Big Change Over

Hello Everyone, It really has changed to an autumnal fresh feel when you get up in the morning and then have the need to close the curtains in the evening. The time between can be warm and sunny or wet and windy. The pace of life does seem to slow down slightly. We have had the mad panic of Spring and Summer, where we concentrated on planting out, growing, tending and weeding in the long, hot days. Now we think about the vegetables we have been growing, storing and using…a harvest festival no less, while we work with the days of reduced light and heat.  Seasons are not just for plants but also for us. It is Mother Nature’s way of saying ‘hey, you have worked hard, now slow down a little and enjoy what you made, during the lighter months, now during the darker months. Thank goodness someone is advising a slower pace as we would be exhausted if we had to continue with the haste of the Spring/Summer months. A real groundhog life.  The Farm Harvesting on the farm is now a thing. The first and second earlies of potatoes are out of the ground and stored in black boxes in the cool of the garage. (The main crop and festive harvest are still in the ground). The red and white onions, garlic and shallots are now topped and tailed ready for use. These we store in netted sacks. The Winter squash will be coming out of the squash patch in the coming days. These have now been left on the ground to ensure the skin becomes firm to act as a container for the tasty flesh within. Next week they will be carefully placed on the prepared empty racks in the packing area. Any overflow, which I can guarantee there will be, will go into greenhouse number one, to be used first. The large beetroot to be stored, will be placed into our large bags, the same as the leafy produce bags but larger. Then placed into the bottom of the fridges. The pears are individually placed into a brown paper bag and placed into the fridges. The A-Grade apples will be stored just like the pears with the B-Grade ones placed into our large black trays, ready for juicing.  All other produce tends to be harvested when required as the ground is the best storage pantry for them. Alongside the brassicas we also keep the celeriac, parsnips, fennel, kohlrabi, leeks, more beetroots and salsify, to name a few heart warming vegetables, in the ground for safe keeping.  As you can imagine, the farm has stored produce all over the place. This time of the year we have very little free space as all space has boxes, trays, shelves or sacks full of the vegetables we have gathered from the growing beds. This is how we will provide tasty Fresh Local Organic Produce over the coming dark, cold seasons. To ensure the vegetables last, correct storage is essential. As you have read from above, every type of vegetable is stored differently depending on the most efficient method to prevent deterioration. We do our best but please feel free to tell us if we have not been successful.  The Walled Garden The most prolific grower in the soft fruit area has been the Jostaberry. They have gone berserk since being planted just this year. To prune them, we wait till the end of Winter. We will be putting ‘Jostaberry pruning’ on the Winter Task List.  The remaining bushes are looking just grand. The current bushes may need a little trim in February but, generally speaking, the soft fruit area is good to have a tick and left till the end of Winter.  The fruit trees will be harvested from next week…to be added to some storage area at the farm! They have had attention - being staked till they reach the next retaining wire and pruned to allow for productive growth in the Spring of 2026(!!!).  The magnificent greenhouse is now showing signs of earning its keep. The seeds sown a week gone Friday are germinating, peeping upwards. The first signs showed themselves after three days, three days! Tremendous.  The middle section of the greenhouse has now been turned around from a solid mass of ground to a good-looking growing bed. This is another step in the right direction. Here we are going to plant peaches, apricots and nectarines. We are hoping that having a much more controlled environment, a warmer atmosphere, we may reduce the risk of major temperature fluctuations, and the trees will establish, grow and mature in a consistent manner. I am not sure yet, so cannot confirm, but I would like to grow complimentary and colourful flowers under these trees. The reason being, that this middle section of the greenhouse may become a pleasant place to sit, maybe have a cup of tea or a glass of something if dining in the Freyja restaurant…. all for future thoughts. The YouTube Channel  The channel has been concentrating on all things gardening and the Chef’s Box. You may want to take a visit to see some behind the scenes as to how where and when the boxes are prepared. Last week’s video was quite popular and well received…go and watch if you are interested in how the greenhouse came to be. Enjoy.  Not sure what the plan is for this afternoon (shocking!). No doubt I will find something to entice me from the long list of tasks. Whatever you are doing, enjoy. Till next week, take care,  Ann

