Delivery days going forward

Hello Everyone,

Thank you for being understanding last week as we had to change our normal delivery days. This was because our delivery van was getting some repair work carried out last Friday.

I have to say that Bob and I were totally confused by the days even though we only brought our harvesting, packing and delivering forward by one day…it did feel strange. We apologise if you were also confused. We expect to get the van back this week and deliveries will take place going forward over Thursday and Friday:

• On Thursday we will deliver to Newcastle, the Coast and South East Northumberland.
• On Friday we will deliver to Hexham and the Tyne Valley

I should also say that deliveries in some situations can vary between Thursday and Friday as it depends on where we get the orders from in that particular week.

As you can see from the above photo, the season of Spring is establishing itself (at last) helping our Broad Beans grow and flower. The doors of the tunnel, with the beans in, have been closed during the night time. The temperature during recent nights has been zero or below. The closed doors help to retain daytime heat. When the doors are opened the smell of the broad bean flower is amazing…worth bottling. The plants are growing very nicely and we are hoping that, now they have taken hold, they make a dramatic increase in growth and beans begin to pop.

Our herbs are showing fresh life in the gardens. We hope those receiving mini bunches of herbs last week enjoyed creating flavoursome dishes. As the herbs grow bushier they will be placed onto the website. The herb gardens are some of my favourite areas of our little farm. The colours and smells are a delight each Spring and Summer. 

Over the last few weeks our chickens have been allowed to roam the Orchard Field. This is while the chicken pens continue to try and dry out from the torrential rain we have been struggling with. The girls do enjoy wandering around the large area of long grass. But, as soon as we go into the Orchard Field, maybe to the barn or the outside growing area, all the chickens come running towards where we are. They are like tiny dinosaurs, running and bobbing from side to side till they meet you. They just want food…it’s as if they are not given anything to eat! It is nice to see them roaming, however, they have discovered the home garden. At the moment my patience and understanding is fine. I know I will snap at some point and realise that enough is enough and the chickens will need to go back into the pens. I will want my garden back!

We have an offer on our eggs this week, so, enjoy.

The work continues on the farm. We are still seeding (mainly celery and alliums this week), still planting out, still prepping the ground for more direct sowing and planting out. Our work is quite repetitive, from the day to day, season to season and year on year. But we continue to learn and try to perfect our duties. Each season we want to be better than the previous. We realise that no season or year is the same due to environmental differences from year to year. A gardener has to adapt quickly while still doing the same thing year on year. So, we learn and we adapt. A bit like life.

Anyway…must get back to adapting and learning.

Till next time,

 Ann👩🏻‍🌾