June/July 2010Field News:
Phil disappears under a mountain of lettuces…
Field life is wonderful and also very overwhelming. Because we have nearly double the volume of land under cultivation this year, there is a lot more input needed on every level. The weather is keeping us all happy and healthy, but the lack of rain means we are putting in about 5 hours a day on irrigation alone.
The crops are coming in thick and fast now, which is such a joy to behold: Beetroot, onions, garlic, courgettes, French beans, broad beans, potatoes, turnips, lettuces galore and lots of lovely herbs and salad packs. The strawberries have been amazing with all the sun. If you are not getting a box, this is the time to get one to be sure of getting loads of fabulous local organic fresh veg.
Have you been introduced to our new piggies? Five pure breed Berkshires. We soak the ground with a hose pipe for them in this hot weather so they can wallow in mud to cool off. We love them and we will love their bacon! Pics to follow soon…
Our Pioneer Volunteer Days are going really well. It’s great to be sharing so much about The Community Farm project and get people taking on what it will be like to be a member. See the Community Farm section for details of July’s event. And there’s another tomorrow (26th June) – just come if you can.
I really hope lots more of you will come and visit the farm and see what we are doing. I know I go on about it, but it is a stunningly beautiful place. Perfect for a picnic or BBQ. You can just drop by anytime. Just email (phil@betterfood.co.uk) to let us know when.
June 2010
From Phil Haughton, MD and main grower
Irrigation
Field life is full of fun and challenges. The drought took taken hold for a while and it was impossible to plant out in the field unless we can defiantly irrigate afterwards. Agriculture accounts for about 70% of global fresh water usage so we are very keen to ensure our methods use as little water as possible. To do this we use drip hoses which work very well on our 100m rows, but do take a lot of time to keep moving around. It’s amazing to watch when you have water how fast plants then grow in the hot weather we’ve had. We’ve now had rain at last and everything is now growing well, including the weeds…
Volunteer Day Report
On Saturday 22nd we had our first Pioneer Volunteer Work Day at the Farm. It was well attended and I for one had a great day. We planted tomatoes out in the new polytunnel, (although because it was so hot we only did that for an hour). The asparagus beds were weeded and look great – next year will be the first year of picking. Then we got stuck into onion weeding. The onions had been weeded with wheel hoes twice already, but then needed doing by hand. We have over half an acre of onions so it’s a big job and needs those teams to help make it fun and give you a sense of getting through the job.
After a picnic lunch we sat under a big oak tree and talked about what it would mean to be a member of the new Community Farm. It was inspiring to hear all their ideas and thoughts about what they wanted from being a member, but also what they had to offer to help develop the project.
It’s all getting very exciting and real now. I think we will be open to membership by this September. If you would like to come to one of our Pioneer Volunteer days, we have two more organised, 26th June and 17th July (details in our Events section). Just email me (phil@betterfood.co.uk) to sign up and I will send you details. Clare one of the day’s attendees, has written a piece about it and the Community Farm for Ecojam, www.ecojam.org/interact/someday-i2019ll-be-a-farmer
Coming up in June
June will see our first crops coming in, which is very exciting. We have courgettes, French beans, lettuce, ruby chard and more rocket and rhubarb. The real joy will be the strawberries which are looking great just now. Because we have so much more land this year, we’ll have huge quantities later in the season so all our boxes and the shop will be jam packed with field produce.
This is what it’s all for: lovely organic fresh food.
 Andy tending the beans |
 Rows of beans |
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 Growing in the old polytunnel |
 New polytunnel | ||
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Today we picked the last of our purple sprouting broccoli. Apart from some rocket and rhubarb, this was the last crop from the field and now we have to wait for new spring crops to come on. The thing is that this year started so late due to the weather that the first lettuce, broad beans, chard etc will be later than usual. Although it has warmed up, we are still getting some cold fronts and very little rain. What may happen is that when the next big rain and the next warm front come in, they will make all crops grow fast and we could get lets of veg coming together.
