16th February

·         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 continues to do well. Apparently if you cut the heads off then it encourages the shoots to grow. We tried this on a couple of plants. I will report back on growth next week but those heads had to be eaten and were delicious!!

·         On the subject of food, I’ve found a replacement for the traditional BLT (bacon, lettuce and tomato) sandwich this week. It is called the BDM (bacon and Dave’s microgreens)

·         Of course my Sunday morning breakfast presentation had to be outdone by Issy!

·         The pheasants are still proving to be a nuisance. Part of the netting over a section of red cabbages was blown open by the wind over the weekend. Fortunately they only helped themselves to two of the plants but it’s still annoying to lose them

·         We had an enjoyable and productive Saturday at Seaford Town Market. A very friendly bunch of stallholders, and it was lovely to meet lots of friendly customers who are eager for our vegetables to be ready to buy (not quite as eager as me for them to be ready to sell though!). The microgreens sold very well with the nutrient rich mix proving to be by far the most popular

·         We will be attending Seaford Market on the 2^nd and 4^th Saturday of each month now, and will be looking for somewhere for the 1^st and 3^rd. I really think that a market in Saltdean could do really well so will be looking into the options and possibilities

·         I’m looking forward to hosting a representative from the Soil Association tomorrow. They will be doing their audit to ensure that we are following organic principles as we should be. We start with a tour of the farm, and then go through all my records so I can demonstrate that everything I have purchased is in line with organic standards, and I can show when crops were sown, pricked out, transplanted and harvested. They spend time checking that the volumes harvested are commensurate with the expectations for organic farming.

·         After that, back to creating new beds and enriching existing beds