This week’s farming news is dominated by last night’s weather, when St Jude’s storm arrived and laid waste to our tallest polytunnel. Staff arrived to find the tunnel roofless and the plastic flapping dementedly in what was left of the gale. Here Sam describes a worried morning and the scene he found on the farm.
This is the polytunnel where we propagate seeds, and also where we’ve been storing our harvested squashes to cure. We were already a bit worried about the squash being damaged by frost, but now with tunnel open to the elements, the job of finding some alternative squash storage space has become more urgent.
All in all, the cost of the storm is likely to be around £9,000. The polytunnel itself will have to be completely replaced rather than repaired, because it’s not just the plastic sheeting that has been harmed – the metal bars that make up its structure have been bent out of shape. So there’s a lot of work to do to get shipshape again.
Meanwhile, out in the fields, a lot of the purple sprouting broccoli has been taking a beating from the wind, but the damage is not major there. And a lot of the kale has been bent over, though not killed. Thank goodness for hardy crops!