This is the perfect summer sandwich that will keep you going on busy days! The punchy chickpea spread is exciting, so tasty and a nice change from hummus.
Organic roast veg are perfect sandwich fillers and are just the best when grilled, use the bbq if you like. If you don’t have a grill pan use a frying pan to get a few char marks, or stick them under the oven grill!
There are lots of different varieties of organic lettuce growing nicely in our tunnels right now (June) . Load them into the sandwich to add some fabulous farm freshness! We love Irish red and green lettuce or oak leaf.
Step 1: To make the spread, add all the ingredients to a blender, blend to a chunky consistency. Taste and season to your liking.
Step 2: Put a griddle pan on the hob and get it searing hot. Lightly oil the courgette and peppers and put them onto the hot grill. Cook for a few minutes until they get the charred marks then turn over and cook on the other side, until soft. Add a small sprinkle of salt as they cook. (serve warm or at room temperature)
Step 3: Build the sandwich, toast the bread if you wish. Add the chickpea spread to both sides, layer on a couple of butterhead leaves, the roast veg and spoon over the chilli oil if using.
What a week, the gruelling physical draining farm work starts at 6am every day. The intense heat and sunshine have taken its toll on the farm team, but they have weathered it with their familiar good nature and cheer and have done exceptional work. I had the sense this week of things coming together of the work being caught up, of shape starting to be put on the fields.
The little plants are starting to show their heads and with the help of some monsoon type downpours and intense heat there has been an explosion of growth. The shift in the climate is so clear to see, yes of course we have had warm weather in years gone by, but every year since 2018 now we have had consistent weeks of heat and near if not full drought conditions. It is the regularity of change and the extremes of the change, that are so noticeable, climate change rages on.
We are teetering on the cusp now, the real start of the Irish vegetable season is nearly upon us. This week we have caught a glimpse of what it will look like by early July, a literal explosion of amazing Irish produce.
There is so much going on right now, planting, thousands of plants went into the ground this week, broccoli, kale, cabbage, celeriac, lettuce and celery. Weeding, sowing, side shooting, watering, surviving, thriving, planting, and yes more weeding!
We are harvesting loads of lettuce and salad. We are receiving fresh Irish scallions from Enda in Galway, Spinach and Kale from Padraigh and Una in Beechlawn organic farm, herbs and kale from Joe Kelly in Mayo, Salad and herbs from Audrey and Mick in Millhouse organic farm, very excited about the first Irish organic strawberries from Niall Whelan in Thrive farm in Wicklow. In a couple of weeks, we will be overflowing with the most amazing produce from our farm, including our own tomatoes and amazing cucumbers and other farms across Ireland. Can’t wait for the first new potatoes second week of July, from Donald and Cameron Tracy in Kildare.
It was with much trepidation that we planned our cropping schedule for this summer, after the last four years it has been a game of Russian roulette not knowing what to expect especially at this time of seasonal plenty.
So it is that we are also on the cusp of the full-on holiday season and it is a source of eternal concern that the produce we and others have worked so hard for all year will not have a market.
Usually, these Friday posts are personal views, or stories that demonstrate the values we hold dear here, but this week it is a call out.
So it is that we are launching an official “Save Our Summer” campaign to help keep our farm and all the other farms we source produce from flowing over the tough summer months. So please support us, we have put in place a couple of things to help you to do that.
For new customers there is a 20% discount on your first order, visit our homepage for details.
For all our loyal weekly customers we have doubled reward points on all once off purchases. If you set up a repeat order (which you can modify or pause or stop at any time) we are giving you five times the points on every purchase. The “carrot” or reward points can be redeemed for money off on an ongoing basis and we will keep this in place until the end of August.
We also offer Free delivery for over €100 and of course we deliver to every county in Ireland with our sustainable boxes and packaging, mostly plastic free.
So, if you can order or tell a friend or spread the word it will make a massive difference to us. The supermarkets don’t care and won’t miss you, but we certainly will.
As always thank you from all here for your support and as always we would love to hear your thoughts and comments.
Kenneth
P.S. To place your order, click here – every single order makes a big difference to us, and our network of organic farms around Ireland. THANK YOU for your support.
The summer is a busy time juggling work, child care, holidays and making the most of the long sunny days. It’s great to have a few super quick salad recipes that take minutes to make but are top on taste!
This is my mothers signature salad. She gets requests for it when we have family get togethers. Its perfect for lunch with soda bread or for supper with some boiled eggs.
Next time you have some Irish organic carrots and broccoli in your veg box give this a go.
What’s your favourite raw vegetable in a salad? Let us know if the comments.
Step 1: Chop the broccoli florets into bite sized pieces, add them to a mixing bowl. You can chop or grate the stalk too, or keep it to chop for a stir fry.
Step 2: Grate the carrots, add them to the broccoli.
Step 3: Season with a pinch of salt and pepper then mix in the peanuts and mayo. Taste it and then transfer into a serving bowl.
