Posted on Tue, Jul 21, 2009
I am lucky enough now to have two full time helpers in the garden as well as a team of 3-4 people once a week. Having the extra people really transforms the social dynamics and stresses of the garden. It seems more of a therapy now than it was a couple of weeks ago.
Our new helper comes in the form of a red headed ex-rock star (although she would not admit that it's true, she would prefer folk musician) ;o) Claire is another 1st year Biodynamic Agriculture Course student who was studying with Colyn. She has come to join us from her last placement for the last month or two. It comes at a time when the work was getting a little tough and both Colyn and I had some time off due.
The other helpers are the summer volunteer garden crew, a very enthusiastic crew, very keen to help out in any way in the garden and very enthusiastic about the Carson Garden and Emerson College. It's really fantastic to hear people's stories and opinions of what they have experienced and to talk of ours that we are going through in the biodynamic garden.
There were a couple of massive weeding, thinning and harvesting jobs which will be greatly helped along with the help of all these people.
I'm learning a lot about people management at the moment and seeing how in the future we will need to organise volunteer numbers and other full time workers in the garden. I'm still happy with the way things are looking, the grass is getting a little long for my liking and some paths are a little too weedy but these are minor things that we can fix in a couple of mornings.
The salad crops have been going down very well, harvesting up to 160 lettuce heads a week, and now having lots of lovely french beans, young beet roots, chard, potatoes (pink firs now too), baby fennel, lush herbs, onions are starting too, and we have some great flowers which are going out around the houses for decoration.
One thing is bugging me a little which I'm determined to sort out by the end of the season - my fennel continuously bolts. Its running to seed before we have a chance to get some real size bulbs, that's why I say baby fennel, they still taste great but 20 small heads of fennel will not feed the starving masses. The solution I am told is, moisture, direct sowing and careful weed management. With all these things I can reduce the chance of bolting.
Blessings on the fennel.
Posted on Sat, Jul 11, 2009
Unlike the popular song 'I can't stand the rain', I really can, and so can the garden. It seems like months but finally we have had torrential downpours for a few days, the ground is sodden and the plants are all looking rather perky. I'm so pleased that things can all start growing well again and with natural watering rather than drip tapes. The leeks went in just after and I hope to see them growing quickly and catching up with everything else. The brassicas are looking very health and the pigeons seem to have got bored of eating them and moved onto other plants instead.
Our relationship with Plaw Hatch Farm (local biodynamic farm) is constantly improving, we have given them gooseberries to sell in the shop now and I'll be picking chard for them as we have more than we know what to do with.
Colyn and I dug up about 27Kg of new potatoes, it's really great to harvest a staple food for the kitchen because the meals will consist more and more of our own stuff as we do this - biodynamic agriculture is hugely satisfying in this way!
Our fruit harvest is continuing, as we strip the bushes, so far we have harvested something like 125Kg of gooseberries and blackcurrants and scarily have hardly dented the crop, and the white and redcurrants have as yet not been touched.
We'll be cooking up some jam in two weeks, Arjen, Nir (Biodynamic Agriculture course leaders) and myself in the evening to start and produce our own to sell locally and within Emerson College. It's rather exciting to be processing our own produce like that.
Everything else is moving along well, the french beans have started, beetroots are swelling, courgettes are producing, salads are looking great, carrots are also looking great, weeds are healthy and abundant and the thistles are getting a hard time from us. Happy weeding :o)
Posted on Sat, Jul 04, 2009
The biodynamic fruit harvesting is well on its way and we certainly have more than we can deal with at the moment. The kitchen can only make so many chocolate with blackcurrant cakes for lunch before we all loose our teeth.
We have a great opportunity at the moment with Plaw Hatch Farm who will be taking over 100 Kg of the fruit to put into their yoghurt's, this leaves however about another 150Kg we need to worry ourselves with.
I've invited staff and students who are still working to come down and take what they want to turn into jam, it's a great way of people going down to see all the changes that are happening in the garden at the moment. Next week we'll also have a jam session to cook up a load of blackcurrants for jam at the college.
The Plaw Hatch deal means that for every Kilo of fruit we will get in exchange some of their produce they have too much of such as cheese or yogurt. What a fabulous way of recycling local produce and not allowing any to go to waste! And a perfect example of the sustainable biodynamic community living that we should all be working towards.
I'll be driving around in a week to all the local farm shops to see if they'll be interested to take some of the redcurrants we have. It’s a real bumper crop at the moment, they are not quite ripe yet but most of them are glistening jewels of red. Stein the local biodynamic fruit grower lost most of his crop to a frost earlier on in the season; it must not have affected us up on the hill.
I also received a phone call yesterday from Tony, the Plaw Hatch biodynamic vegetable grower, offering to swap soft fruit for sale in their shop in exchange for his cucumbers and courgettes which he has too many of and we don't have any of yet. These sorts of swaps are so important now to help to build up strong community relations with the local biodynamic farms and villages so we can support each other into the future. Happy picking!