Notes from the garden
You are welcome to look round the garden at the front of the shop on Saturdays and Sundays, but please do not pick anything or go inside the polytunnels.
December 2011
Well there is no guessing how the harvest will turn out even after 13 years of growing here.....the carrots and swedes are lovely and big, but the parsnips are sweet but smaller and the celeriac too small to use. Keith shakes his head at the mystery of it all. Probably the allotment growers and gardeners amongst you will agree.
Generally all is good in the garden. The kales have been gorgeous, the leeks have lost their moths, the squash have been modest in size and quantity but sweet as ever. The gardeners are busy cleaning the muddy roots a bit, storing the beetroot and cabbages, and generally getting ready for the christmas week rush on sprouts and other seasonal veg.
Welcome to Glenn who has joined the soil association apprenticeship scheme here, and many thanks to Rochelle and all the other wwoofers who have given their energy in the garden in 2011.
October 2011
Autumn is here and with it comes all the delicious roots and cabbages that grow so well in the uk....... swedes, celeriac, sprout tops, chards, kales, red and white potatoes, good sizes for baking this year, a few squash, carrots, onions, red and white cabbages, january king cabbage and lots more.
Life in the polytunnels is busy too - the shop has been enjoying lovely little lettuces, the first of the mixed leaves and lots of delicious parsley and basil. One of the stars of the year is our chilli harvest. RIng of Fire is its name, and it is HOT. This winter we are going to be self sufficient in chillis as i have dried great bowlfuls in the plate warming oven.
Keith, Lizzie and Luke, our two apprentices, have been harvesting constantly the last few weeks, helped by Alex who helps out on a regular basis. We have said goodbye to our longterm wwoofers from Italy, Germany and France, and hello to Rochelle from Canada.
August 2011
Sweet tomatoes of three colours, big white onions, slim spring onions, after an abundance of calabrese, french climbing, broad and now french beans, green and purple..............fresh cut flowers daily, waxy madlen new potatoes, and now lovely milva potatoes, good for most dishes. Basil, parsleys both flat and curly, fennel, carrots getting bigger now, our own aubergines with prickles at their heads, shiny hard peppers and hot little chillis, ring of fire!
So much to choose from in the shop now at the peak of the year for vegetables.
Not forgetting a few late strawberries and the autumn bliss raspberries too.
The season has not been without a problem...... some of our garlic is a little mouldy in the middle, altho the most part is delicious and we are selling it at half price, but in general all has been fab in the garden as we head into the season of mists and mellow fruitfulness and piles and piles of autumn veg.
July 2011
The garden is starting to overflow with summer veg now. Broad beans at their most prolific, sugar snaps by the crateful from the polytunnel, with french climbing beans just beginning. Two sorts of parsley, swiss chard, spinach beet, loose beetroot (yum, beetroot and horseradish pie coming up on the menu again), garlic, early potatoes freshly dug, slim spring onions, the first tomatoes, aubergines, green peppers, carrots and lettuces by the armful. heaven.
Apprentice news.
We welcome Luke as a fully signed up apprentice, Ben, who has been a seasonal worker as our next apprentice, and congratulate Mike on his marriage to Vanessa last weekend.
Alex is back in the garden for his third season, Sam is helping again this summer. Kate has joined Hugh Fearnleys team at River Cottage after 3 years here and we are happy to welcome Debbie to tend the flower patch now and bunch the beautiful cut flowers.
Wwoofers this year are from Germany, France and Switzerland, Italy and Portugal. They are helping the garden team propagate, plant, weed and harvest.
April 2011
Such a great feeling when the asparagus start to poke their tender little heads above ground, and now the first bunches are in the shop. A customer say the first 3 bunches and took them all last saturday, their delight was enormous. I usually walk thro the garden on my way home and munch a stem as i go, they hardly need cooking at the moment. Limited amounts at the moment in the shop.
Its the hungry gap as we all know but this week the gardeners are harvesting swiss chard, spinach, a little purple sprouting, spring onions, herbs, a few salad leaves, lettuce, curly and red russian kales and limited but lovely spring greens.
