Rob’s Recipe of the Week: Spring Dal
We’re getting some huge spring greens at the moment and I’ve discovered a few new recipes involving them as a result. I make Dhal fairly regularly but rarely follow a recipe. This one is a really good introduction though, I was quite amazed at how rich it tasted and I’m really not sure what the difference was to my usual attempts! Make sure you cook until the lentils are soft, I’m often too impatient.
Spring Green and Coconut Dal
Ingredients (Serves two)
1 tbsp coconut oil
1 onion, finely sliced
1 large or 2 small garlic cloves, finely chopped, grated or crushed
4cm piece of fresh ginger, peeled and finely grated
1 red chilli, finely sliced
1 tsp black mustard seeds
¼ tsp ground turmeric
1 x 400ml tin coconut milk
100g yellow mung dal lentils, rinsed in a sieve (I used red lentils)
1 tsp coriander seeds, toasted and ground
1 tsp cumin seeds, toasted and ground
200g spring or summer greens, tough ribs removed (sliced them and fired with the onion), leaves finely shredded. Feel free to go heavy on the greens I found they worked well.
handful of coriander leaves
a squeeze of lime or lemon juice
toasted coconut chips or toasted desiccated coconut, to garnish
salt
Method
Prep time: 5 min
Cooking time: 50 min
Melt the coconut oil in a large pan. Add the onion and fry on a low heat for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Turn up the heat a little and add the garlic, ginger, chilli, mustard seeds and turmeric. Stir for about 1 minute, until you hear the mustard seeds start to pop. Stir the coconut milk in the can then pour into the pan with the lentils and ground coriander and cumin. Fill the coconut milk can half full with water and add that too.
Bring up to the boil, reduce the heat and simmer for about 15 minutes. Add the greens, stirring in small handfuls at a time, then cook for a further 5–10 minutes, until the lentils are tender and the greens wilted. Keep an eye on the liquid and add more water if needed.
Season the dal with salt, stir in the fresh coriander and add a squeeze of lime or lemon juice to taste. Serve the dal prinkled with toasted coconut and a few extra coriander leaves.
Adapted from: https://www.riverford.co.uk/recipes/spring-green-and-coconut-dal
Rebecca’s Recipe of the Week: Gingery Green Noodles
This is another very fast dish of delicious slurpy noodles, spiked with basil, lime juice and sesame oil.
Ginger-Poached Noodles
Serves 2-3
Ingredients
4 cups vegetable broth (I used water with 2 tablespoons of white miso)
2 ounces fresh ginger, peeled and thinly sliced
8 ounces firm tofu or tempeh, cut into small cubes
approximately 2 cups of sprouting broccoli or shredded spring greens
4 ounces dried noodles of your choice (I used soba noodles)
1-2 tablespoons soya sauce
¼ cup fresh basil, shredded
¼ cup fresh mint, shredded
juice of half a lime
crushed red pepper flakes (I used part of a shredded Canalside chile)
toasted sesame oil
Preparation
Place the broth and ginger in a large saucepan and bring to a boil. Lower the heat, and simmer gently for ten minutes or so. Meanwhile, bring some water to the boil to cook the noodles.
Cook the noodles in the boiling water until they are tender, drain them, and set them aside.
After the broth has simmered for ten minutes add the and tofu or tempeh and the greens. Return to a boil, and then turn the heat back down to a simmer and cook for 5-8 minutes, or until the greens are tender.
Add the drained pasta to the broth and heat for a few more minutes, stirring regularly. Stir in the soya sauce, basil, mint, and lime juice. Before serving, if you have the energy you can fish out the slices of ginger, which are perfectly edible but a bit chewy.
Serve in bowls with a few pinches of crushed red pepper flakes, and a drizzle of sesame oil, to taste.
Recipe adapted from 101 Cookbooks.
Virtual blossom walk
The orchard is looking amazing at the moment – the apple blossom is at its peak and the cherry trees that still have blossom have an abundance of it! Hopefully all the blossom foretells of a bountiful crop of fruit this summer, all being well through the growing season.
Click here to watch:
Credits: Filming, editing and music: Eleanor Brown
2020 – April news: Royal Variety Performance: Grafting Apples
What do you do if you plant an apple tree and, after ten years of care, the variety you’ve gone for just isn’t performing? One of ours, ‘Tydeman’s Late Orange’, has given us this problem, with a decade of low yield, tiny scabby fruit and other misdemeanours.
