Shillingford Organics

July News 🌻 - https://mailchi.mp/de6ae3a62e54/shill-org-july24-news

Phew, and just like that, July is almost done. It's a frenetic time at the farm; the harvest list keeps getting longer whilst we're also planting hundreds of thousands of crops for the winter! Read our latest newsletter for:
🌱 lots of lovely photos
🌱 10% discount code for new box customers
🌱 our upcoming event: From Wheatsheaf to Bread

Volunteer day - Tuesday 23rd July

Would you like to come and lend a hand on the farm next Tuesday (23rd July)? We need help bringing in the last of the overwintered onions from the field so that we can plough it ready for drilling chard.

Where: Shillingford Organics
Time: 8am - 2.30
How: email [email protected] to let us know so we can send you more info.

We will provide a simple vegan lunch, tea/coffee and plenty of veg to take home ☀️👩‍🌾

Looking back at our solstice event on the 22nd June. Thanks to everyone who came along to enjoy this lush little corner of Devon. We're always pleased to show people of all ages around the farm and to share our appreciation for this bit of land that nourishes us. It's great to connect our customers to where their food is grown and hopefully to inspire the next generation of farmers and growers!

We shared a delicious lunch made with produce from the farm, took tours on the tractor-trailer, and made beautiful summer wreathes with flowers picked from the meadows and hedgerows.

Upcoming events for your diaries:
[more details and tickets to follow]

From Wheatsheaf to Bread
August 25th
Threshing the wheat grain grown on the farm and making bread.

Farm Open Day — 'Organic September'
22nd September

Squash Harvesting Day
12th October

Honesty stall update 🥕🍅🥒🥔

As we re-emerge out of the humble (hungry) gap, our little honesty stall is once again looking colourful and abundant. It's located along Barton lane at the farm and is a great spot to grab some fresh veggies whilst enjoying the peace and quiet of the countryside.

Our aim going forwards is to top it up every Mon, Weds and Fri afternoon. As ever the availability is crop, weather and time dependent so please bear with us 👩‍🌾

It's cash only so remember to bring your change !

We’re back at Topsham Saturday Market tomorrow!

We dug up our first new spuds today. Great timing as we head back to Topsham market after a break whilst our stocks were low over the Hungry Gap. From now on we’ll be outside Matthews Hall every Saturday, 8.30 - 1pm.

As well as tatties, Tom will be there tomorrow with lots of salad, lettuce, onions, and a smaller selection of beans, courgettes, kale, raspberries, rhubarb, cucumbers, radish, turnips, herbs and more!

Having lots of fun with the wild flowers this week and getting ready to welcome you for our summer solstice event this Saturday. The lunch menu is looking delicious despite the humble gap! And the flowers and grasses are going to make lovely wreaths and crowns.

Follow the link in our bio for tickets or book with cash at the Shillingford Shop.

We’re fast approaching the longest day of the year - the summer solstice. With the sun beaming down, high in the sky, life is blooming all around us.

On Saturday 22nd June, come and join us and enjoy our lovely farm. Explore the hedgerows and forage their flowers; cruise the farm in Martyn’s tractor-trailer; and share a tasty seasonal meal made with veg from the fields.

Visit so-solstice.eventbrite.com for more info and to book tickets.

The plastic packaging conundrum...

A small but important facet of our business is packaging. Wherever possible we try to avoid it. However, sometimes it seems to be a neccessary evil if we want to maximise longevity, and minimise food waste.

We're considering if home compostable bags could be a better solution than traditional plastic. We think it's not as clear-cut a decision as you might assume...

We've written a blog post to try and make sense of the issue. Please help us decide what to do by reading through and filling out the short survey at the bottom of the page.

Thanks very much to those who have already answered the survey, all your feedback is really helpful!

Plastic vs. bioplastic — help us decide

It’s that beautiful time of year again on the farm. The fields are humming and the hedge rows are buzzing with new life. New season crops are popping up all over and the growers are scurrying around getting the last of the spring seedlings out and weeding like busy bees. We are approaching midsummer which marks the beginning of abundance and the closing of the humble gap. 

Summer solstice will mark the changing of the tide and it’s a lovely time to celebrate with our community. So please come and join us on Saturday 22 June for a farm day with freshly home cooked food, flower picking and wreath making, farm tours and more. Follow the link in our bio for more info.