Hello Everyone,  We are deep into planning for the coming months…deciding the vegetables we are going to grow, looking for new varieties of vegetables, considering the beds we are going to plant into, composing the long list of Winter tasks, choosing the contents list for the Chef’s Box are all to be thought out. This alongside the actual planting, sowing, tending, harvesting, packing and delivering at the farm and the delivery of the Walled Garden and the actual managing of the Freyja Project keeps us (mainly Bob) extremely busy. It’s a good job we have a great Crew of Lucy, Graham and Hugh who read and listen to many podcasts and journals, talk to other gardeners and allotment owners and consult and consider methods to use on an organic farm.  Each morning we begin the day with a cuppa and chat where Bob and I can see how the Crew understand and grasp our intentions and this is visible in their work ethic, ethos and chats.  The Farm  The work continues on the farm. Even though we did have quite a lot of rain last week, we still do water. The reasons being that, with generally this year so little rain fall, the ground is still parched with potential for ‘run off’ as opposed to soaking into the ground. Plus, we are still planting out and directly sowing into the ground and these plugs and seeds need help to germinate and continue to grow. Water is essential for this.  We are now entering the start of the big turnaround from Summer plantings to new Autumn/Winter planting. Some Cucumber and Tomato vines, for instance, have been removed from the tunnels. This has made space available for Chicory, Endive and fresh leaves for Mesclun to go from the greenhouse to the tunnel growing bed. Where the outside growing beds have become available, such as the end of the Summer grown Beetroots, Spring Greens have been planted.  There is constant bed hopping of vegetables. We do not like to leave a bed empty for long. A quick turnaround is our intention as we want as much use from our growing spaces as possible. Now we have the popular box scheme, we need to be as productive as possible to ensure lovely goodies for all our lovely customers as well as the restaurants.  The coming week we will be Pear and Apple collecting from all the trees we have in the Orchard. Looking at the trees it is obvious that it is going to be a bumper crop. I have already eaten from the windfalls…some were delicious some were not! Totally sour and face grimacing. But I do think Apples and Pears will be in the boxes next week going by yesterday’s tasting session.  Pears are definitely ready to come off the trees. They do not need to be perfectly ripe for eating as they ripen much better in the home. Apples need to be closer to ripening before coming from the tree. For both fruit we do the turn test- if the fruit is ripe they should come off the twig after a few turns of the fruit. We also gently squeeze the Pears at the neck, if the fruit gives a little then they are ok to come off the tree.  We will grade the fruit. The best will go into the boxes and into storage. The not so good and bruised fruit will be juiced. Those of you in the know will vouch for our delicious Apple Juice. It is what it says on the label…pure Apple Juice. We juice, bottle and pasteurise ensuring a one year use by date. We will begin juicing at the end of September-beginning of October.  One crop which gets sown, planted out and allowed to grow all on its own is our Winter Squash. Once this plant is in situ it is regularly checked and given a good soaking. The rest, we leave up to the plant. This year it has paid off with a fantastic crop of bright orange balls dotted around the bottom of the Orchard Field growing area. The plants are dying now, we will leave the Squash to ‘cure’, that is harden the skin. Then we will collect them all, use some and store some. Autumn has definitely arrived and I am thinking of warm soups from the Squash.   The Walled Garden  After feeling like a stuck record on repeat for a few weeks, with little to report from the garden, I can now say…dadaaaa!!! We have finally been able to directly sow seeds into the greenhouse. Two varieties each of Spring Onions, Turnips and Radish are now in one third of the building. The furthest away third from the entrance now looks like a productive indoor growing space. We have also sown some of the same seeds back at the Farm.  We are intrigued to compare the results from polytunnel to greenhouse. The race is on.  There is even more good news, so exciting! The builder is making great progress on the office. The sides and roof beams are in place with the windows strategically placed in the loo area and also above the veg. prep. and wash area. The door mirrors all the doors along the inside of the greenhouse. It is smart. As I have said in previous Journals…far too good to be called a shed.  The Apples growing on the fruit cordons are also amazing. They are not prolific, but they are less than two years old. However the standard of the fruit is amazing. So far, Katy is my favourite for flavour but James Grieve is the best if you believe that size matters. For a lot of apples from one branch then Bountiful is the one.  We are able to have a much better understanding of the grounds beyond the Walled Garden as planting areas begin to take shape. Building work, per se, has not started. But the ground and prep work for the semblance of gardens can be seen as the foundations are planned. This is all really exciting.   All the methods of growing in the Walled Garden are identical to the methods we employ at the Farm. Both places use Organic Principles and Standards. We are certified by the Soil Association which is a rigorous process involving much paperwork and traceability. If you see the Soil Association logo on an item you can be guaranteed that a lot of energy and processes have been used to ensure that nothing is used which would damage the environment, animals or people. We want to care for our surroundings, look after our soil and of course provide tasty chemical free fruit, vegetables and herbs for you all.   Have a great week and take care, Ann

