME ON YOU LEE-EEKS!

News from our East Anglian suppliers: Hughes Organics

Well the brilliant sunshine has to be welcomed but it highlights the desperate need for rain on recently planted or sown crops. In the Glasshouse it has been seriously hot this weekend and excellent for killing off the weeds germinating under the planted crops. We will follow with irrigation and the crops will race away. And the sunshine has been good for regrowth of the salads and Asparagus.

The sun has also brought on the first Little Gem Lettuce of the season and Kohlrabi from Simon and Shelley Steele on the Cambridgeshire fens. On the other hand Leeks have come to an end but there will be Round Summer Cabbage in a week or so.

Although it remains lean at the moment some rain to assist growth in the warmer conditions will see a flood of new crops in June with Broccoli, New Potatoes, bunching Carrots and Savoy on the horizon and perhaps Fennel, Cucumber, Courgettes and Salad Onions from the Glasshouse. Then it will seem that abundance will have returned and we are looking forward to that.

Best wishes, Grahame and Lizzie Hughes

Seeking new Chef!

As many of you know, AJ the Hornbeam chef has done an amazing job developing the café menu over the last year, but sadly for us she has now decided to fulfil long term plans to move away from London, so the café is recruiting for a new chef. If you or anyone you know would be interested in this exciting role please see www.hornbeam.org.uk for the job description and application details, or pop in the café to find out more. Closing date is Thursday 10 June.

Hawkwood open day, Sunday 30 May

Join us at the growing site any time from 11am to 4pm. Skillshare at 11-11.30am on a seasonal growing topic led by one of the growers. Drop in and have a look around or join in with gardening activity. Plants will be for sale throughout the day, half price to residents of North Chingford! Bring packed lunch if staying for the day.

Find us and plants for sale also at the following community events:

  Friday 4 June: Kings Road Recycling and Reuse Centre  from 10-12. (On Kings Road in Chingford, E4 close to Friday Hill Junction near to Pimp Hall allotment site.)

  Saturday 5 June at Woodside Park Avenue Garden Open day on from 2-5pm.  (off Wood Street near Whipps Cross roundabout)

  Saturday 19 June at Trencherfield Allotments Open Day on from 12-3 (entrance on Lowther Road, E17).

  Saturday 26 June at Chingford Hall Give or Take Event at Chingford Hall Children’s Centre in Burnside Avenue on from 12-3.

  Saturday 26 June at Chingford Village Festival on Chingford Green in Station Road on from 10-3.

Don’t lose your tempura - box clever.

For most of us, the shift from buying ‘off-the-shelf’ to a box scheme is not just a change in our buying habits; it gives a new flavour to our entire relationship with and attitudes towards food. It changes not only what we eat and when we eat it, but the totality of how we eat – how we cook, how we share, and how we relate to waste.

Waste is a familiar issue for box customers. I know only too well the nagging guilt at last week’s pathetic, wilted cabbage as the next bag comes around too soon, or the mounting slag-heap of sprouting potatoes on top of shrivelling carrots. Guilt is never healthy, but it does indicate a sense of responsibility. And perhaps once in a while – maybe the next time we dispose of a past-it lettuce – we should celebrate that sense instead of beating ourselves up for failing in our ‘duty’ to consume!

Sometimes we feel like we are wasting more with a box scheme than when we were choosing what we want when we want it. But perhaps this is just because now we are seeing and taking responsibility for the waste we generate.

The difference in ‘off-the-shelf’ buying is that in joining the world of free choice, we entrust the responsibility for our waste with the retailer – the ‘pound-a-bowl’ stall, Tesco’s, even our own Saturday Fruit and Veg stall. At Organiclea, the relationship between the box-scheme, our market stall and the Hornbeam café means that our organic waste is very minimal. But, as we know, not all retailers take their responsibilities so seriously. And, as long as we demand our ‘right’ to unlimited choice, the mountains of food waste sent to landfill at the clear-up of every Walthamstow market day is no less our waste than the squidgy beetroot in the cupboard under the sink.

The guilt reaction can lead to shutting the cupboard in our minds and returning to the blissful ignorance of unlimited choice. But another approach might be to try and take a new perspective on the culture of food that supports the ‘off-the-shelf’ system we have grown up in. To ask ourselves what are the habits and behaviours and assumptions about food we have been taught? And what new ideas, skills and behaviours might help us engage with food and waste in a healthier and even more responsible way?

