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The Online Veg Box Shop
While the Online Veg Box shop was closed last week, we ran a survey to ask what we could do to improve it. One thing you all said was that you’d like to know what you’re getting in your veg boxes earlier to help plan your shopping, so from this week on the newsletter will hit your inbox on Friday. You can also always find out what’s in your veg box by clicking the “what’s in my veg box” link in the “veg boxes” menu on our website- this is updated on Fridays as well.
Additionally, we’re moving the hours on the Online Veg Box Shop to make things simpler and fairer. From this week, it will open on Friday afternoon, and close for everyone at 11pm on Monday morning. We’ll be sure to remind you when it opens and closes.
This week we’re offering foraged girolle mushrooms, plus celery, lettuce, and kale from our farm, so get shopping!
There will be more improvements on the way, but it’s not too late to have your say- the survey is still open. It only takes a minute or two so why not let us know what you’d like to see?
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?
If you miss the deadline, we’re generally able to donate the contents of your box to our charity partners instead of delivering it; you’ll still be charged, however.
Chilled Items for Collections
If you collect your veg box from our Victoria Road shop, please be sure to grab the chilled items from our fridge. There will be posters up in the shop to let you know what to look for, and you can always ask the staff in the shop to help if you’re having trouble finding something.
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
Well! Between our new delivery route software, the bank holiday in England delaying our deliveries, one of our deliveries not arriving at all, flooding, a breakdown, a burst tyre, and a whole lotta of technical issues, it’s been quite the week. I know it’s been quite the week for you all as well, and we want to say a huge thank you to you all for bearing with us! Change can be difficult, but this is most certainly change for the better, as we’ll be reducing the carbon footprint of our deliveries by 20%.
The season, also, is changing (how’s that for a segue?) and the big tell that Autumn’s settling in in the veg boxes is the butternut squash in standards, larges, and XLs. Winter squash are one of the most delicious parts of the changing season, and butternut isn’t just one of the cutest-named ones (although sweet dumpling squash is a good runner-up), it’s also one of the most approachable and familiar squashes of the season.
Mine will go into soup. I’ll roast it with carrots and onions, rosemary, and plenty of olive oil; at the same time, I’ll roast a head or two of garlic in foil. When the veg is soft and just a little charred, and the garlic has turned to a velvety purree, I’ll blend it all together with stock, stir in some cream, and just about eat it all there on the spot. I’m not always passionate about soup, but the rich, unami flavour of the roasted garlic plus the sweetness of the squash makes this a lunch worth writing home- or, indeed, a newsletter- about.
We have a couple of recipes for squash in our archive- maybe you’d like to use it in laksa, maybe you’d like it roasted with sausages.
The internet is choc-a-block with amazing butternut squash recipes to boot. What about a warming risotto for these wet days? Curry, fritters, burritos! For a weekend project, why not make butternut squash ravioli, elevating the weekday classic to a sophisticated treat?
Butternut squash, roasted or steamed, has a dense, velvety texture and a sweet flavour that works with all sorts of other ingredients. I can’t wait to hear what you do with yours!
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.