I am delighted to tell you that the online shop is now fully re-stocked and open for business again.
As I mentioned last week, our friends at The Cornish Shellfish Company are back in action and have lifted their first crab pots of the year. For this weekend we have a selection of fine cock crabs – full of white and brown meat – picking crabs can be a little tiresome during normal life but could be the perfect way of passing an hour during these strange times! We have lovely large and medium sized brown crabs and a few stunning spider crabs. Details are in the online shop where you can pre-order for collection on Friday or Saturday.
Also available will be some of the most delicious, hand-picked, wild mussels from the Fowey estuary in Cornwall. Those of you who ate these in the restaurant a couple of months ago already know the flavour is exquisite – fleshier and sweeter than their farmed cousins! We recommend a simple Mariniere method to cook – sautée some finely chopped onion in a nob of butter till soft. Turn the hob to its hottest setting, add a glass of white wine, throw in the mussels and put the lid on. Keep at full heat and shake the pan vigorously a couple of times – the mussels will be ready in a minute or two as soon as their shells open. Tip into a bowl, sprinkle with parsley and serve with a slice or two of our rustic white to mop up the juices and the rest of the bottle of white wine. Perfection! We are selling the mussels in kilo bags – great for two hearty appetites at dinner or, perhaps, served with a crisp salad as a light lunch for 3-4. If you need some parsley, just put a note on the order form and we’ll throw in a sprig or two.
From our gardens and greenhouses, we have lots of seasonal treats this week including:
- Delicious, crisp red radishes
- Spring Onions
- Endive (Castelfranco). Slightly bitter, crisp and fleshy, the leaves make a delicious refreshing basis for a salad.
- Komatsuna
- Chinese Mustard and Cime de Rapa – Broccoli Raab – both very tasty stir fry greens
- The last of our winter spinach – large, sweet, green leaves!
- Puntarelle di Brindisi – great in a salad with anchovies, lemon and oil or blanched and sautéed with extra virgin olive oil, garlic and chilli
Finally, although our own tomatoes will not be ready for a couple of months, we have just taken delivery of the second most delicious tomatoes in the country from Isle of White Tomatoes. We have plenty of their mixed heirloom and cherry tomatoes for you to try!
The farm will be open as usual on Friday and Saturday so you are welcome to come to the shop and buy your fruit, vegetables and bread in the normal way. For those who can make it, there will be a slightly broader range of produce available including our delicious salads, some soft fruit and berries. We took a new delivery of farmhouse cheeses from the Netherlands this week and there is definitely plenty of your favourite goats cheese!
Of course we all have to adhere to strict social distancing rules:
- Everyone will need to sanitize their hands before coming into the shop
- Only one customer in the shop at any time
- The queue (if we’re busy) will be spaced at 2m intervals (we’ll set out chairs to make this more comfortable!)
- No cash payments will be accepted – only cards
We will be offering Click and Collect or Delivery options only on Sunday. We anticipate being fairly low on stock again by the end of Saturday so to avoid disappointment, we will be re-publishing a detailed stock list on Saturday evening to allow you to place online orders whether for morning Click and Collect or afternoon delivery.
We hope you are all keeping well and look forward seeing you or speaking to you at some point over the weekend.