Food for thought? If so, please email your musings to box@organiclea.org.uk and we will ‘feed’ them back via future editions of this newsletter. But for now, a recipe to end all unused veg dilemmas, the uber-weekly clearout recipe of first and last resort:

Tempura Leftover Vegetables

Any mixed veg you have, including, but not limited to: potatoes (sticks or thinish slices), carrots (sticks), kohlrabi (thinish slices), courgette (sliced), mushrooms (thickly sliced or whole if small), onions (quartered layers), asparagus (whole if you dare), cauliflower (smallish florets), bananas (halved and sliced lengthways); sprigs of dill made into fritters (don’t knock it till you try it!), etc., etc., etc…

200g Flour

Iced water (preferably sparkling)

Salt, a pinch

Baking powder, ½ tsp

Vegetable oil (or Sesame oil), 1 tablespoon

Mix all the above, adding water until the batter is about the texture of double cream. Coat the veg in the batter and drop in hot oil until golden brown. Drain on kitchen towel or similar. As an option you could use sesame oil in the mix, or even mix in some sesame seeds.

Dips:

Soya sauce and lemon juice – about 60:40 but adjust quantities to taste.

Peanut Satay – Mix a blob of peanut butter, spoon of vegetable oil (or sesame oil), squidge of tomato puree, and as much hot pepper sauce as you can handle.

Finally, don’t waste those Kohrabi leaves, steam or sautee them in oil and lemon juice!

Reminder: E17 Art Trail

If you are an artist or know of someone interested in exhibiting at The Hornbeam for the E17 Art Trail please contact Rachel on 020 8558 6880 or email blue_sage7@yahoo.co.uk. Art Trail planning meeting this coming Friday, 28th May at the Hornbeam at 6pm to present exhibit ideas and allocate space.

Activities for Children on Fridays in the Hornbeam cafe, from 11th June

All ages welcome. Group gathers at 10.30 am to start at 11am and finish around 12pm in the cafe space. Activities will include storytelling, drama, kiddie yoga, music, movement, painting and drawing with sessions facilitated by parents and teachers (parents requested to stay on site, it's not a drop-off session). Payment by donation to the Hornbeam - suggested £1.50 per child.

We are trying this out initially - ideally we are looking to build a pool of session leaders so that this event can run each Friday at the Hornbeam in the cafe space downstairs. If you are a parent interested in leading a session please contact Rachel on blue_sage7@yahoo.co.uk or at the Hornbeam on 020 8558 6880. Parents who lead the session will not pay for their child to participate on that session.

Also planned are philosophy, maths and English lessons which would be taught separately to maximum of 8 children in a private room at Hornbeam. This will be taught by a teacher and will incur a charge. Please email or phone as above to register interest or questions.

News from our East Anglian suppliers: Hughes Organics

 A little rain has fallen to freshen things up for which we are grateful, but less so for the biting winds and cold nights, just as we have taken delivery of our summer fruiting crops - Tomatoes etc.. Nevertheless our glasshouse is filling up and the spring leaf crops are coming in on cue to take over from the overwintered. So it is busy on the planting front for the next few weeks.

The harvest is much the same with a new source of Purple Sprouting Broccoli from Dennis in Lincolnshire although originally they thought they had lost the crop in the winter. There is some recovery but it is limited.

We still await an abundance of Asparagus and we thought it might be this week, but I think the cold winds and dry have kept it shy. It is amazingly responsive to warmth and really doesn't like the cold.

The good news is that the first Lettuce of the season from Simon and Shelley Steele at Littleport in Cambridgeshire is available and, although a little lightweight yet, it will be very welcome. Their Spring Greens and Cauliflower are still good and Spinach is also plentiful. So the rich Fenland soil is coming alive and will provide us with plenty through the summer and autumn.

Best wishes

Grahame and Lizzie Hughes

What to do with a stem like Rhubarb?

Hmmm…rhubarb. Lovely, wholesome, weirdo rhubarb. Synonym for blether, named after the brave barbarians who ate it and relative of that other pink-stemmed oddball – sorrel. But is it a fruit? Botanically no. But we put it in our box scheme fruit bags… But we’ve decided this week to try and expand the savoury repertoire of this strange triffid-like ‘fregetable’.

