Autumn opening/new box options

Autumn news 2010
at
Good & Green

The summer has passed us by in a blur of hoeing and sowing (and not enough weeding!)… Our new tunnel has transformed the garden and is going strong, with weekly crops of tomatoes, cucumbers, french beans etc. Sweetcorn and chillis are on the way in Autumn. Outdoors there are now a choice of cabbage (red, savoy or round), kale, leeks, celeriac, celery, beetroot, red and white onions and some new peas, and of course pumpkins will be ready for Halloween. Our new hens have settled in well and there is a steady supply of eggs, so, all in all we are delighted with the produce this year and with the steady growth in visitors calling in to us every weekend.

We very much appreciate the effort our customers have made to make time to call for produce and hope that you have enjoyed watching the crops grow and come to harvest since Spring. It is great to be able to share the excitement of following the progress of the garden and to show our customers how and where each crop grows.

We have loads of work to do for the autumn and winter and lots of ideas that we would like to try for next season to meet requests made by our customers. At the moment we are sowing winter salads, rocket and greens (spinach, orientals etc) and will get these crops into the tunnel by end of September to have fresh greens and herbs throughout the cold months.

There are some new options and opening times for the Autumn and Winter as follows:

We are restarting our free delivery service within 5 miles of the smallholding on orders of 20 euro or over. Delivery will be on Friday afternoon and evening between 4 and 7pm.

To order a veg box there are a few options:

a. Send a tailor made order from the list of produce posted on the website every Wed night – email or text to me by Thursday evening for delivery on Friday or collection from the farm as you prefer. No minimum for orders collected from us. 20 euro minimum for free delivery.

b. Growers choice – this has been a popular option where we select the contents of the box from our available produce to an agreed total (min 15 euro for collection or min 20 euro for free delivery). We vary this from week to week, but always include a mix of root veg, leaves, herbs and fruit. You can specify items that you like a lot or don’t use/need. In addition we add 15% free extra produce (eg. 23 euro in a 20 euro box).

c. Regular standing order – We are offering a special deal to customers who know that they like and use our produce regularly and are willing to commit to a fixed amount standing order payment to our bank account. In this case we will add 15% extra produce as usual, free delivery to your house. In addition we will give you a free hamper at Christmas (including veg, herbs, eggs, bread, home reared pork, plus extra seasonal treats) as a thank you for your commitment through the year. With this type of box order you can use any credits built up if you are away to get extra produce at other times (eg for plants, extra veg).

If you are interested in getting a regular veg box – either delivered or for collection from us please complete the attached form and return to Elaine. Delivery from Friday 3rd Sept. Occasional orders also welcome for delivery, although priority will go to weekly customers for any limited produce.

Our opening hours for drop in customers will change from Sept 3rd:

* We will open for drop in customers on Fridays 12 – 5pm as usual.

* On Saturdays we will harvest for any preorders only. If you would like to order produce on Saturday please email/text or ring with the details 24 hours ahead.

Many thanks again to our customers who have supported our work. We look forward to growing again for you in the coming season.

Kind regards,

Elaine, John, Cathal, Oisin, Ryan and Fionn

Our produce in The Wooden Spoon

Our produce is now available in Killaloe all week. We are supplying salad, cut herbs and plants to ‘The Wooden Spoon’ – gourmet store, coffee shop and cookery school on Convent Hill, Killaloe.

The Wooden Spoon is owned and run by Laura Kilkenny and offers many mouthwatering treat (our herbs aside…) – raspberry and chocolate brownies are the number 1 choice in our house… but there is also a lovely range of homemade breads, delicious salads, soups, chutneys, cakes and the best coffee in the area. With the comfy sofa and relaxed atmosphere I am always tempted to settle in when I deliver on Mondays and Thursdays – except for the days work waiting for me back in the garden!

Roasted radishes

from ‘The great big veg challenge – how to get your children eating vegetables happily’ by Charlotte Hume

This is a great book, geared towards using every veg from a-z in a child friendly way. Really nice recipes that give regular veg a twist.

A different look at radishes – roasting them softens their heat and brings out a gentler and sweeter flavour. Serves as a side dish:

750g radishes, halved
6 cloves of garlic, peeled
2-3 tbsp sesame oil
1/2 tsp mild chilli powder
1/2 tsp smoked paprika
pinch sea salt

Preheat the oven to 190c.
Place the radish halves in a deep baking tray.
Add the whole cloves of garlic, then cover in the sesame oil, chilli powder and smoked paprika. Add a pinch of salt.
Stir well to make sure they are coated in the oil and seasonings.
Roast in the oven for 30mins.
Halfway through, stir them round to make sure they are evenly cooked. Serve hot.

Munsterweb website design

In all of our work over the past 2 years to get Good & Green running as a business, one of the most important developments for us outside of the garden itself has been the design, construction and layout of our website. As a marketing tool and means of bringing our smallholding to the public, our website has been invaluable.

We have had so many compliments on the site that I have to give a big mention to the man and the company behind it… William Llŷr Jones (Llŷr to those who can pronounce it, and William to those who have difficulty!) and his website design company – Munsterweb, who are based in Nenagh, Co Tipperary.

At a time (still ongoing) when my attention is largely concerned with the work of the smallholding, Llŷr singlehandedly came up with a format for a site for us that would reflect our business and our style and we all think he did a fantastic job. He also added a bit of Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) magic to ensure we can be found in the search engines for relevant keywords and phrases. The result has been a very healthy flow of web traffic – in fact, our website has replaced most of our traditional forms of advertising which has helped keep our marketing costs down.

We are delighted with the layout, the artwork, the links and the use of our photos to show off our work. It has been the single best business tool we have had for potential customers, regular customers, and is great PR when applying for grants, bank loans etc. etc.

