February at Five Acre Farm
Our team are working hard on the farm at the moment, planning, sowing and nurturing for the busy growing season to come.
The winter salad mix has been really good this year. Look out for bags of the mixed leaves in the shop. The spicy mix is super tasty! At the time of writing Head Grower Jon says “It may be chilly outside but our spring crop of Cavolo Nero is coming on nicely in it’s cosy poly tunnel home”. We are hoping to have lots more kale coming from the farm over the spring season.
Mushroom magic
Also doing well and abundant at the moment, are the mushrooms we grow on the farm. Current available varieties are:
Shitake
Commonly used in Asian cuisine and Chinese medicine, shitakes have a rich savoury taste and bring umami flavours to a dish. Compounds in shitakes may help to boost immunity and heart health.
Oyster
Native to uk woodlands, Oyster mushrooms have a delicate shell like appearance and texture and a mild savoury flavour. They are loaded with fibre, vitamins and nutrients and said to be linked with good gut health, blood sugar regulation and may help to lower cholesterol.
King Oyster
Rich in taste and meaty in texture, king Oyster mushrooms make a great non processed meat alternative as they are packed full of protein, B6 and other nutrients. They are said to have anti -inflammatory properties and may help lower cholesterol.
Lion's Mane
This strange looking fungus has a slightly yeasty flavour. It’s renown for it’s health benefits which are said to include; improving brain function, productivity & focus, and is also said it may help to reduce the symptoms of depression and anxiety.
Recipe of the month
As well as the wonderful veg from our own farm, we also stock a big range of organic veg from our friends at Riverford. If you’re looking for ideas of how to use our tasty mushrooms, they have some seriously taaaasty mushroom recipes, so it’s a double recipe of the month for Feb!
lovely new Prodcuers
Muti hot sauce
Muti fermented hot sauces, Kimchi and spiced Kraut all made in Bristol packed with vibrancy, flavour and gut nourishing nutrients.
Bath Soft Cheese
We are now also stocking Bath Soft Cheese products on a regular basis, including Bath Blue, Wyfe of Bath and the one and only Bath Soft Cheese.
Health and Beauty refill coming soon
Watch out for our new health and beauty refill section. We have teamed up with Alter/native which is produced by Suma, a worker’s cooperative based in Yorkshire.
The range is cruelty free, plant based, approved by the vegan society and made in the uk. The bottles are made from 100% post- consumer recyclables and are fully recyclable, plus we will be offering the option to refill the bottles, so you only need to buy a bottle once (or bring one you already have).
We’ll have body wash, hand wash, shampoo and conditioners to complement the shampoo bars and glycerine soaps that we already stock from the range.
Our producer of the month is the hyperlocal Totterdown Apothecary. Kim makes beautiful and sustainable herbal body care products from her base in Totterdown.
Totterdown Apothecary grew out of the search for an effective natural deodorant. I tried so many options but I couldn’t find one that worked; there were some that smelt nice but didn’t do much and some that made my skin itch uncontrollably. I even found one that, rather inexplicably, smelt strongly of bubblegum.
I was determined to find a natural alternative, so following my quiet mantra ‘nature always provides’, I set about the task of researching and making my own. A few trial batches (and some tinkering) later and I had what I had always hoped to find – a simple, easy-to-apply, natural and effective deodorant.
After realising that lots of my friends were on the same quest, I started making small batches of deodorant cream and the business grew from there; always driven my own need and based around my core values – natural ingredients, sustainable production, and opting for organic wherever possible.
Totterdown Apothecary was born in the precipitous hills of Totterdown in Bristol and has since relocated to the lush, green outskirts of Bath. It is run by Kim, a bibliophile, writer, trainee English language teacher and natural skincare maker.
We have her beautiful bath salt milk bottles, vegan deodorant cream and facial steam blends and gift sets in store right now.