Less rain, more light.....at last

Hello Everyone,

Bob and I hope you are all really well, enjoying the longer and lighter days but looking forward to some drier weather. We certainly are. I have now had enough of splodging through the wet, wearing waterproofs and layering up with clothes. Bring on the shorts is what I say!

The signs are all there, the broad bean flowers are now out. The plants are rapidly growing in the polytunnels. The smell is divine…the first smell of broad beans is Spring to me. Once they are tall with millions of the flowers I could live in amongst them and breathe in the perfume. I have never seen a scent from the broad bean flower but I think it could be a winner.

Outside the 2400 peas and sugar snap peas are all planted out…

…as you can see from the photo the Full Crew have done an amazing job with the construction of the support for the peas and planting out all of them in a day! Last year the structure we had for the peas was just not high or strong enough which resulted in the crop having less support and the vines bending making it very difficult to harvest. This is one of those many occasions where we learn from errors made but have to wait one whole year to rectify the problem. At least we remembered! (By the way…just look at the beautiful blue sky. It was a fine end to the day on completion of the task, however, it had chucked it down during the earlier part of the day but rain did not stop play! Waterproofs did come in handy).

We must apologise that not everyone received cauliflowers last week (funds have been returned). We do have many, many cauliflowers growing in the next door bed to the newly planted out peas. They were looking great. But.....a couple of really cold sessions last week wiped them out! Just like that! Gone! The freezing weather simply turned them all brown. We presume rain water froze within the curd, on defrosting the curd turned brown and soft. This will be another lesson we have learnt but must remember for next years outside cauliflowers…we will double fleece them if we see any drastic weather changes next year.

Overwintering  Cauliflowers are in the ground for a very long time. They are sown in the summer, planted out by October, are in the ground for more than six months. So, to have a disaster does not sit well. But, moving on…

Gardening and being a gardener is a game of patience. Some have it and others learn it. Mother Nature will only play her own game which sometimes tests our patience. On the other hand being a gardener always brings surprises. Each year it is a delight to watch the crops growing (better and better with each year we think). It is also amazing to think that, even though we tend to be doing the same thing from year to year, watching each season change, we are still learning. What we learn we can use to make sure that we become better (not bigger) than the last year while growing our 

Fresh Local Organic Produce 

for you, our lovely customers.

Thank you for returning the boxes, your support and reading my Journal each week.

Take care,

 Ann👩‍🌾