Ann's Farm Journal
Keep up with all of our updates from the farm including what’s new in season!
Time Flies
Hello Everyone,
Hands up if you can’t believe it is July already! We are already half way through 2023 and I feel the year has just begun.
Over the last few days I have been trying to organise the photos on my phone. I, like you, have an unbelievable amount of snaps. They are all in order of when they were taken but not organised in albums. I decided to make albums of the grandchildren, the family, favourites and then there is the farm. Many of the photos of the farm get deleted, especially if I have them on Instagram. However, I came across the above pic and thought, incredible! This picture was taken just over eight years ago.
When it was taken we had no structures erected in the field, other than the raspberry lines. The front part of the field had very little in as we were about to embark on major working…the erection of our first two polytunnels. We now have ten commercially sized polytunnels. Basically, in eight years we have created our small farm. We have come far and Bob and I still pinch ourselves, just to make sure that we appreciate what we have created. In addition to the ten polytunnels we now have a soft fruit area, an orchard, four huge areas of outside growing, three herb gardens, two propagation greenhouses, a hen run, barn, shed and ponds. And probably most important of all we have a great Crew who understand what we are trying to achieve. It has been a tremendous team effort.
Life is very rewarding, especially when seeing what we did not have eight years ago, but it is a tough job. We have made mistakes but mistakes are a great asset…a great learning tool. Generally, we do not make the same mistake twice…we learn from our mistakes, as they say.
We are not the only ones who have gone through years, establishing a dream. We just didn’t sell it to Netflix!
On Netflix there is a docu film called ‘The Biggest Little Farm’. It is well worth watching if you can. The premise being a young couple, tired of life as they knew it, establishing a sustainable farm using Mother Nature as their guide. It is really interesting, based in California and shows how they turn a waste land with little or no life into a farm with such a marvellous habitat for animals, insects, flowers and food. They begin in 2010 and on a more grander scale than us.....200 acres for them but only six for us, but still both farms have made a haven for all the little creatures…watch and see.
On our farm, our team is working really hard. The Summer/Autumn planting out is more or less finished. Everywhere is looking lush and thick with growth. All areas are now full.
The boxes sell out really quickly each week, sorry to those who have been unable to order a box when our capacity is reached. Logistics come into play. But, also, we must recognise that we are needing to harvest more and more:
Fresh Local Organic Seasonal Produce
The harvesting and packing is quite time consuming. We hope you appreciate the freshness of our goodies (harvested as close to delivery time as possible) and keep enjoying the cooking and eating of the produce.
Take care and thank you for your continued support,
Ann👩🌾