Lucy has left the field to work in the shop and Rebecca has left to prepare for having a baby. We have new workers in place, although I am aware it’s an all male team just now.
We’re confident that we’ll have a good year and by mid June will be flooded with loads of fab vegetables and fruit.
Don’t forget that if you want to find out more about the plans to make the farm a community-owned enterprise then come along to one of our member/volunteer workshops (details in our Events section).
I’m aware that despite what I thought was happening to the oak and ash, the oak has got fuller leaf now than the ash. Remember the old saying about summer rains:
Oak before ash we are in for a splash. Ash before oak we are in for a soak.
It seems the summer will be similar to last year.
April 2010Planting amidst the April showers
From Phil Haughton, our MD and grower
April arrives amidst cold showers, primroses in the hedge rows and sky larks singing between downpours. The weeds have pushed through with their first flush and the winter salads have all gone to seed.
In the shop you may have found some of our purple cauli florets and our excellent white caulis this week. There will be more of both, followed closely by the allusive purple sprouting broccoli.
Planting:It has been a very late start, but on the 30th March we did manage to plant two acres of early potatoes. The spring-sown broad beans are just up, and the garlic is looking great. We had 75kg of onion sets arrive last week, and our fantastic farm team has done a great job getting them in. It’s a long job that can only be done by hand, and when it’s all finished we should have an acre of onions.
Rhubarb will be our first fruit crop of the year. The crowns are in their first year, so it won’t be huge amounts, but we hope that both of our Gert British boxes and the shop should see plenty.
Planting over the next few weeks will be strawberry runners saved from last year, outdoor lettuce, spring cabbage, more beans, peas and then all the indoor seeds. This year we are growing lots more herbs that will be in pots in the shop from early June.
Changes:
I along with the BFC team want to welcome a new band of box customers. Local growers Wrington Greens has very sadly closed down and we have taken on their box customers and the Whiteladies Road Farmer’s Market. Our box scheme has been growing more or less in line with the expansion of our growing operation, which is how it should be really. Today I asked Luke, our farm landlord, to plough up some more land to help with this welcome addition of customers. We now need to plough on and grow lots of organic, local vegetables for you all. To help us with this we have been joined by Ben Raskin. Ben is an experienced grower who works part time for The Soil Association and now part time for us.
Join us:
We are looking for lots of volunteers to help make this year enjoyable, fruitful and rewarding for all. If you would like to come and help please let me know.
March 2010Seeds of change: plans at Woodbarn Field
Phil Haughton, our MD and grower, gears up for a great growing year.
We want spring, We want spring. It’s so late this year, but we need to be patient. We have been using the time to equip ourselves for going from 11 acres to 24 acres under cultivation.
This is exciting, we now have two new hoes that go behind our tractor, a little baby muck and compost spreader to enable us to spread just on the beds we are growing on, a new poly tunnel (on it’s way up, pictured above) that will help us with summer toms, peppers, cues etc as well as lots more indoor salads for next winter.
Due the late start we are about to have a big rush of things to plant. Broad beans, strawberry plants, new potatoes, onions, carrots, early brassicas, and outdoor salads to name a few. Just think in May we will begin to crop again.
March will be hectic in other ways as well. Our box scheme and wholesale operation are moving from St Werburghs to Woodbarn Field. This big move will bring both the farm team and box team closer together and we will be helping a lot to get Laurence and his team settled in to their new abode. I hope they are ready for farm life and barn life. It’s quite different from city warehouse life.
The pigs are growing fast and looking happy and we have bought a mangle werzel. A fine name for a fine bit of kit!
February 2010Fife Diet and Field News
By Phil Haughton, our MD and grower in Chew Magna
I have just arrived back from the Soil Association Conference and am buzzing with phrases like: Business can not go on as usual; Organic farming captures more carbon in the soil than conventional farming, and The Fife Diet is the way forward for all of us. It was all very inspiring.
