Getting through the to-do list

Hello Everyone,

Even though we know it is nearly December, the festive season is always a surprise as it creeps up on everyone and we all feel we have to be organised and well planned for the few days of Christmas. Hopefully our organic Christmas Boxes should be able to help with your planning. (See last weeks Journal for all the information regarding Christmas).

The plans we have for over the Autumn season are coming together really well. The Lovely Lucy and Graham the Great have ‘put to bed’ the soft fruit area. The canes are pruned and entwined into the wires. The strawberries have been pruned of runners, which are now potted up and ready for use in vacant ground next year. The fruit cage has been tidied, likewise the two rhubarb beds. The first and second herb gardens are also being cut back and made ready for the Spring season and fresh growth.

This time of the year is a great period for bringing back a more organised farm. Lots of jobs which can be forgotten or relegated to the bottom of our ever growing list of jobs, can be tackled. We do always work with the crops and the soil, however, we don’t always have an organised shed or a fruit area clean and tidy or tools sharpened and washed. Ensuring many of these jobs are completed during this time provides us with a great start for the New Year and the seasons ahead.

We have many tools on the farm, both big and small, manual and motorised. Our tractor is used daily, it’s a great pack horse for our heavy loads being moved around the six acres. But, the garden fork is probably our most used garden tool. It is needed for harvesting most of our crops, particularly the root crops. We harvest as close to packing as possible, using the fork to bring up the Carrots, Parsnips, Beetroot, Jerusalem Artichokes etc. We are quite careful when we take up the vegetables, we shake off as much of the compost from the roots as possible. We have no choice in disturbing the ground during harvesting. Any compost removed will be be returned via a detour in the compost bin.

It is December later this week and the freezing weather has crept up on us all, apparently, we are going to have winter flurries of sleet from Thursday! The garden fork will definitely be needed to harvest this week…the ground may possibly be hard and frozen making it quite difficult to harvest. We will do our best!

It would be a great help if our boxes are returned and then we can reuse them.
Keep warm, take care.

Ann👩🏻‍🌾