Spring Equinox

Happy Spring Equinox People, In the Northern Hemisphere….us Up North, the Sun has passed over the Equator and is heading our way. Us Up North are tilting towards the Sun which makes for the lighter and warmer days. This weekend marks the start of the Astronomical Spring. At this moment in time, the light from our day is exactly the same length of time as the darkness from our night. Mother Nature is a wonderful thing.

As promised last week….more info re our growing areas. As you all must know by now, we have ten polytunnels. We also use the outside areas for growing. When I mention the outside areas this takes into account three fields – the picture above shows the layout of the farm.

1. The Orchard Field is approximately three acres and this where we grow our apple, pear, plum and cherry fruit trees. But in this field we are also about to create a fifteen thousand square foot (roughly a third of an acre) more growing space. This years overwintering crops of onions, leeks, brassicas and root crops will be planted out in this new area later this year. We are also considering more soft fruits to be planted here in the Orchard Field. We are also going to start a Fresh Local Organic Flower bed (huge smilie face, smug look, am I excited? Yes indeed). Fresh compost will be placed on these areas in readiness. We will be using our No-Dig approach. Can you imagine the noise of the buzzing bees in this field!

2. The Pond Field has operated as our outside growing area for a number of years and has served us really well. We are increasing its size from eight thousand square feet to thirteen thousand square feet. The fencing around the edge of this growing space has been rejigged to accommodate the increase in size. Our garlic and onions are already in the ground here. More brassicas are about to go in the ground along with the many other plants which are coming along nicely in the greenhouses. Fresh compost and the No-Dig approach will also be used here.

3. The Green Field is where all the polytunnels have been erected. But we do have a large plot available behind the tunnels. This will be converted to a No-Dig bed with fresh compost. We are hoping the summer and winter squash will be planted out here. A new raised bed to the side of polytunnel ten will be created. This will add a further 3,000 square feet of growing space.

All of this ‘creating’ would not be successful without our Crew; Lucy and Graham, we could not attain our ambitions without them.

We are hoping that everything we are putting in place provides for a much more efficient business. The efficiencies should result in our organic produce having much more (yes there is more we can give!) TLC. This can only be good for you our lovely customers.

Unfortunately for our birds, they are still on Avian Bird Flu lockdown. Part of our weekends are always spent cleaning the bird houses. A big part of this is me going into the house with the ducks and giving them a good shower…they absolutely love this and to be honest, so do I!

Over the coming months we intend to create a huge ‘play area’ for the chickens. This will mean they will be able to still free range and roam but will also be contained. The restrictions for birds is becoming much more frequent. We feel that a good contained chicken area will mean they will have no constrictions of a lockdown. Always a tick list, always stuff to do!

Thank you for returning the boxes and, yes we do like the good egg boxes, back. We do like to reuse these boxes right up until they are ‘done for’. Then they can be recycled….council, compost or base for no-dig. For all our fruit and vegetable boxes we only use paper and cardboard. ♻️✅Tick!
It is great to see how you (nearly) all have your order to us by Midday Tuesday. That is another ✅tick.
Going to get onto the ‘stuff’✅
Take care All of You,
Ann👩‍🌾