ange dews's blog

*NEW* Ecover re-fill service

Posted Sat, 24/07/2010 - 5:56pm by ange dews

 

From this week, the GVG is offering a refill service

for Ecover Washing Up Liquid and

Ecover Laundry Liquid

at £1.99 for a litre, which means it's cheaper AND you don't have to get rid of your empty bottle. 

Jim might even fill it for you, if you're lucky.

Service with a smile!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

BIRTHDAY FRUITY VEG CARNIVAL

Posted Sat, 10/07/2010 - 11:37pm by ange dews

Today at the shop.... it was party-time all day. HUGE thankyous all round are due:

  • To our marvellous customers who came to say Happy Birthday and give us their continued support 
  • To our never-resting growers who turned up first thing this morning with the freshest possible produce from within 'food metres' of the shop
  • To Dee for the wonderful birthday cakes and "Green Valley Grocer" edible-logo'd cup cakes

     

  • To Fiona and Pinky and Perky for dishing out said cakes and keeping the customer flow moving
  • To Gill and Andy for entertaining us so splendidly with the GVG Fruity Veg Carnival song
  • To the Art department staff and students at Colne Valley High School for making us our very own Green Valley Grocer 'bags for life' at their Green Day yesterday
  • To Linda for producing 1st birthday rosettes for us at the drop of a hat
  • To Jim for arriving just at the right moment when we were running out of steam and bringing us chocolates and the offer of help to pack away
  • To MC for having got out of bed (far too early) silly-side-up
  • To Freddie for battling against the odds to keep stock on the shelves
  • And to Carol for keeping the show on the road ... for a whole year!

Here's to the next 12 months!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Heather Carter BSc

Posted Thu, 01/07/2010 - 10:14pm by ange dews

This week at the shop... we are celebrating with Heather. It was like walking on eggshells last week for all of us (staff and customers alike) as months of hard graft were followed by days of nail-biting delay in waiting for the results. We all pitied her postman. Things got decidedly worse when Giants failed to get the win against Hull KR and she missed, yet again, the appearance of Brett in the shop. However, Monday morning dawned sunny and warm, we all lay low but the message came through - Heather has gained her Degree in Geography from Manchester! Good on her! 

Expect to see a lot more of Heather in the immediate future, as she increases her days in the shop to 4 per week (until she embarks on her graduate career). Not one to sit around revelling in her success, she's thrown herself into 'shop innovations' and research. 'The Fish Counter' has been on her 'to do' list for a while and we now have a fish info board with maps (she is a Geographer) and detail about sourcing, product labels so you don't have to ask what it is, and menu/cooking ideas. After undergraduate-style research, she knows all about bees and honey production now, and she is taking over our 'Local Produce of the Month' campaign to promote eating local fruit and veg in season.

Talking of 'in season', we are mourning the end of the UK asparagus season, but celebrating the increase in local summer produce available now. We're delighted to be in receipt of some top quality veg and salad from Tracy Jackson's plot that would, in previous years, have been destined for the plates of diners at the Weavers Shed. John Berryman's sugar snap peas are beyond comparison with the imported version from Kenya and his kohl rabi are nothing short of beautiful. Helen is working hard on establishing our growers' network with an eye to increasing the percentage of shop stock that can be grown locally. All the rhubarb that we have sold so far has been grown locally, the green stuff has all come from within a few miles of the shop. Garlic is on our 'hit list' now - let us know if you could grow some for next year, as it seems almost impossible to get away from the monopoly by Chinese imports.

And finally, a big thanks to everyone who shopped with us last week - the 'scores on the doors' tell us we had our biggest week of sales since Christmas Week and over a thousand customer transactions. Brilliant.

 

 

 

 

Gooseberries

Posted Wed, 09/06/2010 - 9:27pm by ange dews

Today at the shop... I am grateful to Roger from The Radish in Marsden for asking me to bring gooseberries from the market run. I almost dismissed the possibility due to it being too early in the season, however Total Produce (always my best bet for English tomatoes) had the very first arrivals onto the market.

Like other berries and rhubarb, the climate in Yorkshire is good for gooseberries and ours are growing pretty well so far. The biggest threat is mildew, brought in from America in 1905 which wiped out the whole European crop. Nowadays there are varieties that are resistant - ours are mostly Invicta which seem to do OK without spraying.

