Snow, snow and more snow..

Old bessy stuck in the mud again! I've asked for a four
wheel drive version for my birthday but don't think anybody
was listening.

Silly hat season..

Fantastic views but I couldn't see a foot in front of me on

Saturday morning. Thick skinned pigs don't seem to mind

though as long as there's food on the 'table'

A great week for the kids but not really condusive to on farm progress, but it does give you a bit of a lift being out in the bright sunshine after being in the dark for what seems like ages. A bit of a contradiction I know but it seems like its been dark permanently for the past 3 months but when the sun comes out an dthe days start to get longer its as if the summer wasn't that long ago..maybe its the promise of spring that brings the positivity out.

Anyway nothing really to report on this week. Growth in the polytunnel has stopped due to snow blocking out the light and the sub zero temperatures, not helped when a cheeky robin thought that the relative warmth of the polytunnel seemed a good place to nest. All would have been well had he then not decided to go out a few times during the day..unfortunately putting some holes in the plastic skin on each attempt.

The fruit trees are starting to bud up and we are hoping they don't come too soon to be killed by the heavy frost that we usually get in April. The hares have started to annihilate the christmas trees we planted last year as these are an easy source of food sticking above the snow. Must get some mesh guards made up before they eat the lot!

The sheep are getting some of the older hay that we made 2yrs ago to tide them over until the snow melts and the piggies are eating everything they can get hold of now the grounds too solid to root the carrots up. The carrot bed has been well turned over by them and will benefit from the deep frost getting down to a good level and aerating the soil.

Ketchup comparisons

Our thanks go to a customer who recently pointed out the difference in ingredients between the organic ketchup we sell and heinz organic ketchup..with all we read these days about food labelling and understanding whats going into our food it still surprises me what gets into some food products.

A lot of our customers are buying 'organic' for health reasons but may not look further than the initial organic label. Organic may have connotations of health and a less processed product but this may not always be the case now that the big corporations are also selling organic lines. you really must check the small print, the labels placed on products being sold by supermarkets may give you the wrong impression.

We are seeing more labels with photos of farmers outside in the fields yet the animals that produce the packed meat may have never seen those fields. I don't believe this should be allowed and it should not be up to the consumer to arm themselves with the finer details of the food standards agency guidelines for labels when popping out to get a chicken for dinner!

The traceability of a product can help to understand what has or has not gone into the food your buying and also give you an idea of how the animals have been raised. The best choice is surely to buy from a local producer who can tell you or even show you how your food is being produced without any spin like 'traditionally reared beef' or 'Scottish smoked', which may mean beef that has been produced in an American intensive feed lot as it has been 'traditionally' or salmon that has been intensively farmed in Scandinavia and then frozen, shipped to a factory in Scotland where it can be chemically smoked and become 'Scottish smoked salmon'. These statements are based on the truth but it doesn't give a fair representation.

By asking a local producer or retailer how and where it has been produced not only will you get the information you need to make an educated decision regarding your purchase but also send a message that 'you' the consumer is looking for good quality, local produce and understand what this means.

Labelling can provoke some discussion regarding businesses like ours that sell local produce but also sell items such as bananas, mango etc. Do we need to state 'not local' on our organic bananas or should we take it for granted that customers understand this? What about locally sourced? if we buy the bananas from a local wholesaler is that a fair statement? We could buy them cheaper from a national wholesaler with a centralised distribution system as the supermarkets may do and not support any local jobs but that is not what we choose to do. Where should a local box scheme draw the line when sourcing produce 10 miles? 50miles? What if the seasons don't accommodate local growers and we need to go further away? Should we stop trading until we can source or grow more produce? And then where do our customers go? To someone who is not concerned with these issues?

Its difficult for us to know what to do sometimes but we are guided by our customers, our own ethics and what 'feels' right. This may not seem good enough for some and may be too picky for others...as a consumer its your decision that makes the world go round and there are many problems that could be solved by consumers making more educated decisions.

As the blind date guy used to say..the choice is yours!

Inspection complete

I'm pleased to announce our soil association inspection went well yesterday, all records present and correct!
Its the third year in a row we have had this particular inspector so will have a change next year to ensure impartiality, which i think just goes to show the integrity of the soil association and those that work within it.
We were please to hear how wet she thought the farm was especially as she is out inspecting farms all over the north every day. We seem to have picked the worst year to move onto such wet land and the year after has been just as bad. Although the average air temp seems to be picking up.