Contemplating a delicious cup of ginger tea the other day, I casually queried a friend on the difference between a beverage and a soup. After a few unsatisfactory stabs at a definition, she put it in a nutshell – soups are salty. Instantly I felt she was right, and quickly intervened before another companion – having quite unwittingly (but totally serendipitously) picked up the salt-cellar – transformed her latte into creamed coffee bean soup. So hold on to your breakfast for…

Lentil & Rhubarb Soup (serves 6)

180g Dried green lentils

2 tsp Olive oil

340g Carrot, finely chopped

300g Celery, finely chopped

250g Onion, finely chopped

2 Tblsp fresh parsley, chopped

340g Rhubarb, chopped

1ltr Vegetable stock

½ Tsp salt

 ¼ Tsp freshly ground black pepper

1 Tsp chopped fresh Dill

6 Tsp crème fraîche, soft goat’s cheese, or vegan alternative such as plain soya cream.

Soak lentils in boiling water for 10 minutes. Heat a heavy pan on medium-high. Add olive oil carrot, celery, onion, and parsley to pan and sauté for 4 minutes. Add rhubarb and sauté for 3 minutes. Add drained lentils to the pan; stir in the stock and salt; cover and simmer on a lower heat for 35 minutes or until lentils are tender. Remove a couple of mugs of the mix from the pan and blend in a blender until smooth. Return to pan and stir in black pepper. Mix chopped dill and crème fraîche in a bowl and place a healthy spoonful on top of each serving of soup, garnish with dill sprigs.

When plants die

By Ru, from Organiclea’s Hawkwood blog organiclea.wordpress.com

There is so much to sing about this week. The apple blossom is in full bloom on the ornamental Maluses here, and on the newly planted row of cordons. When I go, I want to be buried under an apple tree – not just so I can “live on” in the fruit (“then we shall all have eaten thee” as the Yorkshire national anthem has it) but because the blossom is, I think, my favourite flower on this planet.

My thoughts aren’t far from death right now: in spite of all the fresh new life emanating from the fields and glasshouses, the distressing fact is that the cucumbers are being killed left right and centre. It really is a crying shame: Louise, Lucille and Brian planted them beautifully by their climbing strings, after Sean had pulled the stops out to get the beds ready in time. There they stood resplendent for a week, before being steadily executed at soil level.

What to do about problems? You don’t want to panic or jump to rash conclusions, but patient observation can allow things to escalate unchecked. In this case, within days half the crop was gone.  However we at least managed to establish, through early morning inspection, that it was woodlice. Yes, woodlice. So often I’ve leapt to their defence when other gardeners have unfairly scapegoated them for chewing plants: They tend to dine on dead matter and when they are seen in the vicinity of damage, they are almost always there as mere opportunists, taking a passing nibble on strawberry flesh slugs have bored in to, for instance, usually muttering “oh well, waste not want not” to each other.

And this is the thanks I get. A rare (but not unprecedented) case of them attacking unblemished, live, green material. I’m particularly upset as, as usual, amongst the cues I’ve sneaked in some melons.  Melons are tricky blighters that I keep failing with, but I’m nothing if not determined, and this year was going to be our year, melons and me. Ah, the best laid plans…

It’s not a good look, a grown man shaking his fists at two centimetre long crustaceans, but I’ll rage and grieve this week and then, I hope, get over it. Tony Benn, not most famous for his gardening advice, orated that, “there are no final victories and no final defeats”, in doing so explaining more about growing than any celebrity gardener (save perhaps Monty Don). We have back ups: there will be a, albeit slightly later, cucumber harvest at Hawkwood this year. And, after all, outside the apples are in blossom. No final victories, but right now we are winning. Happy May Days.

Calling all Leytonstoners: Your veg box delivery has arrived!

Yes! We can now announce the start of a new bike delivery run to the Bushwood area of Leytonstone.  So if you know of anyone in the E11 area who has been chomping at the bit for local and organic veg, please spread the word and ask them to get in touch with us.

Also, we should also mention that a similar service is being planned for the residents of the north of the borough via a pick-up point at Hawkwood Nursery in Chingford. Cycle deliveries from this point to the surrounding areas are also being considered, depending on demand. Again, please spread the word and tell interested parties to get their names on the list. We’re aiming for 30 names by the end of June to guarantee a July launch.