If you're a serious gooseberry-grower, you might consider visiting the Egton Bridge Old Gooseberry Show near Whitby. This year it's on Tuesday 3rd August. These guys don't mess about, they've been at it since 1800 and last year Mr Bryan Nellist grew a record-breaking Woodpecker berry weighing in at 2.19oz (or 62g in new money). That's amazing - I just weighed an egg from the fridge and it weighs only 2oz (less than 60g)!  Read more about this traditional English event at www.egtongooseberryshow.org.uk/index.htm

Gooseberry fool and gooseberry crumble are obvious delights to try, but traditionally gooseberries are also eaten with mackerel. And in our house, some are always frozen to have with goose at Christmas.

If you have grown gooseberries to spare, please contact us and arrange a good time to bring them in for us to sell for you. We'd love to have them from 'down the road' rather than elsewhere.

 

Invicta gooseberries at Wellhouse (2009)

 

Slawit Summertime

Posted Thu, 03/06/2010 - 9:21pm by ange dews

It's the first Thursday in June and the sun is shining, so officially it's 'Slawit Summertime'. This means at the Green Valley Grocer we've shifted onto our summer opening times and on Thursdays we're staying open til 7pm. So, if you're putting in the extra hours at work and either driving by or coming in on the bus or train, there's time to get your fresh produce en route home.

Good at the moment are strawberries, raspberries, blueberries and blackberries; peaches, apricots and nectarines; cherries and melons; the last couple of weeks of English asparagus (even the occasional batch from Wellhouse) - get it whilst you can; peas in their shells and broad beans; and on the unusual 'organic' front we have golden kiwis and kohl rabi.   

Now we're trucking...

Posted Thu, 27/05/2010 - 10:10pm by ange dews

Meet Moby, the Green Valley Grocer's new van. There's only one word for it really, and that's "MASSIVE"! You can run laps inside it. It can house all the other Thunderbirds inside it. It can out-accelerate a Porsche when it's empty (maybe).

It's done its trial run to Elland for honey today, and it'll have its maiden voyage to the market tomorrow with Jim, see him off at 3.30 am if you're up!

Jim     and   Mo-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-by

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

More rhubarb

Posted Wed, 26/05/2010 - 9:46am by ange dews

We like our rhubarb at the Green Valley Grocer.

We also like the Rhubarb Crumble and Custard garden - http://www.bbc.co.uk/chelsea/small-gardens/rhubarb-custard.shtml - exhibited at Chelsea Flower Show this week. This garden was awarded an RHS Silver Floral medal. It's a Yorkshire-themed garden celebrating the recently-granted protected name status of forced rhubarb from the Yorkshire Rhubarb Triangle (see our earlier blogs in February). Perhaps the publicity from this will activate the 'Delia effect' and the larger suppliers and retailers may struggle to meet demand for rhubarb - not here in the Colne Valley, thanks to our plentiful supply coming in now from gardeners and allotment holders within just a few miles, or hundred yards, of the shop.

We think the Leeds City Council Canal Garden  - http://www.leedsatchelsea.com/about - is pretty impressive too, despite no edible content! The 'Leeds Win at Chelsea' strapline that has been attached to reports is perhaps less convincing?

Wednesday 12 May

Posted Wed, 12/05/2010 - 10:41pm by ange dews

Today at the shop... it's been a struggle.

Jim's down with the flu and we're missing his news from the market run, especially with the new season English produce coming in now - asparagus, tomatoes, spring onions, cauliflowers, lettuces and pak choi. The UK asparagus season is only 6 weeks long and we're into the second week already - get it whilst you can! Word on the grapevine is that the Jersey Royals supply is interrupted due to drought (www.guardian.co.uk/science/2010/may/07/jersey-royal-potatoes-drought-crop), but there are some nice Cornish first early new potatoes available today.

Dan and Johanna are also suffering badly with the flu and there has been a stream of sad faces coming in, looking at the racks hopefully, but realising there's no 'proper' bread today - what to do? I suspect that bread-making machines are being dusted off in the kitchens of Slawit tonight, but it's just not the same. Matt and Paul should be coming to the rescue and resuming supply tomorrow - but get there quick, there'll no doubt be a queue.