I must also add that he has had great patience with me in training a commited technophobe to blog and he set the site up to be very user friendly… that was important for me, with a fear of the technology! So to have ongoing professional backup to keep the site running and update photos is very comforting.

THANK YOU LLŶR!!!

Link: Munsterweb Web Design & SEO Nenagh

Courgette Cake

from ’100 great recipes – Farmers Market’

A variation of the more familiar carrot cake – the courgette adds sweetness and a moist texture. A half and half mixture with carrots is also an option.

Ingredients:
3 free range eggs
75g golden caster sugar
150g self-raising flour
225g courgettes, trimmed and grated
25g butter, melted
25g sultanas

Icing:
175g full-fat cream cheese (eg Philadelphia)
1tbsp lemon or orange juice
75g icing sugar

1. Preheat oven to 180c,350f or gas mark 4.
2. Lightly oil and line the base of an 8inch round cake tin.
3. Place the eggs and sugar in a large mixing bowl and whisk until very pale and thick.
4.Fold in the courgettes. Carefully fold in the flour. Drizzle over the melted butter and fold in. Add sultanas.
5. Pour into the prepared cake tin and bake for 25-35 mins or until springy to the touch. Cool in the tin for 5 mins before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
6.Beat together the cheese, lemon juice and icing sugar until just combined. Spread over the top of the cake.

variation – substitute 25g ground almonds for 25g of the flour.

Fresh produce from our garden

Our farm gate sales are now up and running 2 months and business is going well.

We harvest every Friday and Saturday to sell from our log cabin beside the garden and tunnel and regular passing trade is building up steadily. Our regular veg box customers are a great core to the business and we very much appreciate their weekly orders.

As the summer progresses the range of produce is increasing – and we are adding new items weekly. The tunnel ensures that we have crops earlier than would be possible outside – and we now have a great range of salads, scallions, potatoes, carrots, courgettes and soon will have cucumbers. We are still topping up our own produce from an organic supplier when we are waiting for our crops, but the garden is doing very well this year and things are coming on quickly.

We still have capacity to take on weekly veg box customers who have the added benefit of 15% free extra produce. So for a box costing 20 euro you get 23 euro produce. If you are interested in joining this scheme you are welcome to get in touch.

Spiced potato & bean salad with roasted red peppers

from Avoca Salads

A substantial salad to have on its own or with barbequed meat or fish. Easy to prepare ahead of time.

Ingredients:
3 red peppers, seeded and cut into thick strips
8 tbsps olive oil
500g new potatoes, washed and halved
2 tsps powdered cajun spice
1 can kidney beans, rinsed and drained
1 can cannellini beans, rinsed and drained
1 bunch scallions, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped
2 chillies, finely chopped
1 bunch flat leaf parsley, finely chopped

Preheat to oven to 180c.
Toss the red pepper strips in 2 tbsps olive oil and roast for 10-15mins, turning occasionally. Transfer the peppers to a bowl and cover with clingfilm. Peel when cool enough to handle.

Toss the potatoes in the cajun spice and remaining olive oil, season with salt and pepper, and roast for 30-40 mins or until tender. You need to toss the potatoes once or twice during this time.

When the potatoes are cooked, combine with the beans, scallions, garlic, chilli and roasted peppers. Toss so everyting is well coated. Allow to cool and add the parsley, salt and pepper and toss again.

A BIG thank you to our helpers

Since early Spring we have been constantly busy keeping up with sowing, transplanting, planting out, hoeing, weeding, manuring, rotavating etc. etc. With our new tunnel we have been working extra hard to bring on all our new tunnel crops – tomatoes, cucumbers, french beans etc and the volume of work is a little knee weakening at times… The tunnel is now fully planted and looking good. All the crops are doing well, and, as we approach the summer solstice (the longest day of the year and height of the growing season) we are very pleased with how the garden is going.

At this point I want to thank all the volunteer helpers who have boosted our efforts enormously all year. We have been very lucky to have offers of help from others who are interested in growing and learning and have been very generously giving their time to help us get the garden planted.

Una, Denise and Fiona have been helping us regularly and their help has pushed things along and stopped us running out of steam. Alexander has been with us for the month of June and Mark and Sally came for a day when we were urgent to get outdoor crops into the ground. And of course Jim and Rebecca have helped us time and again in keeping us on track.

It is really nice to have extra hands in, and extra thoughts on the garden and it is a great boost to feel part of a team. So a BIG thank you to you all – and looking forward to sharing our crops with you.

Summer Fair in Ogonnelloe

On Sunday 13th at 2pm there will be a summer fair at Ogonnelloe GAA pitch organised by the national school parents’ association.

There are great fun races and games planned and there will be a range of stalls including home baking, bring and buy, bbq and of course, the one I am most involved with is the school garden stall.

The children of all classes in the national school have sown and cared for a great variety of flowers, herbs and veg plants all Spring. In particular 3rd and 4th class, with their teacher Shimona Caulfield took on the responsibility of caring for the plants and keeping them weeded and watered and they have done a great job. At the fair we will sell their plants to raise funds for the school – they have a range of flowers (calendula, nasturtiums, cornflowers, rudbeckia) and herbs to offer – so come along and see their work and maybe bring home a pot or two to bring colour to your garden for the summer.

technical hitch

At the moment my internet connection is intermittent, which means that I can’t always access my emails. The problem is being repaired at the moment, so I hope to be back on the air regularly from next week.

I can access email from another location, but if you have any requests it would be a good idea to text or ring me on 087 6187908 to confirm.

Sorry for any inconvenience for the time being… I hope it will be a very temporary situation!

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