Veg Box Time

After almost a month I'm getting a new local organic veg box today from Riverford. I'm still amazed how long the last box lasted but I have a feeling this one will disappear a bit quicker.

In this weeks box there is

• potatoes
• carrots
• onions
• parsnips 
• courgettes
• butterhead lectuce
• red bell pepers
• sugar pumpkin

We're right in the middle of pumpkin and squash season now and as well as tasting delicious these veg keep so, so well. As long as they are dry and not too warm they'll keep for months in a cupboard. Ready to be grabbed if  you're making a roast, soup or adding to risotto.

This is the first lot of parsnips too. They get their sweetness after the first frost so now the temperature's dropping they're ready to be dug up and enjoyed. The parsnip season continues right through winter (peaking around Christmas mainly because of demand) and I'm looking forward to trying new recipes, venturing away from the typical mash or roast.

I'm also pleased to see that almost all my veg is from the U.K. the exceptions being the peppers and courgettes which are both from Spain. I'd rather have all my veg locally from the U.K. but knowing that none of them were flown here is good.

This weekend we'll be having another large (ish) joint of meat which will hopefully last through the next week. It'll probably be beef but unfortunately not from Riverford. They do sell organic meat but you can only buy it if your meat order is more than £25 which, with a freezer full of soups and cooked apple, is too much for us to use up quickly enough. I try not to eat meat everyday and so we don't use that much each week. Maybe when we have a bigger freezer we'll start ordering meat too.