Friday is always an exciting day in the Cultiveater house… it’s food delivery day. In January, encouraged by a friend and fellow blogger who champions local produce (@part_time_farmers_wife), I arranged to have milk, eggs and butter delivered from a local dairy, and signed up to a weekly veg box scheme. The aim was to source food more sustainably and challenge myself to produce new and interesting family meals based on the seasonal veg that arrives each week.
The Box
The veg box is supplied by the Organic Pantry – a family run organic farm which is less than three miles from home. Much of the produce is grown on the farm itself or sourced from local suppliers wherever possible. I should say that I opted for this scheme because of how close it was to home, rather than because the produce was organic, although I am sure this is a big incentive for some people.
I have the medium veg box which is suitable for 2-3 people for a week, and generally get enough veg for 4-5 meals (for 3 people). Larger and smaller boxes are available, and you can mix in fruit, or have “less roots” if that’s not your thing. There’s also a juicing box which does pretty much what it says on the tin – I have to say I prefer my veg in non-liquid form so this one is not for me. Also, Part Time Farmers Wife is not a fan of fennel and Organic Pantry substitute this for her on the occasions it would normally be included.
My box costs £16.80 (although the second box was half price for signing up for a regular delivery). Honestly, I wasn’t sure of the value of this compared to my local supermarket, so I thought I would figure it out. For the first couple of weeks I weighed everything included in the box and did an online “shop” for the same items at Sainsburys (other supermarkets are available, but this happens to be the nearest one to me). I found that if, wherever available, I opted for the organic version then the box overall was a couple of pounds less expensive, but it was a few pounds more expensive than the conventionally-produced veg. Nevertheless, the box is delivered to my house for no additional cost and comes in a cardboard box which is collected the following week. The veg are either loose, in carboard boxes, or compostable bags and so completely do away with plastic packaging. The final point that makes it worth it for me is the range of produce; I’ve already had two types of veg I’ve never eaten before (hokkaido squash and flower sprout tops), and others that I love (like Jerusalem artichokes) that I sometimes find difficult to get hold of. Overall, I’m happy that the box provides good value for me. So on to the food…
The food
Last week I tried to keep a record of the meals I made using veg from the box. In almost all cases this was supplemented by meat from a local butcher (that’s a whole other post to save for the future) so for anyone who has read this far hoping for a good selection of vegetarian or vegan dishes, I’m sorry and look away now. To give an idea of what I had to work with, the box contained the following; potatoes, carrots, brown onions, swede, purple sprouting broccoli, cauliflower, mushrooms, vine tomatoes, fennel, courgettes and celeriac. I also had a hokkaido squash and a couple of parsnips left over from the previous week.
Saturday
We had friends for dinner who enjoy their food as much as us; they also happen to have a very impressive allotment so I was looking for tips (and spare seeds) for when my kitchen garden gets recommissioned in the spring. Dinner was cheese soufflés with roasted pepper sauce, braised pigs’ cheek and lemon tart. The veg box contributed glazed carrots and purple sprouting broccoli to go with the main – the broccoli was delicious.
Sunday
With only the Cultiveater family to feed and it being Sunday we had a traditional roast chicken dinner. We finished off the broccoli (which to my amazement was eaten by all without complaint) and had roasted roots, using up the remaining parsnips from the previous week.
Monday
This was a day of techniques and far too much effort for a week night in all honesty, but I had done some prep on the Sunday and was perhaps a little over-confident in what I could achieve in the time. Overall, I was following James Sommerin’s lamb salt-baked celeriac and tomato jam recipe from www.greatbritishchefs.com. I already had lamb rump (rather than the loin and rib called for in the recipe) and one large celeriac rather than two small. I made the tomato jam on the Sunday and cooked the lamb rump sous vide instead of low-and-slow in the oven. So far so good.
I had great fun with the salt-crust for the celeriac – this was the element of the recipe I really wanted to try – and after a couple of wrapping failures I managed to get the celeriac covered and into the oven. I used my Nordic Ware stovetop smoker and applewood chips to smoke the lamb (I think I left it a little longer than I should have but it still tasted good). The celeriac, was just cooked in time and made a really tasty mash with the addition of some butter, salt and pepper. The smoked lamb was seared quickly in a hot pan that was then used to fry the courgettes. All in it was a really tasty meal and the flavours of each element, with the addition of the tomato jam, worked really well together. Nevertheless, I rushed towards the end and final plate, whilst tasty and interesting in its flavours was anything but photo-worthy.
Tuesday
Aware that there was a hokkaido squash left over from the previous week, and that we had three short-horn rump steaks desperately in need of eating, after Mr Cultiveater had a mishap with the power supply to the freezer, I stumbled across a recipe for pumpkin gnocchi on www.recipetineats.com. This meal was the highlight of the weeks eats. My gnocchi, whilst not as uniform or neat as the recipe made me believe I could manage, were absolutely delicious. I added the chestnut mushrooms from the veg box, purple sage from the garden and lovely rich yellow Jersey butter from the milkman. It was a triumph. The steaks, seared in the same frying pan before frying the gnocchi, were delicious and came out a perfect medium rare. We will definitely have this again – and if you’ve never fried your gnocchi before… you really should.
A couple of days off cooking duties for a friend’s wedding takes us to….
Friday
A nice big cauliflower was left in the box. I’ve seen some cracking cauli recipes lately (stuffed with cheeses and herbs and wrapped in bacon, for example) but I also had a horseshoe gammon from the butcher waiting to be eaten. Ham and cauli cheese it was then. No recipe needed for the cauliflower cheese, just a rich cheesy sauce made with extra mature cheddar (and more grated over the top before baking). The ham was boiled and glazed using the instructions given on the Great British Chefs website. The glaze was perfect and might now be my go to recipe for my Christmas ham. I only baked the ham for 40 minutes instead of the 90 recommended (enough to get a good dark glaze) and I’m glad as I think the full cooking time may have made the ham a bit dry.
Realising I had a fennel left but no opportunity to eat it (and a bramley apple left from the pigs cheeks that I forgot to use) I made a quick fennel, onion and apple chutney, using fresh ginger and garlic, and cumin, mustard seeds, chilli and turmeric from the cupboard. Apple cider vinegar and soft brown sugar were used to get the right sweet and sour balance and it’s now maturing in the cupboard waiting for the next time I cook a ham. It’s nice to have something left for later. The remaining veggies were used in a root vegetable soup that I had for my lunches at work – I even had some sriracha kale crisps left from the week before as a garnish. Note to self: do not put dehydrated kale on hot steamy soup and expect it to stay crisp!
– Clara –
Please note: Original recipes for the all of the meals mentioned above can be found at the links included in the text. Where I have adapted these they will be added to the recipes pages of the blog shortly.
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