Starting Up with Lucie Greenwood @ The Milk Shed

Without wanting to speak too soon, I think I might be finally starting to relax.

Oh God, just typing that has almost made my heart stop, so maybe not!

I’ve recently managed to take a few days off to move house, and have a few more – predominantly eating and drinking – in London, but apart from the usual problems nothing went drastically wrong, the world kept turning and The Milk Shed coped without me. Shock horror.

And so it’s time to get cracking on the mammoth to do list that’s been sitting at the bottom of a pile on my desk for 18 months which includes all sorts of dishes and ingredients I’ve been meaning to try out since the beginning.

We’re lucky enough now to be confident of not only a steady trade, but also of some trusting regular customers who allow us to be pretty adventurous with our specials. I always wanted to offer an alternative to the expected menu – it gets very boring finding a generic list everywhere you go, and although there’s safety in that it was never what I wanted to cook – nor what I wanted to eat when I went out.

So I’m grateful to be able to put anything I fancy on the menu from cuttlefish to smoked goose, salt cod to pork cheeks and know that they will sell. In fact several regulars never even look at the menu; they always just order whatever’s on the specials board.

Among our hugely supportive customers is a lovely bloke called Mark.

He has an allotment where he grows all sorts of weird and wonderful veg – too much for his family to eat and a few varieties that he doesn’t know what to do with but grows simply for the joy of it, and that’s where I come in (lucky me!).

So far this year we’ve been on the receiving end of a bounty of stunning fresh borlotti beans, including both fuchsia pink and deep purple pods, and any cook I know would almost wet themselves with excitement at the thought of a basket full of these fat little beauties – I scattered them into lovely fresh salads and braised some for soups.

Another day nestled among a glut of courgettes was a couple of kilos of late summer raspberries which were quickly turned into sorbet with lime and tequila before they began to wither.

Often there’ll be candy beetroot, yellow and purple pole beans, damsons, little red potatoes, shallots... the list is endless and he grows it all for love. And we love him for it. He’s also a beekeeper and maker of gorgeous honey and comb from Bletchington bees which we sell here and is popular with toast lovers and hay fever sufferers alike.

And to top it off last week he supplied us with a 43 kilo whopper of a pumpkin, beautifully carved by Kate’s sister, which has been doing a great job of guarding our front door.

Although since the weather turned it’s begun dissolving in on itself and so it might be time to get rid of him and make way for the first delivery of Christmas stock, woop woop!

TRY IT
The Milk Shed is in Northampton Road, Weston-on-the-Green.
Call 01869 351387 or see themilkshedstore.co.uk