‘Sow’ Many Seeds and Seedlings

We’re feeling like growers again with the propagation tunnel really filling up. Already this season we’ve individually sown over 18,000 seeds!! We’ve planted loads of brassicas (kale, cauliflowers, cabbages, sprouting broccoli, sprouts etc); onions; leeks; broad beans; early salads; chard; pak choi and oriental cooking greens; tomatoes; peppers; flowers. We had a few issues with early germination failures (extremely cold nights, hot days) and some mice attacks but overall things are starting to green up nicely and we’re looking ahead to sharing lots of delicious food. The nights are still cold but we’ve been getting the early direct sowings out and also a load of seedlings from the polytunnels into the ground – we net them to help protect them in their early stages. So it’s a very busy time, managing the production line from early starts in the propagation tunnel out into the hardening off area before heading out to their final spots in the field. Lots of behind the scenes planning helps this run more smoothly, as does extra help from our wonderful volunteers on Tuesday mornings to help ensure we have the next beds ready for planting up.

Click here to see upcoming volunteering sessions and join us if you can

Growing For Seeds

We’re working with the brilliant Seeds of Scotland to grow crops for seeds. We have started with beetroot – specifically a popular new selection called Jannis. This has come from the famous* Boltardy variety, developed by organic seed breeders in Germany. It has become a favourite because it is reliable and delicious. If all goes to plan, next year you’ll be able to buy the seeds from this crop.

*famous in the world of beetroots

The Hungry Gap

Whilst all this work is going on to create future abundance, we’re actually now in the ‘hungry gap’ – the period from March to May, when winter crops are dwindling and spring crops haven’t fully matured, leading to a scarcity of fresh produce. We’ve come to the end of our overwintered salads, chard and pak choi greens. The good news is they were delicious! They were an experiment to figure out what grows well for us here over winter and into this period – all part of our plan to extend veg production across the whole year.

Progress on the Field Scale Project

We enjoyed hosting the April farm tour, which had a focus on food production – sharing how and what food we’re growing on the farm, and our future plans. If you’ve been walking across the farm you may have seen some big tractors in working in the top field (inside the deer fence) and the middle field. This is all part of the scale up in food production on the farm. Through early April we monitored soil temperatures and our lovely contractors have now been in to top (cut the grass), and plough. We will be sowing various green manure seed mixes by the end of the month, which are the next step to our long-term cropping plans for these fields. Exciting to be on the journey to providing much more fresh food for our community. This is the map of how the fields are seeded with different Conversion Mixes:

Area 1 (3.2 acres) six months

mustard, fodder radish, phacelia

Area 2 (0.7 acres) one year

vetch, buckwheat, red clover, balansa clover, crimson clover, chicory, plantain, phacelia

Area 3 (1.4 acres) two years

red cover, buckwheat, vetch, alsike clover, chicory, plantain, crimson clover, phacelia

Area 4 (6.4 acres) one year

crimson clover, vetch, balansa clover, chicory, plantain, red clover, lucern, phacelia

Area 5 (5.9 acres) three years

hybrid ryegrass (Org Aston Crusader), diploid (Org Toddington), cocksfoot (Org Pizza), red clover, meadow fescue, crimson clover, birdsfoot trefoil, chicory, plantain

Thanks for reading the April Field Notes – more soon!