Hot charred and smokey aubergines and courgettes, delicious for a bit of outdoor dining. The best thing about these skewers is that the pre cooked veggies get a coating of garlicky, spicy sweet tangy tomato sauce, that smell so good on the grill. Make sure to turn and char them for extra flavour.
You’ll have seen the veggie skewers with big lumps of aubergine and peppers and courgettes, it’s hard to get the flavour straight to the core, but with these it works a dream!
They are a bit fiddly so I’ve cooked them on a flat frying pan, so be careful on the BBQ. If you char them on the BBQ, pre-soak the wooden sticks in water for 30 minutes to prevent them burning.
Courgettes will be abundant on the farm come July/August so save this to try then too.
Step 1: Preheat the oven to 180ºC. Line 2 baking trays with parchment paper.
Step 2: Slice the aubergine and courgette into fairly thin slices so they cook quickly and are easy to thread onto the skewers. Lay them on the baking trays, brush with cooking oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Cook the aubergine and courgette slices for 15-20 minutes until cooked through and soft. Let them cool for 10 minutes.
Step 3: While they cool make the sauce. Mix all the sauce ingredients together in a bowl.
Step 4: Thread one piece of aubergine and one piece of courgette onto the skewer. Lay on a baking tray and brush on the sauce.
Step 5: Heat a frying pan and cook the skewers on the hot pan to sear and char. Brush on more sauce as they cook, turn to cook on both sides.
Sprinkle with sesame seeds and serve. Eat them off the skewer, have with salad or add to flatbreads with hummus and enjoy as a sandwich.
Are we promised rain? I went to that place this week, I said the unsayable, “We need rain”. There is always the fear here, that once the rain comes it will never leave, and to be fair we have had plenty of experiences with rain never leaving.
We have been out with our water tanker this week as many of our crops are stunted. Broccoli, kale, celery, cabbage and more are stunted they need water. It is not close to the major drought of 2018 when we had to dig down 18 inches to find moisture, but it is starting to be a problem.
These extended periods of dry weather are amazing the blue sky does us all a world of good, but 3-4 weeks without rain, that is unusual, or is it? It seems to me that these extended dry spells followed or proceeded by intense rain are not so unusual anymore. Since 2018 we have had more and more weeks of intense dry or drought conditions than I remember in the prior ten years.
Right now, our farm more resembles a farm in southern France or Spain, dusty dry and stunted.
The climate is warming, it is undeniable, man-made greenhouse gases are responsible. Weather patterns are changing rapidly.
It’s hard to grasp the magnitude of climate change, we don’t see the glaciers or the ice caps melting, the wild-fires in Europe last year or those in Canada right not are removed from our comfortable corner of the world.
Our direct experience of climate change is relatively benign, but that too is changing. Earlier this year the lack of tomatoes and peppers due to extreme weather, affected us, but it was more of a minor irritation that a real problem. But what happens when these climate stresses increase, and they start to affect our food production?
We have such potential for diversification in our food production here and yet the market is undermining our horticultural industry at a time when it couldn’t be more important to support it.
It may be selfish, but we need to be able to grow our food and we need to support local food growers. One critical way to reduce our burden on this planet is to think mindfully about what we eat, and where and how it was grown. Eat more plants, locally and organically grown.
We can only do what we can do. We can only do what we have the time energy and money to do. But how we spend that time, energy and money makes a huge difference for the better. Our business was started to guarantee that what comes to your door in one of our boxes has as far as we can control, been grown or produced, ethically, sustainably, and organically. We don’t always get it right, but those principles are one thing WE WILL NEVER COMPROMISE ON.
Thank you to everybody who responded to our post and e-mail last week. The number of responses and the level of support was amazing, uplifting and encouraging and made a difference so thank you, I read them all and if you have any thoughts on the above again we would love to hear them.
This is one of my all time favourite dressings. It is so vibrant and punchy and creamy from the cashews. I ordered a head of Irish red lettuce last week and have been living off it for the last 5 days (it was massive and gorgeous). And I remembered this dressing, I shared a version of it with you last summer. Its just the best and makes enough to last a few days.
Couscous is so quick and handy here but you could add leftover rice, pasta, tinned lentils or beans instead. As well as adding grated carrot, shaved red onion or any leftover cooked veggies that need using up.
Let us know if you try it,
Team GREEN yay!
Lou 🙂
Note: If you love garlic add extra cloves- I usually do.
Step 1: Begin by making the cous cous. Add the dried cous cous to bowl, add a pinch of salt and top with boiling water. Cover the bowl with a plate and leave it for 15 minutes.
Step 2: Put the cashews into a bowl and cover with boiling water, leave to soften for 15 minutes. if your blender is not very powerful, soak for a full hour.
Step 3: Toast a handful of almonds on a dry frying pan on a low heat, toss ever minute until toasted. Once cooled, roughly chop them.
Step 3: Make the dressing, to a blender add the basil, spinach, the softened cashews plus the water, lemon juice, oil, grated garlic and a good pinch salt, pepper. blend until nice and smooth.