Beth and I are feeling a bit of a 'food hangover' this morning. We took the kids ice skating in times square again last night with me being forced to be on the ice as a a guardian for George. Not sure who was more fearful but he ended up doing laps with me hanging on to the side watching and getting in the way of all the other unsafe parents waddling round the barrier. We finished the evening with in a chinese on stowell street as a special request for Billys birthday and ended up eating the usual noodles coated in greasy salty sources and even more unforgiveable the pork ribs. I can see how this may be contradictory to what we believe in and for the most part we make ethical decisions but occasionally our resolve is weakened. I'd like to think that the intensively farmed pork and chicken that is sold into this industry isn't kept going by our few visits each year. Does anyone know of a good asian restuarant with an ethical sourcing policy?? We love asian food and would love to eat out without the guilt that comes with it.

We once had a butcher who worked for a local butchers shop before coming to us who liked to tell us about the barrels of red sweet and sour chinese source they used to make the 'value' suasages a 'good' colour! Needless to say he didn't last long.

Christmas Part 2

the fruit bushes bordering the 'walled' garden

some more bushes - blackcurrant, whitecurrant, redcurrant and jostaberry.

odd mushrooms growing in the polytunnel!

salad coming through..

in 3- 4 weeks we'll be cutting this for your salad bags!

the new fencing back under water

We hope to put a rather large duck pond in to use the excess water for meat although we may end up with norths wild duck population coming to stay and don't fancy paying for all the organic feed that i'm sure they would help us get through.

a pic of the long gone turkeys, have to say they look a lot nicer on the table!

Its been a fanatstic weekend here at G and S with Beths brother and family returning from an extended stay in Australia. This was the perfect excuse for Christmas dinner II.

We boned and rolled 2 big fat turkeys that we had frozen before christmas, stuffed them with a mix of pork mince, sage, lots of crushed garlic, oats and some cooked chestnuts. Topped off with plenty of streaky bacon. We cooked it under foil for a couple of hours and then crisped the bacon with the foil off...it was the most succulant and tasty turkey i've tasted and was so easy to carve. In fact we are still carving our way through it! We'll be offering this as a service this year i think although it is a bit time consuming when we have the least time.

All the rain and snow from last week has left us underwater again, the good news is that it has loosened the soil round the carrots that had previuosly been frozen in which means the pigs got through them in no time. we moved them further down the carrot bed yesterday so they are happy again. The bed they have left will then be rotavated as soon as the weather allows or we may try just running our discs over and then harrowing to create a seed bed. Needless to say whatever goes in that bed will get a good start to its life.

More good news is that the first sowings of lettuce/salads are showing themselves...its amazing to think with the lack of daylight hours and low temperatures that thay are willing to make a show of it so eagerly. They were sown on new years day and have een pretty much ignored since in the polytunnel. (which the winds are taking there toll on now, we'll have to get the duct tape out soon)

The ewes have pretty much finished the grass and will be fed hay, or haylage from now until we get some new growth in spring. We will start feeding them with some barley and beans around end of feb early march to make sure there lambs have plenty of nutrients during the early stage s of growth. Hopefully we will have some good weather for lambing this year..pleased we only have 23 ewes to do..some of the locals will have upto 1000 ewes to work with!

Greetings From the G and S Farm!

First of all, a belated Happy New Year to you all from the team here at G and S. We Hope you enjoyed the festive season.
As this is the first post of the new year, it's time to let you know our plans for the year, and for the next few years. Yes, we are that organised!
Currently the pigs are enjoying clearing out the old carrot beds ready for sowing in the spring. When the beds are clear, we can start our new crop rotation pattern.

Crop rotation is essential for preserving the quality of the soil. Here are some details of what we are planning, and why we are doing it. We hope this interests you, because it will directly affect the food you get in your boxes of the coming months, and even years.

Our seven year crop rotation plans are now ready to be posted on the website.
Seven years is the recommended rotation for many reasons, the main ones being:

· To allow the ground to recover from hungry crops like Brassicas.
· To ensure a break between crops, hindering some of the crop pests and diseases.
· To restore and feed the soil.
· To incorporate farm yard manures as fertilisers.
· To inhibit weeds.
· To create clean grazing.
· To give us a wide variety of crops for your boxes.

