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...

The beginning of a new year is a great time think outside the box, reflect on the last 12 months and to pay a visit to all our local producers, checking everything is on track for the new year. Sometimes we stick with the same plan as last year. Otherwise we sort out new deals and organise them to grow new crops for us. It is amazing that every new year a new supplier with something different to offer knocks on our door.

If you know of any local producers or growers who maybe might like to work with us please do pass this on to them. Here is a little about a ‘Day In The Life’ of Lovejoys.

As a company we carry out rigorous checks to ensure every single product that reaches us is of the right quality and standard so that when it arrives to our customers it is as perfect as it can be. There are many procedures in place to make sure this happens, such as temperature checks, labelling and visual quality checking. We work 24 hours a day to achieve this. The working day starts at 12.01am with the night manager processing all the orders for the pickers to sort and load. The first of our drivers arrives at about 5.30am to take the vans out on their deliveries all around the area. The vans go off in 15 minuteintervals. Then the day team

come in to ready the warehouse for new produce to arrive, be checked and put away in the right place in the fridges. All the fridges need to be a certain temperatures for salads, dairy, herbs and vegetables, whilst some items such as avocados, bananas, sage and basil, are harmed by the cold. The office team come in and deal with all our administration tasks and answer queries from customers old and new. In between all of this we are out on the road visiting our customers or speaking to people we have had enquiries from. At the end of the day the evening staff come in to input the orders that have been left on the system during the day. Some chefs put their orders in for the next day after evening service has ended. Then the night team come in and it all starts over again! perfect what we believe to be an exceptional service. We have testimonials from long standing customers who agree so we must be doing something right. Putting the last couple of horrible years behind us we are looking forward to a busy 2023!

“The first of our drivers arrives at about 5.30am to take the vans out on their deliveries all around the area.”

ALLOTMENT GROWING

It’s not too late to plant garlic cloves and onion sets or to prune apple and pear trees, spurs can be thinned out on step-overs, and condons. It is also time to get new seed catalogues for inspiration for what you might want to grow this year. As always please email me with any of your veggie questions!

Neil neil@lovejoyswholesale.com.

@lovejoysuk @lovejoysuk

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