Notes from the Field

purple sprouting

Farmer Charlotte has been sharing her worries about the Purple Sprouting Broccoli, or PSB as we muddy-booted types tend to call it. It’s a tricky crop: you wait and wait for it to develop, and then it suddenly goes for it. Recently it’s been suffering under the pummelling the strong winds have dished out, so we’ve been a bit concerned. However, it looks like it’s starting to come through, so customers should be seeing it appear in our Stir Fry bags before too long – and then, hopefully, as a stand-alone crop.

In other farm news, we’ve received a big delivery of seed compost – exciting because it signals the onset of the growing season, so Charlotte has been finalising the seed order. Decisions taken include more of a focus on cherry tomatoes (which were a huge success last year) and the classic round tomatoes, and less on plum tomatoes, which we were less pleased with in 2013. Another spoiler: we’re planning to do more fennel this year than last year’s experimental-sized crop.