Crops may be minimal still but it’s wonderful to see what can be done with these precious veggies that carry us through the spring.

Summer Solstice Celebration 2024 - https://mailchi.mp/009da0bf79dc/so-solstice

The farm is bustling with life right now and full of promise for a juicy summer b***y. Come and join us for a wholesome day out for you and the kids; with a tasty seasonal meal, a tractor-trailer ride, willow wreath making; and more!

Follow the link for more info.

May News 🌱 - https://mailchi.mp/a40a2aac7dda/shill-org-may24-news
May is one of the most exciting months. The farm is buzzing with life again as new growth and flowers pop up all over the place. We're in the middle of the hungry (or 'humble') gap, so the variety of veg on offer is limited, but there are still plenty of new-season treats to enjoy.

Click the link to read our latest newsletter and get the full low-down.

Join us at the farm for a family friendly day of feasting, foraging, and crafts. We will be celebrating the summer solstice, serving up a simple lunch using what we have at this leaner time in the season.

Expect:
🌱 Simple seasonal vegetarian/vegan lunch
🌱 Farm tour on our tractor–trailer
🌱 Wreath and crown making with what we can find in the hedgerows
🌱 Handmade crafts to buy
🌱 Cakes and drinks available to buy

Click the link below for more info and to purchase tickets.

Summer Solstice Celebration at Shillingford Organics Farm Celebrate the sun with your family and enjoy feasting, foraging and crafts at the farm on Exeter's doorstep

The Hungry Gap is upon us. It’s the period in the UK when we’re waiting for newly planted crops to grow, and winter veg like cabbages, purple sprouting broccoli and leeks have mostly finished; along with stores of carrots, beetroot, swede and squash. For us growers, it means our focus now is clearing spent crops, and sowing and planting new ones: it’s a hive of activity on the farm. But for our customers, it means we’ll have a limited offering for the next five or six weeks.

Although we are now harvesting some fresh, new-season crops, we don’t have the quantity or range to keep supplying all of the usual places. We have to prioritise our most local outlets: our veg box scheme; Exeter Farmer’s Market; and our shop and café.

This means we’ve had to take the difficult decision to pause our other farmer’s markets for a few weeks. We’ll hopefully be back at Topsham, Crediton and Teignmouth from around the middle of June, with a wide array of juicy summery b***y.

For now — as well as the indomitable chards and spinach — we’re enjoying harvests of early-season veg like spring onions, green garlic, some winter-sown lettuce, squeezed in to a polytunnel, the first few sugarsnap peas and the first small (but very tasty!) harvest of carrots: over-wintered in the tunnels. The first harvest of broad beans is just around the corner...

Please bear with us through this lean patch. When the abundance of summer returns, it will taste all the more sweet for the wait!

April news from the farm - finally a break in the rain! This is the week we've all been waiting for. Read our latest newsletter to find out what we've been up to whilst we've waited for the ground to dry. As well as: a spiced cauliflower recipe from Marta; customer conversations with Johanna; and what we're harvesting now as we enter the Hungry (or 'Humble') Gap. https://mailchi.mp/6df11be71cd3/shill-org-april24-news

We know how much you love our carrots and onions, so it's a tricky moment in the year when our supplies come to an end. We're pleased to be able to keep a steady stream of carrots from our farm almost all year round. However, there is nearly always a gap between the over-wintered crop and the spring carrots grown in our polytunnels. We expect to start harvesting this new crop around mid-May — see photo for their progress!

In the absence of high-tech, climate-controlled storage facilities (ideal storage conditions are 0-2°C and 95-100% humidity!), we store over-wintered carrots in the ground where they've grown. This means they're subject to damage from pests and rotting — especially in a wet year such as this!

As for onions, we simply don't have the scale to produce enough to last right through the year. Happily however, their cousins, the spring onions are here to take the baton. Customers will have already seen these fresh, green beauties in the veg boxes and at our market stalls. 'Green onions' will also be making an appearance very soon — these are the same as the bulb onions that we all know and love, just harvested a little earlier in their life cycle.

