In your box — 6 August 2026

Morning frosts sat at minus three most of this week, which is miserable for fingers and magnificent for flavour. Everything in this box has been converting starch to sugar to survive the cold — the carrots especially. Try one raw before you cook any of them.

What's happening in the garden

This is the week the purple sprouting broccoli finally came good. Matt planted it back in February, it's occupied prime bed space for six months doing apparently nothing, and now it pays the rent all at once. Snap the spears like asparagus — the whole thing is edible, leaves included.

We're heading into what growers in frost country call the hungry gap — the awkward stretch from now to mid-October when winter crops finish before spring crops start. Boxes will lean on the shed (pumpkins, garlic, spuds), the citrus, and quick greens from the polytunnel. If you want the full honest picture of how that works, it's on the what's in season page.

This week's menu

• Monday — Whole roasted cauliflower... except it's cabbage week, so do exactly the same thing to half your savoy: wedges, olive oil, hard roast, lemon over the top.
• Wednesday — Winter soup for a clay bowl with the butternut, the leeks, and half the garlic.
• Friday — Sprouting broccoli charred in a dry pan, dressed with lemon, chilli and a lot of olive oil, on toast, egg on top. This is not a recipe so much as an instruction to have a good Friday.
• All week — parsley stems into the soup, parsley leaves over everything else.

From the pottery shed

Tina's winter kiln load comes out next week — soup bowls, mostly, glazed in the green she's been chasing all year. Subscribers see them first, as always.

See you Thursday, Tina, Matt & Craig