Hello Everyone,  Monday is the first day of September, the first day of the Autumn season and also the season of ‘what do I wear today?’. I enjoy living in a place which is seasonal with the chance to feel the different climates Mother Nature has to offer. This coming season can be glorious but it can also be chilly…what do you wear? A change to appropriate clothing is required.  We also tend to have a change in our diet, which can very often be a welcome change. Sunday, being the last day of the school Summer holidays, we have the family coming for lunch. Time for a change and we are having a Sunday roast with all the trimmings, including Yorkshire puddings. Now looking forward to comfort eating and cosy jumpers.   Hello Autumn.  The Farm  The seed sowing is now complete for 2025. The greenhouse is full again with trays of, soon to be, seedlings. The ones sown last week already are seedlings, which always amazes me as to how, from a tiny seed a real plant forms…amazing! So, we have all the orientals, mustards, pak choi, spinach, lettuces, celtuce and kohlrabi sown.  We have also direct sown some seeds. There are some crops which do not transplant into a growing bed - carrots, radish (and parsnips but these were sown last March). Other seeds we need soooo many that it is simpler and less time consuming to direct sow - turnips and spring onions. This last week Bob has directly sown the radish, turnip and carrot seeds in situ. We are still making use of the Summer crops but we are turning towards the comfort foods of red, green and white cabbages, kales, cavolonero, potatoes and broccoli to provide meals. We will soon have the sprouts, winter squash, leeks, celeriac and parsnips to cook with.  Menus are changing and how tasty will that be.  We are preparing growing beds, making them ready for the new  winter crops which are germinating in the greenhouses. The Crew are ridding beds of French bean and cucumber vines and also cut and come again plants of mesclun and celtuce. The ground is then cleaned of any weeds and a gentle hoe to level. Fresh compost maybe needed. The ground watering system is made straight. The bed is then ready to be replanted with any plugs of seedlings ready. Just as the mid Spring season is a hectic time of planting out, so will be the next few weeks. In an ideal world, all should be planted out before mid Autumn. Fingers crossed we reach that target.  In the meantime, before we are consuming future winter vegetables, we still have our colourful tomatoes and where would Summer be without courgettes. We are hoping that our sweetcorn will be ready and available for you all, our lovely customers, next week. We should definitely have corn by the week after.  The way to tell if corn is ripe and ready takes a few simple steps. Firstly the hair needs to be brown and dry. The cob needs to be full and firm. The most important test is testing the corn kernel itself. The husk is pealed back and a kernel is squashed between fingers allowing a milky liquid to ooze. If all this happens then the cob is ripe and ready for the Chef’s Box.   The Walled Garden  The truth is absolutely nothing has happened in the Walled Garden for this week. Graham the Great has had a well earned break last week, so work came to a stop at the garden.  We are a very small team who spread themselves far and wide. It is never a dull moment at either site of Freyja. We will always have a list of tasks and that list may change and decrease. However, it will never be complete. We work with the seasons. It is the season which determines the major tasks in hand. For instance, now we are entering the Autumn season, we will now tend to the guttering on the polytunnels. If you remember, last winter we did have very heavy snow which collapsed the guttering as the snow slipped from the roof of each tunnel. We will now fix it in readiness of the next snowfall. It was pointless doing such a task during the Summer as more pressing tasks were required to be completed.  We determine our jobs as and when they are required to be seen to. We have learned not to put ourselves under pressure as jobs will get done. So, Graham being on holiday is deserved and nothing being done at the garden is not an issue. Saying that, he was a miss and we will all be glad to see him back.   When Graham does return on Tuesday, he will always notice (as any Crew member does notice) how a week can make such a difference. Plants will have grown, crops will have been removed, the barn swallows have fledged, it is cooler or warmer and they are wearing the wrong clothes, it is darker or lighter in the morning, the chickens have been moved to a new area or the leaves on the trees are changing colours. Time moves very quickly at times and here at Freyja it is more often than not really obvious.   Thank you for your continued support and kind words.  Till next week, take care,  Ann