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I am going to start with some very good news. We have had agreement from the Saltdean Lido to sell our vegetables in their car park on Saturday mornings from 30th May onwards. We will be there from 9am to 1pm to give our customers the opportunity to come and choose their own vegetables, and to stop by to have a chat. (It doesn't have to be about crop rotation or soil enrichment 😊) So we have been busy this week starting to get everything ready, changing our marketing materia

No messing about with pictures of my breakfast, or Koda the dog doing daft things. This week is a proper and comprehensive update on the vegetables that are currently growing. It will therefore exclude the likes of parsnips and sprouts that we will be eating at Christmas, but you will probably be surprised to learn that I will be sowing both this week! I am going to give an estimate of when we may start harvesting each vegetable, but please bear in mind that this can only be

Dave has asked me to write this week's blog, and I wanted to use the opportunity to introduce a couple of sidelines that we have been working on. I thought it would be interesting to update occasionally to show the progress of these, but firstly, a bit of background..... A couple of weeks ago I went back to Norway to see my parents, and the rest of the family. It was so nice to see them and I miss them so much being so far away. I have also missed skiing as being Norwegian, i

"I didn't know that vegetables could be bad for you" That is a quote from a friend that stopped for a brief chat as she rode past the field earlier this week,. She was of course referring to all the pesticides, artificial fertilizers and preservatives that may be sprayed on non-organic vegetables. Surely there should be a requirement to disclose all the potential harmful additives to all food? My second quote is from myself in a blog a few weeks back....."I wish it would sto

Man alive! It's been really busy this week! When my daughters were studying for their exams, I encouraged them to do a revision timetable. This meant that when they had done what was planned, they could then enjoy the rest of the day without feeling guilty that they should still be studying. As I have recently been doing "as much as I can", and not taking any time off, I thought I should follow the same principle, and get weekly plans in place. Unfortunately, I have still got

Just back from the field to write this as it is super busy at the moment, and I've managed to fall behind schedule! I've got green sprouting broccoli, purple sprouting broccoli and cabbage that all should have been transplanted last week and they are still in the polytunnel. An extra effort needed over the next couple of days! I did manage to get 4 beds of potatoes planted this week though. This is one of the maincrops just about to be covered with the head about 5cm below th

I hope that everyone had a lovely Easter. We can now look forward to some sunny weather! This week we have cauliflower, spinach, salad onions, rainbow chard and 3 mixes of microgreens available. The spinach and chard are both growing vigorously, and are proving to be great "cut and come again" crops. Healthy looking spinach, and colourful chard! It's getting very busy both in the greenhouse, and on the field. The last of the tomatoes have been sown this week, along with cucum

Let's start with an update on our vegetables and some good news regarding availability this week: Cauliflowers are available in abundance And if a whole Cauli is too much then we are also offering 500g florets again Spinach is back and looking lovely As is Rainbow Chard Onions are growing well but a long way off Salad Onions are ready and on sale again Purple sprouting has been very popular and I am waiting for more shoots to grow The tomatoes are doing well in the polytunnel

We'll start with an update on the vegetable status. Plenty of lovely Cauliflowers available this week. A limited number of portions of purple sprouting broccoli are also available. Next week we should be able to add spinach, chard, and salad onions back to list of available vegetables. Unfortunately all the overwintered red cabbages (2 beds 🤦‍♂️) have gone to seed, but we have some Savoy cabbages which hopefully aren't too far away Microgreens will of course continue to be a

Sowed beetroot, more radish and tomatoes this week I'm amazed at the speed with which the Courgette seeds that were sown on 5th March are growing. The picture below was taken today And this is the same tray yesterday I'm told that any old fool can grow courgettes 😒 Due to the frost being forecast for the weekend, I held off transplanting anything last week, but the first radish went in today And were quickly covered to keep the pests off! On the subject off pests, I'd like t

Beautiful weather at times this week! We managed to get the beds in the caterpillar tunnel topped with a layer of very well rotted manure (thanks to Piddinghoe stables) We then added some lovely rich compost, and as we want lots more juicy tomatoes this year, we created an additional bed. Because we are in the South Downs National Park, it is difficult to get permission for a standard polytunnel. The caterpillar tunnel is similar, but is officially a temporary structure, so i

Meteorological spring has started at last, and this is my second favourite photo for this blog: Full of promise for warm days ahead! The focus this week has been on creating new beds on the farm. I have been shipping beautifully rich compost up the field and laying it approximately 15cm deep. These are the 5 beds which have been completed over the last few days and I'm thinking they will be ideal for potatoes. Just need to get woodchips in between the beds to stop the weeds

I spent a pleasant afternoon on Tuesday with the inspector from the Soil Association to validate that Organic standards are being followed. Spent about an hour over the field and then a couple of hours going through paperwork. The inspector would pick vegetables at random, and I would then have to show the number of seeds sown, the number of seedlings transplanted, and then the associated sales. I would also need to show receipts for anything used in the process such as compo

· More of the existing beds cleared and weeded this week. I then add a layer of organic material with woodchips in between beds to suppress weed growth · I’m keen to be creating new beds, but there has been so much rain that it is too heavy and slippery. I have 10 tonnes of compost desperate to be moved up the field, and a pile of woodchips which I want to get to but have to clear the compost first! · ​The purple sprouting that I photographed last week

Cauliflower - Notice how the inner leaves naturally curl inwards to protect the head from frost Cauliflower seeds - sowed 1st Feb Onion sets Tomatoes - Traditionally tomatoes are sown from early March, but this variety states it can be sown from Christmas onwards, so I thought why not give them a try! Red Cabbage Savoy Cabbage Cavolo Nero - won't be long! Purple sprouting - nearly there! ​ Update · Overwintering vegetables are doing very well. The majority are covere