Castlefarm Shop Newsletter

16-Dec-2007

Castlefarm Shop newsletter, December 07

December opening hours As well as our normal hours of Wednesday to Saturday 10am-6pm for December we will be opening every Sunday until Christmas from 2pm-6pm. We will also open on Christmas Eve (Monday 24th) from 10am-6pm. Christmas opening hours We will close for our annual break from 6pm Christmas Eve. Re-opening Wednesday 9th of January 2008. Honesty Eggs We might have Christmas off the hens just keep laying (at last you might say!). While the shop is closed we are going to operate an honesty egg box system. Each morning we will leave the mornings eggs in a box outside the shop and customers can take what they require and leave the €2 per half dozen in the moneybox. It means you can continue to enjoy our yummy Castlefarm eggs, collecting them at your convenience. Local Christmas trees for sale from 29 November Our local, real, green, non-shed Grangecon Christmas trees arrived on the 29th November and will be real, green and non-shed. The advice I have got from Richard Paige (grower) is that if you put them up at the beginning of December, keep them in a cool room away from the fire or radiator and they will stay fresh until Christmas. Corporate hamper deadline Last orders for corporate hampers is 15th December so please order sooner rather than later to avoid disappointment. New students settling in just fine at Castlefarm! Our German students Anna and Lissa (pictured above left) are settling in well to the Irish culture. Lissa has already been set dancing at St Laurence’s GAA. Louise our French student has returned for a month to help us with the Christmas rush as well as finally getting the polytunnel up (pictured above right). Gobble Gobble - nearly gone– Colchester’s Turkeys Although we have sold out of Colchester’s organic white turkeys we still have some bronze. These are whole and oven ready and Ben says that any birds less than 18lb will be hen turkeys. Deposits of €30 per bird, plus your name and phone number will be required to secure. All turkeys need to be collected from Castlefarm on Sunday 23rd of December. We will have the exact time nearer to the date. Anyone who has ordered but not secured their turkey with a deposit please pop a check for €30 into the post – written out to Castlefarm Shop. Colchester turkey Prices Bronze – €11.25/kg or €5.10/lb – So 12lb would cost €61.20 and 16lb would cost €81.60. Because we booked them way back in August they are now great value given the current lift in prices due to feed and fuel costs. Veggie Christmas The Van Rouge –AKA Bruce and Denise at Athy Farmers’ Market will be supplying us with a range of delicious vegetarian dishes from the first week of December. These can be frozen and served as the Christmas alternative for the vegetarians on Christmas day. Most exciting product of last month Apart from the Colchester’s turkeys we have lots of traditional Irish fare including Hazel Murphy’s Christmas puddings (Tullow), Olive Finlay’s Christmas Cakes (Dunlavin). Crossogue (Tipperary) brandy butter and port and cranberry sauce. For Christmas we have also sourced a few gourmet imports such as boozy fruit, anchovy paste, mustards and olive pate. Recipe of the month Christmassy Castleruddery red cabbage Probably by now you know that I am not so great on giving details on times and measurements in my recipes. There are lots of red cabbage recipes in cookbooks but here is my Christmas red cabbage recipe. Finely slice one small red cabbage, cutting the solid core out of the vegetable. Cook in boiling water for approx 5 minutes so it is still crunchy. Drain water; add about ½ pint of balsamic vinegar and a cup full of brown sugar, a teaspoon of cinnamon and half a cup of raisins. Put the lid on the saucepan and slowly cook for approx ½ and hour, stirring from time to time. CASTLEFARM DIARY · Thursday 6th December Christmas Cookery with Louise O Hare of What’s Cooking – All places filled Please note that in December Castlefarm Shop will be open on Sunday afternoons from 2pm-6pm. Open Christmas Eve 10am-6pm. Closing from Christmas eve – reopening Wednesday 9th January 2008. Opening hours Wednesday – Saturday 10am-6pm To receive our newsletter and news of new products on line please contact Castlefarm Shop, Narraghmore, Athy, Co Kildare, Telephone 059-8636948, jenny@castlefarmshop.ie, www.castlefarmshop.ie