Its been a big week!

Hello everyone,

We are having a few gloriously sunny days here in Northumberland, with temperatures reaching the tropical eight degrees. The work continues:

On our YouTube Channel, Bob describes our process for the planning and ordering of a most precious item…seeds. Seeds make the world go round as they naturally explode or gently drop or blow in on the ground around from existing plants. It is the circle of life. We would love to create our own seed bank, something we consider each year. But we need certainty and a guarantee of germination. So, we buy our seeds in from various organic seed collecting businesses.

As in all gardening duties, time and patience is required when sowing seeds. We sow and wait. Then joy while watching them germinate and grow. They provide sustenance and satisfaction when consumed. We gain enjoyment while cooking ourselves or having an enthusiastic chef present plates of goodies for us. All from a tiny seed.

Our seed orders have been placed to our organic seed suppliers and have been delivered to us over the last couple of weeks. It always amazes me that we order one day and receive them the next. The service is brilliant from these organic seed people!

Watch Bob doing “his thing” by pressing the button below. I have just added Freyja to my YouTube subscriptions (I am now one of over a thousand subscribers. That’s Big News! Thank you) This means that I can watch Bob immediately coz, you know, I just don’t see enough of him!!!

The Farm

Our ‘re set’ has come on leaps and bounds this last week. Big strides have been taken. Apart from where the outside growing areas have over-wintering crops, the beds have been reconfigured from North to South to East to West. Some crops, for instance our Globe Artichokes, have been replanted into the more unusual shaped corners of the growing areas. We are trying to streamline the size and shape of each bed to make them all a standard size. This is all part of efficiencies…having this time to re set and taking the time to have a break from intensive growing, has allowed us to enable efficient methods of working. We will now have better bed sizes for ground and plant coverings, easier control of weed management, better management of paths, easier access to the crops for care and harvesting.

The Crew have done an amazing job this week. Graham spent time at the Walled Garden and Lucy started sowing seeds as well as the outside bed work.

The first seeds we always sow are the Broad Bean seeds…a true sign that Spring is just around the corner. That is big news!

The Walled Garden

As I said, Graham spent some time here. He was able to see how the meadow area is taking shape, the natural trees and shrubs having their re set and he also saw the ground works being started for the extremely large greenhouse. I wish I could have a more detailed report on the greenhouse, however, the dates of the arrival of the greenhouse have been put back slightly. This is due to various building constraints alongside the ever popular red tape!  It looks like a Summer build rather than a Spring build. Shame…big news but glum news.

Graham checked in on and tended the existing growing beds. He also removed, dandelion, dock and annual surface weeds in the grounds. These weeds will be an ongoing problem…but we will keep at it! Our intention is to remove these plants prior to flowering as once they flower then ‘go to seed’, the plant will reproduce by exploding, dropping or blow in the wind the seeds the weed produces. Circle of life you see!

Da Daaaa!!! So, the big news is that our Electric Van has had a make over. Our lovely customers from the Hexhamshire Organics days will have seen our van when we delivered our Fresh Local Organic Produce each week. Well, now we are part of the Freyja Project, our van has a new fresh look. As you can see, the boys modelling the van, Chef Alex and Head Gardener Bob, are all smiles, they like the new design. Why don’t you send a picture of the van if you see it on your travels and I will pop it on Instagram. It would be fun to see how obvious the van is, while out and about. So far we have been stopped in a Hexham car park to discuss the Freyja project, we have also seen someone take a photo of the van and another a video in Newcastle. What fame? Or infamy?

We use an electric van as part of us being more sustainable as a business. It is the way forward after all. Having used the van this week to deliver to our restaurants, I had forgotten how an electric vehicle is soooo much easier to drive. It is a given that we are going forward in a much more caring and sustainable fashion. Our van is just one more element in our business approach. Go on take a photo and send it to me.

Take care. Hear from you soon,

Ann