Hello Everyone, Not long now till he arrives…HoHoHo! We have had quite a busy week ensuring that all is ready for the Winter weeks and any severe weather. This last week and now, as I am actually writing this week’s Journal, has seen some extremely windy days and nights. The covers over some outside beds have been blown around. They have needed to be securely returned to the beds with extra rocks and pallets. The covering can become a danger by maybe blowing onto the lane. They become an extremely heavy kite so it is all hands to the pump to prevent the fabric covering flying off. Much of this week’s time has been spent washing the covering of the polytunnels. We need to take full advantage of the little daylight we receive during the Winter days to aid in the slow growth of the vegetables growing inside the tunnels. Keeping the covering clean ensures that light is not deflected.  The tunnels are looking white and clean. More DIY will be completed in the New Year. The mornings have brought amazing sunrises and I am hoping you saw the beautiful colours during Thursday mornings sunrise. If not enjoy the view I had on the farm. The  Christmas Chefs Box is now available on the website. It will be a bumper box of festive treats for your Christmas dinner and more. Bob will be delivering on the Monday 22nd and Tuesday 23rd of December which will be perfect timing for the big day. So, get your orders in quickly as once we reach capacity the shop will have to be closed. We have many ticks on our huge list of ‘things to do’ with still much more to do. So, we will be back to work to see how many more ticks we can see before next week. Till then, HoHoHo!  Ann

Hello everyone, Bob and I hope you are all well. Unfortunately we will not be delivering over the next two weeks - we have had to prioritise work both at the Farm and at the new Restaurant site to ensure we get some essential activities completed before the Christmas/New Year break. At the Farm it is important that we put the majority of our growing areas "to bed" before Christmas to ensure they are ready for sowing and planting in Springtime. This involves weeding, hoeing, raking and covering the beds. Unfortunately the heavy rainfall over the last couple of weeks has meant there is still work to do in this area. And at the new Restaurant site Bob has picked up some additional activities and responsibilities which again need to be completed and in place prior to the Christmas/New Year break. As you know we are a very small team and the activities we are focusing on have meant that we have had to make a difficult priority call on our time. We will be delivering Christmas Boxes during week commencing December 22nd, and we will provide more details on this in next week's Journal. Apologies for there being no deliveries over the next two weeks, but the "bigger picture" has meant that we have had to make this difficult call. Thank you, as always for your support. Ann  

Hello Everyone, Wet! Wet! Wet! is how you can describe this last week. It has made it easier for harvesting as the ground is soft but our attire has been soggy and muddy. Oh well…welcome to the next four months. Gardeners can be fair weather gardeners or like ourselves…all weather gardeners. We do moan and talk about the temperature and the snow and the rain and the wind. In fact it is a daily task looking at the weather apps, consulting each other and making considered judgments as to what jobs can be done, do we harvest now or later and what do we wear?! This time of the year it is paramount. We take the orders we receive from you, our lovely customers, also the restaurants and then decide at what point in the day the vegetables should be harvested. The very cold mornings do not make it easy to cut some crops…all the leafy goods in particular…the decision will be to harvest later in the day when the temperature rises. Harvesting does take time but we also have to work on the farm completing the list of duties which, as I have said before, is never ending. This week Hugh has made the Jerusalem artichoke bed look amazing. We tend to leave some tubers behind while harvesting. These tubers will develop into next years crop. The top growth indicates where the artichokes are but once harvested we remove the tops to the compost. A fresh layer of compost is applied. Then this year we have mulched the beds with a good layer of woodchip. It looks really tidy…I am happy. Graham has completed his outside covered run for the chickens and cleared some unsightly growth within the pen. They are set for the winter and yes the girls are on lock down for Avian Bird Flu and have been since the beginning of November. Apparently this year could be quite virulent. We are not happy with this situation, obviously. However, spending the money and time on our very large roaming pen a few years ago, seems to have paid off. Graham also did a little more work on the strawberry beds and the soft fruit area in general. Along with Lucy the vines have all been pruned back. We are going to spend some energy on the raspberry vines. We have decided to add more vines and make the existing plants into Autumn producing raspberries. This is an easy objective…we are cutting them all to the base in the Spring which means the new growth will produce fruit but later in the year as opposed to fruit growing on last years growth which would be Summer raspberries. The blackberries also had a good prune. The old canes are cut down leaving the new ones to produce fruit next year. One reason for us to create Autumn growing raspberries is because we feel they are the better tasting fruit but another is that at the time we need to harvest the raspberries we tend to have an abundance of strawberries, which is an intensive harvesting period. The strawberries along with ALL the other Summer activities is the time of the year when we do not know which way to jump! There is just soooo much to do. We are trying to coordinate our activities and make work less hectic. (I can guarantee this objective will not happen we will still be chasing our tail at the beginning of next Summer!) Tomorrow is the first day of December…the start of the Meteorological Winter. We have a few weeks before the shortest daylight time…it is going to be darker and darker, earlier and earlier. This is hibernation time for lots of little creatures, particularly hedgehogs, mice, bats, frogs, toads, slugs, snails, bees and some other insects. These are all part of the circle of life…think of the nursery rhyme ‘There was an old women…’ which could be me! These little creatures all rely on one another, even if they are food for each other. They also help and hinder gardeners and their gardens. But I would say it is a good time to consider them all for the help and delight they provide for the coming Spring. It is also a good thing to start feeding the birds. The hedgerows are being depleted of berries and I for one will be giving the birds a feed and they in turn will put a smile on my face. Next week I will layout the dates for the Box Scheme. The information will consist of the delivery dates over the festive and holiday period and into the New Year. Till then, stay warm, dry and safe, Ann