This will be the seventh year growing organic vegetables and every year we have had to evolve, changing how we do things to get the best out of the land and improve how we run the farm. This spring brings further changes that will take us another step along that journey.
This season we are only growing crops on the Home Field (the bottom field with the polytunnels where you arrive onto the site). Both Festival View and Yurt Field, where we grew brassicas and squash last year, will be sown with clover during April and will have a year or more of fertility-building to improve the soil.The overall acreage of vegetables has decreased slightly this year. With a small team of staff and more volunteers now focusing their efforts into a smaller area, you should see an improvement in the quality of produce going into your vegetable box. Another upshot of this one-field operation is that it should feel more open and accessible to everyone who visits the farm.
The farm warehouse (where we pack your boxes) will soon be relocating to a new purpose-built barn and office building in the Home Field. Our whole operation will be brought together onto a single site for the first time and we’ll have much better facilities. This is going to make a huge difference to everyone who works at or visits the farm. We will tell you more about the new barn next month; we have a very busy time ahead!
Another exciting change is that in March I sold our tractor and bought a smaller and lighter model. The new tractor is better suited to our scale and to our light soil which is easily damaged by compaction from heavy vehicles. Finding the right (and affordable) tractor for small scale vegetable farming is quite tricky and it has taken a year of searching.
Small vegetable farms need specialised kit. This type of farming is becoming less common in the UK. The trend is for ever bigger and more intensive agriculture, which in turn demands ever bigger machinery. Our 'new’ tractor (which is 26 years old!) came from an organic grower in West Wales who operates a similar farm box scheme to us. I’m hoping it will work as well for us as it did for him!
We have just finished repairing and rebuilding the yurt with help from our volunteers. It was badly damaged by the very strong winds of Storm Frank at the end of December and almost collapsed. We have gone almost ten weeks without being able to use it, so we are relieved to have it back and ready in time for all the events in the new growing season.
The Farm and Forest Fun Days are the first events of the new season, starting on 4 April. Children will get a chance to explore what the farmers are up to at this time of year, harvest some vegetables from the fields and cook up a seasonal feast to share for lunch. They will spend the afternoon playing outdoor games, pond-dipping and getting muddy with some farming activities!
John English
Head Grower
