Hi all,

First of all, sorry for the lack of photos on the post this week. The website wasn't playing ball, but you can see the latest photos from the field on our Instagram (@tirawelvegboxes) and Facebook (Tir Awel) pages!

We’re digging up our own potatoes now – it’s so exciting seeing the little glimpses of gold in the soil, but our happiness does come with a caveat. Very high temperatures and lack of rain can cause potatoes to develop brown spotting inside, and we saw some of this on a sample we took last week. The first sample was almost entirely affected by this, the second and third samples not at all. As there is no way to know without cutting the potatoes open, we are sending them out this week on a little bit of a gamble. To counter the risk, we’re putting in extras, in the hope that if you do need to discard any, you’ll have plenty left over. If this isn’t the case, please do get in touch and we can issue you with a refund. It would also be extremely helpful if you could let us know either way – if the potatoes are fine, or if they are not – so that we can better decide what to do next week. Drop us an email at [email protected] to let us know.

All of that potato chat leaves little room for a recipe, but let’s go with a quick courgette one, because we all need summer squash ideas at this time of year! Making ribbons from your courgettes is a great way to use bigger fruits that might be a little bit seedy. Using a veg peeler, slice the courgettes lengthways into ribbons. When you reach the seeds, turn the courgette and peel from the other side, leaving the soft core behind (if your courgettes are small, you can use the whole thing). Heat some olive oil and butter in a pan and cook some minced garlic for a minute or so. Add the courgette ribbons, season with salt and pepper and cook, turning carefully, until the ribbons start to brown. Add some cherry tomatoes, stirring carefully so that they don’t burst, and cook until the tomatoes are heated through. Stir through some basil (first sprigs in the boxes today!) and serve on toast for a summery brunch. Click here for the full recipe.

Lauren and the Tir Awel team x