Our fields will be divided up into several plots, and here we will plant our "field scale" (industry term...!) crops. In the walled garden we will also be planting more attention-seeking crops such as salad leaves.
In any one of our field scale plots, the following crop rotation will be running, starting from a different point on the cycle in each plot to maximize variety. an example of a rotation scheme for a single plot is as follows:

2009- Potatoes - Orla and Milva varieties - planted in May for harvest in October.

09-10 Pigs/Poultry - to remove the leftover potato plants and prepare the ground for the next crop. October to March

2010- Broad beans, sowed in April for harvest on August

10-11 Sprouting Broccoli. Both Purple and White, Sowed in August for harvest in May

2011 Salads. Celery, Chard, Lettuce and others, planted on May for October Harvest.

11-12 The Pigs and Poultry are back to finish off what's left. October to April

2012 Squash/Courgettes. Butternut and large hallowe'en types (such as crown prince). Planted in April for harvest in September/October.

12-13 Guess who're back? that's right, those all purpose waste disposal units, the pigs and poultry, from November to March

13-14 Root crops, such as Chanteray Carrots, Parsnips, Beetroot, turnip and Swede. Planted starting in March and continuing through the year, these will be harvested from October through to March, with the pigs following as the early crops are finished until there is nothing left.

14-15 Brassicas, such as Red, white, green, savoy and even winter cabbage! Planted starting in march and continuing to plant over the following weeks, and harvested from August onward until tehy are gone.

14-16 Following the cabbages, grass will be planted as an Organic soil improver. This will be in for up to a season and a half, taking us up to March of the 7th year in the cycle. Manure will be dug in in June to add fertility and organic matter, and the whole cycle will start again.

Well, I hope that wasn't too long and in depth, and that you found it interesting to know what we are up to now and in the future.

See you all Next time!

Well, it's been a while since we posted anything, so here's the last update of 2008 from the G and S farm!

All the stress of Christmas will hopefully soon be behind us, as Christmas deliveries go out next week, on Monday and Tuesday. Only the non-farm related stress of the day itself left to survive!

Our turkeys put up a fight this week, in a last ditch attempt to avoid the christmas dinner tables of the north east, but thankfully everything is now under control. Until the next thing goes wrong that is...!
On that subject, it looks, from my window at least, as if the Longfram village christmas tree is on the verge of falling over, probably taking our electricity/wall with it!

Thanks to all our customers for your business over the last year, and we look forward to seeing you all in the new year. We will be back delivering on the 7th of January.

See you all then,
Merry Christmas and A Happy New Year,

Lee, Beth, Sue, Steven, Katie, John
The G and S Organics Team

Well another week over as we march closer to the Christmas holidays. We hope you are all looking forward to the holiday and New Year as much as we are.
Lots of planning going on at G and S. Lee is spending hours agonizing over seed catalogues and muttering about heads of cabbage per acre!
The whole team - well, nearly the whole team - was out in force on Monday planting fruit trees. Thank you to all who volunteered to help. Just be grateful you didn’t have to play out. We had every kind of weather on Monday: Weak sun, heavy hail and driving rain. A fantastic day, however; all the trees planted. We have staked, composted and mulched them in, so look out in spring for beautiful fruit blossom and hopefully no late frost to kill off the fruit.

no trees...

Trees!

The turkeys are all looking happy and healthy, enjoying running around the farm. The weather doesn’t seem to bother them. In fact, we have to call and call them for teatime and bed.

Some great cook-ahead ideas this week to get you in the Christmas spirit and reduce the stress on the day.
By the Way, Check the website for special offers, we are doing our best to help all our customers tailor deliveries to better suit their needs.

Let us know what you are planning for Christmas and when you will want your delivery. Please note Christmas orders close this weekend. To book a delivery slot tel.07894622256.

Deliveries will be as normal on the 18th and 19th of December. Christmas orders will be delivered on the 22nd and 23rd. No deliveries at all on the 1st and 2nd of January, then we are back to normal on the 8th and 9th of January 2009.
So stock up now!