The next Hornbeam Quiz evening will be on Friday 21st May.

Len and Clare - who some of you may know from LCC - keen cyclists-  will be our quiz masters. 

As always please reserve your booking either by dropping in to Hornbeam or by cheque. This is necessary due to limited seating space.

Charge of £5 per person which includes a delicious veggie supper with extra food available to purchase alongside refreshments.

Doors open at 7pm, food at 7.30 pm and quiz kick off around 8.

Hope to see you there!

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News from our East Anglian suppliers: Hughes Organics

As we enter May the blossom is abundant, crops are being established and there is a sense of plenty to come. But however promising it may look, crops are still disappearing.

We have consumed the last of the Carrots although there are still some Parsnips. There are Italian new season to replace but the Spanish crop is late.

Purple Sprouting will be erratic now with so many plants killed in the winter, but Cauliflower is becoming more plentiful and better quality. The Spring Greens are exceptionally good and better coloured as it warms up, especially on the Fenland soils of Simon and Shelley Steele.

There is plenty of both Leaf Beet and True Spinach and the Salad Leaves continue with the spring plantings developing well. Wild Rocket is especially prolific now but the Clayonia is virtually finished until the next planting develops, and we haven't planted it yet!

It is the season of the Leaf, and stem if you include Rhubarb which is also gaining momentum.

So perhaps the Hungry Gap will not be so hungry after all.

Best wishes

Grahame and Lizzie Hughes

Jam tomorrow – suppliers needed

 If you find yourself with surplus fruit this summer and are a dab hand at stirring it up, why not make some jam to sell in the Hornbeam café? Last year we sold what we stocked and would like to sell again this year. Preference is for jam made with organic ingredients and fair trade sugar. Drop by and speak to Rachel if interested or email her on blue_sage7@yahoo.co.uk, and pass details on to anyone you know who makes yummy jam!

Hornbeam Quiz night

The next quiz evening at the Hornbeam will be on Friday 21st May. Len and Clare - who some of you may know from LCC - keen cyclists - will be our quiz masters. As always please reserve your booking either by dropping in to Hornbeam or by cheque. This is necessary due to limited seating space.

The cost is £5 per person which includes a delicious veggie supper with drinks and extra food available to purchase alongside.

Doors open at 7pm, food at 7.30 pm and quiz kick off around 8.

Hope to see you there!

On the art trail

This year once again the Hornbeam will be hosting artists’ exhibits and performances during the E17 Art Trail, which takes place around the borough from 3-12 September. Already a number of artists connected to the Hornbeam are thinking about how to use the space but there is room for others to be involved too, so if you or someone you know might be interested in exhibiting, come and chat to Rachel in the café (or by email to blue_sage7@yahoo.co.uk). There will be a meeting for potential interested exhibitors in late May.

See below for spring garlic ideas from Nigel Slater, and details of seedlings for sale...

Plants with a story to tell

Every Saturday for the next 7 weeks we are selling seedlings hand-raised at our Hawkwood nursery site. We hope they will bring health to the gardens and allotments of Waltham Forest and maybe even beyond! Plants stalls are on Saturday 10am-2pm outside the Hornbeam Centre, with plenty of lively vegetable growing chat on the stall for all fellow travellers and passers-by! Or come and buy at the Hawkwood nursery open day on Sunday 30th May. 

Some of the seedling varieties to look out for are:

‘Straightneck Yellow’ Courgettes: An excellent courgette with pale yellow fruits. Early and heavy yielding!

‘Matine’ Tomatoes: We like these because they are an early ripening variety producing medium sized red tomatoes.

‘Berner Rose’ Tomatoes: An heirloom tomato which was voted a favourite at Hawkwood last year and is very popular in Switzerland! Rosy pink when ripe, and full of juice and flavour. Often used as a salad tomato and compared to cherry tomatoes, which are similarly reliably firm yet flavourful.

We have six varieties of squash for sale – to pick out one example: ‘Black Futsu’ a heavily ribbed, small, black skinned round shaped squash! A choice and rare variety originating from Japan, it has an excellent sugary-nutty flavour when roasted reminiscent of hazelnuts. The flesh is golden coloured while the skin will turn from black to chestnut in storage. Medium sized around 2kg.

