Dear Customer,

We have finally got the first UK carrots, bunched ones from Howard Wass. In fact I am glad to finally be able to say that, save some of the fruit, practically everything is now English. We have our first English apples - Discovery from Andy Saunders' orchards in Kent. It is always such a relief to arrive at our English season.

The weather has been very peculiar lately hasn't it. There is thick rain here and I am worried about Andrew Ward being able to dig our potatoes as I know this is the picture across the country.

Howard Wass on the North York Moors has 7 people weeding his 4 acres of carrots in the torrential rain today. He had managed to burn off 95% of the weeds before the carrots started to show but with the "tropical rain and tropical temperatures" the chick weed, shepherd's purse and speedwell are all racing for growth against the carrot crop. With 7 men the odds are stacked largely in favour of the carrots.

Farmers are nervous about potato blight at this time of year. Howard has a good crop at the moment but the blight spores have struck at the leaves - he hopes for dry, hot weather that will kill off the spores - any torrential rain could drive the spores down to the tubers. Organic farmers have little armoury against such things - his conventional neighbours never really get blight as they have sprays to use against it - he often ends up in rucks with them as they accuse him and his organic methods of encouraging the blight and they worry about being afflicted. Blight is a fact of life and Howard believes that if you dry the potatoes properly before storage - that it shouldn't be a problem. He thinks that a conventional potato crop would be more easily destroyed as they have no natural resistance. He remembers one year when he used to store the potatoes in 1 ton bags - he remembers a black liquid running out of from under the barn door. He at first thought it was the roof leaking then realized that it was the potatoes that were trickling out of the bottom of the bag and that the bag was getting smaller - that's blight !

We have Bergeron apricots from the Drome in the bags this week as well as peaches and more rhubarb from Mike Smales. Cath Sermon has suggested the following recipe for your apricots:

Apricot Brulee
Chop some apricots into the bottoms of some heatproof bowls. Cover with Greek Yoghurt and then a layer of sugar. Heat under a very hot grill until the sugar bubbles. Leave to cool slightly or until cold. Other types of fruit work well but apricots are particularly good for this.

Best Regards,

Isobel Davies