As we know how fundamental these two vegetables are in many people's kitchens, we are still offering carrots and onions on our online shop and in our curated 'speciality boxes'. These have been grown a bit further afield in Italy or the Netherlands by organic growers who supply Riverford’s wholesale enterprise.

So for our markets and our 'standard boxes', we'll continue to offer the best of what's grown right here at Shillingford. Including: spring onions, salad leaves, leeks, rhubarb, chard, beetroot, swede, squash and cauliflowers.

Beetroot is one of the most hardy crops that we grow. Unfazed by anything the winter can throw at it (and now this soaking wet spring!), we'll continue to harvest them from the field for another few weeks. This fine specimen has a particularly good head of hair; more than can be said for grower Kris! 🤪

They'll both be at Exeter Farmer's Market today, 8–1pm. Fingers crossed for a mostly dry day 🤞

Whilst the range of produce on offer is beginning to wane slightly as we approach the leanest part of the year, there is still a good selection on offer! Our carrots have come to an end for the season — spring carrots are coming along nicely in the polytunnels — and we're now buying potatoes from larger UK producers with better storage facilities. Listed below are the contents of our large Standard veg boxes. The medium and small boxes will have the same contents, minus one or two items respectively.

Pictured are: purple sprouting broccoli; swede modelled by Ed (AKA Swed); and Giant Red mustard — which goes into our stir fry bags, alongside a variety of sweet cabbage and kale shoots.

Large veg box contents next week:
Broccoli: Purple Sprouting (300g)
Chard: Swiss (250g)
Kale: Hungry Gap (250g)
Leek (400g)
Potato, UK (1.5kg)
Spring Onion (150g)
Squash: Crown Prince (500g)
Stir Fry (150g)
Swede (500g)

Visit our website to view the wide range of organic products we offer. Sign-up for a veg box today and receive your first delivery between 8th–11th April. https://shillingfordorganics.co.uk/

March News 🌦️ - https://mailchi.mp/a1dd038ebd23/shill-org-march24-news
Read our latest newsletter for updates from the [soggy] farm; find out what's in season; plus some tasty recipes. We also take a look at research by the FFCC into why food is so important for the climate, nature and health.

Kale shoots!

As we move into spring, lots of the overwintered brassicas are nearing the end of their annual life-cycle. They’re starting to send up tender new shoots, tipped with juicy flower buds. These buds and stems are a real seasonal treat; tender, sweet and full of vitality. They’re only around for a short time so get them while you can - we’ll have them for sale at Exeter Farmer’s Market tomorrow, Thursday 21st, 8–1pm.

For maximum flavour and nutrition, saute or steam for a few minutes until softened but still a bit crunchy. Nice served with a dressing of olive oil, lemon juice and salt.

Here’s Helena with a lovely little bouquet of Cavolo Nero shoots 💐

February News ⛅ http://tinyurl.com/4jj583t6

Change is in the air...

Read our latest newsletter for updates from the farm; find out what's in season, plus some tasty recipe ideas. We also share some great resources for seeds and growing tips!

📸 .kitchencooks

Giving the rhubarb some TLC. Once a year we dig out any perennial weeds (mainly couch grass) that has popped up between the rhubarb. We then lay down a thick mulch of straw - reusing the straw from our squash stores. This keeps the worst of the weeds at bay throughout the season.

This variety of rhubarb should start cropping in May. The first variety - Timperley Early - should be making an appearance in April. Not too long to wait now!

Crown Prince Dumplings

This is a very basic recipe that you can play with, changing the type of squash or using potatoes instead. It’s fun to make this with other people. So is a good recipe for a Friday night 🙌🏽

Ingredients for 4 people:
360g Peeled and roasted crown prince.
140g Pasta flour (All purpose flour will work too)
½ tsp salt

Peel and roast the squash until soft. Once cooked, let it cool down for 10-15 minutes and then mash it. While it’s still a bit warm add it to a big bowl with the salt and incorporate the flour little by little. Mix well until you form a ball. The dough should come together; if it’s too sticky add a bit more flour and knead gently until it becomes a smooth dough.
Let it rest, covered, for at least 30 minutes, or a few hours is even better in the fridge.

To shape the dumplings, cut the dough into 6 portions, dust them each with flour, dust the working surface of the counter with flour and roll each portion with both hands into long tubes. Then with a dough cutter, or knife, cut into dumplings. Dust with a bit more flour the dumplings and shake them between your hands to remove the excess, and then place them separately in a drying rack with baking paper.