Step 4: Dice the tomatoes and cucumber. Fluff up the cous cous with a fork.
Step 5: Build the salad add the cous cous to a plate, top with lettuce, tomato and cucumber, pour over the dressing and scatter the almonds on top.
High in protein cottage cheese banana and chocolate chip ice cream is worth trying!! It tastes tangy but sweet and tasty. We added some optional peanut butter and salted peanuts for extra crunch, saltiness and goodness.
When the weathers hot it’s great to get some goodness from our ice cream. We stock fair trade organic bananas and delicious dark chocolate that are perfect partners in this handy to make ice cream.
Step 1: Line a loaf tin with parchment paper, or a similar sized lunchbox will work too.
Step 2: Make the caramel: Add all the ingredients to a powerful blender. Blend until smooth. Take out 3/4 of the caramel and put it in a bowl and add in the base ingredients.
Step 3: Make the base: to the blender with 1/4 of the caramel add the oats, cocoa powder, coconut oil and boiling water. Blend until combined.
Step 4: Spoon the base mix into the loaf tin, smooth with a spoon or spatula. Top with the caramel and smooth. Put this in the fridge for 1 hour to set.
Step 5: Melt the chocolate and coconut oil together. Pour over the top and tilt the tin to cover, sprinkle with sea salt. Chill for 30 minutes. Slice into bars and enjoy.
There was an interesting piece on Countrywide last week documenting the demise of our indigenous vegetable growing industry. All the interviewed vegetable growers told the same story, loss leading and chasing the cheapest possible produce by supermarkets is destroying our industry. In some cases, refusing a very basic increase of a few cents to ensure survival of some of Ireland’s vegetable farms.
We have been led to believe that carrots at €.49 or broccoli at €.79 is the norm, or Brussel sprouts for €.05! This is loss leading as it is impossible to produce crops for these prices. The market will always chase the cheapest option, always, using cheap import pricing as a barometer to value locally grown food.
Not only are our food growers closing doors, so too are smaller independent retailers who haven’t the scale and cannot compete with supermarket pricing.
What happens when this short-term approach to food supply eventually leads to the last vegetable farms and independent retailers closing their doors. Where then will our food come from when there is a climate shock, as there was in Spain earlier this year. Where then will supermarkets look to supply our food? Where is the long-term vision and the commitment to sustainability in this food sourcing strategy?
Here’s another interesting fact about retailing in Ireland: ‘the restrictive practices order 1987 prohibits the sale of grocery products at below net invoice price’ but this law does not include fresh produce! It is deemed permissible to allow loss leading on all things fresh, and that includes you may be surprised to learn not only fruit and vegetables, but also milk, meat, and fish.
Setting a basic requirement to sell fresh food at fair prices would level the playing field would allow a more measured amount of the sale price to go to the farmer and give independent retailers a fighting chance.
An IFA commissioned economics report published last March, stated that retail prices compression threatens the viability of Irish horticulture which could lead to even more reliance on imports to feed our nation.
The most recent national field vegetable census showed that the number of field vegetable growers fell from 377 in 1999 to 165 in 2014. That is a contraction of 56% These skills are lost for ever, and once they are gone are difficult to replace.
I for one am grateful for our own farm and the farmers that supply us, we aim to pay fairly for the food we produce and buy, we price our produce as competitively as we can, and we feel by removing the middleman we are able to reasonably compete with the big supermarkets. But not if they continue to sell produce for below the cost of production.
We are lucky and thankful to have our own farm and also to have a network of great Irish organic farmers that we source our food from. We can’t wait to be harvesting more of our own produce and receiving the amazing produce from our other Irish suppliers and you can see all the IRISH produce we currently have here.
Please remember your purchase with us makes a massive difference, thank you for your continued support.
Tacos are on trend at the moment, you can add just about anything in there but its hard to beat spicy smashed black beans. They’ve got to be crispy so give them a good fry and serve up with your favourite taco sides.
We are big fans of Mexican style food in our house its great family food to share and dip and mix and match. Add fresh salsa, guacamole, cheese and jalapeños.
Find all the orgainc beans and spices you need in our groceries.
Step 1: Make the spicy smashed beans. Add the oil to a warm frying pan along with the onions and garlic. Gently cook to soften. Add the chilli, cumin, paprika, dried herbs, a pinch of salt and tomato puree. Cook for 3-5 minutes.
Step 2: Tip in the beans, stir to coat in the spices pour in the water and simmer for 5-10 minutes until the beans cook down, add a squeeze of lime. Mash with a fork or a potato masher, transfer to a bowl and clean the frying pan.
Step 3: Spoon the mashed beans onto the tortilla wrap, add cheese and fold over. Heat the frying pan, add oil and fry the taco on both sides until golden and crispy. Push down with a weight or small pot to get better contact with the pan, flip and fry on the other side until crispy. Repeat.
Step 4: Serve hot with smashed avocado, fresh coriander and lime.