One of our bean varieties, the ‘Cherokee’ Climbing bean, has a remarkable heritage: 

In 1838 the Cherokee people were driven out of their homelands in the state of Georgia by the US government to make room for more European settlers, a forced march known as the 'Trail of Tears' because thousands died in treacherous, freezing mountain conditions. They carried this bean throughout the walk in the belief that one day they would return to their homeland.  This bean is one of their heirlooms they managed to keep with them and has been passed on from generation to generation ever since. You will see why the Cherokees valued it so much. It is incredibly prolific, cropping over a long season. 

Wild cooking

Nigel Slater sang the praises of spring and wild garlic, nettles and dandelions in last week’s Observer – here’s an extract.

The garlic is up. Not just in my vegetable patch, next to the self-sown spinach, but in the woods and hedges, too. The long leaves, wide and tapering to a point, are difficult to miss, the unmistakable smell wafting up from either side of the path. If you pick thoughtfully, leaving plenty in situ, there will be plenty for next year.

Spring garlic leaves and bulbs have a meekness in comparison to the chopped mature cloves, gentler and often acceptable to those for whom the older stuff is too strong. They have a politeness to them and won't overpower anything they are cooked with. That said, I always seal my packet of leaves tightly in the fridge, as even the smallest bundle will send unwanted Gallic notes through.

You can cook wild garlic – ramsons – as a vegetable. Cook the leaves and young white stems in a pot with a lid, using a couple of spoonfuls of water and some butter. A tight-fitting lid will enable the leaves to steam rather than fry, which is what such infant shoots need. I would add a shot of lemon juice to the pan, too.

The nettles that invade ditch and flowerbeds with equal abandon are free and relatively plentiful, but only the first few centimetres of the growing tips are interesting. They can be picked and stuffed into plastic bags and will keep for a week in the fridge. There is a spinach-like quality and they can be used in much the same way, though not for salad.

Don't believe all that stuff about the sting disappearing after the leaves have been picked – they can still pack a nasty punch. Take your thickest gloves. (I have the telltale itchy pink rash up my arms as I type.) The sting only dissipates when the fine hairs on the leaves and stems meet the heat.

It is not just the frugality of cooking with wild leaves that appeals: the pleasure is more the idea of exploiting something that is otherwise considered of little use. (They make excellent compost, too.) And every time I sting myself picking them, which I somehow manage even with gardening gloves on, I placate myself with the knowledge that the offending sprigs will soon be in the pot with onions, stock and seasoning. Grated nutmeg goes well with anything nettle based. I have learnt to go easy on the pepper.

The cracks between the flagstones outside the kitchen doors are a constant source of dandelions. I treat the gaps as a source of free salad. When the leaves are no bigger than my middle finger they are sweet enough to use in a salad. I had no idea you could eat the yellow flowers, too, until I spotted Alys Fowler making them into tiny pancakes on BBC2's The Edible Garden. I have always pounced on them before they turn to clocks and float over the nearby gardens, but now I will pounce on them with the frying pan in hand.

From the Observer, 2^nd May 2010

News from our East Anglian suppliers: Hughes Organics

The Greens and Purple Sprouting from Simon and Shelley Steele in Cambridgeshire has been magnificent and such a welcome taste of Spring and all the more welcome for being more abundant than anticipated. A little sunshine goes a long way, especially on the fertile Fenland of Cambridgeshire. The first pick of Rhubarb was also looking good and this should pick up as the weather warms and the large leaves make good use of the increasing sunlight.

This week we should see Asparagus, perhaps even by the weekend. That should more than compensate for the loss of some winter lines, we will have another source of unwashed Carrots, although few this week. There are good washed Carrots though and also a few Parsnips.

Southern European produce continues to be expensive and I'm afraid there is little we can do about it, all the more reason to look to the local seasonal production.

One more note. The extended storage Potatoes we are now using from cold store do tend to sprout quickly and should be checked regularly especially in warm environments. The sprouts can easily be rubbed off but if allowed to grow will start to dehydrate the Potato. The Potatoes can of course still be eaten. The best course is not to hold too much stock. We keep stock moving quickly but so do the Potatoes as time goes on, it's time for regrowing after all.

