food & drink
seasons eat the
Keeping you in the know as to what is coming into season each month is NEIL MORTIMER from Lovejoys Wholesale...
M
arch 2020 and lockdown feels far away now in fact like another lifetime!
We supply mainly retail leisure and hospitality customers who, as we all know, closed for three months. As I write some are still closed now as their premises or kitchen areas are too small for social distancing so they have no idea when they might be able to open again. It is wonderful to see people eating out again getting our trade going. All our customers are doing their level best to ensure customer safety and confidence to return. It is particularly difficult for those who had to shield for so long to feel relaxed enough to sit in a public environment to have coffee or a meal, but hopefully confidence is now growing. As long as we all stick to the guidelines - masks, handwashing, social distancing etc - we can get this huge part of the country’s economy growing again. Looking ahead though September is a time when we start to forget about summer vegetable crops like runner beans, broad beans, peas and salads. Let’s not focus too much on the winter veg yet as it is a very long winter! We have some fantastic produce grown locally which will 22
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be more than enough to whet the appetite for a month or two yet. Available at the moment in local farm shops and village shops are ruby chard, heritage beetroot and carrots, cavolo nero and kale, broccoli and kohl rabi. All of the lovely fresh
elderflower berries, sloes and wild horseradish. Look a bit harder in the woods and you will find hazelnuts and sweet chestnuts. Next month we will have an autumn competition. In the meantime
“The foragers among you should find plenty of blackberries, crab apples, elderflower berries, sloes and wild horseradish.” local herbs and watercress are at their best also. This year, perhaps more than any other year since the war, people are selling lovely locally grown vegetables that they have an abundance of in their vegetable patches and allotments. Keep an eye out for these in your local area. The flavours are always superior to produce that has been shipped in and it’s vital to shop locally if you can. As we don’t seem to have many fruit growers left in our area we get up at 3.30 every morning to visit the fruit market to pick out the best soft fruit for our chefs with wye valley strawberries, raspberries and blueberries being our favourites. UK apples and pears are now available as well and there are many community orchards with fruit growing ready for picking soon. The foragers among you should find plenty of blackberries, crab apples,
enjoy growing and harvesting if you have a grow bag, a window box, an allotment or a garden. If you have been thinking about an allotment my tip would be to search out the ones nearest to you and go and have a walk round them. If you feel like it would be right for you then approach them and put your name on a waiting list. Sometimes it can take years to get to the top of the list and you can always say no when the time comes. You might have a new hobby next year! Neil neil@lovejoyswholesale.com @lovejoysuk • lovejoyswholesale.com
