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goosemoor organic produce |
Warfield Lane, Cowthorpe |
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QUICK LINKS: Order on-line for home delivery, with optional prepayment Pay for previous home delivery orders by Paypal
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Download this week's Pick of the Crop Price List or the latest Grocery Popu-List Our latest newsletter Links to external sources of info NEWS: Sep 08: check out our latest vacancy Mar 08: Goosemoor wins Best Green Business award! Mar 08: Goosemoor is the only Yorkshire supplier in Times Top 35! Feb 08: check out Where does the produce come from? Jan 08: What is the difference between Organic eggs and Free-Range? | Hungry Gap timeEvery spring when the UK-grown winter crops finish, there is a period of a couple of months when the vegeboxes just aren’t as full as they have been over winter. This ‘hungry gap’ happens partly because the new season imported crops like new potatoes are very expensive, and also because the spring salads are less bulky than the winter root vegetables This spring however, the general food price situation is worse than usual - wheat prices are double what they were last year, and this has a direct effect on the cost of production of bread, eggs, and dairy products. In addition, the rise in oil prices has increased transport costs, although local food fares better in this respect Even while supplies of stored winter crops continue, quality can deteriorate, for example potatoes can soften, and carrots can start to re-grow. We aim to strike a compromise which helps the growers sell as much of their harvest as possible, so keeping the price down to customers, without sacrificing too much quality We mustn't forget that potatoes have been out of the ground since last October, and are they are eager to get back into the soil to grow another year's crop, hence in warmer brighter spring conditions, they will wrinkle and sprout. Similarly carrots, although freshly harvested, will grow leaves in spring in preparation for flowering in their second summer Consequently over the next few weeks we will be importing a greater proportion of our vegetables (see What's Available Month by Month), and to top it all, the £ is at an all-time low against the Euro, which makes imported produce even more expensive So
if your usual box doesn't have enough in it, please consider getting a bigger
box until UK potatoes become available again in June/July, and prices
stabilise again. Alternatively, you
might consider topping up your vegebox with our choice system…. Pick of the Crop
Our
weekly email price list tells you what fruit & veg is going to be available
the following week, how much it costs, and the country in which it was grown.
You can order a specific weight or a count of any item, either as well
as, or instead of, your vegebox. Click here to find out more about Pick of the Crop and download this week's list What's local or home-grown in April?April is one of the most difficult months to supply local or even UK-grown produce, although some local salads will become available from heated glasshouses during the month, like cucumbers and tomatoes. Prices are high at the start of the season while cropping levels are low, and reflect the added cost of heated production.
Other UK produce available:
What’s Growing this month?
Following that disastrous Friday in January which
left two of our tunnel covers shredded in the high winds, we grabbed the opportunity last month to recover Tunnel 5
on the first still-ish day
The radishes inside Tunnel 4 were a little unprepared for their sudden debut into the great outdoors, but fortunately they're hardy enough to survive the few weeks until we pick them at the end of April In the herb garden we’ve started to harvest parsley & chives. Over the next few weeks we'll also have mint, sage, lovage, bronze fennel, marjoram, basil and coriander - look out for them all in our Herb Selection bags, or just choose a pack of your favourite! In the polytunnels, most of the over-wintered salad leaf has been cleared out, but we have more seedlings growing in the greenhouse to plant out for a later spring harvest There's also hundreds of cucumbers & chillis to pot on, prior to planting out in the tunnels once the radishes have been harvested
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Send mail to
vegebox@goosemoor.info with
questions or comments about this web site.
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For a short time, we did indeed have all
our tunnels back in production - until April Fool's Day that is... a small slit in
the cover of Tunnel 4 had grown progressively over the previous week, but we
were initially hopeful that we could tape the gap up, and stop the snow from
falling in onto the beds
However
by Monday
morning the relentless gusts had extended the slit to the length of 3 bays and then up over the roof, and we
took the decision to slash the cover to ground level to safeguard the metal structure. On the positive side, at least we won't have to wash this
tunnel now!
There's
something very special about this time of year, watching the seeds of our summer
salads germinate, unfurl their slender stems, and then develop their first true
leaves - it's only then that we know for certain what they are!