Helen is bravely fighting off the lurgy with the resolve of an ex-teacher - voice or no voice, the veg will be sold and local produce will be sourced. We still have tomato plants for sale for anyone who fancies growing their own this summer. And local green rhubarb... well, we have an endless supply now from within a mile or so of the shop and it's cold enough to still crave crumble and custard, isn't it?

We're into this week without Jo, who has moved on to take up a new, full-time job in her field of IT.  We'll miss her fishmongering skills, regular tea-making and suggestions of bizarre new products from the SUMA catalogue. Lawrie has also moved on to pastures new and Freddie has taken on the Saturday morning shift. Jo and Lawrie were there at the start of the Green Valley Grocer and we appreciate their contributions to its success. We wish them both well and hope to see them in the shop regularly.

My Manchester friend thinks we're living in an episode of Camberwick Green here in the Colne Valley, this week with 'Dr Mopp' visiting a few 'Mickey Murphy's on his rounds. There are surely several contenders in our community for both Windy Miller and Jonathan Bell? Just as long as 'real life' isn't creeping in... and everyone gets better soon.

Pip's purple haze

Posted Fri, 23/04/2010 - 7:59pm by ange dews

Today at the shop... there was so much competing for attention - yesterday's Earth Day (see Forum), Shakespeare's birthday; St George's Day; the first ENGLISH green rhubarb; the first ENGLISH asparagus; Dee's traditional ENGLISH recipe scones with Longley Farm butter, cream and locally-produced jams; the first day of the Marsden Cuckoo Festival weekend (see www.cuckoofestival.co.uk/cuckoo-festival-events-page-april-24th-2010-2#saturday ) ... how can one choose between these sources of inspiration?

But the highlight of the day for me was Pip's purple haze. It's well known in shop circles that Pip has a particular penchant for red curly kale. Whether it's the magenta hue, the elegant stature of the mature plant or the cabbagy taste that attracts him, we do not know. But it's clear that this vegetable has found its way into Pip's bathroom and what the supermarkets now like to call his 'grooming products'! Pip must have found a new application for the vegetable and his coiffure has become a walking ad for it. We just need to tattoo on his neck 'Available from the Green Valley Grocer'.

Pip's purple haze and his red kale seedlings - did they make it to the garden?

 

Sunny Saturdays

Posted Sat, 17/04/2010 - 9:36pm by ange dews

Today at the shop... it was another splendid Saturday. The sun shone, there was a veritable buzz in the street, some people were even out wearing flipflops and shorts, and a lot of jolly nice customers came and spent lots of money. Our shop celebrates the end of another bumper week. You might have noticed a new face in the shop today - with Lawrie stranded somewhere in Europe in a volcanic dust cloud and Freddie away at camp, we welcomed Joshua to the Green Valley fold. And a very good job he did too, keeping us stocked up in 'rush hour'.

'News' today came from Jenny (who works at Suma), telling us about Suma's packaging change. Lots of our customers are Suma-loyals and you might have noticed that the bags are different. It's not just a fancy re-brand! From this month, their full range of dried fruit, seeds, beans, pulses and snacks (250 product lines - we squeeze loads of these into our shelf-space) have fully recycled and recyclable packaging - it's called "rPET", the process has a lower carbon footprint than other packaging media and is already used for water and soft drinks bottles, which of course can be recycled in our green bins. Let's support Suma in their lead on this and hope that Kirklees is able to 'do their bit' when it gets to them! Read more at www.suma.coop/2010/03/16/suma-launches-new-recyclable-packaging/ 

Today, we also congratulated The Radish on their launch yesterday and a very busy first Saturday today. If you've not heard yet, the greengrocer in Marsden has been bought by Lindsay and Roger and they are now up and running, selling a similar range of fruit and veg to us, along with HandMade Bakery bread. It's great news that another shop has been 'rescued' in the Colne Valley and that the 'proper' bread supply will continue in Marsden. For more info, see their Facebook page at www.facebook.com/topic.php. We wish them luck and look forward to working with them on our Manchester market runs.

 

Marsden and Slaithwaite Transition Towns

Ramsdens Solicitors

Marsden & Slaithwaite Renaissance

Syndicate content