The Fife Diet is all about eating from your own region and they now have 700 families eating 80% of their food that is produced within the region. Can we here in Somerset do the same? Yes, most certainly, although our diet would be different. Bread wheat is harder to produce so we would have to import some wheat gluten. But we could make pasta and start to grow other grains such as quinoa which has a higher protein content. Food for thought.
With regards to carbon capture, what is known is that a soil which has a high humus content holds a lot more carbon. How we manage our soils through grassland and cultivation techniques can have a huge affect on the amount of carbon left in the atmosphere. We are talking of quantities much larger than those amounts captured through trees. For details on this check out more through the Soil Association website (www.soilassociation.org).
The only people who seemed not to understand that business can not go on as usual were the marketing folk. They were firmly wedded to super marketing and big brands. Lets hope they come round soon.
Now I am back and it’s a sunny day I feel the sap rising and the need to attend to early spring jobs at the farm. We have potatoes chitting ready for planting, Lucy has indexed all our seeds and painted field labels ready for the crops, and were checking all our tools and machines to ensure they are ready for use in the spring.
For more about the Fife Diet, see www.fifediet.co.uk.
January 2010
Frozen ground and pigs
By Phil Haughton, our MD and grower in Chew Magna
I don’t think I have ever known the Christmas holidays to end with such a covering of snow and ice. When to took the Christmas tree down at home and put it outside there was a good crisp covering of snow. I managed to get over to the field to find a white blanket and hardly a green top showing through.
It’s all over now and we are very glad. It was great for sledging, but terrible for getting veg out for the boxes. That said we did manage to find the odd day where we got on to the field to get sprouts, and leeks.
The thaw now means we can get on. The first snow drops have arrived and that puts a spring in my step. Seed order done, equipment maintenance in progress, Potatoes chitting, and the sheds sorted all ready for a busy year. We even have wood paint and brushes ready for field labels. We are determined to keep up with this in 2010. Last year we did well until about July, then got swamped by weeding.
Last week saw the arrival of our first four legged animals on the farm. We now have 4 little piggies which we bought from Windmill Hill City Farm. They are settled in and digging for gold. They seem to like lots of the veg scraps, but have no taste carrots. They are called after my family. Three boys and one girl. Geraldine, Charlie, Ed and Phil, I am the biggest but have no spots, Geraldine is the prettiest, but likes to eat wellies while on your feet, Ed and Charlie are boisterous and eat loads.
This year on the farm we will be needing lots of volunteer help. It’s hard to get everything done and there are so many projects to tackle. Clearing brambles, opening up a pond, building a fuel stand, putting up a new polytunnel, planting strawberries, writing up field labels, weeding asparagus and so much more sowing and planting and weeding. Come and help if you can!
Christmas picking
By Phil Haughton, our MD and grower in Chew Magna
Boxing Day for many is a chance to walk off the over indulgence of Christmas Day and commune with nature. The fields look so different at the very end of the year. The frosts, rain and lack of daylight have all done a great job of laying bare the land. Our field looks a bit like this, but with lots of signs of digging and cutting having taken place.
Our run up to Christmas this year has been bitterly cold at the field. The team – Lucy, Atanas, Ned, Rebecca, (pictured below) and I – now arrive with six layers of clothes and waterproofs. We started the weekend before Christmas digging mountains of parsnips, bagging up 1000kg of potatoes, and preparing red cabbages for the boxes and shop. Then later in the week, working around extreme frosts as best we could, we dug 300kg of leeks and set about a washing party. This entails 2 of us at a time with huge long rubber gloves washing parsnips in a bath tub by hand. We do this with some of the potatoes and all the swede as well. The leeks are rinsed off under a hose shower.
Ablutions finished and fingers numb, we set to work on 350kg of Brussels sprouts. They are a really good crop although there is a bit of cosmetic damage from insects and excessive wet in November and December.
Tea breaks are important when you are out there in the freezing cold. We huddle around the table or in the poly tunnel with flasks of steaming beverages and hearty foods. On Christmas eve we take a break for several days and put our feet up. We really hope you enjoy the contents of your boxes and on Boxing Day can make some really hearty soups with any leftovers from your Christmas dinner.
