Llangybi Organics Newsletter – November 2004

Welcome to our November newsletter. Firstly, and largely for the benefit of our newer customers, a brief run-through of our bag/box collection arrangements:

• Please collect your veg as soon as possible after Friday 5pm. With the winter nights drawing in,  we are trying to have the veg ready to collect by 4pm although we can’t guarantee the earlier time because bad weather can upset the best laid plans
• Do please remember to tick off what you’ve taken on the list provided in the Swallow House. Note anything extra you take (like apples or duck eggs), put your payment in a used envelope (provided) after clearly writing your name on it and put it in the black metal box. Sometimes, people forget to do this and that can cause considerable confusion for us trying to work out who’s taken what
• We greatly prefer payment one month in advance, each payment being due at the start of a new month. Please remember that some months have 4 Fridays and some 5
• There’s a shortage of hen eggs, partly due to the time of year and partly because several of Jill’s birds have died. She has recently bought new young birds but these may not be starting to lay until the new year. So please continue to pre-order your eggs from Jill and don’t take any you haven’t ordered because they will be someone else’s!

Quack quack: Duck eggs are now usually available. These are white, not brown, and (in my opinion), have more flavour than hen eggs. You can use them just as you would hen eggs. They are wonderful fried or boiled… or any way you choose. Many people have a prejudice against duck eggs for no obvious reason. If you’re in doubt, just try half a dozen and find out what you’re missing!

Farm news (grumbles):  Oh dear. It has been a dreadful autumn. The endless grey damp weather has caused us considerable problems. We lost most of our normally-abundant autumn raspberry crop at Mur Crusto. Lettuces have rotted. Other veg just hasn’t grown properly or ripened. Harvesting in heavy rain and wind is horrible and everything gets covered in mud. The tomatoes have mostly died of disease and general misery at the lack of warmth and sun. All in all, very difficult for us and not good for you either because there’s less variety than we’d hoped. Sometimes we feel like chucking it all in and getting a nice cosy 9-5 office job… but there are compensations (I think).

Volunteers:  In the last newsletter, I asked if anyone would like to join in the fun of harvesting and packing. Incredibly, someone did. We now have a regular helper, Andy Batten, who for some reason devotes several hours a week helping us get everything ready for collection. We are all exceedingly grateful to him as his help – and cheerful good humour - makes a major difference.

Papas Sarpó: Potatoes (papas in Peruvian Spanish) originate from Peru, home to the international potato centre, which preserves most of the 3800 varieties grown by Andean peoples. But potatoes are highly prone to the Irish potato famine disease, blight − now more so than ever. Organic potatoes have to be grown without resorting to standard fungicides, which makes them uniquely vulnerable. Help is at hand though. This year, at Ty’n Lon, we have been taking part in potato trials run by Dave Shaw (potato guru from Bangor University) of new Sarpó varieties specially bred in Hungary to be resistant to blight. These have been spectacularly successful, continuing to grow strongly, free from disease whilst non-resistant common UK varieties collapsed to a slimy mess from blight. Jill and Dave are anxious to have feedback about flavour and cooking qualities of these Sarpó potatoes (which you have been getting for several weeks now and we have been labelling on the weekly list which you see in front of you when you enter the Swallow House). If you would like to help, please contact Jill directly.