It is all systems go on the farm this week. Lee is wandering around with a big grin on his face, on Monday morning all the Dexter cows have been confirmed in calf by the vet. Those who have had beef boxes will be as pleased as Lee if the feed back about the beef is anything to go by. Anyway he is jolly happy about it. Unfortunately we have had a dead sow this week. One of the young Berkshires. She was unwell on Sunday morning. We called the vet out, but there was nothing he could do so he put her to sleep. It is one of the saddest things in farming, loosing your livestock, but is does happen and you have to get on with the live ones.

Also this week Treacle our black Labrador has been to the vets, which resulted in a very healthy vets bill and nothing wrong with the dog She was off her food, which is unheard of for treacle, and running a high temperature but after a night in doggie hospital it turned out she was fine.

Ideas for this weeks veggie box...

Cabbage and chickpea curry.Serve with rice or homemade garlic nann bread.

1 small onion finely chopped

2 cloves of garlic peeled and chopped

A little veg oil

1 flat tsp curry powder

Heap tsp grated fresh ginger if using dried ½ tsp

1 green or red chilli, finely chopped

Salt and pepper

125gms chickpeas, soaked overnight and cooked

400ml tin of coconut milk

125gms mushrooms roughly chopped

Juice of a lime and a lemon

Small savoy cabbage or 7or 8 kale leaves

1 tbsp soy sauce

1 tbsp fish sauce

Bunch of coriander

Fry the onions and garlic gently until soft then add the curry powder, ginger, chilli, salt and pepper and stir.

Add the cooked chickpeas, coconut milk, mushrooms, lime and lemon juice and simmer for 30 minutes.

Finely shred the cabbage, remove any thick stems. Steam them for 5 minutes and add them to the chickpeas mixture. Add the soy sauce and fish sauce.

Scatter with coarsely chopped coriander and serve.

Celeriac soufflé

This is a smashing dish and looks so much fun, but if you can face scraping out the root go ahead and use a soufflé dish.

1 large celeriac

30g butter

2 egg yolks and 5 egg whites

1 tbsp Dijon mustard

A healthy pinch of fresh ground nutmeg always good with root vegetables

Salt and pepper

Chopped parsley

Preheat the oven 180C gas mark 4

Give the celeriac a good scrub and clean. Take a slice off the bottom of the celeriac so it can stand upright and cut off the top. Scoop out the flesh, a little like with a Halloween pumpkin, leave about 1cm of shell. Steam the flesh until tender and put into a food processor. Blend whilst adding the butter , egg yolks, mustard, salt, pepper and nutmeg.

Beat the egg white until stiff peaks and gently fold into the celeriac mixture. Spoon back into the shell and bake in the preheated oven for 35 to 40 minutes. Scatter with chopped parsley and serve immediately.

These are more formal recipes than I normally suggest but both are great for this time of year, the curry is healthy, hot and tasty which is always what Lee and the boys want for supper. The celeriac dish looks so fantastic on the table and tastes wonderful too. Both well worth a try, let me know how you get on.

Some ideas for a menu this week.

Roast roots soup.

If you are like us and have a few root vegetable hanging around this is the best way of using them up, so delve in to the fridge and collect all the roots lurking. Even the slightly soft and sad are good contenders.

Peel and chop into similar sized chunks. Roots like carrot, swede and parsnip. If you have any squash left over chop this into the roasting pan to. I normally stick to 2 or 3 varieties. So carrot and swede, or carrot and parsnip, swede and squash, that kind of thing. Place the peeled and chopped veg in a roasting pan with a little saved hot fat or vegetable oil. Roast in a hot oven until tender and starting to caramelize at the edges. You may need to turn them once whilst roasting. Time will depend on the size of the chunks. To save energy roast them whilst cooking something else in the oven. The roasted vegetables don’t have to be just out of the oven to use for the soup. You might have stored them in the fridge for a day or so, or even frozen them for using later.

Peel and finely chop 1 large onion and 2 cloves of garlic. Fry them gently in a little vegetable oil in a heavy bottomed pan, until soft and starting to colour. Add the roasted vegetables. Add some good vegetable or being January in our house turkey stock. Enough to cover the vegetable. Bring the pan to a gentle simmer and put on the lid. Simmer for 25 to 30 minutes. Blend and season with salt and pepper.

Cabbage and chickpea curry

Celeriac soufflé

Onion risotto. make extra for risotto balls later in the week

Cheese and potato patties with carrot wedges

Stuffed pancakes with spicy tomato sauce stuff your pancakes with any finely chopped, steamed vegetables you like. A mixture of carrot, onion, leek, cabbage, potato, broccoli works well. Serve as a side dish or main course.

We’ve added a programme of farm focus events with the intention of getting you all out to see the farm this year, though the spring and summer are always our busiest times we feel it’s a really big part of what we offer..a real connection to a real farm, mud, stinky stuff and all. We’d really love to see you and please try to talk your friends into coming to see the farm too, it might give us chance to talk them into a veg box

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