What's Growing for the Summer Share
/The farm in January...there is so much that is right on the cusp of being ready for harvest, some crops which are already being harvested, green manure crops knee high, and successive plantings at various stages of growth.
It's been a different sort of growing season with us sowing a Spring manure crop instead of a Spring cash crop. The produce is glowing though- a testament to the life in the soil and the diversity of microbes and insects populating the farm! With our Summer CSA starting on the 13 January, we are looking forward to sending all this lovely, tasty food into the kitchens of our CSA members. Here is a picture walk around the farm...
Sweet Corn, Potatoes and Tomatoes in the field. The chicken tractors are preparing the area for the Autumn brassicas
Our tomatoes have been producing for a few weeks in the polytunnel and the field tomatoes are also starting to ripen.
Summer Lettuce
Spring Onions
The brown and red onions have grown well throughout the Spring and are now forming into lovely sized onions - we alternate these in our CSA boxes with Spring Onions and later in the season with Leeks.
Tomatoes ripening in the Polytunnel
Sweet Corn is one of our favourite Summer crops for eating - we harvest the Corn the morning of the deliveries/farm pick up and highly recommend our CSA members eat it a soon as they can- the taste and nutritional value (like all vegetables) starts diminishing as soon as it is harvested.
Sweet Corn
Chicken tractors are an integral part of our farming - the chickens help control bugs and pests and when crops are finished the chicken tractors are moved through them to work crops into the soil and improve fertility...the bonus is we also get beautiful eggs! The chickens are now moving through the green manure crop ahead of the Autumn brassicas which are growing in the glasshouse.
Onions and Rhubarb ... and chicken tractors.
Summer beans starting to flower
Our bean crops have been growing well - with successive plantings of green, red and yellow varieties.
Zucchini
The zucchini has coped well with the heat we had over Christmas and we are harvesting a few different varieties for the Summer - Black Beauty, Italian Romanesco and a beautiful Golden zucchini.
Basil
We inter-plant many of our food crops with herbs to increase the biodiversity and help with pollination and soil health. The Summer Share boxes will have plenty of Basil, Coriander, Parsley, Thyme and Rosemary
Rocket
Carrots
Our Summer carrots have germinated well and we will be filling the boxes with Orange, Purple, Yellow and Red Carrots
Pumpkins and melons...undersown with clover to cover the ground and harness nitrogen and intercropped with sunflowers, to attract the bees we need for good pollination and to provide shade through the hot summer.
Capsicum, Chillies, Padrons...
Potatoes
Cucumbers
The Summer boxes will be starting in eight days and we look forward to harvesting again for our CSA members! It is one thing to plant a seedling, and another to raise it and then harvest it. Seeing the resilience of the plants throughout the strong winds and periods of intense heat that we have had has been inspiring. Tasting the first tomato in 7 months was really awesome. We look forward to sharing all the flavours of soil, water and light with our CSA members...just eight more sleeps!
Best wishes to everyone in the New Year!!
Robin and Peter
PS. You can join us on instagram for more frequent photos of the farm:
