Veg Box Newsletter 27th July: Spotlight on a(nother) Supplier

Headlines

Plastics

You’ve probably noticed that we’ve been packing down greens from our farm in plastic for a while now. This isn’t ideal- it’s a last resort because the pandemic has made getting hold of the compostable biobags we usually use pretty difficult. The good news is we’re now expecting a delivery of biobags in the next week or two, so your greens should be back to being plastic-free again soon. 

Going on Holiday?

As lockdown begins to ease, we know you might be planning some time away. If that’s the case be sure to send us an email to let us know which weeks you’d like to pause your veg box for. The deadline to do this is 9am on Monday the week of the holiday- we can’t guarantee pauses requested after that time. If you can let us know earlier, that’s even better, as the extra time lets us plan our harvests and veg buying better. So why not shoot us an email as soon as you’ve booked the train tickets? 

Covid-19 Updates

You can read about changes made to our service due to the pandemic here

In the Veg Boxes This Week

Subject to last minute changes

Check out storage guidance for helpful tips and tricks on how to prolong the life of your fresh produce. If you’re wondering where your veg comes from, have a look at these maps. You can also join your fellow subscribers over in the Facebook group for lots of tips, tricks, and recipe ideas!

To contact us, ring 0141 378 1672 or email us at subscribers@glasgowlocavore.org

Click here for Veg Box Contents

The Nice Bit

You’ll most likely have spotted “Organic Pantry, Yorkshire” on the “what’s in my box” list quite a lot over the past few months. And you may be asking, what is this magical pantry from which such delicious veg comes? As we’ve got lots coming from them this week, we thought we’d shine our spotlight on them. 

Based near Tadcaster in North Yorkshire, Organic Pantry is a family-run farm. They began converting to organic farming way back in 1999, and completed the process in 2004. While the most obvious benefit of organic farming is their incredible veg, they’ve also seen huge the impact on biodiversity on the farm. Planting hedgerows and not using pesticides improves the variety of insects and other minibeasts. A survey of their farm in 2017 found that they had seven times the diversity of butterflies when compared to a conventional, non-organic farm. They keep bees for pollination- charmingly, they’ve also posted a video of a bee having a sip on some sugar water on their Facebook page, which I thoroughly recommend watching. All this insect life contributes to bird life, so that they’ve seen rare bird populations flourish. 

Organic Pantry also runs a farm shop- worth popping by if you’re ever in Yorkshire- sells at a variety of markets in the area, and runs their own veg boxes, so if you know anyone who lives in North Yorkshire due a birthday present, there’s an idea for you. 

In our veg boxes this week, we have three items grown on their farm: beetroot (red and chioggia, which is striped and delightful), broad beans, and kale. We also have some items they source from elsewhere and sell through their wholesale department, including the broccoli from Ormskirk and the mini watermelons through from Spain. 

If you’d like to learn more about one of our favourite suppliers, you can check out Organic Pantry’s website here

At Locavore, we love that we can support such cool, ecologically-minded businesses while providing you with tasty, fresh produce. What we grow on our own farm in Neilston is definitely our favourite, and there’s kale and chard and parsley and cucumbers and celery from them this week too! But supplementing from down south makes our boxes better, and helps create the alternative food networks we need to create sustainable, joyful ways of eating.

Flowers

The flowers are still blooming, and blooming beautiful! Add them to your subscription by emailing us, or add them to your order on the Veg Box Online Shop. 

Good Food Fund

Thank you for your donations to the Good Food Fund, which partners with charities to support those vulnerable to food insecurity. You can donate via subscription, or on the Online Veg Box Shop. You can also choose to donate your veg box to the Good Food Fund when pausing it for a week or longer.