Believe it or not, on the farm winter has come, as we begin preparing for our winter crops – quite a juxtaposition from the short shorts we’re all sporting around a seemingly summertime farm. So, this week we’ll be planting out our leeks for the winter and some of our winter squash, as well as preparing the ground for our purple sprouting broccoli.
Unfortunately, bean seed fly has decimated the majority of the beans that we sowed directly into the fields, so this week we’ll be resowing them into pots to plant them out in a couple of weeks’ time, when they’re strong enough to fight off any nasties.
Last week was both wet and dull for us, slowing down the progress of our courgettes and summer squashes out in the fields. However, the first courgette flowers have appeared so, whilst they’re a little later than we’d like, they’re on their way at last! We’re hoping to be able to include them in our VegBoxes from the third week in June.
We finished planting all our tomatoes and we have a couple more beds of cucumbers and peppers to plant out before the polytunnels are full. We’ve also planted plenty of calendula and basil – great companion plants for the tomatoes and the bees love these edible flowers too.
On Saturday, interested customers were seeing double as Laura Jean and her twin sister Helen – an enthusiastic farm volunteer – ran a stall at Sutton Craft and Produce Market and had a great day in the sun meeting members of our vibrant community and introducing them to our farm and, of course, our VegBox Scheme.
This weekend, we’re involved in the Streatham Food Festival, where we’ll be hosting a pop-up dinner with Hix Restaurant chef Joe Fox on Friday night and attending the Streatham Food Fair on Sunday, where Joe will be doing a live cooking demonstration with one of our VegBoxes. We hope to see some of you there…