This year I am determined to start making bread again, and what better day to do this than Boxing Day. Hot fresh bread from the oven with a steaming bowl of soup. When you’re making soup with leftovers, try adding a spoon of Miso at the end, this is delicious and nutritious and when you have taken it off the heat a splosh of olive oil brings it to life. Then sit down put your feet up and have yourselves a toddy of sloe gin, mulled wine or some other festive drink.
FIELD UPDATES
December: Mid winter reportBy Phil Haughton, our MD and grower in Chew Magna
December in the field is a real joy: cold, wet, wind swept, back breaking, and caked in mud. Actually it can be all of these things, but it’s also quite satisfying. We get very togged up with lots of layers of clothing followed by some head to to waterproofs. We spend hours with a fork digging parsnips, celeriac and swedes, then washing them in our super bath washer. This is what it says it is – an old bath raised up a foot and filled with cold water. We chuck all the veg in and scrub it and wash it around. Then we pick all the greens, sprouts and leeks, again this requires a lot of bending, but every time you need to unbend and stretch you can look through the rain soaked field out and across to the lake and big sky. Tea time is a much needed and welcome break, a chance to hold a hot cup and a feel the pain as the fingers thaw out and sit, chat and laugh. Our site is still very primitive. No electricity, no proper loos, and we often have tea in the poly tunnel, as it can be the warmest and lightest place to go. When we have finished all the morning’s pick, we load up the van. This is tricky because in the wet the van skids all over, so we park it several yards away from the boxes of produce. We then carry the boxes across the skid patch, you need good traction wellies!. The best job after this is probably driving the produce to town for packing. You get to help pack in a building with lights and maybe even some heat! What luxury! All of us in the field love what we do and just hope that the fruits of our labour are enjoyed and help to warm and nourish hundreds of families. Christmas and New Year Boxes
Your boxes this Christmas will have loads of our own produce in them. We want to give you our very best this Christmas. We have picked it, dug, washed it and packed it with even more care and goodwill than usual. We hope its everything you would wish for in an Christmas box. When we get back after the break, we will find an even more wintery landscape than before and while there is still lots of winter food to pick we will also start getting ready of next year, sprouting seeds potatoes, ordering seeds, and checking all the tools and machinery is in good working order. In 2010 we will be growing on 25 acres to ensure we keep up with the demand for boxes and shop customers. It’s all very exciting. From Lucy, Atanas, Rebecca, Ned and Phil.
NOVEMBER: Rainfall, manure and turkeys
By Phil Haughton, our MD and grower in Chew Magna
November has arrived. It’s hard to believe given the weather we have had. It has been rather wonderful from a growing perspective: warm soil, just enough rain, fair amount of sun for the time of year and no frosts to speak of. I very much hope that this will mean we deliver late bunch beetroot and some new rainbow chard in a few weeks. I have been busy planning our cropping for next year...
We are taking on a further 12 acres next year and the ground, which is above the field we are in at the moment, is full of a wonderful green manure mix: peas, all in flower now, vetch and rye. This will give us loads of earth food to feed our vegetables next year. I was up there this morning taking photos and was amazed when I looked down on Chew Lake. Water levels are incredibly low. This means rainfall for this time of year is very low and, or, we are using a lot more water in the city. Whenever I see where my water comes from I think differently about turning on taps or irrigating crops.
We go into the winter months with loads of root veg and brassicas to keep the cold out, as well as some lovely winter salads and stir fry mixes keep the variety going. We’re rearing our own turkeys this year, which is great – they’re in their new stone barn at the edge of the field looking very happy. They come out each morning and before wandering off they have a big feed of wheat from the farm and lots of green veg waste trimmings. They are not strictly organic because some of the food has been bought in, but the wheat is organic from the farm and the veg is obviously so we think they are a well reared, well look after, well local turkey fit for the best local Christmas tables.
