Guy's news: Biblical challenges & variable veg "Veg likes a boring life with no surprises” Kees Timmers, an organic agronomist, advised the founding members of our growers’ co-operative 25 years ago. Coming from the fertile, deep-soiled Dutch polders, he expected every plant to bend to his will & produce a saleable vegetable. Having grown up on thin, stony soil, without irrigation, my expectations are closer to Jesus’s Parable of the Sower – where every seed but 1 is lost to the scorching sun, birds, thorns & rocky ground. I hope for better than 1 seed in 5, but even before our climate was in crisis, I never expected much more than 50% of my crops’ potential to come to fruition. Most veg are shallow-rooting, highly bred sprinters, which need just enough water, light & heat – but not too much. Kees rightly advised that our job as growers was to keep every aspect of our crops’ short lives within the range of their narrow expectations, by creating the right seedbed, controlling pests, diseases & weeds etc. Good growers are obsessive perfectionists with no time for parables, but many have been brought to their knees by extreme weather this summer. This is a long, rambling build up to telling you to expect some less than boring, more than averagely variable fruit & veg over the next 6 months, & to plead for some tolerance. You may have noticed our water-stressed lettuces being smaller than usual, with a firmer texture & stronger flavour. We've lost much of our Romanesco & cauliflower; what we can save will be on the small side, with some discolouration & bracting (leaves in the curd). Apples will be small too. Thankfully, the winter crops that were planted into land prepared early in the summer, to conserve soil moisture, are looking better. Every week, our quality team decide what is up to scratch for your boxes. Our guiding principles are culinary, not cosmetic. It's a fine line to walk; if we're too hard, the growers will not be here next year, but if we're too soft, you won’t. It's going to be a tough winter&we won't always get this right. But we hope you can bear with us & enjoy the vegetables that have grown amidst adversity – even if they are a bit wonky.