Veg Box Newsletter 21st December: Before and Afters

Headlines

Covid-19

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

Christmas!

You can find everything you need to know about the last deliveries before Christmas here, but as it’s getting really very close, here are some reminders:

  • Your delivery or collection will be two days early, so if you usually get your veg box on a Wednesday, it’ll be on Monday 21st.
  • The Online Veg Box Shop will close for orders next week tonight at 11pm. 
  • The deadline for making changes to your veg box that week, including pausing it, has now passed. We’re still able to donate your box to our Good Food Fund, so email as early as you can, even if you’ve missed the deadline, if you need to pause that delivery. 

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

I don’t know about you, but I am deep in my culinary preparations for Christmas. My freezer is full of cut out but unbaked cheese biscuits. There’s a (free-range, high-welfare) duck in there too, and goose fat in the fridge. I have made and iced cardamom shortbread and posted it out to everyone I’ve ever met for more than 15 minutes. I have a stockpile of After Eights and brandy butter. 

This is my first time “putting on” Christmas: my partner and I have always gone to stay with his family or mine, but this year have decided it’s safer for our loved ones if we stay home. So like a lot of people, we’re figuring it out as we go along. Now, this would be a wonderful opportunity to pare Christmas down to the most important elements, figure out what it is we really enjoy, and have a relaxed, minimalist yule. 

On the other hand, we’re already missing out on our family and friends, so why miss out on the elaborate extras? I love jumping in head-first, baptisms of fire, and all that, so my Christmas menu is a mile long, with three vegetable sides (plus potatoes) and three deserts to choose from. I’m expecting to be a little stressed out come Christmas Eve, but I’m taking it a day at a time and doing as much as possible in advance. I thought you might be in similar boat, planning on cooking far too much, so here are some tips for how to get ahead with veg, and what to do with the inevitable leftovers:

  • Peel potatoes, carrots, and parsnips the day before and keep them in cold water
  • Parboil the potatoes the night before and keep covered in the fridge- then just roast them.
  • Braise the red cabbage in advance- you can keep in the fridge for a few days and reheat it, or freeze it and defrost it the night before. Or, steal my mum’s idea and put it in the slow-cooker overnight on Christmas eve. 
     
  • leftover sprouts fry up brilliantly, especially with bacon or black pudding, and make a wonderful breakfast or lunch. If you have mashed potatoes at Christmas dinner, make bubble and squeak. 
  • leftover veg can go in a pie, stretching it out into a meal in itself. 
  • If you have lots of parsnips leftover, try a soup. My pal Eliezer swears by a parsnip and pear soup like this one, or try this vegan curried soup