This year we’re also planning some fantastic Christmas veg boxes – crammed with own-grown produce – watch this space but it’ll be one locally sourced Christmas if we have our way!
The Christmas pudding party last Friday was fantastic this year, with the biggest turn out yet. Everyone stirred everyone else’s pudding with a wish for each so by the time you got back to your own pudding mix, 25 wishes had been made for it. It was a great community activity which we will definitely be doing every year.
Autumn Musings, October 2009The colours are quite stunning this autumn. It’s looking more like The New England fall rather than UK Autumn. But let’s not complain, it’s been a lovely way to end the summer.
This picture shows Ned, Simon, Lucy and Atanas enjoying a sunny break from work.
On the farm we no longer start at 6.30am. We’re on winter time now with a civilised 8am start. We spend more time harvesting roots and brassicas than before with occasional whole days spent on potato lifting.
The soil is still very warm and things are growing well. We have planted out some chard and beetroot which, although late, we hope will still provide some small beets and a cut of chard before the frosts. We will keep them covered from now with fleece to give a little protection from cool night air.
Squash harvesting has started and you will find these in abundance in the shop.
These pictures were taken on Thursday 24th September:
Fog and dew, early morning | Lettuces | Various crops
Ned, Simon, Atanas and Lucy | Cropping onions | View over Chew Valley Lake
Late August, early September field update from Phil, MD and main growerWe have a wonderful abundance of crops from the field at the moment, including lettuces (Roger, cos and green oak, red lollo), Coriander, Parsley, Basil, Baby Chard, Pumpkins, Green Hokaido Squash, Delicata Squash, Courgette, Romanesque, Purple Spouting Broccoli, Tomatoes, Bercol Kale, Curly Kale, Leeks, Potatoes (Orla, Aaron Victory), Red Cabbage, Swede, Beetroot, Parsnip, Carrots and Autumn King Cabbages.
Today I am off to Brislington Enterprise College to talk about Healthy Eating.
What is healthy eating in September?
All I can say is our field is full of Autumn vegetables and that surely is all healthy. The list is huge, but the new items just coming on are autumn king cabbage, fennel with tops, parsnips, swede, cauliflowers, broccoli, sprout tops and kale, and loads of different squashes too.
The challenge for many parents is how to get their kids to eat this. At our open day on the field a week or so ago I did a cookery demo, trying to make simple dishes that kids would like. There were several children in the audience and on the whole the dishes met with their approval. That said I am convinced that the closer children are to the cooking and or growing the food, the more likely they are to try it and like it.
The great thing about Autumn is the way we are attracted to earth vegetables as it gets cooler. Its like eating the heart and soul from the earth.
July/August 2009 field Update from Phil at Wood Barn Field, Chew Magna
In the shop, café and veg boxes nowPotatoes, Carrots, Kohlrabi, Green Fresh Onions, Red Fresh Onions, Fennel, Cucumbers, Tomatoes, Leeks, Courgettes, Garlic, Cauliflowers, Savoy Cabbages, Kale, Salad Packs, Herbs, Lettuces.
