Here at Mindful Chef, we love local! Our fresh British and award-winning ingredients are sourced from our trusted farmers so you know you’re getting the highest quality.
Vibrant greens, fresh reds, bright oranges – our nutrient-rich veg looks good – and tastes even better.
Great British seasons bring great new flavours to your plate, so we wanted to give the spotlight to a few of our seasonal stars on your menu this Spring.
Swede
Our swedes come from the Fearne family, based in Laurencekirk, Scotland. The family have their roots firmly established in farming since 1988 and have used innovative growing methods and cutting edge technology to harvest and store their produce so they’re now able to offer year-round availability of Swede and Carrot for the UK market.
With over 50 employees at the Laurencekirk site, their focus and commitment to staff welfare has earned Fearn’s a high level of respect as an employer and they are classed by Concordia as having one of the highest standards of on-site accommodation in the UK!
Find their baby swedes (also known as ‘nippers’) in our Chicken pie with swede and & carrot mash recipe.
Kale
Kale is an all-round staple on the Mindful Chef menu! Our trusty grower Chris Molyneux, based in Lancashire, supplies 6 different types; green kale, red kale, Cavolo Nero, Rainbow kale, Red Russian kale and Violet Frisé.
Almost uniquely in the UK vegetable growers, Molyneux kale still maintain their own varieties, keeping seed from one crop to grow the next!
Chris also understands the benefits of working with nature to develop the best kale crops, using a wide range of sustainable farming practices. This includes “resting” his fields from growing kale and growing green manure (a mixture of grasses and clover) so he doesn’t need to use as much fertiliser on his crops.
Rhubarb
Our delicious rhubarb comes from the Arnold family, who are third-generation farmers based in Worcestershire – just 30 minutes away from our production site in Redditch!
‘Forced rhubarb’ involves the careful growing of new rhubarb plants outside in the field for 3 years before the root is big enough to allow it to be forced.
In the Autumn after the first frosts, the crowns are dug up and planted in special dark forcing sheds. The rhubarb grows quickly in the dark, warm environment – with the lack of sunlight also limiting the normal acidic taste that is found with green outdoor rhubarb. When it’s quiet in the sheds, you can even hear it growing, as the stems rub against each other and buds burst!
Forced rhubarb is sweeter and more delicately flavoured than outdoor white – keep your eyes peeled for our Roast pork with rhubarb, quinoa & kale on the menu soon!
Yet to try healthy eating made easy? Get £10 off your first two recipe boxes by entering code BLOG20 at checkout. Mindful Chef recipe boxes provide you with the tools to cook delicious nutritious meals, in under 30 minutes. Each box contains recipe instructions, pre-portioned ingredients and fresh produce sourced from small award-winning British farms.