Eat the Seasons

seasons eat the

Keeping you in the know as to what is coming into season each month is NEIL MORTIMER from Lovejoys Wholesale...

September has been a fairly dry month but we have had a decent summer with crops faring well, both in quality and yield. This has been a normal, average season. A crop I always keep a very close eye on is potatoes. Our chefs want large potatoes for chips and if it doesn’t rain at the right times when they are growing the size is affected enormously. This leads to lower yields and higher prices. Thankfully they are looking a decent size at the moment so the price should be normal for the year ahead.

We sell several different varieties for all uses which include our locally grown Maris Piper for chips and roasting, Red Roosters (red skinned potatoes as their name suggests) for mashing and a speciality brand which is just for chipping. This is as well as baking potatoes, new potatoes and prepared potatoes (peeled and ready by us for the chefs kitchen).

All locally grown vegetables are plentiful especially cavolo nero, kale, carrots, cabbage and beetroot to name a few.

Now it is autumn we have started supplying root crops such as local parsnips. Everyone expects roast parsnips with their Sunday lunch (or is that just me?) and another trend, especially among the granddaughters in my family, is to ask for a Yorkshire pudding with every roast, not just beef. Some restaurants now do this automatically.

If you are quick you might still find some autumn fruit in the hedgerows, like crab apples and sloes. Two unusual fruits that we sell a lot of each month are Medlars which are best left to rot before eating in a process known as bletting, which means to ripen. They have an unusual sweet taste a little like toffee apples. Quince are at their best now too;

they are too tough and sour to eat raw but can be made into jelly which goes well with cheese and crackers. My son has made damson and sloe gin this year which his mum can’t wait to taste! My gran always used to go round the farm to collect crab apples to make jelly to last the year.

We will be announcing the winner of our September competition next month and will have another competition in the spring.

As always if you need any advice on your allotment, or window box, please do get in touch with me.

“Quince are at their best now too; they are too tough and sour to eat raw but can be made into jelly which goes well with cheese and crackers.”

Neil neil@lovejoyswholesale.com

@lovejoysuk @lovejoysuk

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