Scionwood ready to go 
The unproductive tree
All is not lost – this week Dom has been grafting a new, favoured variety (‘Edward VII’, hence royal) onto the old TLO trees. This involves cutting the tree right back to a few decent stumps (leaving one as a ‘sap drawer’) and in this case cleaving into the wood and wedging two tiny scions (twigs from the preferred variety, cut in winter and stored in the fridge) into the edges of the cleft.
The prepared scionwood 
Sealing the cut with wax
The wounds are taped up and sealed with wax. The Edward VII scions will grow with the vigour of a ten-year old tree rather than a new sapling and will reach a good size in no time, so this is a much quicker way than replacing the tree entirely – those 10 years were not totally wasted.
Rob’s Recipe of the Week: A Dish Full of Pink
We’ve had a whole lot of beetroot to contend with this winter and I’m still trying to find new ways to use it. This recipe seemed very lockdown themed as I imagine a lot of people have been trying out sourdough bread for the first time. I’m not a big fan myself but combined with a beetroot gratin I can give it a chance!
Beetroot and pink peppercorn gratin
As good with roast beef for Sunday lunch as it is a smart veggie main. The pink peppercorns add an extra rosy zing, but just use normal black pepper if you can’t find them.
Serves 6 (Scale the recipe to match your share size.)
Ingredients
1.5kg beetroot, peeled
4 garlic cloves
250ml double cream
2 slices of day-old sourdough bread
40g butter, chilled, diced
Olive oil
3 tbsp finely ground pink peppercorns
Red wine vinegar
Salt and black pepper
Method:
1 Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/gas mark 4. Thinly slice the beetroot either by hand or using a mandolin.
2 Give the garlic cloves a good bash and pop them in a pan with the cream, slowly bring to the boil, simmer gently for 10 minutes and then leave to infuse for a further 10 minutes.
3 Sieve the cream on to the beetroot, pressing the garlic with the back of a spoon to extract the flavour. Season generously with salt and mix well.
4 Pack the beetroot into an ovenproof roasting dish. Cover tightly with foil. Bake for anywhere between 30-45 minutes (it will depend on the age and season of the beetroots) or until it yields easily to the tip of a knife.
5 Cut the crusts from your sourdough and blend the insides into a coarse crumb, add the cold butter and a small glug of olive oil and pulse again, as though you’re making a crumble topping.
6 Remove foil and stir in the pink peppercorns, a dash of red wine vinegar to taste and check the seasoning. Arrange in a gratin dish and sprinkle with the breadcrumbs. Bake until golden brown on top and bubbling.
Rob Andrew, Riverford Field Kitchen, https://www.riverford.co.uk/recipes/beetroot-and-pink-peppercorn-gratin
Featured in Guardian Food, 10 Best Beetroot Recipes https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2014/may/24/10-best-beetroot-recipes
Rebecca’s Recipe of the Week: Superlative Parsnips
This is EXACTLY what you need to eat on Easter Sunday.* Whatever else you’re serving, this will make it even better. The recipe comes from Abra Berens, who recommends accompanying it with grilled duck breast and radicchio. It’s also pretty super spread on a piece of toast.
Parsnip Purée
Serves 4.
Ingredients
120ml olive oil
1 large onion, peeled and cut into thin slices
250ml white wine
900g parsnips, peeled and cut into chunks
2 teaspoons salt
250ml double cream (although we in fact substituted oatmilk)
2 star anise
Zest of one orange
Preparation
In a medium saucepan, heat a generous glug of the oil over very low heat. Add the onion and cook until very soft, for about 15 minutes.
Add the wine, and continue to cook until it’s almost completely evaporated.
Add the parsnips and salt, and toss together.
Add the cream, the remaining olive oil, and star anise. Bring to a boil, the reduce the heat so that the mixture simmers gently. Cover and cook until the parsnips are falling-apart tender, about 15 minutes more. Remove the star anise.
Purée the mixture (liquid and all) until it is very smooth. Add the orange zest and enjoy.
Recipe adapted from Abra Berens, Ruffage: A Practical Guide to Vegetables (2019).
