Happy New Year 2013

Westland Nurseries (Westlands) has got many reasons to look forward to 2013.  This includes the positive results of the investments made during October and November 2012, a revamped website and attending a number of important food service and Chef facing events.

After a successful summer during which Westlands grew more products and introduced a number of new collections, such as:

Westlands Heritage - a collection of heirloom tomatoes, which saw Westlands grow a range of UK tomatoes numbering over 30 different types.




Westlands Taste of the Sea - a collection of Sea Vegetables and flowers, from "traditional" samphire to salty fingers and okahijiki.







Westlands Inspired - a collection of more unique and unusual products including edible flowers, popcorn shoots and bronze fennel.

The Westlands investment package has enabled us to ensure a consistency in our winter range of Micro Leaf products, which has not been achieved before.  Westlands undertook a number of "product surgeries" with our Chef clients to understand the key ingredients that they needed during the busy Christmas and New Year period.

Amaranth is one of those ingredients, in the past supplies have been patchy because during winter the plant slows down.  Westlands bucked this trend and was able to deliver a consistency not seen before, to our customer base, during the key weeks prior to Christmas and the New Year.

As well as being invited to attend a number of prestigious events, Westlands are delighted to again be involved with some very popular TV programmes this year and contributing products to those Chefs taking part.

We also intend on increasing the number of visits to our facilities and will be on the lookout, as ever, for interesting and innovative products to grow.  So please do let us know of any products you would like to see more of.

For the first time Westlands will be hosting two of our own events, one in the summer "Westlands Summer Season Fete" and the other in the autumn "Westlands Harvest Festival".

These events are about sharing and celebrating seasonal fresh produce, so please do look out for more details and your special invitation.

Along with our continued focus on growing unique and innovative fresh produce Westlands will be revamping its website, continue with social media and look for opportunities to engage even more deeply with Chefs, the Food Service Industry and our customers.  Look out for our weekly #WoW of the Week and our #PoW of the week, as chosen by our grower team.

We wish you all a very prosperous, healthy and Happy New Year for 2013, from all of the team at Westlands.

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Seasonal Update - 17th Dec 2012

In order to keep you up-to-date the team at Westlands are issuing this seasonal update as an forecast of availability for the next few days.  We hope this will be helpful to you and your teams in your planning.

Westlands Pea Shoots

 

As of Monday 17th December Harvest:

• We expect to have Supplies of the following Micro Leaf Collection:

• Red Vein Sorrel.
• Red Perilla.
• Coriander.
• Red Amaranth.
• Celery.
• Salad Fennel.
• Ruby Chard.

 

 

All products in the Westlands Micro Leaf Collection should be available as per normal, however, restrictions may apply.

 

Westlands Alaskan Nasturtium Leaf

Westlands Sea Rosemary

If you are unsure on availabilities or any Westlands products, please do ask your usual supplier or feel free to Tweet us @WestlandsWow or @Simon_Westlands.  We are keeping our Distribution Partners informed on a continual basis of what is and isn't available.  Thank you, the Team at Westlands.

Westlands Amaranth Update

We are delighted, but still cautious, about how well the Westlands Amaranth crop is developing, due to the extra work we detailed in our previous blog Westlands Seasonal Update - Amaranth.

This week we have seen the benches producing the crop at the size we expect, but in lower quantities.  Westlands have been able to send out small volumes to our supply base this week and we are expecting to do the same, in the same small quantities for most of next week.

How can our Customers help us?

Please only order what you actually need, as this means we only harvest what is needed and will ensure that we can keep up with your orders.  By not over ordering now, will mean more crop at the most important later stage of Christmas!

We are expecting the volumes to increase, steadily, over the next 10 days.  Thank you so much to all of our Customers who have born with us, thank you to those who shared and Tweeted our Seasonal Update.  Using the knowledge we have gained this year will allow us to improve the position for all of our customers next year.

Please be assured that we are working hard to ensure full supply of Westlands Amaranth for your important Christmas menu weeks, but, as ever in the wonderful world of Fresh Produce, we are not promising anything!

Many thanks on behalf of the whole team at WestlandsWow.

Reynolds Smoked Duck & Plum Sauce Recipe

*FEATURE* - Reynolds Foodservice Monthly

September 2012 Recipe - Smoked Duck & Plum Sauce

The innovative chef team at Reynolds Website have created this Seasonal recipe for Smoked Duck and Plum Sauce in their September 2012 Foodservice Monthly, page 62.

Looking visually stunning, and containing one of our seasonal fresh produce favourites, Plums, it also includes the following Westlands Inspired UK grown products:

• Edible Flowers types like - Nasturtium, Sorrel, Viola, Borage or Radish.
• Nasturtium leaves.

You can view & print the recipe via this link >> Reynolds Smoked Duck & Plum Sauce

We would be delighted to receive posts with your pictures of your version of Reynolds Smoked Duck and Plum Sauce, please feel free to post your pictures onto our pages:

WestlandsWow Facebook page

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@WestlandsWow Twitter page

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WestlandsWow Pinterest page