April on Ripple Farm (part 2)

Part 2 of whats happening at Ripple in April.......

Early spuds grown under perforated plastic to bring the harvest forward (is it better environmentally to grow a small amount this way or import them from Egypt for a week or two (or keep eating wrinkly old ones a bit longer))?

And looking through the hedge at ridges of our main crop potatoes in Olantigh Field,
 our chalky soil is almost white here as it rises up towards the downs.

Spring onions off to a good start

Rows of mini craters where there should be rows of broad beans, wireworm (the larvae of click beetle) are attacking
from underneath, and rooks are pulling up the small plants to eat the wireworm!

So we're sowing broad beans in seed trays to transplant, we wil not be beaten!

I spent a peaceful Saturday afternoon planting strawberry plants in the shelter of the walled garden, we grow them through these 'mypex' sheets to help with weed control, as the plants will be in the ground for a few years. It also to help conserve the moisture in the soil and keeps the berries cleaner than if they were grown in bare earth.
In the gender specific world of plant breeding, the varieties I planted are 'Alice', 'Christine', 'Florence' and 'Honeyeye'
Compare those to a few brassica varieties - 'Samson', 'Ironman' , 'Supervoy and 'Duncan' !!

We'd love to have patchwork fields of many colours (and sometimes we do) but here we have patchworks of crop covers to protect our new plantings, as there are plenty of pests out there ready to take more than their fair share of our crops.
There are some baby kale plants under there, but there will be a gap in availability before these are ready to harvest
 (we're coming up to the 'Hungry Gap' time of year for UK vegetable growers)

It doesn't look much yet, but here's one of our 'bee food' phacelia strips, which has self seeded
and will soon be in flower again.

And finally, one of the damson trees in our hedges in flower.

August 2011 in Pictures

August is a quiet month in terms of harvesting and packing, as many of our customers go on holiday, but then so do many of our staff, so it doesn't feel that quiet. A bit of a lull though before the main harvest of onions and potatoes gets going in September.


Onions, drying in the field, looks like a good crop this year.

 


The squash still have a lot of work to do after being planted so late, let's hope for a sunny September!




A patchwork of kales, Russian Red, Cavelo Nero, Red and Green Curly and Hungry Gap




Straw bought from a local farmer, in readiness to protect the carrots and beetroot over winter.
 Kings Wood in the background.




The last of the leeks in the Nursery Bed that are still to be transplanted.
The module grown ones are almost ready to harvest.




Looking in to the Victorian Walled Garden. Sadly, some of the old wooden glasshouses are beyond repair.




Newly sown chard inside the walled garden.





We have sold a few organic figs at Stoke Newington market during August, this is where they came from, one of the remaining fig trees growing outside the walled garden.

 


A trial planting of Thai Basil for markets.




Phacelia strip next to our early leeks, food for bees.




A pear tree left over from the days when these fields were full of fruit. The pears are only good for cooking and do make a tasty jam, combined with summer and autumn berries. If you look hard you can see Wye Church in the background.




The 'Lazy Bed Weeder' - although after an afternoon on this you don't feel as if you've had a lazy afternoon at all! We all get to take turns driving the tractor.