Many of you are starting to ask about our arrangements for Christmas this year. A letter will be coming out to you shortly with the dates we are delivering and details of what we will be offering along with an Autumn Newsletter. It is difficult to think of Christmas when it's still so mild and the garden blooming. However, it will be upon us soon.

The shiny orange things in all the fruit bags this week which you may not recognize are 'Persimmons'. Please make sure that it is fully ripe or you may be horrified by what is actually a very nice fruit. Fully ripe means a mushy, intense orange jelly-like texture but don't let this put you off. It tastes like a very sweet apricot. It will provide you with significant vitamin C, high beta carotene content, potassium, moderate calcium, some trace B vitamins and a little protein. All very useful to boost your immune systems at this time of year. You could quarter them and eat for breakfeast or dice them to add to fruit or vegetable salads. You could even add them to baked cakes or steamed puddings.

Also in the bags this week is Swiss Chard - your favourite. For any who are unfamiliar with this delight - the leaves can be used as spinach and the stems as asparagus.

Baked Chard Stems with Tomatoes

1lb chard stems split up the middle
1 tbls extra virgin olive oil
2 cloves garlic
1 can tinned tomatoes
1 tablespoon minced parsley
freshly ground black pepper
heap of parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Cook stems in boiling water until almost tender - about 10 minutes. Drain. Meanwhile fry the garlic in the oil for about 2 minutes. Add tomatoes and simmer until sauce is almost dry ( about 5 minutes ). Stir in the parsley and pepper to taste. Cover bottom of a lightly greased baking dish with a single layer of chard. Spoon a little tomato sauce over the chard then sprinkle with parmesan. Repeat this for another two layers until ending up with parmesan on top. Bake for around 25 minutes until chard is tender and top layer is lightly browned. Remove from the oven, leave for 5 minutes then serve.

Kind Regards


Isobel Davies