Fresh Picks

🧄 Wonky garlic is garlic too 🧄

Snuck at least one weird garlic into each box this week. So much food gets tossed away because it doesn't live up to supermarket beauty pageant standards but alot of the time It's just as good, or at least as tasty. We usually keep these loveable oddballs for personal use over the next year but think it's healthy for people to get used to using veg that might otherwise get chucked for no good reason. Nothing wrong with some strange!

In the boxes this week was

Potatoes
Mixed leafs &edible flowers
Red cabbage
Mixed green beans (mostly purple)
Parsley
Beets (also purple)
Garlic
Kale ( also mostly purple)

The theme this week was purple apparently. Congratulations if you guessed the theme.
☝️Wasn't the theme garlic?
There can be 2 themes, shut up, no more questions

Only other note would be to lightly seem the beans to keep that glorious colour. Or just straight up eat them raw as they are delicious

Week 7 off the veg box shipped out yesterday!.

Bean Alley is starting to take shape nicely but more importantly started producing tasty french beans.
The other newby this season is celery which is always a good time

In the box this week was
Mixed french beans
Celery
Spuds
Lettuce
Curly Parsley
Carrots
Sprouting broccoli
Onions

Lettuce fill you in on the week 3 boxes!

Sillyness is at an all time high at fresh picks (see the previous sentence) must be because we are off on our holidays next week and jumping the gun on excitement. No boxes next week but will be back the week after with a lots of new varieties of veg that are almost ready.

This week's boxes included

Potatoes
Curly parsley
Chard
Mixed lettuce
Carrots
Fennel
Broadbeans
Garlic

A few subscribers advised me to grate fennel to bring freshness to a meal so will give that a ago instead of my standard roasting it. Along to be said for roasted fennel to be fair to me but I'm always up for a new way to use veg.

Broadbeans are finished for the boxes for the year which is either good news or bad news depending on your feelings toward them. If any subscribers have been saving them for a few weeks Id suggest trying your hand at making broadbean falafel. It is very good stuff and what il do with the last of ours, apart from what we store for the autumn planting session ( we have a young child on the go so all sessions count)

Beet, Carrot, kohl rabi. The new rock scissor paper.

Wait, no they are the new additions to this week's box. Week 2 boxes included

Potatoes
Carrots
Scallions
Beetroot
Parsley
Kohl rabi
Lettuce
Broadbeans

We where almost swiped away with the rain this morning during the harvest. Luckily farming keeps you fit so it was a simple matter of backstroking between the rows of veg, diving in and yanking out whatever we could get our hands on. It's all good stuff down there in the depth so knew we wouldn't go to far wrong.

If your new to kohl rabi ( the purple boi) I'd loosely describe it as a slightly spicy broccoli stem that goes good in soups, stews and stir frys. It's about as sturdy as a carrot if that helps with your cooking timings.

For broadbeans I've seen some great recipes for it mushed up on toast. I have gotten to the point of eating them like sweets so they never quit make it that far

Well that was a fun day!

We had our first ever event at the North Belfast market garden! It gave us the chance to meet some of the neighborhood and show the good people the tasty good vegetables we have coming at you this season!

Didn't have the chance to grab my own fresh pics (snapy snaps) as we where too caught up in the growing chats. You can at least join me in enjoying the tidyness of the whole place for the first time since we moved in.

It would of been worth it for that alone, but to meet people that are as excited as we are about doing is an absolute privilege.

Next launch we got is the sign ups for the Fresh Picks subscription Veg box starting June. That will be out this weekend then all we have to do is plant the bejesus out of crumlin and build a greenhouse for the tomatoes to live in.

Thanks to all who helped out and came to the open day. You guys are alright in my books ❤️

We are officially kicking off the 23 season for Fresh Picks and would like to welcome you all to an open day at our urban market garden basecamp in North Belfast

Call in on Saturday 13th of May between 11am - 1pm

Grab a free tea or coffee and take a dander round the veg beds/polytunnel while chatting all things urban agriculture with ourselves.

