Successful Soil Association Review

Hello Everyone,

Have you survived the week? What an unbelievable scorcher of a week. As they say....record breaker.

Here on the farm we all battled on with jobs that needed to be done. We took our time, slowing the pace down (except Graham of course). Slapping on the factor, drinking litres of water and having plenty of ice lollies to try and bring the temperature down.

The week began with our Annual Soil Association Review. Bob spent all last week collating the information required, which i understand was tedious, but we know it is necessary. The inspector arrived, we had breakfast, then the tour of the farm.

Then we got down to the nitty gritty admin! Quite a few hours later, after going through our "paper work" answering all the questions regarding traceability methods, record keeping and processes we were delighted to hear that there were no issues at all.

For quite a few years we have passed with flying colours.. We were obviously delighted. We have been organically certified with the Soil Association since 2013 and we are very proud of that. The annual review is extremely rigorous, so knowing that our produce has the Soil Association emblem on it is a guarantee that it is totally organic, using sustainable methods, working for the betterment of the soil, the environment, the animals and you!

The crew and ourselves cracked on with tendering the crops, which with the heat, seem to be growing by the hour.

With the temperature reaching nearly into the thirties and the tunnels feeling even hotter, clearly a major task was the watering of everywhere. The polytunnels were all watered from tunnel 1 thru to 10 at least twice over the week. The outside was a struggle to keep on top of to ensure everything got a good soak.

We do have a watering system of ground and overhead hoses and nozzles within the tunnels. For outside we have sprayers strategically placed to cover a portion of the growing beds within the growing areas. We make a judgement call as to which areas require water the most. This can depend on the status of each vegetable. For instance the Garlic and Onions are  about to be harvested and will not grow any further, watering would be a waste on these crops. Whereas Fennel really enjoy water and bulk up with the help of water. Hence the Fennel received lots of watering. All the irrigation systems are ideal to help us cool down during this time of dramatic temperatures…we just walk close by to feel the coldness of a little shower.

The lovely Lucy and myself tend to harvest for the box scheme. Lucy does most of the harvesting and I do all the prepping and packing of the boxes for you our lovely customers. The leafy crops tend to be harvested by Bob and prepped by me on the day of delivery. This week we all started very, very early to beat the intense heat. It was still unbelievably warm but the tunnels were more bearable for us and less damaging to the produce. We hope your goodies arrived ok but a suggestion to you from me is to keep your goodies cool and even dunk them into cold water. Some leaves may even be placed in a jug of water, just like a bunch of flowers, to liven them up.

On Friday we had two groups…one in the morning and another in the afternoon…visit us from a London School. It is an annual visit they make to Hadrian Wall country. They spend much of their time enjoying wholesome activities, one being a visit to an organic farm - us. We give them a talk on organic growing, seasonal growing and farm life. They then harvest goodies for the meals they are to prepare on their return to their digs. They are always pleasant and become more and more interested as the time passes. By the end they are more than enthusiastic about the vegetables they are picking, oh! and eating.

As with most nights these days, Bob is watching the football on the telly and that is just what he is doing now, while I am writing the Journal. So, Come on England!

Thank you for your support. We are reaching capacity every week, like I say, this is reassuring. Next week will be back to average temperatures, which will be a relief to us all. Enjoy.

Take care,
Ann