As I begin to start noticing the shorter evenings, and realise that August is almost over, I think it is time for another update.
The last couple of months we’ve really started having stuff ready for harvest – starting with beetroot and the first few tomatoes, and now we are in full flow with plenty of beetroot, cucumbers, tomatoes, broad beans, purple mange tout peas and today I just sold all of the small amount of spring onions that had survived the challenges from earlier in the year. Soon to join this feast will be carrots, courgettes and squash, and later in the year kale, onions and leeks. The “yellow submarine” tomatoes are one of my favourites…cute little pear-shaped cherry tomatoes which ripen to a bright yellow.
I remember our first proper harvest; I’d been stuck in traffic on a Friday after a long week at work, but when I got to the farm I felt instantly rejuvenated and full of energy again…and that evening we picked several kilos of beautiful young beetroot to bunch, a kilo or two of tomatoes from the tunnel and about 20 cucumbers. I was jubilant! So excited and proud, and happy that our efforts were resulting in a visible achievement, and that these vegetables – freshly plucked and bursting with energy and nutrition - would be going to local people, and hopefully passing on that joy in some small way.
I wrote in my last update about some pretty low moments, the worst being when all of our newly planted out kale was eaten by rabbits – a bright new turn to this story is that when I was weeding that patch (we had just let that area run a bit wild when we lost it all…) I began discovering that miraculously, some of the little kale plants had survived their brutal treatment and were growing up again! It turned out that maybe 20-30 plants had survived; in a way probably helped by the heavy weed cover giving them some protection from the rabbits. It was such a nice surprise, and we have covered them with netting now – they’ll have a fighting chance at producing a little bit of something for the farm shop, even if they don’t grow to reach their original potential.
Since then, as well, a rabbit fence has been installed with a lot of good hard work from Kindling’s volunteer Land Army – it was properly dug in and although only a couple of feet high, I have noticed a big difference in crop growth since it was put in. With this in place, next year should see at least one less insurmountable challenge!