There will be a stall with baby plants for sale including some amazing tomato and chili varieties. There will also be some window boxes with fresh herbs and leaves and of course you can buy some of our tasty organically grown fresh produce that has already kicked into gear

On the day you will also be able to sign up to our veg box subscription scheme that will be starting in June (if it hasn't filled up before hand)

There is plenty of parking in the area and it is a handy joint on the No12 bus from the city centre

We are also doing a volunteer day this Saturday 8th so get in contact if you want to lend a hand putting the final touches for the season

Last box of the season has been shipped off into the trusty hands of our subscribers to cook up one last storm of sustainable goodness.

My expectations for this box where not to high il admit. I thought I might have to raid the resident squirrels hideout to get enough variety for the box (they would nic the shoes off me feet with half a chance). Luckily no escalation was needed and diplomatic relations are as solidly tenuous as have ever been. We had some beetroot come out of left field (the left side of the field) and after stripping the tomato plants from the Belfast tunnel over the weekend we had enough tom toms for the season finale.

The box included:
Beetroot
Tomato’s
Potatoes
Acorn squash
Celery
Leek
Onions
Chard
Kale
Rosemary

Second last veg box for the season!

The season is calming down and the vegetables are on the way out for the year. Then it’s a short break before we plot, plan and prep for a bigger and better 2023.

This weeks box had potatoes, parsnip, parsley, thyme, spring onion, celery, kale and cucumber

Watermelon this week, Cantaloupe last. Are we even in Northern Ireland? And when did we get so fancy?

Oh we’ve always been fancy. You just have to look really close. Not too close. Little more…….. there you go. see fancy 🥃

The boxes much like my disciptions have been getting more confusing each week. What I consider an end of season item acorn squash is in the box. Along with courgette tomatoes and watermelon which are about as summer fun as it gets. I just grow them, I’m not paid to understand them (you definitely are).

There will be another round of acorn squash in a later box so if you want to do some holloweening with it, you will still get to taste it. They are highly tasty tho so definitely get it in you. Acorn like most winter squash have a good shelf life so will store happily for a few months if you want to save it to look at and think fondly of all the tasty, local fresh produce we provided while the subscription scheme was going. Don’t get emotional on me yet the season isn’t over. Jeez buddy pull it together.

This weeks box also contained parsnip, French beans, red Russian kale and potatoes

Mini cantaloupe! Sure why not?

Had a go at growing these guys and watermelons to keep me on me toes. Considering we are in Northern Ireland they came out pretty good.

In this weeks box we had
Cantaloupe melon
Tomatoes
Sweet corn
Cucumber
Rainbow chard
Onions
Beetroot
Kohlrabi
Potatoes

Kohlrabi is a brassica like cauliflower and broccoli and can be sliced up thin and eaten raw in salads but also works well in a stir fry or roasted.

Mmmmhhhh Corn!

Apparently there’s a kid interneting up a storm with his love of corn. I haven’t seen it but have about a 3rd of the subscribers that I dropped boxes today quoted it on seeing the corn in this weeks boxes. I may never see the video but I’m pretty sure I agree whole heartedly with the kids stance on corn. Tip for the week would be the earlier you eat the corn the sweeter it will be.

In other news. Apparently September is peak tomato season 🤔. Not what I would of had my money on but it’s been a strange auld year for the Tom toms so il take what I can get. We are absolutely coming down with them and it is glorious.

In the boxes this week was tomatoes, potatoes, coriander, mixed lettuce, courgette, cucumber, mixed green beans (not all green)🤷‍♀️. Corn and carrots.

I’d safely say the veg in this weeks box is as local as you can get when it comes to your veg needs Belfast. I didn’t have to go to crumlin for this box with 7 of the items picked right from our mini urban market garden. The other 3 items did come from from crumlin but are the onion, garlic and potatoes which I have dug the lot up and are either being stored at the North Belfast HQ

In the box we had fennel bulb, green beans, potatoes, tomatoes, courgette, garlic, onions, lettuce, herb fennel & mixed basil

I wiped out the lettuce so didn’t even have any for the box pic but fear not, the new lettuce is on the up and nearly ready to pick up the slack. Also after a monumental messing around dragging their heels sessions that has been this season the tomatoes are coming at a good pace and will hopefully be in the rest of the boxes. Obviously I have just jinxed myself with that statement but I’m a luck favours the bold kinda guy……..tomatoes for life!!!!