January 2026

It is marmalade season. One of my favourite times of the year is when I get a little flurry of emails and calls from the Seville brigade ( I wholeheartedly count myself as one of them) chasing unwaxed bitter oranges for marmalade making. Because the season is so short, just 6-8 weeks, there is often a slight frenzy and importance to their ordering which I enjoy immensely. At last- a group of people who understand seasonality so acutely they are in a constant state of panic- just like me!

Cara Cara orange - Naveline orange - Moro blood oranges

Now, I could tell you about the really excellent batch I made last year that was a mixture of traditional Sevilles, grapefruits, blood oranges and pink cara cara’s-it came out this incredible dark crimson orange and was so fruity and flavourful and rich. But instead I wanted to share a memory that always sits with me at this time of year-I’ve been thinking about when we first moved to the farm, to live with my grandmother over 25 years ago. Each morning one of us would take a tray of toast, butter and marmalade up to her, next to a cup of Earl Grey. There is something about that memory- of tray carrying in my school uniform, of the little dishes of butter and marmalade, of the bergamot of the tea, the warmth of her bedroom, the way she’d crack an eyelid as if she hadn’t been awake for hours. Sometimes I’d sit on her overly soft bed and we’d chat, but more often I’d retreat and leave her to her morning ritual of tea and toast.

She used to make her marmalade with Marmade, as Sevilles weren’t as freely available back then, but we have plenty of them! Fresh off the lorries from mainland Europe, and hopefully without too much of a delay now the snowstorms have passed (touch wood!).

Citrus really is exceptional at the moment, the Navelina oranges are so sweet, the blood oranges and Cara Cara just full of flavour, mandarins really rich, lemons thin skinned and juicy and limes and kumquats both really fragrant. Fill your boots! A note about pricing- if the individual prices seem high it’s to do with the size of the fruit- the first batch of Moro blood oranges were tiny and really economical- this last batch has been much, much bigger- but the price per kilo hasn’t fluctuated.           

Anyway enough oranges- let’s talk greens- Cavolo Nero, kale, Savoys  and Brussel sprout stalks all local/UK and supply doing well. We’ll take a short break from our salad soon, but the French lettuce, spinach and chard will keep us going in the mean while until the light and warmth returns to kick start the crops again.

            Lastly I have a plea- we are really struggling with boxes. The rounds are busier and we need to be able to stack the boxes in the van so we’ve invested in a lot of green crates for larger veg box orders. We trialled this a little last year with bale arm crates but over the course of two weeks lost more than 50. We just can’t afford to keep buying them- they cost about £10 each for the size we use regularly ( if you happen to find any of ours kicking around we’d love them back!) So we have a plea- if you receive your order in a plastic crate, green or bale arm, please please can you make sure they’re waiting for us the following week. We really don’t want to charge for delivery or pay a deposit for crate use, but if we keep losing crates we will have to add a fee somewhere.

            Thanks as always for listening to me ramble! Happy New Year/ Blwyddyn Newydd dda.

Highlights:

-       Citrus fruits! In all their glory. Eat them, juice them, preserve them! They are full of all the vitamins to get you through the darkest days of the year. Pomegranates are coming to an end, apples are back to the cracking Mole End varieties- really good quality they’ll change varieties month to month. Pears are going to flip flop around now variety wise until we get to the Williams types from the Southern hemisphere but we’ll stay on European for as long as the quality is good.

-       Swede is back in stock this week from Hereford, potatoes are flipping divine as the sugar in them increases the longer they are stored. Carrots are small but pack a mighty punch of flavour- but we’re still stocking the clean ones too if you need your carrots a certain length! Our own blue and spaghetti squash are holding on with butternut and kuri from Europe and the red and white cabbage are good value, from Phillip in Hereford, along with his sprout stalks.

Joe and Chris unpacking the pallets from the vans that had to meet the stranded lorries! No more snow days for 2026 please…but also- a note for the best team in the business :) What a crew!