Living Larder: Seasonal

Seasonal vegetable

RAINBOW CHARD Brighten your bowl and pack in the nutrients with a beautiful bunch of rainbow chard

Aclose relative of the beetroot and also known as beet leaf, chard dates back to the ancient Egyptian times. Available for most of the year but at its best in early summer when the new growth is growing at its fastest and is most succulent. Rainbow chard has thinner stalks and mid rib than its cousin the Swiss chard and its unmistakable colours look great across a dish.

A ‘nutritional powerhouse’, chard is rich in iron, magnesium, potassium and A, C and K vitamins. Its distinctive flavour makes for a love-hate relationship and it is often underestimated. Simply braise it in a little stock or try the recipe below and you can’t go wrong. This is a great tapas dish for these warm summer nights, it can also be eaten cold.

SUMMER TAPAS

Ingredients

80ml olive oil 1 bunch rainbow chard – stalks removed and thinly sliced lengthways 1 slice of good bread – torn into chunks. 2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced 1/2 tsp ground cumin Pinch of dried chilli flakes A good handful of thyme, leaves picked 400g can chickpeas, rinsed, drained 1/4 tsp smoked paprika Salt to taste

Method

Heat 1 tbsp of olive oil in a large frying pan over medium heat. Add chard stalks and cook for 3-4 minutes until tender, scoop out and then add another tbsp of oil, heat and then add the chard leaves, season and cook for 2-3 minutes until tender, remove from the pan. Heat the remaining oil in the frying pan and cook the bread for 3-4 minutes until golden. Add garlic, cumin, chilli flakes and thyme and cook for another minute. Transfer to a food processor and whiz until mixture resembles crumbs – you can also do this in the frying pan by breaking up the bread with a spoon. Return the crumbs to the frying pan with chickpeas and paprika. Stir until chickpeas are hot, finally add the chard and stir to warm through, then serve immediately.

LIVING LARDER By Will Steward

MEDINA FOODSERVICE: A HARSH REALITY

For Medina Foodservice’s new household customers it’s been a joy. For the first time they have had access to a service previously only open to businesses. But the transition from business to domestic customers is a story about how a wellestablished and respected company has been forced to adapt to survive – and barely, with no financial help.

This is the tough consequence of comprehensive lockdown.

When lockdown was announced on 20th March, 95 per cent of Medina’s customers ceased trading overnight.

“Our first thought was how we could continue to supply our care home customers, schools for the key workers and the local authority with the food to make up care packages for the most vulnerable,” said Stephen Ross, Managing Director of Medina Foodservice.

Next thought was simply how to keep the business going to respond to those needs – and, worse, how the company was going to survive. “With a company set to run at 80 per cent plus, we have been running at 25 per cent,” says Stephen. “Yet the overheads are still the same.”

The past few months have been

‘Our first thought was how we could continue to supply our care home customers, schools for the key workers and the local authority with the food to make up care packages for the most vulnerable’

very much about supporting the community and surviving, particularly at the time when supermarkets just couldn’t cope and households were left panicked by a lack of supplies, because in terms of a business Medina Foodservice, who employ 90 local people, have had to furlough over half of their staff. Stock has been binned and despite what on the face of it seems like a busy and successful home delivery service, compared to their normal trade it has not even covered costs. Whilst a lot of businesses have received some form of business rates relief and/or grants, their previous success has worked

against them. With no relief (not even the first £51,000 relief that most other businesses are entitled to with their rates) and no financial support by way of grants from both government or otherwise, their overheads have remained the same with a fraction of the income. Their turnover is unfortunately not reflected in the profit due to the costs involved in running the business, but this does not seem to be a taken into account when pleading for help. The furlough scheme is the only thing that has kept them running – without which the outcome would likely be very different. The support from households across the Island has kept the skeleton team of staff in high spirits, with excellent and unrivalled feedback not just about the quality of products but also the service. If anything comes out of this, it’s that many more people can now access the benefits of ordering from Medina that our local hospitality trade loves. “Now that hospitality has opened again we are raring to get back to supplying our business customers – but our home deliveries will continue too.” Stephen adds: “We’re really grateful that our customers are prompt payers. We all need to help each other in times of crisis.”