The Plight of the HoneybeeOur field has a great population of beneficial insects, including ladybirds, lacewings and bumble bees. In fact bumble bees are in great abundance, but honey bees are few and far between. I wonder whether there is any correlation between the increase and decrease in numbers. The lack of honey bees is a real concern for our ability to pollinate enough food for us to survive. Einstein said “If the honey bee disappears from the surface of the earth the human race have 4 years to live”. I won’t go into detail about their plight, but The Soil Association have a good article on the subject in the latest copy of Living earth. In a nutshell, a group of insecticides called neonicotinoids are a prime suspect in their decline. Both France and Germany have taken action and in France the actions have resulted in a halt in the decline of the honey bee. The UK continues to say there is no proof and have no plans to ban or restrict their use. They need your help; or rather we all need their campaign to succeed. As a grower I need to be sure the honey bee will survive and flourish in order to ensure you get plenty of good food. Sign the Soil Association petition to help get them banned: www.soilassociation.org
June/July 2009 field Update from Phil at Wood Barn Field, Chew MagnaOur own-grown veg from Woodbarn Field currently includes: New potatoes, broad beans, French beans, peas, mange tout, broccoli, golden beetroot, cavelonero, chard, kale, bercol kale, Romanesque and normal cauliflowers, various lettuces, sorrel, baby turnips, fresh garlic, bunch green onions, fennel with tops, courgettes, nastursian flowers, flat and curly parsley, basil and some strawberries. July is blowing out with a heat wave. It’s great to have some good summer heat, and it’s making everything grow like mad. This is good: you will a huge abundance of our own-grown field produce in the shop, in our boxes, and in a few restaurants around town. Prices are coming down on new potatoes and so we will be dropping the old potatoes soon. The heat can be problematic too – the broccoli and caulis in particular are suffering. They’re all ripening at the same time, so we had a huge glut we had to cut this last week.
The Big Box Scheme PictureI was reminded why box schemes started back in the 1980s. The glut and famine of crop production left farmers with the extreme situations of either having no demand or not being able to satisfy demand. It was based around an informed partnership of farmers who grew the food they believed would suit what people wanted to buy. The wonderful reality is and always has been that we decide what goes in the boxes and sometimes it will be super abundant and other times it reflects the seasons and is a bit lean. Over a given season you always get really fresh good value vegetables from our farm topped up with bought-in produce to ensure you have year round supply and variety. As a grower I love this. I want to share and celebrate what we grow and also know that my customers appreciate that growing good organic veg is not an exact science. Big box schemes have become highly sophisticated in making sure you get what you want and the farming system largely wins or looses by its ability to perform to specifications given. This is the supermarket approach to customer service. Its fine and yet in our seeking convenience and security we can loose spontaneity and variety. Today at the field I was praising the team’s efforts and we all felt excited by how much great fresh food we are harvesting every day. We hope you are really enjoying the fruits of our labour.
May/June 2009 field Update from Phil at Wood Barn Field, Chew Magna
You can really feel and see the change in the seasons out in the field. It's fantastic, manic, colourful, exhausting, relentless, but mostly fantastic.
So, we've been busy, Atanas, Lucy and myself...
Our new potaoes are starting to flower so we should be able to pick them in a couple of weeks - a bit of rain would be good, and there's plenty forecast for this weekend, just to get the size up a little. We'll also have fresh garlic ready to pick in the next few weeks.
Picking now:Lettuce - a good varity of shapes and colour: crisp red, lollo rooso, gem, green oak and more.
Just as well the lettuces are abundant, as some of the other salad leaves have suffered from some beetle munching.
The spring greens are fantastic quality - not to be missed and there's lots of it. The same can be said for the kale.
We've also got bunched and spring onions, ruby chard, kohlrabi, fennel and some coriander on the way very soon. As I said, we've been busy... Phil
April/May 2009 field update from Phil at Wood Barn Field, Chew Magna
For a grower in this region we could be considered to be a little late with some crops going in. This is because we have put so much work into getting the new site infrastructure sorted. This has included putting up and covering the huge polytunnel we used to have at the old site in Barley Wood, now, thankfully nearly up and ready to roll. The polytunnel will be home to the tomatoes and basil this year – at present they’re off to a good start at about 4 inches high (that’s 10cm in new money).
I’m delighted to say we’re picking the first crops of salad from the new field, so watch out for the salad packs in the shop. This is fantastic growing weather – typically Somerset too: warm, sunny, wet, warm, sunny, wet...
I love to grow and eat asparagus and while others are picking it, we have just planted 500 crowns which we can begin to enjoy in 2 years time. Can’t wait because, while it’s great to eat what others have produced, it’s hard to get the freshness of picking at 7am and being on sale in the shop by 9.30am.
It’s MAY, HURRAY.
Phil is our MD and grower
March 2009 field update from Phil at Wood Barn Field, Chew Magna
I was just talking to someone about UK veg at this time of year.
