More blue skies please

Hello Everyone,

We hope you are very well, we are good but would like to see a bit more blue sky with the sun warming the ground and drying said ground. It does seem to have been a long Winter, but it is actually the same length of time each year! I do think it is because we did have a wet Summer last year which makes it feel a long time since consistent days of warmth and dry days. We have our fingers crossed for ‘days’ of good weather, not a few hours here and there.

The greenhouses are all full of seedlings. Above you can see Spinach in the back ground with Rocket in the foreground. The Spinach was planted out last week into a large bed in polytunnel nine. This means that once our overwintering Spinach comes to an end, we should have more Spring Spinach to replace the Winter crop. Many of you had Spinach in your boxes last week, more will be available soon.

Spinach is a really popular vegetable and the plan is to have a continuous supply This crop is a ‘cut and come again’ crop. During this period of cool weather, the leaves grow slowly, but they do still grow. We will have more Spinach during the next two weeks from the Winter Spinach. Once this crop has decided that it can replenish no more, the Spring crop will then be available to harvest. This should grow faster due to the warmer and lighter conditions.

Spinach is not the only crop we consider a ‘cut and come again’ crop. All of our Mesclun, Chard, Chicory, Orientals, Kale and Rocket are in this category. The more warmth and light we have the quicker the plant regrows. They are all crops that take a lot of preparation.... harvest, washed, spun and bagged being the process. They all crops that tend to be reliable with few issues.

The coming week it is the turn of our Chard and Chicories on the website. The Chard always looks amazing due to the rainbow colours, always one of my favourite vegetables. They may arrive in one of our ‘Compostable Bags’, when placed into your fridge, the produce stays very fresh in these bags, extending the shelf life of our leafy produce. The bags are made from potato starch and will compost down in a few months, not years…months. 

The months of March and April are seen as the ‘hungry gap’. Roots which have been stored over the last few months, are now coming to an end. Lots of leafy greens are becoming a little boring in the diet. (I do try my best to alternate the produce going into our boxes). Never fear as we do have lots of goodies to look forward to. Before long it will be Beans, Salad Crops and the Summer Brassicas. With the changing seasons comes the changing crops.

Don’t forget that the Summer not only has goodies galore, you can also spend a day with us here on the farm and learn about our methods and practices…just look on the website for dates. It is Easter soon, maybe a course instead of an Easter Egg? Maybe not, I hear Bob say…he is such a chocoholic!

Thank you for your continued support (loads of you ordered last week…thank you)

Take care,

 Ann👩🏻‍🌾