lettuces after planting..note how stony the ground looks!
Our ancient planter..not quite horsedrawn but close
the polytunnel a few weeks ago, i'll take some more pics to show how quick the basil comes on.
Gary's grade 1. I'm sure your meant to do a real bad job and then you don't get asked to do it again!
This weeks lettuce from the pretendy 'walled' garden, coming to boxes near you on Thursday.Things have been going reasonably well both on the farm and in the shop. The shop being reasonably busy from its first day of opening which is a great relief as it could have gone the other way quite easily. Putting our faith into the hands of the locals has paid off and there support has been consistent.
We now have leeks in the field and the garden, the lettuces we planted what seems like only a few weeks ago will be going in to the boxes this week and hopefully most weeks after that. The difference across the range of planting areas is quite amazing. We have the polytunnel lettuce which are pretty much ready now, the lettuce in the raised beds of the 'walled' garden are maybe a week behind, the lettuce in the lower beds of the walled garden are probably two weeks behind that, with the lettuce in the open field probably at least six weeks away from any thought of being cut.
Carrots are just poking through after the little splash of rain. Chillies are being moved from propagating trays into there resting places in the polytunnel, replacing salad leaves that are coming to an end. Beans are looking good now but the peas are still being hammered by the birds and we really need to get some mesh rolled out to protect them. However the old digger is out of action at the moment so we can't move the nets anywhere, frustrating when the net is about fifty feet from the top of the bed. But i suppose about 150kgs is heavy no matter how far you need to carry it!
The fennel is racing away with so much vigour it's even managed to turn up in another bed. Not sowing on windy days would be advantageous but i don't think we could do all of our sowing in such a short time. Radishes have been and gone, but will go in again a bit later in the season. We managed to start shearing the ewes yesterday with a much needed hand from a friend who came up not knowing what was on the cards. Gary then proceeded to put me to shame with the skills of a barber despite never doing anything like this before, his fleece coming off in one nice, neat and usable piece and mine coming off in many uneven lumps leaving the sheep with the appearance of being attacked by a fox rather than a John Gerrard stylist. My only consolation can be taken from knowing how his back will be feeling this morning. I'll try to get the rest finished today before the damp and warm weather that's being predicted comes.
Of the farm things are hectic too. The vans developed a rather painful noise coming from somewhere that sounds expensive but we've managed to replace the old estate car with a pickup truck that the kids are much happier travelling in. As will the lambs be when the time comes for the trip to the abattoir.
A much needed night out was had on Friday. After hearing a lot of recommendations we went off to Barn Asia in Newcastle to see what all the fuss was about. We let the owner choose our dishes for us hoping to get the best of the offerings. The food, decor, atmosphere and host were all great the only downfall being the lack of ingredients provenance. It would have been the icing on the cake to know the chicken used was free range and the beef British. Surely it takes a huge effort to run a restaurant like this, especially in the recession. Would it really be too much to source meat, fish and poultry that has been produced locally to a high welfare standard?
My other task for today is too secure a new post box, the last one being stolen from our road end. I wonder if its illegal to put our electric fence charger on the box each night after the posty has been. I'm surprised with the amount of invoices in the box lately the thief didn't bring it back with a £5 contribution added out of pity. Still it must have made someone who is down on there luck pretty happy now they know it could be worse!
We now have leeks in the field and the garden, the lettuces we planted what seems like only a few weeks ago will be going in to the boxes this week and hopefully most weeks after that. The difference across the range of planting areas is quite amazing. We have the polytunnel lettuce which are pretty much ready now, the lettuce in the raised beds of the 'walled' garden are maybe a week behind, the lettuce in the lower beds of the walled garden are probably two weeks behind that, with the lettuce in the open field probably at least six weeks away from any thought of being cut.
Carrots are just poking through after the little splash of rain. Chillies are being moved from propagating trays into there resting places in the polytunnel, replacing salad leaves that are coming to an end. Beans are looking good now but the peas are still being hammered by the birds and we really need to get some mesh rolled out to protect them. However the old digger is out of action at the moment so we can't move the nets anywhere, frustrating when the net is about fifty feet from the top of the bed. But i suppose about 150kgs is heavy no matter how far you need to carry it!
The fennel is racing away with so much vigour it's even managed to turn up in another bed. Not sowing on windy days would be advantageous but i don't think we could do all of our sowing in such a short time. Radishes have been and gone, but will go in again a bit later in the season. We managed to start shearing the ewes yesterday with a much needed hand from a friend who came up not knowing what was on the cards. Gary then proceeded to put me to shame with the skills of a barber despite never doing anything like this before, his fleece coming off in one nice, neat and usable piece and mine coming off in many uneven lumps leaving the sheep with the appearance of being attacked by a fox rather than a John Gerrard stylist. My only consolation can be taken from knowing how his back will be feeling this morning. I'll try to get the rest finished today before the damp and warm weather that's being predicted comes.
Of the farm things are hectic too. The vans developed a rather painful noise coming from somewhere that sounds expensive but we've managed to replace the old estate car with a pickup truck that the kids are much happier travelling in. As will the lambs be when the time comes for the trip to the abattoir.
A much needed night out was had on Friday. After hearing a lot of recommendations we went off to Barn Asia in Newcastle to see what all the fuss was about. We let the owner choose our dishes for us hoping to get the best of the offerings. The food, decor, atmosphere and host were all great the only downfall being the lack of ingredients provenance. It would have been the icing on the cake to know the chicken used was free range and the beef British. Surely it takes a huge effort to run a restaurant like this, especially in the recession. Would it really be too much to source meat, fish and poultry that has been produced locally to a high welfare standard?
My other task for today is too secure a new post box, the last one being stolen from our road end. I wonder if its illegal to put our electric fence charger on the box each night after the posty has been. I'm surprised with the amount of invoices in the box lately the thief didn't bring it back with a £5 contribution added out of pity. Still it must have made someone who is down on there luck pretty happy now they know it could be worse!
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