Veg that is still in the field, like cabbage, has done really well to get through a tough winter and in my opinion it’s a minor miracle that after such hard frosts they can still be alive. Now the spring sun is out, these cabbages move on to their most important task to begin to grow again from the middle out. If left they would sprout and flower like broccoli. Root vegetables are all changing their structure as they would in the wild. They grow and flower using up all that root store of energy to produce seed. Potatoes are turning all the starch into sugars ready for the next stage of sending out growing shoots to produce new tubers.
It’s all really exciting and important to remember that this is going on because so often our food becomes cosmetically perfect and this can change its taste. How far we go on using UK carrots, onions, cabbages etc will depend on the year, and the market tolerance. Because the market has become so global, we have been conditioned to think that vegetables should be in perfect condition all the time, so getting carrots from Egypt is a normal response at this time of year. We choose to try and carry on with local and UK produce as long as possible. Let us know what you think and what tolerance you feel we should have to old season vegetables and the hungry gap.
Have a great and sun-filled week!
Phil
BFC MD and Grower
January 2009 field update from Phil at Wood Barn Field, Chew Magna
The cold weather is taking its toll on much of our local produce at the moment. Not only is the ground very hard, some items are smaller than we might expect, and some things aren’t available as they’ve been bitten hard by the frost, notably the cauliflowers. We’ve had a couple of deliveries of brassicas that look fine when they arrive, but start to smell truly awful when they warm up! They can stand the frost as long as you don’t pick them while they’re frosted.
Salads in polytunnels are great, but the true winter-store vegetables (parsnips, swede, turnips, celeriac, beetroot, closed cabbages etc) are what feed us over the cold mid-winter months. Supplement with beans and pulses to cook up some great hearty winter fodder.
Phil, MD and chief grower
December 2008 field update from Phil at Wood Barn Field, Chew Magna
On Wednesday this week, Atanas and I took down a small polytunnel from the old field and erected it in the new field. This occasion marked the first phyisical structure to go up and made it feel a little more like our new growing home as it were. Today I will send off our seed orders and next month we will get our early seed potatoes to start chitting them. This is where you let the eyes start to grow to give them a head start when you put them in the ground. Before we know ware we are it will be spring and everything will start to grow again.
October 2008 field update from Phil at Wood Barn Field, Chew Magna
We’re settling down in to a nice Autumn groove with fresh vegetables. Wet legs, cold hands from cutting wet cold veg – lovely! But its all looking good and tasting great, and that’s what counts.
We’ve got lots of sprout tops. These are cheap, nutritious and delicious, and I want to get them all picked before the pigeons get too hungry and dive in. Brussel tops or sprout tops are the leaves at the top of the sprout stem. They’re a great alternative to spinach, cabbage or kale. The leaves have a definite sprouty flavour, but milder than the sprouts themselves. Use as any greens – mix with other leaves, stir fry, steam – just don’t overcook them!
The move to the new field is under way. We have a green manure on all of it except where we have strawberry plants in and where we are about to plant beans and garlic.
That’s it for this week!
Phil
Friday 17th October 2008
Field update from Phil
Growing food is great at the moment: warm Autumn weather, fewer weeds pushing through, less planting to worry about and lots of winter crops looking great.
In some of this week’s boxes you’ll find a stir fry bag. Its got little sweet corn, not worthy as a whole item, but great in with other veg. Then we’ve added some baby savoy greens and some small broccoli and tomatillos. I hope you’ll find a small piece of ginger just to help with the meal. Its all from our field and in a way part of my thrifty waste-not-want-not approach to food. For a sweet and sour, use the above and add a spoonful of jam and some cider vinegar.
Also some of you have a field salad bag. These include radicchio, scarole lettuce, rocket and mizuna and make a heavenly salad, and here is my recommendation for the perfect dressing to go with it: Juice of an orange with a little zest as well, olive oil, and balsamic vinegar, salt and fresh ground pepper. Last night I actually used a clementine sort of thing and a lime. The citrus juices go so well with the chicory family.