The dumplings are ready to be cooked as soon as you shape them, or you could keep them for later and refrigerate them for up to a couple of days. To cook them, bring to boil the water with salt, and pour in the dumplings - they will be cooked once they come up to the surface. This is the basic recipe - you can just eat them on their own with a bit of kale pesto, brown butter and sage sauce, or any other sauce you fancy.

Kalettes or kale sprouts are delicious little treats at this time of year.

They grow on the stem similar to brussel sprouts but with the tender taste of young kale.

It’s a short season for them so grab some whilst you can at Exeter and/or Topsham farmer’s market.

Remember that we are at Exeter Farmers Market until 1 PM

🌱🥬🥦🥕🧅🥔🍎

Bountiful, beautiful, blue leeks! This winter stalwart is holding fast in the frosts, and tasting all the more sweet for it. Just like other winter veg such as cabbage, swede and beetroot; leeks convert starches in their cells to sugars which act as a kind of natural 'anti-freeze'. This process means the veg can survive sub-zero temperatures, and we get to enjoy their tasty sweet flavour!

Red Russian Kale Chips

Kale is a star on the farm, we grow lots of different varieties and it’s often found in our boxes and at the market. It’s really versatile: it goes well in salads, stews, to make pesto, in smoothies, fritters... but today we are sharing a snack, which you can sneak any moment along the day, or use as a topping for soups or any other dish really.

Ingredients:

Big bunch of Red Russian kale or another type of kale
1 tbsp sesame oil
1 tbsp sunflower or rapeseed oil
1 tsp Sesame seeds
¼ tsp Chilli flakes
2 garlic cloves
Pinch of sea salt flakes.

Turn the oven on to 150 C. Clean the kale and remove the stalk with your fingers pulling the leaves, or with a knife. Place the kale in a big bowl, add the oils, sesame seeds, chilli flakes, salt, and thinly chopped garlic and massage all together with your hands. In a tray or two trays spread all the kale, well spaced out, and place them in the oven for about 10 minutes, keeping an eye on them. If it starts to get a bit brown stir a bit and keep them in the oven for a bit more until you get them crispy. It would take between 10-15 minutes depending on your oven. Remove the trays from the oven and let cool down before you eat them. Don’t eat them all at once!

We’re very pleased to welcome two new trainees to the farm this month. Charlotte and Helena are joining us as part of the Level 3 Traineeship In Regenerative Land-Based Systems: Food & Farming. We’re one of 17 host farms in the year-long scheme which entails four days a week learning on the job, and one day of structured learning at the Apricot Centre.

Funded by South Hams District Council and West Devon Borough Council, the traineeship is designed to help people transition into, or upgrade their skills in, the world of regenerative farming.

Salad leaves colours 🌿

📸 .kitchencooks

Winter squash and swede soup🙌🏽

This week has been a proper introduction to winter with these low temperatures, and so it means time to prepare soups to warm you up any time along the day. We have used mainly crown prince squash and swede, but you can pretty much use whatever veg you have left lying around.

Ingredients:

Half of crown prince or other squash
1 parsnip
1 swede
1 leek
1 onion
Few garlic cloves
Extra virgin olive oil or your preference of oil/fat
Black pepper
Salt
Dry winter chanterelles or another dried mushroom.

In a pot, medium heat, pour a bit of oil, add the chopped onions, carrot, leeks and salt, and cook them for about 10 minutes with the lid on. When they get a bit of colour add chopped garlic and the peeled swede in cubes, cook for 5 more minutes before adding the peeled squash. Cook for 10 minutes more. You don’t need to chop too small the vegetables as we are going to blitz it all at the end. Add water until you cover all the vegetables and bring to a boil for about 10-15 minutes or until the veggies are soft. Meanwhile, soak the dried mushrooms with warm water for 5-10 minutes, after that time pour the remaining liquid into the soup, and fry up the mushrooms with a bit of oil or butter in a pan until they get crispy. Turn off the heat from the soup and blitz until smooth.

Serve some soup in a bowl, add some of the crispy mushrooms and a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil. Enjoy!

📸 .kitchencooks