Best wishes
Grahame and Lizzie Hughes

Smoke signals local food eruption

With a volcanic belch and a puff of smoke it seems that Iceland has done a huge PR job for local food. While it raises serious questions about the pain of transition – especially for developing countries dependent on western markets – the grounding of food freight aviation has highlighted the topsy-turvy vulnerability of our globalised food

economy, and demonstrated how quickly it could all grind to a halt.

Ryan, stall and box scheme coordinator, says: It therefore seems appropriate to honour the volcanic contribution made to the local food movement this week with a topical recipe. And as Iceland is not renowned for its vegetarian cuisine (please correct my ignorance if you know better), I thought a geological theme might suffice… Use any sprouted beans or seeds for this recipe.

Fried Sprout Lava (Fritters) served with sweet molten dip and sprinkled with volcanic ash.

Lava Fritters

3 tbspns sprouts

1 small onion, finely chopped

2 cloves garlic, finely chopped

½ tsp fresh red chillies (adjust according to stamina), finely chopped

Pinch of salt & pepper

3 tbsp chopped fresh parsley

2 tbsp grated parmesan (or vegan equiv.)

1 egg (or egg replacer)

3-4 tbsp flour (enough to bind)

Veg oil, or mix of oil & butter (enough for frying)

Molten Dip

1 tbsp honey, 1 tbsp soy sauce, juice of 1 lemon, ½ tbsp dried chilli flakes

Volcanic Ash

Grind some black pepper, smoked paprika and pinch of rock-salt together with pestle & mortar.

Combine all the fritter ingredients in a mixing bowl. Then drop a heaped spoonful of the mixture into hot oil/butter in a non-stick frying pan. Shallow fry on a low heat until golden brown on both sides (usually 2 mins). To make the chilli dip, place the honey, soy sauce, lemon juice and chilli flakes in a small saucepan over a medium heat. When the mixture thickens pour into a small bowl to cool.

To serve, dribble dip on a plate to create a shallow pool, lay fritter on top, surround with sprigs of flat-leaf parsley and sprinkle with volcanic ash.

More overleaf

May Day Celebration – and plants for sale

Join us over a BBQ fire and veggie burgers for some community spirit celebrating... Spring barbecue on May 1st to celebrate May Day and Beltane.

Originally Beltane was spelt 'Bealttainn' and meant 'bright fire,' so a barbecue is perfect to symbolise this meaning. It's a festival to welcome the spring, renewed energy as the sun warms our skin and a time of new beginnings. 

May Day celebrates the working people, and although we don't have a May pole to dance around we will have good food, your company and music for the merriment of the occasion!

And of course we’ll also have the first seedlings from Hawkwood nursery for sale, alongside the regular market stall, from 10am to 2pm. The plants have been hand-raised at the Hawkwood Plant Nursery by workers from the coop and many local volunteers. Plants are priced from £1- £2 and come with after-care tips. Choose from squash, courgette, sweet corn and others that are commonly lost to slugs!

2010 is our first real growing season at Hawkwood Nursery and you can expect to see an increasing amount of produce from the nursery on the stall over the next few months. We’d like as many people as possible to be involved in and enjoy this project – there are many ways of doing this, see right for details of the next open day and regular volunteering opportunities, or check out our revamped website www.organiclea.org.uk.

Last week’s workshop on growing unusual vegetables was a buzzing information share of different varieties that people are growing locally or would like to grow – mooli, kudu, pepino, christophines, and many more. Look out for Cropshare bounty on the stall later this year!

A couple of other local activities which may be of interest:

Herbal Medicine at Hackney Community Tree Nursery

Beginning Tuesday May 4th 2010, a uniquely practical course exploring the medicinal properties of plants to be found on site at the beautiful and sustainable Hackney Tree Nursery.

The course will run for ten weeks - from 10am –1pm on Tuesdays. Each week will focus on just one plant. The course will consider clinical use, traditional knowlege, folklore, scientific research, and botanical detail.  But mainly it will be an opportunity to identify and harvest plants to use for your own kitchen remedies - from elderflower champagne, to nettle tortilla, from cleavers skin cream to daisy bruise ointment.

All welcome. Course costs £96 for the ten weeks, free to people on means-tested benefits.

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