Newsletter
Monday 21st February 2013
Fingers tightly crossed, it would seem that we have a week’s dry weather forecast from yesterday which could make it the first completely dry week in over 10 months! Here’s hoping!
There is a waxing moon and lots of seeds have been sown in the last few days to take advantage of the gravitational forces. There is still plenty of surface water about and our neighbour went canoeing on the floods around North Curry yesterday.
It will be a while before the tractor can get out so in the meantime, Simon, Harry, Steve and Alan are getting a lot of maintenance and repair jobs done. The hedge has been cut back all around the veggie patch and now all the brambles are being removed. Once the rabbit fence is accessible, it can be repaired. Deer trample it, rabbits gnaw through it and badgers demolish it so a lot of repairs are required as it is a job that hasn’t been got to for a couple of years. There are several massive heaps of brash that will be burnt once we can get the tractor on the field to move it all into a bigger fire heap. We will need the potash to replace all that has leached away in the rain this year. The usable firewood has been taken out of it and stacked separately. All the artichoke and sunflower haulms together with the sprout sticks will be added to it.
This is the first year that we will finish the box scheme season and the vegetables simultaneously. Usually, there is the odd crop still to finish that usually gets wholesaled, but not this time. When it all dries out, Mike and Simon will be able to muck spread and rotivate the field without working around obstacles, the field will look very bare and tidy!
Today, we delivered half a tonne of Jerusalem artichokes to Richard at Plowright Organics to be delivered up to Community Farm and organic box scheme in Bristol. As Richards’s farm is near Kilve, we walked the dogs on the cliff tops and across the beach. As an indication as to how wet it still is, the fields on top of the cliffs were very squelchy and whilst we were on the beach, there was a small but noisy landslide fortunately, there was nobody under the cliffs.
Spring is on its way, the cherry plum is starting to flower with the other plums not far behind and I have seen a pear in bloom this week which is very early. The new apricot trees recovered from the blasting they got from the late frosts last year, and I am quietly hopeful of them this year.
Simon and I extend our grateful thanks to you all for sticking with us through what has been the most difficult season to date and we apologise for the gaps in our production and the somewhat monotonous selection on occasions. Please let us know if you would like to continue along with any suggestions you would like to see implemented in the new season. We hope (spring weather permitting) to restart again as usual sometime around the first week in June.