Stanhill Farm News!

It is Shrove Tuesday on the 13th February so don't forget your pancake essentials! You can buy all your ingredients from the farm shop - flour, eggs, milk and lemons. If you are feeling indulgent you could always pick up some honey and fresh cream! 

Pancake Day comes from the old English custom of using up all the fattening ingredients in the house before Lent, so that people were ready to fast during Lent. The fattening ingredients that most people had in their houses in those days were eggs and milk, therefore, a very simple recipe to use up these ingredients was to combine them with some flour and make pancakes!

English Forced rhubarb is now available, sourced from the Rhubarb Triangle in West Yorkshire, famous for producing early Forced rhubarb. The rhubarb is kept in complete darkness and pickers then pull the stalks in candlelight, as any exposure to strong light will stop the growth. Forced rhubarb is priced at £6.00 per kilo, more expensive than the rhubarb cut later in the year due to the specialised way in which it is grown and harvested.

We have been harvesting more Kalettes, as they remain very popular and are still in season. We were orignally selling them in packs but have now decided to sell them loose, by weight. This is inkeeping with most of our other fresh produce, cutting out the need for unnecessary plastic packaging.

Going forward, it is our intention to reduce packaging and waste in general and we are looking into sourcing bio-degradable carrier bags and the possibility of strong paper carrier bags. If anyone knows of any good companies who sell these, please let us know. We are grateful to our customers who continue to bring in their own carrier bags, helping to cut down on waste.

We are now stocking Dingley Dell Artisan bacon. The pork comes from an outdoor pig farm near Woodbridge, Suffolk and was established in 1999 with the aim to produce superb tasting, welfare friendly pork with provenance. The environment is geared towards the welfare of the animals. Happy pigs and great flavour go hand in hand and Dingley Dell Pork is all about taste and welfare. The bacon is priced at £3.00 per 250g pack and is available in Back, Dry Cure Smoked and Beer & Treacle.

We are still harvesting Purple Sprouting broccoli, kalettes, Savoy and Tundra cabbages, Red kale, kale, cavolo nero, sprouts, sprout tops,  leeks and parsnips. Purple carrots, carrots, January King cabbage and spring greens have now all finished.