Pear Juice

Hello Everyone, We hope you are all well and having some Summer fun.   Our newly refurbished website is now available for you all to see and read. The shop is also on the website but at the moment you are unable to access and buy. However, from next Sunday you will be able to order Fresh, Local, Organic boxes from our good selves to be delivered the following Thursday and Friday. We are hoping that our schedule follows the plan. We are looking forward to hearing from and seeing our lovely customers of old and maybe meet a few new ones in the coming weeks. The same principle will be followed as in our previous form…first come first served. We will be packing and delivering fewer boxes for the time being so please be aware that, when we do reach capacity, the shop will close. This is all exciting news and it is good to be back visiting you, our customers.  The Farm Not to sound like ground hog day, but much the same has been happening on the Farm. Tending and caring for the crops is going to always be on the list of tasks to do. This week Graham has strimmed and cut all the grass…around the growing areas, around the tunnels, the path within the Orchard and all the grass surrounding the ponds and the copse of Silver Birch trees. This all takes the best part of a day to tackle.  The Broad Beans have now all come to an end so, Hugh has removed all the debris from the inside and outside growing beans. All now in the compost bins.  Lucy planted out the Chicory seedlings, which had begun to outgrown the tray. They are now in polytunnel two and should be ready for harvest in the Autumn season.  We are about half way through the season of Summer and the produce is coming along, thick and fast…perfect for the box scheme. We are now considering the over-wintering produce we will need to supply both the restaurants and customers The Winter season will always need great thought and effort. Summer is a bountiful period and as much as we would like to have a great choice available all year round, the Winter time is a slow growing season with a fewer variety of fruit and vegetables. This is why we need to plan, prepare and consider the sowing and planting schedule very carefully to enable us to provide throughout the Winter and into early Spring. It’s all in the planning.   The Walled Garden  The Greenhouse structure is now finished and it looks amazing. Not only does it look this good but it also smells good. The red cedar wood, it has been constructed with, has a beautiful new woody smell. I know this will fade in time so I am making the most of the newness and sniffing in the aroma.  Thank you for all the generous messages and compliments regarding the Greenhouse. Bob and I totally agree with you all…it looks magnificent and it is going to be a joy to work in producing the fruit, vegetables, herbs and flowers we decide to grow. The issue is…which varieties are we going to grow? This is still up for discussion with both Bob and myself unsure as to what precisely we will eventually grow. When we decide you will be the first to be told (after chef Alex).  More construction work still needs to go ahead. Surrounding the Greenhouse and within the Greenhouse, pathing slabs will provide a terrace and hard path. These areas will be created asap.  The gardener's office/shed, will also need to be completed. We were able to obtain the same design door and specially made windows and sills from the greenhouse people. This means the office (we are so much grander than a shed!) will compliment the Greenhouse in its design. The office will need services and electricity will also be connected to the Greenhouse. So, still quite a lot to be doing.  Graham spent a day in the Walled Garden this week…him and a hundred long bamboo canes are helping the cordon trees connect with the wall wire retainers. The trees have all grown such a lot over the past year, but they are not quite at the next wire height. The canes will point the trees in the right direction - upwards, and they will help stop the trees being blown around and damaged in the wind.  The Freyja Walled Garden is slowly taking shape.   The YouTube Channel   Hope you have enjoyed watching Chef Alex on a boat on a Summers day in July…it chucked it down but it was a giggle apparently, wet! but a giggle.    Looking forward to next week and trying to tick off more jobs from our never ending list, oh! and the start of the Chef’s Box Scheme.  Till then, enjoy,  Ann  

Hello Everyone, Today is all about the ‘Good News’.  Many of you reading our Journal have been doing so for quite some time…years in fact. I thank you for your continued loyalty while being delighted that we have hundreds more who have joined the gang and subscribed. It is great to know that you folk kindly read my thoughts from the week.  This is Journal number four hundred and thirty three (433!) covering the last eight years.  Each week I have been able to tell you a snippet of what has been happening, here on the farm and now we include the Walled Garden. The Journal has become a great reference, as has Instagram, which is a great visual aid. Not all media is bad!  Over the years we have delivered our Organic vegetables, fruit, herbs, eggs and produce from our small farm in Northumberland. During Summer last year we decided to take a break from delivering our boxes of goodies. This was to allow for a farm reset, to re establish the Walled Gardens into production and for Bob to help support the Freyja Project as a whole.  The Freyja Project is underway. The Walled Garden is not finished but a realistic plan is in place. The Farm has been turned around (literally) and blooming. Along with behind the scene technical work of website, media, branding and design Freyja Organic Produce is ready for delivery! First piece of ‘Good News’…As of, the first full week of August 2025, we are bringing the box scheme back. The Organic Chef’s Box will be available to buy alongside other Organic Produce for you, our lovely customers.  The next phase of the website will go live week commencing 21st July. The first boxes will be available once the Journal goes out on 3rd August. The first deliveries will be on 7th and 8th August. That is as much information I will give here as ALL comprehensive details will be on the website. Suffice to say, even though the scheme will be slightly different to our previous process, the produce is still tasty, totally different to a supermarket range and we always sold out!  The Farm  Work continues. We have been able to place our efforts in the polytunnels as the temperature cooled. The tomatoes and cucumbers have had some much needed attention being nipped and tucked. We now remove many leaves as the fruits require the bright daylight and warmth to ripen the tomatoes and so we can actually see the cucumbers. The Peas have been removed and using the same netting we have planted out the next lot of French Beans.  All the beds are being attended to as quickly as we can. The heat and our watering has created the perfect environment for growth, especially those plants we do not want to grow…weeds, particularly chickweed! We had a really glum day on Wednesday. The next lot of Fennel were planted out and overnight the rabbits got the lot! This is above and beyond sharing! We are waiting to see if the Fennel is strong enough to re establish while sowing more seeds. July is the last month to sow the Fennel seed, fingers crossed we are just in time.  The restaurants we deliver to…Michelin Starred ‘Hjem’, Michelin Plate ‘Cookhouse’ and Michelin Top 100 Best Local Restaurant ‘Long Friday’ have all been enjoying and presenting delicious meals using our organic vegetables, fruit, herbs and flowers. The Organic Produce is looking and tasting great…lots for you all to enjoy.  The Walled Garden The second piece of ‘good News’ is the Greenhouse is nearing completion. We have minor work and the snagging list before sign off of the Greenhouse. However, even though the building is not fully complete, it is still magnificent. When the sun shines and the heat inside the house rises it is more than tropical. We are now considering more exotic varieties of fruit to grow against the inside wall and flowers which thrive in the hotter conditions. We are mindful of our Winter Season so we are also considering a hot water system (think hot water bottles) to retain as much of the heat as possible gained from the sun during the cold climate. Exciting times ahead.   The YouTube Channel   Chef Alex can be seen cooking with the goodies he harvested from the sea. Last week you saw him fishing on a very wet Summer’s day. Now you can watch him prepare the fish.  Our foray into producing a channel has been all very new for the whole team. The Freyja Project consists of a number of challenges…Walled Garden, Restaurant, Hotel, building work, gardens, growing, farming, food production, food preparation, people to name a few of the topics. The variety of content is like a pic’n’mix. We are throwing them all at you to watch as we edit and show or as and when you wish to watch. Maybe not everything will be of interest but something should appeal to each of you. Enjoy watching and subscribe. I personally enjoy knowing you are taking heed.   Thank you for reading and all have a great week, particularly if you are now on your Happy Summer Hols.  Ann

