Written by Sam, on his journey as a Sustainable Farming Assistant
It’s Friday morning and stepping out of my role of managing the Farm’s administration, into the boots of a Sustainable Farming Assistant is proving difficult. By about midday I finally manage to put the phone down, shut the laptop and Joris gives me an introduction to the programme. It’s a comprehensive list of the different skills we are to develop. I’m excited, and impressed with the work Charlotte and Joris have done to prepare it. In the induction, Joris emphasised the knowledge sharing aspects of the programme, recognising how we also learn from each other as we share our experiences, reflecting a core part of what makes Sutton Community Farm a unique and special place.
I head out to the large polytunnel to join some of the other assistants: Uran, Sula and Eva. Following recent harvesting, we are preparing beds for planting out more salad. The polytunnel offers a welcome shelter from the cold winds that sweep across the farm today. Here is the bed I worked on:
The bed recently had a crop of pak choi and now we are planting a namenia and green wave mustard. The steps involved in preparing the bed included clearing away the previous crop residues into the compost, weeding with a hoe, redefining the edges with a fork, mixing in new compost and ensuring the bed is flat with a rake. I tried to make the bed slightly raised from the path to help give it definition. Having it slightly raised and ensuring it’s flat means water can evenly distribute across the bed and avoids any puddles forming. I planted the namenia in rows, roughly 8 inches apart, with each module 3 inches. We can plant them fairly close together as this is going to be a fast growing crop and the roots do not need excessive space. The 8 inches between the rows give adequate space for weeding. Once everything was planted in, we watered the bed and headed back to the VegShed for a much needed cup of tea.