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.

Westlands Inspired by Seasons

We, like many other Growers of fresh produce, experience all sorts of challenges in the growing year, but in particular trying to predict when one season comes to a close and when another is about to start is one of the toughest.  The other constant, in a fresh produce growers life, is the delight and obsessive weather watching, and how it will affect our different types of crops.

Certainly the relatively mild winter of last year coupled with the unseasonably warm March, the combination of almost constant rain, warm to hot weather this summer has increased humidity levels. The effect has meant that some wild crops, like traditional Blackberries for example, have produced less fruit and the fruit has ripened earlier than usual (in the case of Blackberries some 1-2 months early).

As many of you know a lot of the innovative fresh produce that the growing team at Westlands grow is trail work, that combined with the unpredictability of the British weather means that sometimes, just sometimes, the results we expect don't always materialise.

Thankfully, with the skill of not only the growing and operations team but the variety and depth of ranges that we grow, Westlands are able to recommend alternative items from our collections via our knowledgeable and experienced technical and marketing team.

Unless there is a dramatic change in the weather we will bidding a fond farewell, in the next week or so, to one of our Inspired products, the delightful Westlands Butterfly Sorrel Flowers.  Don't worry they are a firm favourite in our Westlands Inspired collection and will reappear around May/June time 2013 (weather dependent of course).

Westlands Inspired - Butterfly Sorrel Flowers

What we would really like to know, just before Butterfly Sorrel Flowers take a bow and we say our goodbyes, is how have you used Westlands Butterfly Sorrel Flowers?  Please do share any photo's and recipes on Facebook WestlandsWow or Tweet us @WestlandsWow

We can't wait to see this growing next year:

Westlands Inspired - Butterfly Sorrel Flowers, growing