Hello Everyone, Hope you are all really well and having a cool time in this extreme heat. I still work in school term time, so, the Summer Holidays begin at the end of this week and the beaches will be full, Summer Camps will be full of sporty and arty children, parks will be busy and picnics everywhere in the heat and the cooler weather. It’s always a fun six weeks. If you are busy entertaining children…Enjoy!  We are getting closer to the re-launch of the Box Scheme, an announcement will be coming soon......... One announcement we do have is that the new 37m long lean to greenhouse has arrived! The Farm  The chat about the farm will be quick…temperatures rose to the high twenties outside and the high thirties in the tunnels and over forty in the greenhouses. Duties were carried out slowly, we paced ourselves and have had lots of factor plastered on ourselves. Seeding and transplanting for the Winter Season has begun (yes I know, but we are always planning ahead).  Our Organic Garlic was harvested, thankfully before the big heat wave. We are always delighted with our very own crop of Garlic and this years is another good one. They are now curing on our racks in the barn…the smell is divine.  We have been tending and caring for the crops we still have in the ground. Watering has taken much of our time with all areas getting a good drink. In the heat we are experiencing we do not drown the plants but tend to do little but often watering, working around each tunnel from one to ten. The outside growing areas receiving water when required…newly transplanted plants are given more attention with the larger grown plants watered, but probably less often than the newer ones. That’s all from the Farm as I want to crack on with…  The Walled Garden  Well last week finally arrived and as promised, bang on eight o’clock, Monday morning the Woodpecker Joinery guys arrived and the flat bed lorry arrived with the huge number of segments which would be assembled into the long awaited Greenhouse. There were six guys in total, each knowing their job. It didn’t take them long to get going with a structure up soooo quickly that any doubts we had about the building being right, vanished. It is an impressive looking Greenhouse. The wood, the windows, the doors, the finials, the metalwork, the guttering are all brilliant. The most impressive feature being the actual size of the Greenhouse as a whole…totally huge, totally impressive. As the week went on it just became even more impressive. The Greenhouse creates a totally different atmosphere to the top of the garden. The garden, as a whole, has been transformed. We have another week till the Greenhouse is complete, but already it looks perfect, as if it has always meant to be in our Walled Garden. First the central entrance is put in place, then the sides are erected and fitted. The back and roof is then placed up against the back wall. The front windows were fitted with automatic heat openings on each. Black wrought iron features can be seen along the length of the Greenhouse. Wires and bolts along the upper parts hold up the structure. It is all very clever and I am sure modern methods of construction are used. But, traditional and historic methods and appearances are providing us with a Greenhouse fit for this Georgian era garden. The Greenhouse and Garden compliment each other just fine.  Bob and I are already in the ‘going to keep this Greenhouse tidy, can we live in it or should we grow food?’ Clearly we will be growing inside. The choice of fruit, vegetable, herb, flower or other will be decided over time. We will be having three distinct areas, closed off by walls and doors, where we can experiment with temperatures, watering, growing and varieties of crops. This is all very exciting. After the third heat wave of the year I doubt we will live in it as we would boil. However, I do see us all wanting to work in this truly exclusive place of work. I feel a rota coming on, but I will be first!  The YouTube Channel   I have been told that the next few weeks on our channel is going to be a fun fun fun few weeks. Chef Alex spends time on a boat, fishing for his supper. I haven’t seen the episodes yet, so I will be watching the same time as your good selves, if you choose to. I am all for a giggle.  I hope you are enjoying the stories on Instagram…many of you are watching. More on the Farm and Walled Garden, especially the Greenhouse, will be posted regularly.  Thank you for reading. Till next week, Ann