I have also just done 2 box price comparisons and we were better value than both, in one case by about 40% and the other about 15%. Judging by how box numbers are going up just now, we must be doing something right. If you have any thoughts or feedback for our box scheme then I would love to hear from you: phil@betterfood.co.uk
That’s it for this week, Phil Haughton (BFC Director)
Monday 6th October 2008
Field update from Phil
Autumn has made its presence felt for the first time in the last week or so. Our shopping habits move a little more towards hearty roots and stews and a little less toward the light salads.
We have just finished cutting the pumpkins and squashes in the field. They will soon be safely stored ready to be sold in the shop and the boxes over the next few months.
We have tons of Brassicas and roots in the field to help keep you healthy. If you want to try some different ways of cooking some of these, check our web recipes.
One idea which I love is stuffed cabbage. You can stuff them with all sorts of things, be it leftovers or made for the occasion. I like to get big leaves fresh from the cabbage and put them into a small amount of boiling water, but put a teaspoon of miso in the water first. Some thoughts for the stuffings: spiced aduki beans or lamb mince with mint and rice.
We have just abandoned our leek crop. The leek moth larvae have done so much damage they are just no longer saleable. This is a blow as we have about 1/4 of an acre still in the ground. The larvae die when we get frosts, and it is possible for leeks to grow through and heal the scars, if so they will be back in the shop in early next year.
I got an email from Elisabeth Winkler, editor of the Soil Association’s Living Earth magazine (and BFC customer), last week. Some recent price checking in local supermarkets reveals that far from being an expensive lifestyle choice, organic food is actually sometimes cheaper than non-organic. There are many reasons for this, but in no small part it’s due to non-organic farming’s reliance on petrol and fossil fuels, in fertilizers, intensive farming methods and transportation. The beauty of ours is that most of what we sell has hardly traveled anywhere, and in some cases in still covered in good, hearty North Somerset mud just to prove it!
Friday 26th September 2008
Field update from Phil
The field work has changed. Almost no planting and heavier lifting as roots and brassicas really get going.
We are currently cropping:
Potatoes, parsnips, swede, celeriac, lots of different cabbages and greens, leeks, spinach, chard, chicory, spring onions, a few beans, lots of cherry tomatoes, see offer in shop on these, Beef tomatoes, lots of squashes, and courgettes which are slowing right down.
Life is different without the Walled Gardens and Cafe. In some ways its a relief and in some ways its sad and I miss it. Eliza, our old head gardener, has taken on the gardens and the cafe which did not work out for the new owner is now being run by Viki, a local woman to Wrington, who is doing a great job. It remains a welcoming and beautiful place to visit.
This is our last growing year on the field below the gardens and I am delighted to announce that we are moving onto new ground just outside Chew Magna. This is hugely exciting and the start of great things.
Luke Hasel and Jim Twine farm organiclly in partnership under the name The Story, they do a beef box scheme. The part of the farm we are working on overlooks the Chew Valley Lake, it has great soil on a south-facing aspect. Work is underway already. We have just sown most of the field to a green manure crop to feed the ground before we start sowing vegetable crops. We will be planting lots of soft fruit which will start in a couple of years. We will really miss the old garden's soft fruit until these new bushes come into thier own.
We have lots of plans for the whole site, many of which are still just general discussions with Luke and Jim. When we have the plan complete we will do a grand launch. What I can say is the challenge is to look at how we can be less dependant on oil and more dependant on people and to that extent we want to work with hundreds of families to help deliver a more secure food future for many Bristol people.
Leeks
Our leek crop has been invaded by leek moth. The moth lays its eggs on the leaf, the larvae then burrow down through the leek while munching all the way. There has been alot of work gone into the crop so far: three weeding session alone. I know the leeks look fine and taste great, but some do have little burrow holes, Can I ask you to be tollerant of this. We will be putting them out in the boxes and in the shop cheaper than normal.