*I expect you can work it into a Seder as well…
Rob’s Recipe of the Week: ‘Spring on the way’ soup
I haven’t used a soup recipe for a while and I’ve suddenly realised I’ve been surviving off beans and toast for lunch for a little too long, We have an abundance of leeks at the moment and I could go for the easy option of leek and potato soup, but thought I would try this slightly different idea instead.
Leek, spring green and apple soup
Ingredients:
25g butter
1 tbsp olive oil
1 large onion, finely sliced
600g leeks (about 3-4 large), finely shredded
2 garlic cloves, crushed
2 apples, peeled and diced
250ml cider
1 litre veg stock
100g spring greens, finely shredded
salt and pepper
Method
Heat the butter and oil in a large pan. Add the onion and leeks. Fry on a low heat for 10 minutes. Add the garlic and apple and cook for 2 minutes. Add the cider and simmer for 5 minutes.
Add the stock, bring to the boil, reduce the heat and simmer for 10 minutes.
Add the spring greens and simmer for 5 minutes, or until the greens are tender. Blitz until smooth or leave chunkier, whichever you prefer.
Season, and serve.
Taken from: https://www.riverford.co.uk/recipes/view/recipe/leek-spring-green-apple-soup
Onion planting – still needs to happen despite COVID-19…
This year’s onion planting will happen in a slightly different way to usual, to make sure this big annual task can be completed whilst at the same time enabling members to get out in the fresh air and still maintain the recommended social distancing measures.
Come and help plant the main onion crop – a task suitable for all ages! The work will continue for as many days as needed (Tuesday-Saturday) and any member who is well and symptom free, and has not been advised to self-isolate, is welcome to come and join in – the work will be arranged so that social distancing measures can be maintained.
Due to COVID-19 we will not be providing any refreshments or arranging shared food during onion planting work sessions. You are encouraged to bring a flask with your own hot drinks, and are welcome to bring a packed lunch if you want to work both sides of lunchtime.
We will be contacting members to let them know when the work can start (dependent on the ground being dry enough for the land to be prepared). Saturday 4th April or 11th April onwards – to be advised
2020 – March news: A Load of Crap
Many people have an idealistic mental image of land work, of ruddy-cheeked farmhands chewing a stalk of hay, cheerfully digging carrots against a bucolic backdrop of butterflies fluttering across wildflower meadows.
This week, however, reality came crashing down as the time finally came to dig out the compost toilet. You may be aware that one half of the toilets has been shut for the last six months to allow its contents to decompose and pathogens to die off; consequently much of what we “harvested” was beautiful black gold, well-rotted compost with a pleasant aroma of nutrition and fertility, a far cry from its stinky beginnings, such is the cycle of order and chaos that we call nature.
Digging out the toilet chamber 
A trailer load of humanure
Organic regulations prohibit the use of this “humanure” in growing, so we got permission to deposit it in an inaccessible corner of a nearby private woodland. Find out more about compost toilets at https://humanurehandbook.com/.
Rebecca’s Recipe of the Week: Celebrating La Jimena
We all need a good cocktail now and then. This is my new favourite. It’s an ideal way to use your remaining La Jimena oranges. Alternatively, it’s very good with blood orange juice, if you can lay your hands on any.
To make a twist of orange zest, use a vegetable peeler to cut a long strip of zest from the orange before you juice it. If you want to be super-elegant you can use a knife to trim the edges to produce a long, thin (2mm) strip. Carefully shape the strip into a tight corkscrew shape before placing it on top of your drink in the glass.
Blood and Sand
Serves 1
Ingredients
25ml fresh orange juice
30ml whisky
15ml sweet red vermouth
15ml cherry brandy
1 twist of orange zest, to garnish
Preparation
Fill a cocktail glass with ice to chill while you prepare the cocktail. (Discard the ice before you fill the glass.)
Put the orange juice into a blender and whizz for 30 seconds so that it gets a bit frothy.
Put the whisky, vermouth and cherry liqueur in a cocktail shaker with lots of ice and shake vigorously.
Gently fold in the fluffy, blitzed orange juice into the shaker, and then strain into the chilled glass.
Garnish with the orange twist and enjoy.
Recipe adapted from The Guardian, 21 Feb. 2020.