The sugar snaps and early tunnel carrots are in and coming up, the tulips have been beautifully timed for mothers day! and propagation has begun in earnest.
Luke is trying out an apprentice job, and Ben is our new Wwoofer, with Sarah from Switzerland arriving this week to learn and help.
November 2010
Tunnel oriental brassicas, mixed leaves and coriander growing beautifully. Polytunnels are ugly but so useful in our climate...... Lovely swedes, parsnips, sprout tops and cabbages coming into the shop now in earnest. Uchiki kuri, the little orange squash is favoured by lots of us as you dont have to peel it, just chop it up and cook it. Kales are looking great, Nero de Toscana so dark green it must be healthy and it tastes good too, unlike other kales needs quite a bit of boiling. Laura, Mike, Lizzie and our new Wwoofer Jessie from Australia are digging and lifting carrots, celeriac, parsnips, swedes, leeks in all weathers. Mud everywhere this week.
September 2010
The summer vegetables were good, lots of sweet tomatoes although the black russians didnt grow as large as normal. Ample lettuces as the dry season kept the slugs away at the right time, shiny aubergines, sweet peppers, the hottest chillis we have had so far. The summer soft fruit harvest was good. The later strawberries seemed the sweetest. Rich in the production kitchen is getting ready to make more jams and jellies from the excess fruits this winter.
The flowers looked so colourful alongside the drive. Kates time was well rewarded in customers delight at the bunches on sale, although the financial viability of such a labour intensive job is in the balance. An extra 50p a bunch might help, comments welcomed.
It was not a good year for the outside beans, but the tunnel crops of sugar snaps and climbing runners was fantastic.
Now there is sweetcorn by the armful, good size swedes, carrots sweet altho the carrot fly found a good few, lots of kales, the brussel sprouts are looking promising, cabbages hearting up.
The onions have been taken up and dried. Lots of red and white.
The leeks planted earlier in the summer have been found by the leek moth, which is unsightly but not to offer them for sale (at a reduced price) would be to waste too much food. Later leeks will probably be fine.
The Cosmos potatoes are a good size this year, the earlies grew well too, and sold out quickly. Parsnips are just ready to harvest, and the squashes are safely inside, to the delight of the cooks and the customers, squash soup, squash risotto, squash and coconut curry bake, squash and goats cheese lasagne, stuffed squash, and so much more to do with a squash......
Keith, Kate, Laura and Mike have been joined again this season by Alex who has been in the shop this winter, Keiths son Sam, and Jamie who woofed here in 1999. A great team. Lots of wwoofers coming and going, so far from as far afield as Sweden, Germany and next week New Zealand.
May 2010
Lots of comments on how lovely the garden is looking, thank you!
Asparagus doing great, spinach delicious, a profusion of mint, chives and marjoram. the crown prince squash and leeks have done their longest season yet here, using in the kitchen and in the shop from last autumn till may - amazing.
Just waiting for the sugar snaps to fruit, the carrots and beetroot in the tunnels to grow a tiny bit more and the summer harvests will begin..........
Kate and I are concentrating on more cut flowers this summer, they are being planted as I write, do look out for them in a month or two.
Browse earlier entries
July 2009
June 2009
May 2008
June 2007
April 2007
Summer 2006
March 2006
April 2005
October 2003
April 2003
WWOOFING
I began Wwoofing here at Abbey Home Farm in mid March and even though the weather was cold and wet, I knew that I was going to enjoy my time here.
The scale of the garden is larger than I have been used to at other Wwoof placements. There are 10 acres of vegetable plots in cultivation which means there is always plenty of work to keep a Wwoofer happy.
For me, the opportunity to learn about the science and art of horticulture on a commercial scale is one of the main attractions of working here and Keith, the head gardener, is always happy to pass on some of his professional knowledge and explain the reasons for his methods.
The work to be done in the garden is varied, however some structure and routine is provided by the harvesting of vegetables for the farm shop which is always the first job of each day.
Obviously with the garden being run organically, there is loads of weeding to do, and there is probably not much that Wwoofers don't know about weeding, but that's far from the only work to be done and I haven't had a boring day yet!
Jamie Our long term Wwoofer 2000/2001
